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Workshops assist the pursuit of deeper levels of exploration into new dance processes, techniques, and ways of thinking and working, for faculty and students alike. Workshops are scheduled throughout the year, as part of MELT Summer and Winter Intensives, or during the Movement Research Festival.

Past events

2025 Winter MELT graphic. White text on a dark blue background. Text reads, Movement Research Winter 2025 MELT Jan 13 - 31 Registration opens: Oct 24.

Ecosomatic Practice for living on a Damaged Earth

BodyCartography

Jan 8 - Jan 12, 2024

Photo of a person climbing and twisting their body around a tree branch. There is green foliage all around them and they wear a light blue outfit. Photo by Otto Ramstad

Improvisation Strategies

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Jan 8 - Jan 12, 2024

Ishmael Houston Jones stands with weight shifted into one hip with his gaze looking downwards. In the background a maximalist design with purple pink yellow and blue design. Ishmael wears a long sleeve orange top and a light colored pair of shorts. There is a small pink plastic purse hanging from his neck. Photo of Robbie Sweeney.

Klein Technique™: Understanding how we Move, as we Move

Barbara Mahler

Jan 8 - Jan 12, 2024

Barbara Mahler guides a student during class. She is extending her arms towards the student while they are crouched on the flood in movement. Barbara is smiling wearing a patterned colorful top. The student wears a bright pink top. Photo by Rachel Keane.

Let’s Move More Easily and Freely with The Feldenkrais Method®

Antonio Ramos

Jan 8 - Jan 12, 2024

Photo of Antonio Ramos wearing a cropped top with gold sleeves and a silver turtleneck. His chest is bare and his curly hair is flowing freely. He has his mouth slightly opened, arms spread out with yellow and red face makeup. The background is glittery. Photo by Ian Douglas.

Blk Sonic Mvmnt Lab

André Zachery

Jan 15 - Jan 19, 2024

André Zachary smashing a television with a mallet. He wears a black suit and tie. In the background, an industrial setting with Brick walls and cement. Photo by Rachel Neville.

Dancing A Part/Dancing Together

Angie Pittman

Jan 15 - Jan 19, 2024

Angie Pittman performing for Movement Research at the Judson Church. She is standing with her legs crossing and her torso twisting to one side. Her arms and gaze look towards her back leg. Photo by Rachel Keane.

Glitch Dance

Thomas F. DeFrantz

Jan 15 - Jan 19, 2024

Person in shadow almost imperceptible, with legs spread wide standing and leaning. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Movement & Healing

Ori Flomin

Jan 15 - Jan 19, 2024

Ori Flomin is in a warrior two position from Yoga practice. He is wearing light beige pants and a blue long sleeve shirt. In this position his right leg is bent to a 90 degree angle while his left leg is fully extended, his spine is vertical and his arms are extended away from each other parallel to the floor. He is standing outside in the park with trees in the background. Photo by Yasmeen Enahora.

Crip Movement Lab

Elisabeth Motley, Kayla Hamilton

Jan 22 - Jan 25, 2024

A split black and white image of two disabled choreographers. On the left side, Kayla Hamilton, a Black woman with shoulder length locs, throws her head back and to her right with her arms reaching slightly out and down on the diagonal. Her legs are wide, and she lunges to the left. She is wearing a black long sleeve shirt with stripes in various directions. Behind her is the closed gate of a storefront. Photo by Travis Magee. On the right side, Elisabeth Motley, a white woman with shoulder length brown/black hair, rotates her arms inward and extends them out. Her right leg extends out to her side. She tilts her head up and to her left. Motley wears a striped button up short sleeve shirt and black pants. Behind her is an exit sign and a brick wall. Photo by Mr. Wattson.

Embodying change: Winter Alchemy

Daria Faïn

Jan 22 - Jan 26, 2024

Daria holds her index and middle finger together and looks at it. We see the back of her head, her hair in a low bun while she crouches in front of a bright yellow wall. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Horizons

Irene Dowd

Jan 22 - Jan 26, 2024

Photo of dancers moving at the Judson Church. Irene Dowd stands int he upper left corner hands on her hips watching the class. The dancers move on the floor creating spirals with their torsos in a unison phrase. Photo by Rachel Keane.

Movement – A Love Supreme

Jodi Melnick

Jan 22 - Jan 26, 2024

Photo of Jodi Melnick in performance. She balances on one leg, bending her other leg at the knee and raising it towards her torso. One arm is extended in front of her and the other reaches over her head. In the background a musician plays electric guitar with an amp behind them. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Alexander Technique / A Critical Practice

Shelley Senter

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

Photo of Shelly Senter teaching at MoMA. She stands in the center while the student lay on their back in star position. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Making Work

Miguel Gutierrez

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

A cis, Latinx man with short dark hair and a greying beard looks directly at the camera with a slight smile. He is wearing a pink shirt with yellow jellyfish print and is photographed against a yellow marbled background. Photo by Chloe Cusimano.

