Texas Dance Improvisation Festival 2015
Class Descriptions and Teacher Biographies
Big Rig Dance Collective, based in North Texas, produces contemporary dance
works that investigate questions, big and small, through physical experience.
BRDC commissions and collaborates with international dance, music, and visual
artists such as Rebecca Bryant, Sarah Gamblin, John Osburn, Impulse, Jesse
Scroggins, Scott Martin, Westin Ox-King Portillo, Momentary Gamelan Ensemble,
and Flatlands Dance Theatre. Directed by Crysta Caulkins- Clouse, Whitney
Geldon, Amanda Jackson, and Lily Sloan. www.bigrigdance.org
Movement Fundamentals: The Four Phases
Explore innovative practices for dance technique and improvisation that allow for
growth and discovery in movement for each individual. It is an all abilities practice,
adaptable for a solo, duet or group. Designed and inspired by work with Dance
Magazine’s acclaimed teaching artist, Jane Hawley. *Bring a notebook and pen.
Diane Cahill-Bedford serves as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Dance
Science Program at Texas A&M University. She holds an M.F.A. (2010) and a
B.F.A. in Dance (2003) from Florida State University. Her choreography has
been presented by the West Fest Dance Festival in NYC, Austin Dance Festival,
Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival, and Fieldworks and The Dance Gathering
in Houston, TX. Her work has also been seen at ACDFA, San Jacinto College,
Fort Wayne Ballet, The Tallahassee Ballet, and the FSU Opera. She has also
had the opportunity to perform in works choreographed by Jane Weiner, Jawole
Zollar, Gerri Houlihan, Terry Creach, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Andy Noble, and
Lynda Davis.
Investigating the Prop in Movement Exploration
This class will experiment with the use of various props to develop movement
and make visible the tangible and intangible qualities of each prop within our
bodies. Within the modes of isolated play, partnered contact work, and
transcribing movement, we will seek to discover what obstacles and opportunities
will arise from our connection to our prop. What actions arise with a “partner” we
may or may not fully control? What vocabulary remains when the prop is
removed? How do we interpret the animated movements of an inanimate object?
Our journey will bring answers to these questions through long periods of
movement exploration as well as feedback and discussion.
Rosemary Candelario is Assistant Professor of Dance at Texas Woman’s
University, where she specializes in the Japanese avant-garde movement form,
butoh, and other related movement practices. Her book, Flowers Cracking
Concrete: Eiko & Koma’s Asian/American Choreographies is forthcoming from
Wesleyan University Press in 2016. Candelario’s choreography has been
produced across the United States, and as a dancer she has performed in the
United States, Canada, Germany, and Brazil. Her publications include articles in
the Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, The Scholar and
Feminist Online, and The International Journal of Screendance. Rosemary
earned a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA.
Unsettling: Butoh Improvisation Workshop
Butoh is a Japanese avant-garde performance practice first developed in 1959
that has now spread around the world and is practiced on all continents. This
workshop will introduce students to butoh as an approach to movement
experimentation focused on unsettling cultural and corporeal norms. My classes
integrate historical and contemporary approaches to butoh with a rigorous
physical practice inspired by my own training with butoh and non-butoh artists
including Yoshito Ohno, Deborah Butler/Kitsune, Katsura Kan, Eiko & Koma, and
Oguri, to name a few. I teach classes that challenge bodily habits, develop the
ability to move from heightened senses, and enhance the facility for working with
images to generate movement. We will explore the surface and depths of the
body through external and internal cues in order to cultivate a moving body that
is ready and available for what may come.
Alex Cole is from The Colony, Texas, and received her BA from the Texas
Woman’s University Department of Dance in 2014. Since then, Cole has
performed with Big Rig Dance Collective under choreographer Lily Sloan, as well
as Melissa Sanderson in “Prism Party”. Cole has taught students of all ages at
Silhouette Dance Company, Prosper Dance Force, and Protégé Danz Center.
She currently resides in Denton, Texas, and is the owner of the Little D
Performance Platform, a professional performance venue for dancers in Denton.
Westin Portillo is an El Paso born, Denton based resident Dance Musician from
Texas Woman’s University. He holds a Bachelor’s from UT San Antonio in
Russian. He has played for the American Dance Festival, University of North
Texas, Tarrant County College Northwest, the American College Dance
Association, and the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival. Portillo’s compositions
for dance have been heard throughout Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Nevada, and in the heart of Black Rock City. For his dance classes he uses
guitar, vocals, piano, drums, bass, synthesizers, and iPad.
