Amanda Hamp

Open Source Forms

Open Source Forms is a physical practice that intertwines the physical and imaginative, the technical and creative. It is an expansion of its predecessor, Skinner Releasing Technique, and has been developed by Stephanie Skura based on her years as a teacher, improviser, choreographer, performer and SRT core faculty member.

In this session, the facilitator will guide movement studies, imagery-based experiences, and partner exchanges for conveying kinesthetic information. A supportive atmosphere encourages the participant to self-discover and determine ways to engage with the material that are appropriate and satisfying. Wherever the participant is in their own process, OSF facilitates softening and letting go of tensions, holdings and habitual patterns so that other possibilities can emerge.

Ana Paula Camargo y Beatriz Navarro

Workshop of Construction

Objective.
To use strategies that are able to integrate the practice of movement in order to explore emerging construction.

Statement.
The creation of structure is conditioned by its own context; however, whatever appears from it is, paradoxically, is not predictable based on the initial conditions.
Experience is determined by the practice of movement, and this last one creates the connections, the weaving, and the logic in the discourse.
The “whole” is more than just the sum of its parts.

Methodology:

1. Individual or collective warm-up that recognizes and organizes sensation and perception (somatics).
2. Hand-work in pairs.
3. Movement practice to generate and recognize the emerging construction.
4. Reflection, verbal feedback on the creation.

Contents.
Strategies to gather and organize kinesthetic information. Research in situ.
Active response (body-mind)

Requirements for participants/students: Availability to engage in a research, improvisation, and collective creation workshop, also the energy and will to establish a collective feedback system.

Calli Micale

Liberating the Body: Embracing Holism in Dance

An exploration of how dancers and movers can reshape and transform traditional conceptions of the body-soul relationship. Participants will go deeper into text, nature, and their own bodies as they deconstruct dualistic ideology on what comprises the human self in the modern world. By engaging in a sampling of movement practices, we will better understand how the body and soul is perceived by each individual, why it's perceived that way, and offer an invitation for the relationship to change.

Carolina Cortés Zepeda

Construction of “body-ographies” for the stage based on a dual-virtual concept.

Through body expression that identifies itself with a comprehensive language; I aim to generate new concepts based on the magical thought of the indigenous and prehispanic culture.
This focuses on two lines that are the foundation of what we will understand as “body-ographies”. On one hand, the metaphorical way to understand the stage space and its relationship with the body and the dramaturgy. On the other hand, the organic way to integrate the dual-virtual concept as a strategy of expression. This leads us to study in subjectively, two components that connect in the search for the poetics of the stage:

Presence of poetic icons of cultural identity which are interpreted or intuited through the collective imaginarium.

Presence of poetic icons of cultural identity which are interpreted or intuited through the collective imaginarium.

Cecilia Ivón Raigosa Bonilla

Interrelations between body, mind, and space

This workshop tries to find the interaction between the body and the different brain hemispheres, as well as creating dynamics where the relationship between body, mind and space is used.
Requirements for Participatns/Students: This project is directed to dancers, actors, performers, everyday people that wants to challenge their abilities, as well as finding the way of handling the situation and being able to solve it.

Denisse Cárdenas Landeros

The challenge of improvisation and instant composition

How can we use the potential of composition within improvisation; create in the moment, work with mutant choreography, train performative muscles and make decisions in the moment?
This workshop allows an investigation on improvisation with a critical, philosophical and aesthetic perspective. We will also analyze and explore the group's dynamic, each dancer's ego, the needs of each individual being against the needs of the group, impulses, awareness, etc. We will pay attention to our own movement patterns and challenge them through practical and theoretical exercises.
Requirements for participants/students: Previous dance experience, martial art or any other physical practice that involves movement.