Moving & Dancing: Some Strategies

Neil Greenberg

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

A dance studio filled with dancers wearing casual dance clothes, each in the midst of different actions and shapes. Neil, a white cis-man wearing loose sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt, is caught mid-step with hands in front of him in gesticulation. Photo courtesy of the artist

Fast: medicinal movement practice for Black Artists

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Sage Ni'Ja Whitson, a dark skinned Black transgender artist balances on one leg with arms outstretched. They are in a low lit room. Photo by Scott Shaw.

Improvisations: “What is my body doing when I am not conscious of it?”

K.J. Holmes

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Photo of a dancer leaping and placing her hand on a wall. The dancer creates a large shadow on the wall and the image is in black and white. Photo by Green Deng.

Moving Meaning

Tere O'Connor

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Three men lying on their backs in a flower shape with legs splayed across their bodies. Photo by Paula Court

Our Morning Physicality

Vicky Shick

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Photo of Vicky Shick teaching for Summer MELT at the Judson Church. She stands in front of the class while the dancers follow her. Her body weight is shifted on one leg while both her legs are bent. She is in a slightly crouched position, her torso curves to one side and her arm comes up with a bend at the elbow. Photo by Rachel Keane.

Moving in the Morning

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

A tall black dancer is on the floor with his right arm extended on the high diagonal. His right leg is extended and reaching toward the camera. He is foregrounding a room full of people in a large dance space with a black floor. Photo by Ben McKeown.

Planting (Disabled) Futures

Petra Kuppers

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

A desert plant in bloom: tender but tough green leaves hold multiple elongated flowers: yellow, orange, red, pointing outward like parrot beaks, openings at the end, fleshy, thick. Some of the flowers are stripped of their petals, and the thin bundle of stamen are all that remain. Is this a wound? Is this how the flower prepares its seed? Photo by Petra Kuppers.

Talk Your Shit

Ogemdi Ude

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

Ogemdi Ude, a dark skinned Black femme, is wearing a puffy purple dress in a room surrounded by colorful balloons and LED floor lights. Her mouth is open with her head tilted up and one leg is raised with the other planted on the floor. Her hands are at her sides. Photo by Maria Baranova.

TOWARD A WORLD MINOR

Niall Jones

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

Photo of books and images being arranged on the ground in a dark lighting. Photo by Ricky Yanas.

A Spell for Utopia

luciana achugar

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

An image from a performance with green lighting and with many costume pieces strewn across the white floor with one performer in the foreground covered by a green lit fabric. In the background diagonally across from is another perfomer, luciana achugar, kneeling naked on the ground with torso folded forward and crown of head touching the ground with a rounded spine. It looks like prayer or a space for ritual.

Dancing

Jennifer Nugent

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

An action shot of Jennifer Nugent in a bright space. A light spotlights behind her as she holds her arm out and balances on one foot. She wears a pink top and grey striped pants.

Waves

mayfield brooks

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

Brown skinned person with short black kinky hair, moving sideways in the ocean, engulfed by waves. Photo by Nir Arieli

Dancing Around Race – Cultivating Racial Equity and Absolute Belonging

Gerald Casel

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

White text on a black background. text reads, How does white supremacy show up in your body? Image courtesy of the artist.

Ecosomatic Practices for living and dying with a damaged earth

Olive Bieringa

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

Filipina woman with long gray smelling moss. Photo/Image by Maria Lothe.

Spirals: A Warm-up for the Entire Body

Irene Dowd

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

performer is lying on floor facing down, arms wide to sides on floor, one foot stepping across back of body close to the opposite hand, that knee pointing toward ceiling.

Weight of Our Want

Jasmine Hearn

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

A photo of Jasmine reaching behind them in lime green. They look toward the sky with their eyes closed smiling. Photo by Jakayla Monay.

Embracing the Awkward

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

Two male dancers wearing sneakers and white practice clothes with writing and drawings in black charcoal grapple on a grey floor. Photo by Hans Peter Ibaghino.

Making & Breaking It

Moriah Evans

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

A photo of black trash bags on a sidewalk. They are lit by a street lamp. Photo courtesy the artist.

Material for the Spine

Otto Ramstad

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

A man in a grey shirt and blue striped pants is laying on the floor on his side with both arms, head and leg reaching off the floor. Photo by Peter Raper.