Beginner’s Guide to Elemental Bending
If you’ve ever felt the urge to throw a huge chunk of rock as someone through
sheer force of rage alone, the Beginner’s Guide to Elemental Bending is for you.
This class explores the motifs and movement styles found in the Nickelodeon
cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. We’ll begin
by discovering what type of bender you are – water, air, fire, or earth. Then we
will hone in on those elements by exploring scores inspired by the Chinese
martial arts of Tai Chi, Hung Gar, Ba Gua, and Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.
So, what type of bender are you? Even if you’ve never seen either show, this
class will provide new movement vocabulary for your future crime-fighting
pursuits. Here’s an example of the types of movement vocabulary we will be
working with: https://youtu.be/iisrUSi7Kgw
Jordan Fuchs An Associate Professor of Dance at TWU and founder of TDIF,
Jordan Fuchs is a an experimental choreographer who uses improvised and preset choreographic structures to create dynamic, engaged states of presence and
physicality for dancers, able to work in a variety of solo, partnering and ensemble
contexts. His choreography has been commissioned by Danspace Project and
Dance New Amsterdam in NYC and presented across the US. He is a Fulbright
Specialist and has been on faculty at Movement Research and taught
internationally in Taipei, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Moscow, and in Puerto Rico.
www.jordanfuchs.org
Undersurfaces into Lightness
Through exploring undersurfaces to create a heightened permeability to impulses
from our partner, in this contact improvisation class we will use lightness as an
entryway into easeful states of pleasing disorientation.
Sarah Gamblin is an Associate Professor of Dance at Texas Woman’s
University whose teaching and scholarly emphasis is on the intersections of
performance and choreography. She has been invited to present her work at the
New Genre Festival in Tulsa, through Flatlands Dance Theater, The Seattle
Festival of Dance Improvisation and she has served as a guest artist at many
instituions like Barnard College, University of South Florida, Texas Christian
University and Univeristy of North Texas. She is a co-coordinator of the Texas
Dance Improvisation Festival.
Fall, Roll, Spiral, Repeat
This class for all levels of experience will explore falling and rolling in solo and
with partners, constructing a score that seamlessly transitions into an open jam.
Darrell Jones Whether working as a performer, collaborator or choreographer,
ideas investigated through the physical instrument is an essential part of Darrell
Jones’ artistic practice. Embodied research is his focus. Darrell has performed in
the United States and abroad with a variety of choreographers and companies
such as Bebe Miller, Urban Bush Women, Ronald K. Brown, Min Tanaka and
Ralph Lemon. Along with performing, he continues to research and teach. He
has collaborated with writers, musicians and designers in dance films,
documentations and interactive multimedia installations. In addition to his
collaborative work, he continues to work in solo forms and with ensembles.
Darrell has received choreographic fellowships from MANCC, CDF (Chicago
Dancemakers Forum) and is a two-time Bessie award recipient for his
choreographic and collaborative work. Darrell has taught workshops and master
classes in dance technique, improvisational processes and the voguing aesthetic
throughout the United States and in other countries such as South Africa, UK,
and South Korea. Darrell is presently an Associate Professor at The Dance
Center of Columbia College in Chicago. His classes are informed by his training
and studies in a variety of contemporary dance techniques and traditional dance
forms.
Vogue Aesthetics
This class will borrow from the aesthetics of Voguing to investigate the poetics of
“battling” gracefully. Through a combination of guided dancing, movement skills
and channeling states, we will play form against fluid, flight against fight, while
trying to recreate the movements and mood for this (e)feminized performance
ritual. The experience culminates in sparring scores that aim to release the
fierceness of attack that can drive Voguing’s improvisations.
Sissy Vop
Sissy: ...a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive
Vop: ... a high-spirited kick tossed in the air
Sissy Vop is a collection of (e)feminized training rituals aimed at releasing
enculturated oppressions in the body. Going to the edge of our physical limits is
important for this release, and we will enter through a combination of rigor,
rhythm and recuperative practices. Through altered states, disorientation studies,
solo forms and group provocations, we will address the body and performance
space as a site for transgression, transcendence and transformation.
