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SEEDS Weekend Mini-Festival: Two themes to investigate:  |
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This weekend mini-festival within SEEDS consists of several 3-hour long workshops. There are two themes from which to mix and match. The classes will start Friday evening and continue through Sunday mid-day. You are welcome to come for the whole weekend, or drop in, as well.
Contact Improvisation, the Social Experiment Continues. CI, previously described as "confronting comfort culture" and "a political shock absorber," has more recently been called out for its lack of racial diversity. Where is the social experiment at today? These workshops will consider the power of the body in movement to question our social conventions/compositions/hierarchies through the practice of CI. With Neige Christenson (Freeing the Contact Mind), Kerstin Kussmaul ( The Intelligence of your Touch ) , Dan Bear Davis + Sarah Day (Corporeal Permaculture), and Dustin Haug + Tamin Totzke (Redirecting Yes).
Tuition/Room/Board All Inclusive Tuition, includes room & board (4 Tiers Available): Limited work study is available for the SEEDS Festival. For information, click here. Arrival Friday 6/19 at 5pm
*You will not be officially registered until we receive your deposit. If your registration is cancelled up to 3 weeks prior to a workshop, you may either transfer the entire deposit amount to another event or be refunded 1/2 of the deposit. Cancellations within 3 weeks of the start date are not eligible for a refund or transfer.
GETTIN' YOUR GREENY GREEN ON This workshop will somatically explore ideas, movements, contradictions and challenges gleaned from arts and science collaborations in the fields of human ecology and biology. Specifically, we will explore core concepts from Contact Improvisation and Ecology to learn more about how we relate to each other as part of a natural system, and how nature works. For example, shared points of weight, momentum, gravity, balance and mutual relationship can be reframed as physical metaphors to understand complex relationships or ‘tipping points' in ecological systems and vice-versa. How do we feel, see and act in the present, and imagine the future? Kristin McArdle's contemporary dance performances incorporate biocultural themes. Her movement influences come from Contact Improvisation, Afro-Caribbean, Aboriginal Australian, and ‘dances' from different species in nature. Ms. McArdle received a Fulbright Scholarship to study environmental history and Aboriginal studies in Australia. She began to choreograph original works in 1998 and formed Kristin McArdle Dance in 2003. The company's mission is to reveal our interaction and connection to the natural world. The company partners with conservation organizations and local businesses to raise environmental awareness through the arts. SOMATICS AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE WISDOM OF CONNECTION In the short time we have together, we will study some of the philosophies of sustainability relative to important issues facing us and our planet – environmental justice, climate change, the sustainability of human and natural communities. We will investigate our connection to our bodies using developmental patterns, writing and improvisation. Join us for a workshop focused on deepening our connection with ourselves, each other, and our planetary home. Sondra Loring, founder of the ImprovisationFestival/NY and a NYC choreographer for almost two decades, chose to relocate to the Hudson Valley where she rocks the dance scene. She received a Bessie for her participation in the NYC dance community as a performer, improviser and writer. Sondra recently co-founded UpRiver/Downtown Dance Company, a small group of dancers dedicated to movement exploration, improvisation and performance. Kavitha Rao is the co-founder of Common Fire, which seeks to build a diverse and powerful movement of people with a shared commitment of creating a more just and sustainable world. She is the lead facilitator for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest and oldest interfaith nonviolence organization in the world, leading workshops and weeklong anti-oppression and nonviolence trainings for young adults. POCKETS OF RESISTANCE : "Whatever the day, there's always something to celebrate." - - Subcomandante Marcos Mark Moti Zemelman, MFA, (USA/Mexico) began practicing Contact Improv twenty years ago. Over the past thirteen years he has taught and performed across USA, Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, Europe and Israel. He is currently a Professor of Dance at C.I.C.O. (Centro de Investigación Coreografica) at the Instituto Naciónal de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Moti is a regular teacher and a board member at Earthdance Retreat Center in Massachusetts, USA. Other recent teaching engagements include DanceBase (Edinburgh), Circuit-Est (Montreal), Z in Motion Festival (Helsinki), and Lila Lopez Contemporary Dance Festival (San Luis Potosi, Mexico) As a musician Moti plays vocal-electronic music for contact jams and in 2006 released his debut CD, Doorwaves. He was an original member of Wire Monkey Dance Co., (Holyoke, MA, USA). Other training includes yoga, Action Theater, modern dance, and clowning. He also designs and moderates the new international Contact Improv resource website www.contactimprov.com . You currently possess an astounding archive of sensory and kinetic information, built from a lifetime of engaging with environmental elements, processes, and forces. This work will help bring that experience into your performance. Through fieldwork and studio practice, we will witness how environmental sourcing can dramatically impact our performance presence. Karl Cronin is a movement artist who explores how personal physical histories are stored and communicated. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research (NYC) where he is developing movement scores that encourage artists to observe, record, and reflect upon their somatic sensations in relation to specific environments and situations.