Variations for your scene

Katy Pyle

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

5 dancers are onstage in black and white costumes. In the foreground a dancer with stiff limbs is being carried upstage like a doll by another dancer. The dancers in the background pose stiffly with blank expressions. Photo by Yael Malka.

Faculty

Olive Bieringa

Olive Bieringa

Gerald Casel

Gerald Casel

Irene Dowd

Irene Dowd

Jeanine Durning

Jeanine Durning

Moriah Evans

Moriah Evans

Jasmine Hearn

Jasmine Hearn

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Co Vice Chair

Sara Shelton Mann

Sara Shelton Mann

Jimena Paz

Jimena Paz

Katy Pyle

Katy Pyle

Otto Ramstad

Otto Ramstad

Gwen Welliver

Gwen Welliver

Past events

Sounding Body Series: Revelatory Vibration

Tatyana Tenenbaum

Thu, May 2 - May 23, 2024

Tatyana wears a bright patterned shirt with arms pressed firmly into the floor. Her eyes are closed and her open mouth hovers over a microphone. Blurred hair suggests movement. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Sounding Body Series: Your Voice is a Movement

Peter Sciscioli

Thu, Jun 6 - Jun 20, 2024

Several people stand around a circle inside of Movement Research's studio, gesturing in different ways and leaning forward with their tongues out. Photo by Harry Shunyao Zhang from the MR archives.

Sounding Body Series: Vibrational Frequencies

Tatyana Tenenbaum

Thu, Oct 17 - Oct 31, 2024

Two people providing touch and physical support to a workshop participant whose eyes are closed and mouth is open, making sound. Photo by Anna M. Maynard.

Sounding Body Series: Your Voice is a Movement

Peter Sciscioli

Thu, Dec 5 - Dec 19, 2024

Peter Sciscioli leads participants in an exercise helping to connect their voices into space, extending through their arms and hands. Photo by Nikola Gyulmezov.

Past events

2024 Summer MELT

Registration open NOW!

What is Summer MELT?

MELT Intensives are a series of daily workshops in technique, somatics, improvisation, composition and other areas offered each summer and winter. These workshops provide students with the unique opportunity to engage with some of the most highly regarded and innovative artists in the field of dance today.

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to build a movement practice with creativity, somatics, and reflection with our amazing line up of MELT

Check the calendar

Graphic with text over an image. Photo from K.J. Holmes MELT workshop. Dancers move and improvise in different areas. In the foreground two dancers practice contact improvisation. One dancer sits on the ground leaning on another dancer, Movement Research intern Clara Kim who is posed in a downward dog position. Text reads, Summer 2024 MELT, July 8-24, In-Person Workshops

Alexander Technique / A Critical Practice

Shelley Senter

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

Photo of Shelly Senter teaching at MoMA. She stands in the center while the student lay on their back in star position. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Making Work

Miguel Gutierrez

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

A cis, Latinx man with short dark hair and a greying beard looks directly at the camera with a slight smile. He is wearing a pink shirt with yellow jellyfish print and is photographed against a yellow marbled background. Photo by Chloe Cusimano.

Moving & Dancing: Some Strategies

Neil Greenberg

Jul 8 - Jul 12, 2024

A dance studio filled with dancers wearing casual dance clothes, each in the midst of different actions and shapes. Neil, a white cis-man wearing loose sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt, is caught mid-step with hands in front of him in gesticulation. Photo courtesy of the artist

Fast: medicinal movement practice for Black Artists

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Sage Ni'Ja Whitson, a dark skinned Black transgender artist balances on one leg with arms outstretched. They are in a low lit room. Photo by Scott Shaw.

Improvisations: “What is my body doing when I am not conscious of it?”

K.J. Holmes

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Photo of a dancer leaping and placing her hand on a wall. The dancer creates a large shadow on the wall and the image is in black and white. Photo by Green Deng.

Moving Meaning

Tere O'Connor

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Three men lying on their backs in a flower shape with legs splayed across their bodies. Photo by Paula Court

Our Morning Physicality

Vicky Shick

Jul 15 - Jul 19, 2024

Photo of Vicky Shick teaching for Summer MELT at the Judson Church. She stands in front of the class while the dancers follow her. Her body weight is shifted on one leg while both her legs are bent. She is in a slightly crouched position, her torso curves to one side and her arm comes up with a bend at the elbow. Photo by Rachel Keane.

Moving in the Morning

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

A tall black dancer is on the floor with his right arm extended on the high diagonal. His right leg is extended and reaching toward the camera. He is foregrounding a room full of people in a large dance space with a black floor. Photo by Ben McKeown.

