Technique
Using the luxury of five continuous days of dancing together, we will take the time to investigate different states of awareness. Each class will be three-fold, beginning with a guided improvisation to inspire the imagination to expand into the unique life of different parts of the body, followed by dancing within technical forms to support our range and work as dancers, and concluding with a phrase that integrates concepts of weight, lightness, initiation and intention. The technical forms and phrase will be specifically structured to build our knowledge of individual physical patterns that may be blocking us from deepening the use of our selves as artists. In the process of learning a phrase, we can observe how we retain “set  material. The merging of the unconscious life of movement through improvisation and conscious attention to the physical imagination is part of the energizing practice we will explore in each class.

Developmental TechniqueĆ¢ā€˛Ā¢
This workshop presents developmental movement vocabulary and concepts of experiential anatomy applied to creating original dance vocabulary. Developed by Wendell Beavers from Bonnie Cohen's Body-Mind Centering® material, this technique forms a basis for somatic training in Naropa University's groundbreaking MFA Contemporary Performance Program. Sessions will consist of working through the fundamental developmental vocabulary from cellular breath to pre-spinal and quadraped locomotion patterns to upright bipedal movement supported by all six limbs of the body (head, hands, feet and tail) as a source for creating repeatable movement events, moments, phrases and sequences.

Contact Improvisations - "We have ignition..."
Skills, practices, and investigations of pure contact improvisation using raw physics, reflexive exchanges and sensorial responses. For beginners who want to acquire basic knowledge of falling, rolling, catching, jumping, listening, and following flow and resistance; for intermediates who want to deepen their experience of transitions between horizontal and vertical play; and for the advanced who want to explore the subtlety of intention, touch and direction.

Technique
This movement class will develop from simple skeletal mobility sequences to full-out movement forms. Emphasis will be placed on the joints, examining how their range of motion relates to alignment, support, weight and pathway in the course of movement. We will also focus on how the inherent lines in the body's anatomy can offer movement material in a full range, from abstract to dramatic.

Horizons
Learn a warm-up choreography designed to enhance visual focus, hand-eye coordination, articulation of hands and feet, freedom of the spine, and the dancer’s own phrasing. In addition this sequence can be used as a physical and mental preparation for performance.

Touch Move Talk Write: Practice for choreographers, dancers, writers and other people
Touching, moving, talking, and writing are conditions which can be detected in just about any dance- or choreography-related workshop one might encounter. This workshop focuses on all four very directly, in a stripped down fashion. We apply different durations for each element every day, and practice the elements in different sequences. The aim is to proliferate unexpected relationships between these different conditions. We study and refine our relationship to the specific properties that differentiate each practice without much attention to what might typically be its correct usage and context. From these elements we can invent our own practice, rigorous and/or playful and/or joyful and/or serious and/or fun. Make sure to bring a sturdy notebook for the writing, some way of keeping track of time, and a picture of yourself with which you can work.

Technique
This workshop encourages students to increase their movement possibilities and take risks in dancing by maximizing the benefits of the warmed-up body. The warm-up moves smoothly from floor to standing with a strong focus on anatomy to strengthen connections of correct alignment with an increase of fluidity in the joints. Dancers will develop an understanding of the connections between their body and the floor, and will learn how to use momentum and breath to explore physically-full dancing with the least amount of muscular tension. During phrase work, dancers will learn how to incorporate information from the warm-up to execute more complicated sequences, and attention will be paid to controlling the use of breath to maintain a strong center from which one can explode into the space.

Ineffable Intangible Sensational
I am currently looking at the intersections between neurology, cognitive science/philosophy, somatic processes and improvisation. I am interested in and troubled by the way that these fields work in isolation from each other to find similar results, and I wonder if dance/choreography can be a place to unite the “discoveries  that have been made. Working from the proposition that dance is a mode of perceptual inquiry, and working against the idea of dance as a non-verbal "language," I am interested in movement explorations that prioritize sensation, non-rational action, and that trigger automatic, unprepared physical response. What does movement "do" and how does it operate as a framework for complicated, nuanced, embodied meaning?

Composition
The class will create a creative environment. We explore different aspects including choreographic process and presentation. I will be inquisitive. I will ask many questions and you will come up with many questions as well. These questions illuminate many varied tangents of our thinking to be considered and observed. The process will be a collective group effort so the commitment is crucial...well, only for one week. Bring your solo dance material (up to three minutes). That will be deconstructed and appropriated by the group. We will talk a lot and you will dance a lot.