Verge
This class focuses on bringing who we are into the room (sexually, racially,
gendered…) and moving individually and in partnership with that idea. Many of
the exercises come out of my work with Bebe Miller Company where “the event
of touch”, the situations that happen before and after the moment of contact,
supply as much information as the arrival. This is used as a starting place to go
into skills such as reading other bodies, perpendicular/parallel relationships and
problem solving through movement.
I get lost…
This class inquiry is grounded in my extensive investigation with Ralph Lemon
into structures and tactics for training the body to go to the edge of the physical
experience. The idea of altered states is important to this trajectory, and we will
explore entering these from a physical vantage point. Through disorientation
studies, solo forms and group provocations, we will address the body and
performance space as a site for transgression, transcendence and
transformation.
Chrissy Nelson is a dance artist, physical therapist, and educator based in
Boulder, CO. She is adjunct faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver
and CU-Boulder where she teaches Experiential Anatomy, Somatics, Injury
Prevention, and Improvisation. Chrissy also directs The Field | Boulder,
collaborates frequently with sound and visual artists, and has performed original
works in PA, NY and CO. Having studied CI with Alicia Grayson, Gretchen
Spiro, Steve Homsher, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, and Tim O’Donnell,
Chrissy continues to research and perform improvisation with local SPILL Project
artists, and was most recently invited as an intensive teacher at CI IA 2015.
Navigating the HORIZONTAL to break open the VERTICAL
Using Somatics in the HORIZONTAL as a primary tool - and by somatics,
referring to the sensation of the our lungs wrapping over our hearts, or our limbs
lengthening into the ledges and crevasses of another being - to discover our own
surfaces and connection to self, therefore enlivening our VERTICAL solo
dancing.
The class will begin in solo, with imagery and sensation-based work, that then
leads to navigating the unique landscape of another body in the horizontal.
Artists will then explore solo movement up the side of a wall, continuing the push
and pull research that the resisting structure offers, enabling dancers to acutely
sense their core and limbs - and essentially, themselves. Lastly, the dancers will
revisit the push and pull on the terrain of a now vertical sentient body. As a final
exploration in this journey, dancers will delight in rich solo VERTICAL dancing
and witnessing.
Christie Nelson is a choreographer, improviser and educator whose work has
been presented nationally and internationally. Christie earned an MFA in
choreography from the CalArts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance. She
earned her BA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. She has performed
works by renowned choreographers Michael Foley, Robert Battle, Adam
Hougland, John Mead, Doug Elkins, Luis Montero and Larry Keigwin.
Residencies include Feldstärke International 09, at CentQuatre Paris, France;
Pact Zollverein Essen, Germany; and CalArts Los Angeles, California. Christie is
currently a guest artist & collaborator with companies; Out on a Limb Dance
Company, Big Rig Dance Collective, and The Bell House. Currently, Christie is
on faculty at Texas Woman’s University and Collin College, and is the advertising
manager with the Dance Council of North Texas.
Observe & Engage
In this class for all levels we will move from outward observation to inward
observation as we engage in the physics between bodies and gravity through
contact improvisation. We will develop our partnering skills through outward and
inward observation to engage in tracing, falling, weight exchange, releasing,
lifting, rolling, catching and spatial awareness. Discovering new ways to access
support with our partners through observation then engagement of the physical
and spatial body in improvisation.
Bethany Philipp (Jackson, MS) is a choreographer, educator, collaborator, and
ardent improviser. Bethany is a member of Front Porch Dance, a contemporary
dance company based in Jackson, MS. She also co-organizes the Mississippi
Improv Alliance (M!A), performs with Duncan Dance Company, and teaches
dance for Mississippi College. Bethany holds an M.F.A. in Dance from Texas
Woman's University and a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from
the University of Southern Mississippi.
End over End
Being inverted can be disorienting and scary but it often happens when we are
practicing Contact Improvisation. Part technique class, part CI lab, End over End
provides a space to explore our options when we are upside down. This
workshop grew out of three simple questions: How do we get upside down? How
do we react when we find ourselves upside down? And how do we safely get
back to right side up?