CONTACT IMPROVISATION, THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT CONTINUES FREEING THE CONTACT MIND: HOW WOULD YOU DANCE WITHOUT THAT THOUGHT? We'll apply the simple and profound tools of The Work of Byron Katie to stressful thoughts that commonly arise in CI. Bringing awareness to our own story-making, gently checking for beliefs that may inhibit our dance-flow, we become more present and available to ourselves and others on the dance-floor. Neige Christenson has been an avid Improviser since 1981, when she petitioned Smith College to give her credit for exploring CI. She is a loyal jammer, performer, teacher, therapist, and mother. Her writings have appeared in Contact Quarterly and <Proximity> magazines. Questioning her thoughts has opened her mind and enhanced her dancing. CORPOREAL PERMACULTURE Permaculture asks us to utilize careful observation of relationships and mindful intervention to create the conditions for easeful harnessing of various forces. We create structures and patterns in the land that allow us to effect the most change for the least effort. In this class we will explore some of these principles as applied to kinetic situations. This class is appropriate for those new to CI, who have some previous background or interest in permaculture, as well as experienced dancers who want to zoom in on some basic principles of movement efficiency. Daniel Bear Davis has taught CI and improvisation classes in California, New England, Germany and Mexico. He co-directs Shah and Blah Productions, where he often integrates these skills in performance. He also does acrobatic partnering on stilts with international touring company, The Carpetbag Brigade. His recent teaching focus is anatomical efficiency. Sarah Day. When not working as co-director of Shah and Blah Productions, Sarah performs with CA-based Cid Pearlman and Dancers. Since 2005, Sarah has trained primarily with Frey Faust, studying The Axis Syllabus. Sarah is a visual artist and writer, both of which influence her work as a choreographer. GLOBAL UNDERSCORE SOLSTICE As part of our SEEDS Festival, focusing on ecology and dance, Earthdance will be holding an Underscore practice as part of the Global Underscore Solstice. On June 20 th , at the same time in more than 14 places around the world, improvisers will gather to dance Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore. At Earthdance, we will be connected to the Global Underscore (done each summer solstice) and to the SEEDS (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance and Science) Festival. The SEEDS/Earthdance Underscore practice will be held from 10am-1:30pm on Saturday June 20th . If you have not practiced the Underscore before, you must come to a talk at 9am on Saturday morning. If you are not registered for the SEEDS Mini-Festival, the cost to participate is $15-20, and includes lunch. (The Underscore practice is included in the Mini-Festival registration) If you can, please tell us if you are participating by June 14 th , so we can give a list of participants to the organizers of the Global Underscore, who are coordinating this event from Paris. To register, please contact Rek at contact@earthdance.net , or 413-634-5678. REDIRECTING YES Redirecting YES acknowledges CI's code of agreeability and challenges participants to make bolder choices. The goal of this workshop is to discover a vibrant, physical dialogue based in the truth and honesty of personal choice rather than the default of agreement. This act of clear choice empowers the choice-maker as well as the witnesses. Redirecting YES also offers a platform to change and challenge habits not only in dance but also within socio-cultural relationships. |
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