Danielle Russo

Gettin' Down to the Core | Restorative Pilates for Movers & Shakers

You hear it all the the time in class, but what exactly is the "core"? The core consists of both the deep, internal muscle groups of the abdomen and back. Pilates focuses on strengthening the core first, whereby setting a foundation for the superficial muscles of the trunk and periphery to build upon. When the trunk is gradually stabilized, the back is relieved from unneeded pressure, and the body is able to move both efficiently and comfortably. Optimal alignment is achieved through Pilates by exercising with little to no impact, avoiding strain on the ligaments and connective tissue that surround joints. Methodical inhales and exhales circulate increased oxygen to the exercising muscle groups. The combined flow of fluid movements and steady breath adds to further flexibility and ease.

Pilates is an exercise method benefiting all fitness levels. The key to its versatility is modification. The ability to properly modify lends itself to further variety, accessibility, challenge and safety. This workshop will offer a series of movements aimed to restore strength and support to principal regions of wear and tear for the professional dancer and the contemporary biped, alike.

Ritual Flow (contemporary technique)

"Ritual Flow" is an intermediate/advanced technique class derivative of Limon, Bartenieff and release inspired training. Class will begin with floor exercises aimed to engage and strengthen core muscles, as well as lubricate supporting joints and awaken the senses. We will progress to explore levels, patterns and textual dynamics (swing, torque, collapse, counterbalance, momentous efficiency) to enliven spatial orientation and to foster a free, full range of motion. I am interested in the individual dancer and the individual ownership of movement. Mindful research of the self will culminate into full-bodied phrase-work. We will breathe, see, sweat, suspend, flow, heave, hurl, play, imagine, investigate with and in our bodies. Technique class is the ritual of the present body.

Diana Crum

Improvisation

In this workshop, we will discover, develop and define different states of being, each related to an imagined environment. Each state will entail a specific movement vocabulary and the dancer's conscious imagination. Once we define the states, we can sequence and compose with them. We can create and dissolve different worlds by choosing to recall and inhabit the states.

Diana Lara

Between rest and movement in space: an exploration of pre-vertebral patterns

Objective: To introduce participants to experience basic pre-verbal neural patterns and its application in the presence of somatic dance.

Description: This workshop is based on the exploration of movement patterns using pre-verbal ontological stages of development, ie the human development in the uterus and in the first year of life.

Emily Athena Abrahams

Modern dance technique and moving as you wish

In this class we will explore the harmonious marriage of different movement styles, such as the internal awareness of somatic practices, the form and coordination of ballet, the momentum and expression of modern dance, and the discovery of improvisation. My goal is to divulge concepts and techniques to make your dancing more efficient, powerful, and fluid. Most importantly though, we will dance, and let our joy of dancing shine through as a healing energy for ourselves and whoever you wish to send that energy to.

Errin Delperdang

Body Talk: Creating Movement Language as a Community

I am interested in exploring the possibility of creating movement language as a group in a particular time and place.  The idea is inspired in part by the history of sign language; how it developed in different regions, how communities of Deaf individuals agreed upon signed words and grammar structures as a community and how that developed and changed throughout generations.  I have used some of these practices and methods to create movement for performance and I am interested in opening up the process to a diverse group of collaborators.

The methodology of the workshop includes many guided explorations and improvisations.  One of the first explorations is a guided meditation; the collaborators are prompted to use common imagery and Ideokinesis in order to create authentic movement from within themselves.  Starting from a place of stillness the participants are allowed time and space to let sensation begin inside the mind gradually echo throughout the body.  They then bring the movement to the group and each participant allows the other movements to influence their own.  The next stage of the process is a study in energy and group dynamic.  After a movement pattern has solidified for each individual, combining their own inner vocabulary with that of the other participants, it is repeated without assigning any specific energetic value.  One at a time each participant brings a specific intent to the movement they are performing and the other members of the group allow this intent to inform the way they perform their own movement.  In this manner, each participant is allowed a voice to be heard by the group as a whole.  Having done this work in smaller groups, I am curious to see what happens when more people are involved.  It is possible that some parts of the workshop will be completed in smaller groups so that all participants can have sufficient time to share with the other collaborators. 