Erin Reck has been choreographing, dancing, teaching, and producing in New
York City since 1997. She relocated to Houston, is a Professor at Sam Houston
State University, and creates work under the name of Recked Productions. Her
work has been presented both nationally and internationally. She has danced
and collaborated with many fine artists, including Sara Rudner Performance
Ensemble, Karl Anderson, Molly Rabinowitz, Lynn Marie Ruse/Freefall, and
Leslie Scates. She received her BA from the University of Washington, and her
MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Every summer she returns to NYC to work
for Lincoln Center Out of Doors on their site-specific productions.
www.erinreck.com.
Mapping Place
This class uses neurobiology as a tool for improvisational structures. The
pathways of place neurons extend beyond the limitation of your body while mirror
neurons fire empathetically when seeing movement or emotion, both are
connecting you diametrically and personally to the people and the space around
you. We employ exercises and scores that stem from and activate our
connection to place and other.
Jessica Tartaro, PhD, is a dancing psychologist and skilled facilitator. She holds
a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology and a coaching certification in Intimacy and
Desire. In 2014, she founded the Dallas Contact Improv Tribe, and for over a
year, has been teaching weekly contact classes to a growing core of DFW
movers. Jessica weaves the principles of healthy relating into her teaching of CI,
and delights in merging the worlds of psychology and dance to activate healthy,
creative, fulfilled communities. Read more at www.DrJessicaTartaro.com and
www.KarmanyYoga.com.
How to Launch a Dance Class in a Desert: Principles Learned from the
Founding of the Dallas Contact Improv Tribe
Ever looked around and thought, “There really should be a dance community
here, but who will start it?” and then realized that someone is you?! This
workshop offers answers to your questions of how to begin and sustain a dance
community in a new location. Through experiential learning, I will give you a taste
of the six primary principles for building trust and getting buy-in with a new group
as well as ensuring continuity in your classes. You will learn specific exercises
that you can adapt for helping a new community - like a sprout in a desert - take
root, survive and thrive. Come prepared to both attend a movement class (CI) as
well as leave equipped with the skills to build your own.
Dani Tirrell was born, raised and proud to be from Detroit, MI. After years of
trying to find his footing in Contemporary dance, he is now happily exploring
House and Vogue dance while incorporating contemporary dance in his practice.
As he explores each dance expression, he is more intrigued by why they exist
than how to execute the movement. It is in the understanding of the why that
you will only be able to authentically execute the how.
As an instructor jhon r. stronks strives to connect the practical elements of
technique to the magic and humor of life and performance. jhon has been
teaching Improvised, Jazz, and Modern dance techniques to movers of all ages
and levels for 20 years. His current passion and obsession lay in the space
between somatic practice/philosophy and the western tradition in
technical/classical dance technique and performance.
Super Layered: Race, Gender and Queer Performance Practice
Whacking/Punking, Vogue and House will be the conceptual base on which we
play, practice and perform movement in this session. The context of the
exploration is black masculinity and its relationship to the feminine. This session
acknowledges the evolution of protest dance forms and the social history of
queer people of color. This session will include dialogue in and around gender
binaries, misogyny and racism within the LGBTQ community. (Heels and
kneepads welcomed)
Megan Yankee is a freelance dance artist who focuses on applying her
experience with release-based movement techniques and improvisation to life
beyond the studio and stage. She has studied, taught and performed in Uganda,
Burkina Faso, and Belfast, as well as in dance festivals across the US. She
earned her MFA in dance from Texas Woman’s University and, to date, has been
awarded grants totaling in over $3000 from the Greater Columbus Arts Council to
further her personal movement research. Her latest research focuses on using
movement to empower those who have been uprooted from their heritage and
cultural identity.
To Correct is Incorrect. This class for beginner-intermediate improvisers will
combine embodied research techniques, authentic movement practices and
improvisation with the aim of assisting participants in developing individualistic
movement goals, scores and tools. Based on Moshe Feldenkrais’ tenant, “to
correct is incorrect,” our goal will be to temporarily let go of what movement
practices and experiences could, should or would be in favor of what they were
and are.
Participants are encouraged to bring paper and writing/drawing utensils and any
sort of pillows or padding for comfortable, seated observation and discussion.
Class will begin with brief bodyworking and then remain mostly in
mover/observer groups. Observers will be given tools for witnessing, recording
and assisting movers in identifying possible motifs in their movement, writing,
drawing and dialogue. All participants will be offered the opportunity to share
their findings at the end of class, although this will not be required.