Creation Intensives will occur daily, Monday through Friday from 5-7 p.m. You will not need to register for these, however there will be an audition process that will take place on April 9 at 1:00 pm  in the Agora dance studio at UDLAP. Unfortunately not everybody will be able to participate in this aspect of the forum, the decision will be taken by each choreographer as needed.

Diana Crum

If I tell myself I have enough time, then I can be with you

Through improvising together, I imagine creating a landscape. The dance will be a living container for each individual’s experience. Within the container, each participant will be able to explore his/her own relationship to, manipulation of and perception of time. The presence of other bodies will help facilitate clarity of experience. At the end of the week, we will have developed a shared practice through moving and talking together. The practice will then be done as a performance.

Desired number and type of participants: 10 participants, willing to move
Goals: Establish a practice of moving together that allows individual exploration within a larger group work. Investigate our relationships to time.

Lou Sturm

INSTANT ONLY

Live scenic creations.
Risk moments.
Instant coffee, instant dance.
Scene in progress.
To be taken by surprise.

The idea is to have a working team and go different places to explore and create right there with the material and the people that are available.
To train in the ability to work in more creative and spontaneous ways with the things and situations we encounter.
For the final presentation the team chooses on or several places where they have worked before.

Number and type of participants: 20 would be great, preferably in a mixed level, I would also love age differences.

Goals: Presence and spontaneity in instant composition.

Methodology: Warm-up using the senses. Alignment outside the dance studio.
Work with objects, exploring landscapes and textures.
Authentic movement.
Improvisations in pairs or with the place/object as a couple.
Dialogue exercises.

Rachel Thorne Germond

Group Work

Collaborative choreography for a group of dancers, with phrase development by the dancers and structured by Rachel Thorne.
Desired number and type of participants: 5 -10
Goals: participants develop phrase material based on text, then, I will structure the phrase material into a group work.

Methodology: investigation of the idea of "movement phrase" as material for a dance, also of text as inspiration for movement material.

Tania Galindo

Weave: Hybridization and Mixed Races.

Finding one-self in this body parting from a mixed and contemporary reality that looks within for a starting point for the study and practice of being in a workshop that weaves realities that everybody faces today: identity acceptance, hatred, poverty, strength, love, to name a few, IN LAKECH, you are me and I am you.
 
This project is looking to create bridges between the performing arts, visual and audiovisual to connect, rebuild and promote endogenous languages, particularly Latin America, using the pretext of the bicentennial of Mexico’s independence as a reference and starting point reflection and proposal.

Number and Type of Participants: 25 artists from various disciplines, dancers, actors, videographers, plastic artists and musicians.

Methodology: The method is based on Butoh technique, work that promotes awareness of the body and its parts, qualities of movement, flexibility, coordination, rhythm, time, space, emotions, feelings, sensations, silence, etc..
The Bio-drama provides the plot, the weave that surrounds and gives meaning and interrelation to the research of various techniques, combining them in a cohesive manner.
Sensory Experimentation is the tool that will allow us to go deeper within ourselves and open a particular inner listening.
To analyze Mexico and Colombia’s current realities, to promote and provide content and tools to the poetics of each participant through the extraordinary energy that the group creates.

Rose Pasquarello, Belle Baggs/inFluxDance

Moving the Future; Creating dance and social justice. Project in collaboration with community members of San Pedro Cholula

The world is changing.  There is a shift in consciousness happening across cultures that brings into question our beliefs, our passions, and our art.  We are interested in conducting a collaborative creative project that explores the idea of dance as social change.

Dance and movement have a greater power than we realize.  There is much to be learned from a kinesthetic place. Bodily intelligence is just as important as verbal and logical intelligence.  We as humans experience and embody our own history and future.  Therefore, can we use this physicality to influence our larger culture? Can we change our own future through embodiment?

We are curious about the process of people coming together to share in creating movement with a purpose, while holding the focus on the individual and the group.  Simultaneously we are fascinated with how Idealogical ‘Movements’ affect our culture and how movements (physicality in the body) can affect our culture and/or is effected by our culture.  There needs to be more confidence in the idea that dance and movement can provide an outlet for social change i.e. movement  initiating ‘Movements’.  

Our most recent and daring work, Justice for Some, explores the history of protest, as well as the current climate of protest as it pertains to human rights and politics. In this show, we present both sides of current controversial issues through film, dance, and discussion. Using this as a springboard, we are excited to visit various communities and facilitate a process of discussion, exploration, and creation that inspires awareness locally, nationally, and globally.

We are interested in presenting this material to the participants and using it as inspiration to facilitate discussion and create work.  

Preferred Performance Setting: Site-specific is our preference and it will be decided upon as a group.  Based on our ideas mentioned above it feels necessary to present this in a open venue that allows ALL people to witness the final piece.

Desired number and type of participants: We can work with any number of participants from 5-50.  There is something interesting in an intimate workshop but working with a large mass of collaborators could be important as well. The most important thing is that the participants are highly interested in the influences dance and movement art forms can have on our cultures.  We would like to work with collaborators interested in dialogue around important issues of our time.

Goals: Our goal is to present the material mentioned above to audiences of diverse backgrounds in diverse venues in attempt to provide a forum for open dialog and honest self-expression. This work does not pose answers, rather it poses questions: What are we fighting for and why?  How do we develop compassion and find the patience to listen to those we disagree with? And, How do we instigate change as individuals by standing up for what we believe? For dancers and choreographers, there are even more exciting questions relating to movement:  What is the embodiment of protest?  How can dance as an art form, contribute to and create social change?  How does the movement of our bodies support the social ‘movements’ that we believe in?  Has technology disembodied us? How does that relate to creating social change?

We want to use all of these ideas to ultimately create a new collaborative site specific performance piece.  

Methodology: Our process will be comprised of 5 parts:

1. Introduction
We will begin the creative process with a short introduction to the ideas of using dance as a way to address pressing social issues.  
2.  Movement dialogues
Participants will experience a facilitated workshop surrounding issues that are important to them.  Using the theories of Movement Choirs develop by Rudolf Laban, we will encourage collaborators to discuss and deconstruct important topics while placing emphasis on both the individual and the group.  Verbal and movement discussions will lead us to a deeper understanding of chosen social issues and communication methods.
3.  The Creative Process
This step in the process allows each individual or small group to choose important themes to create from.  Beginning with a facilitated exploration, participants will start to transition their thoughts into art.  Much time will be given for exploration and composition.  
4. Making a cohesive whole
A piece will finally emerge at this point in the process. Collaborators will reconnect bringing various composition studies surrounding issues. The facilitators will guide all participants through a process of integration culminating in a full performance project.  The hope is to find commonalities and differences in the themes of the compositional work.
5. Reflection
This is the time to look back on the process and reflect.  Personal reflection will be encourage through writing while the group with find closure through discussions.
The hope is for participants to have a FULL experience during the process while also shedding light on the potential dance has to influence our world.