Gilberto Valenzuela

Symbols of Creativity

The creations of the unconscious: dreams, symptoms, jokes, lapses…etc. They are structured as a language. Language is the articulation of symbols. Symbols are the pure difference between absence and presence. They don't have precise universal meanings or references, which is why they can be formed in series that evoke something more than just their literal definition. As artists, we use visual and hearing symbols that create metaphors when they work as a succession; meaning, that they are ideas or thoughts that say more when they are absent than when they are present in a series of symbols.

James Morrow

Urban Fusion

A technique class that blends urban dance styles with modern and jazz aesthetics. For this class I would demonstrate my "style" of movement in the hope of the participants soaking in some of the textures so they can apply this to their own individual voices. Some "matching" is involved but I'm more interested in individual style which is the motto of urban culture form where I come from.

Jeff Wallace

Dancing into Contact – an all-levels Contact Improvisation class

Contemporary dancers often find the act of coming into contact with another dancer slows the movement. Contact improvisers can find duets a gravity well difficult to fly in. In this class, we will investigate an approach to dancing into and out of contact that supports speed and lightness , exploring our own dance and the moments that we create with our partner while maintaining flow and energy.

Jin-Wen Yu

Connecting through Tai Ji Quan

This workshop will introduce the philosophy and practice of Tai Ji Quan (Chinese martial arts) as a tool for connecting the energy flow of the individual with the environment.

Modern Tecnique

Integrating kinesthetic concepts from Chinese martial arts and the athleticism of current contemporary dance, this advanced class utilizes dynamic combinations focused on energy flow, spiraling, and the body's spatial sensibility.

Josh Dale

Setting the Movement: the Choreographer's choice with Rhythm

This workshop is a developing technique of mapping time in space. The use of imagery and a constant beat marking time, allows the choreographer to play within a three dimensional grid. Individuals apply the technique in various ways in attempt to discover how rhythm and timing can effect the aesthetic their choreography and thus choice.

Kevin Dockery

Feldenkrais and finding shared weight

This workshop is about using The Feldenkrais Method to tune into some of the physical sensations useful for finding a weighted connection to the floor through another person. We will start by warming up our sensitivity to gravity using small movements laying on the floor. Then, taking what we find in our explorations of /on the floor, we will come into contact with other people and explore finding the floor through their structures. Then use this sense of partner as path to the floor as ground for an exploration of new ways of inverting, going off-balance and being lifted.

Teacher TBA

Choreographic dance

Including Technique and choreography through a fusion of different techniques.

Lauren Beale

The Wall: The Construction and Deconstruction of Separation

What boundaries, barriers and walls exist within each of us that create and perpetuate the feeling of being separate or isolated from others?   How are these barriers constructed?  Are they physical, emotional, psychological?  Do these walls keep you from reaching out, connecting with others? Or do they serve a purpose, keeping you hidden and protected?  What would happen if you could create a movement and text representation of your wall outside of yourself for you and everyone to see?  What would it look like, feel like, sound like?  What if it had a secret to tell you?  What would it reveal?   What questions would you ask it?  If you had the choice to break it down, would you?  

Using a performance score from my most recent dance/theatre solo, "Reconciled," each participant will have a chance to explore and answer these questions through movement and text based improvisation, free writing, discussion and the creation of their own solo to be performed at the end of the workshop.

Lindsey Ann Drury

Social Choreographies

This workshop explores way to engage choreography as systems of rules around the movement of bodies through time and space. It is a way of choosing to enact what is already happening all the time in everyday life. Cities are choreographic. Driving is choreographic. Social graces are choreographic. This workshop provides the means to consider basic, everyday choreographies as an in-road to embodied performance, and to thereby build complex, fractious relationships between performer and material.

