The Athletics of Intimacy

Please Note: Class is CANCELLED December 14th. 

These classes will combine skills and applications of decades of somatic research that include release techniques and body-mind practices that explore transitions and systems and patterns of development and evolution, embodiments of Contact Improvisation, and dance tunings within solo, duet (strong emphasis on partnering), and ensemble dancing. The interest and focus are in the very physical, sensorial, and imaginative, and in discovering new challenges and risks within our movement – of both body and mind – towards improvisational and compositional processes.

This class plays with honoring the individual within the ensemble. Each student brings their own unique history into a shared experience of creating together a living presence.

(athletics: involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina; intimacy: closeness of observation or knowledge of a subject)

October 5th class, taught by Deborah Black: 
The Six Viewpoints: Meeting the Materials of Performance
Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints technique approaches performance by deconstructing the materials involved – space, time, shape, emotion, story, and movement – opening up their possibilities before being organized into disciplines. The class will start with resting on the floor or in chairs with our eyes closed. We will bring our awareness towards subtle changes through our senses and learn the languages of the materials. After being guided through a “potpourri” of perceptual prompts and individual physical responses, we will speak through and with the materials in groups, watching each other. Finally, we will discuss which disciplines, known or unknown, might have surfaced through the logics of our spontaneous performances.