Planting (Disabled) Futures

Petra Kuppers

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

A desert plant in bloom: tender but tough green leaves hold multiple elongated flowers: yellow, orange, red, pointing outward like parrot beaks, openings at the end, fleshy, thick. Some of the flowers are stripped of their petals, and the thin bundle of stamen are all that remain. Is this a wound? Is this how the flower prepares its seed? Photo by Petra Kuppers.

Talk Your Shit

Ogemdi Ude

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

Ogemdi Ude, a dark skinned Black femme, is wearing a puffy purple dress in a room surrounded by colorful balloons and LED floor lights. Her mouth is open with her head tilted up and one leg is raised with the other planted on the floor. Her hands are at her sides. Photo by Maria Baranova.

TOWARD A WORLD MINOR

Niall Jones

Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2024

Photo of books and images being arranged on the ground in a dark lighting. Photo by Ricky Yanas.

A Spell for Utopia

luciana achugar

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

An image from a performance with green lighting and with many costume pieces strewn across the white floor with one performer in the foreground covered by a green lit fabric. In the background diagonally across from is another perfomer, luciana achugar, kneeling naked on the ground with torso folded forward and crown of head touching the ground with a rounded spine. It looks like prayer or a space for ritual.

Dancing

Jennifer Nugent

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

An action shot of Jennifer Nugent in a bright space. A light spotlights behind her as she holds her arm out and balances on one foot. She wears a pink top and grey striped pants.

Waves

mayfield brooks

Jul 29 - Aug 2, 2024

Brown skinned person with short black kinky hair, moving sideways in the ocean, engulfed by waves. Photo by Nir Arieli

Faculty

luciana achugar

luciana achugar

mayfield brooks

mayfield brooks

Performance Journal Co-Editor-in-Chief

Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

Miguel Gutierrez

Miguel Gutierrez

K.J. Holmes

Niall Jones

Niall Jones

Performance Journal Associate Editor

Petra Kuppers

Petra Kuppers

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Jordan Demetrius Lloyd

Jennifer Nugent

Jennifer Nugent

Tere O’Connor

Tere O’Connor

Shelley Senter

Shelley Senter

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson

Ogemdi Ude

Ogemdi Ude

Vicky Shick

Vicky Shick

Past events

2025 Winter MELT graphic. White text on a dark blue background. Text reads, Movement Research Winter 2025 MELT Jan 13 - 31 Registration opens: Oct 24.

Dancing Around Race – Cultivating Racial Equity and Absolute Belonging

Gerald Casel

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

White text on a black background. text reads, How does white supremacy show up in your body? Image courtesy of the artist.

Ecosomatic Practices for living and dying with a damaged earth

Olive Bieringa

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

Filipina woman with long gray smelling moss. Photo/Image by Maria Lothe.

Spirals: A Warm-up for the Entire Body

Irene Dowd

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

performer is lying on floor facing down, arms wide to sides on floor, one foot stepping across back of body close to the opposite hand, that knee pointing toward ceiling.

Weight of Our Want

Jasmine Hearn

Jan 13 - Jan 17, 2025

A photo of Jasmine reaching behind them in lime green. They look toward the sky with their eyes closed smiling. Photo by Jakayla Monay.

Embracing the Awkward

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

Two male dancers wearing sneakers and white practice clothes with writing and drawings in black charcoal grapple on a grey floor. Photo by Hans Peter Ibaghino.

Making & Breaking It

Moriah Evans

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

A photo of black trash bags on a sidewalk. They are lit by a street lamp. Photo courtesy the artist.

Material for the Spine

Otto Ramstad

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

A man in a grey shirt and blue striped pants is laying on the floor on his side with both arms, head and leg reaching off the floor. Photo by Peter Raper.

Variations for your scene

Katy Pyle

Jan 20 - Jan 24, 2025

5 dancers are onstage in black and white costumes. In the foreground a dancer with stiff limbs is being carried upstage like a doll by another dancer. The dancers in the background pose stiffly with blank expressions. Photo by Yael Malka.

Faculty

Olive Bieringa

Olive Bieringa

Gerald Casel

Gerald Casel

Irene Dowd

Irene Dowd

Jeanine Durning

Jeanine Durning

Moriah Evans

Moriah Evans

Jasmine Hearn

Jasmine Hearn

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Ishmael Houston-Jones

Co Vice Chair

Sara Shelton Mann

Sara Shelton Mann

Jimena Paz

Jimena Paz

Katy Pyle

Katy Pyle

Otto Ramstad

Otto Ramstad

Gwen Welliver

Gwen Welliver

Current Workshops

Click here to check current workshops.

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