This workshop is further a way of investigating performance as an act of liberation. How can performers, in relating to the choreography of dance and performance works, find their autonomy?
In this workshop, we will construct dances to act like little tyrannies for performers to contend with. The needs, hopes, wants, demands, and dreams of performers will be at stake as they negotiate the balance between their own force of will and the task that they have been given. By treating choreography as a system of rules, we will seek to brighten the colors of the performative act of contend with (and even break) them. In so doing, we will explore what it means wield structure to bring the humanity of performers to the forefront of our work.

Maré Hieronimus & Sharon Mansur

Tracking change: an investigation into the nature of duet improvisation

This workshop will focus on duet tuning, the art of deep listening and responsiveness to another mover in relation to one's own movement impulses and felt experience.
Starting with explorations to support perceptual awareness, fluidity of mind and body, and an inner and outer sensitivity. We'll then explore various ways to support a full experience of duet-ing, including tracking the process of continuous flux and change individually and collaboratively with your partner, moving and being moved, and forming and un-forming.

Marjolayne Auger

Horton

Horton is a modern dance style. It has a strong focus on developing core strength, flexibility, coordination, integrating elements of modern jazz and first native traditional dance elements.

Argentine Folklore

Class using elements of Argentine Folklore as a base for the enjoyment of moving.

Mauricio Nava

NAPP Technique coNtact-SuPport-imPulse (technique for the creation of movement)

Mystery Teacher

The Third Space

This workshop will be a surprise, and it will be fantastic! Sign up if you have a desire for exploring something unknown.

Rachel Thorne Germond

Dynamic Alignment/Technique

In this class we work on aligning the bones by accessing the muscles most responsible for the transfer of forces through the body - the psoas, the hamstrings, the external rotators, and the pelvic floor. We do not work to "exercise" these muscle but rather to "wake them up"; to use them for support for and realignment of the bones. We work, and teach, for the body to be elastic, responsive, open to choices, and expressive. Movement and the treatment of each individual student's body, mind and spirit with kindness, respect and generosity is our ultimate goal. And finally and most importantly, the body does not exist alone but in connection to the ground, the space, and to others. Note: You do not need to be a dancer to take this class & it is open to anyone interested in learning to be more open, efficient, connected, and freely expressive.

Ray Eliot Schwartz

Dancewings Earthbound: Contemporary dance

Through the use of comprehensive war-ups, basic physical training, repetitive movement sequences and dynamic physical action through space, we will gain experience and skills in coordination, alignment, endurance and flexibility. We will explore the intersection between technical principles and creative expression. Students will be motivated to both think creatively in their work and be prepared to submit to rigorous physical experiences. In class, we will integrate a series of gentle exercises and improvisational structures that focus on anatomic and physiological harmony within a technical dance practice. Using partnering techniques and body work explorations we will help each other to feel subtle structures that invite the body to a richer and deeper expression in dance.

Ruben T. Ornelas

Intermediate/Advanced
Humphrey-Limon-based technique

Humphrey-Limon technique can be considered one of the precursors to contemporary release techniques. In this class we will use the principles of fall and recovery to release our weight, create momentum, and experience breath and volume as we move through space.

Sven Doehner

Relationship Between Images, Sound and Movement

Making a sound is making movement, internal and external. We will explore some of the connections between images, voice and movement in an embodied way.

***Throughlines

Dance Tag

The starting point of the Dance Tag Throughline would be to write an answer or thought to the proposal or questions suggested by Marjolayne Auger. From there, we use these answers to create a sequence that would represent those answers in movement, and teach it to somebody, then the second person would stage the sequence on a third person, with the freedom to add their personal material. This exchange continues from person to person throughout the duration of the forum.

The reason for teaching one's sequence to another person, who then will teach it to a third person etc., is to give distance and create flexible boundaries. It would also be to see how one's material could be transformed by different interpretations

Example of starting point questions:
"Things I would like to express freely if..."
"One thing I would never dare sharing because..."
"My most precious dream..."
"What would I change if I could..."