Podcasts

Studies Project: "Are Y'all Really Feeling Me?" How Black Performance moves beyond just Matter(ing)

January 22, 2020. 

Organized by André Daughtry

This panel intends to speak to an illegibility of the spiritual black body to predominantly white audiences in performance with artists whose work addresses an "epistemic absence” in the performance community. Noting that Experimental performance can be extremely innovative when probing the multiplicitous issues surrounding identity, guest artists will discuss how they address normative approaches to performance – like the performer/spectator bifurcation –when the performers exhibiting work were often raised in spiritually infused movement traditions as participant-observers not as “audience”

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances, and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronted and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information on Movement Research please visit www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Social Wounds in the BodyMind: Somatic and Trauma-Informed practices for Collective Healing

December 8, 2019. 

Moderated by Ni’Ja Whitson
Panelists: Cheryl Clark, Martha Eddy, Kayvon Pourazar, and Sangeeta Vallabhan.

This Studies Project explored how social injustices impact people’s lives and communities; who has access to healing and somatic practices; how we as somatics practitioners are working with offering trauma-informed approaches to our communities.
This event brought together artists and practitioners whose individual somatic and trauma-informed practices were generated from their personal journeys, commitment to healing themselves, and process of sharing their research to hold space for others. Through this conversation we attempted to address how to generate more inclusive, collective and fully accessible healing spaces.

This Studies Project was a part of the Movement Research Festival Fall 2019: ComeUnion. It took place on December 8, 2019 at Movement Research on First Avenue in New York City. 

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances, and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronted and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information on Movement Research please visit www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Re-Presenting Asian-America

December 11, 2019

Moderated and Organized by Rebecca Fitton

Participants: Alexis Convento, Zavé Martohardjono, and Mena Sachdev

A community discussion aimed to amplify the diverse reality of the blanket term “Asian-American.”

Led and organized by movement artists who self-identity as Asian, this Studies Project focused on reframing American Asian-ness, reclaiming the Asian moving body outside of “model minority” and confronting other racial signifying terms such as POC, ALAANA, MENA, AAPI, etc. and their relationships to this conversation. The conversation focused on the broad understanding of Asian-ness in the U.S. in reference to Asian-American and how it can erase the full spectrum of narratives aligned with self-identifying as Asian, in part due to colorism, border politics and ideals of a “model minority” only allowed to succeed on an intellectual level.

This Studies Project took place on December 11, 2019 at Movement Research on 1st Avenue in New York City.

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information please visit: www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: "Another world is not only possible..." // Artistry During Challenging Times

October 21, 2019

Organized by Raha Benham. 

Studies Project: Dance Makers in the Schools: Kids Need Dance

February 26, 2019 

Organized by Diana Crum, with invited guests: Becky Serrell Cyr, Nicholas Leichter, Olivia Occelli.

Kids Need Dance-- focuses on pedagogy and how radical methods of supporting childhood development intersect with teaching dance. Readings, shared beforehand with participants and centering on the intersections of making, learning, and cultural traditions in the U.S, will help anchor the conversation. Join local educators, artists and activists to consider and discuss.

This Studies Project took place on February 26, 2019 at Movement Research Courtyard Studio on 1st Avenue and 9th Street in New York City.

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information please visit: www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Immigrants for immigrants: taste of home

October 15, 2018

The AoCC will host an intimate gathering, creating space for immigrant performing artists to share personal stories, cuisine, reflections and resources with the community in an effort to form lasting bonds and cultivate relationships to each other and local art organizations.

Artists will engage in a conversation about the struggles of immigration and the effects on the body in the performance practice while tasting tapas and small appetizers from various cuisines.

Food sharing is a universal form of expressing fellowship. "Immigrants for immigrants: taste of home" is an opportunity to create a platform to support each other and grow as a community.

LOCATION UPDATE: This workshop was held at Movement Research, 122 Community Center (150 First Avenue) in the second floor studio. 122 Community Center is a fully ADA compliant facility.

Participants: Alicia Ehni, Maira Duarte, Richard Morales, Vanessa Vargas

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information please visit: www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Decolonial Design, Indigenous Choreography, and Multicorporeal Sovereignties: A womanist/Queer/Trans Indigenous Movement Dialogue

Feburary 18, 2018

This studies project is organized by Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán

With panelists Rasha Abdulhadi, Anthony Aiu, Vaimoana Niumeitolu, Melissa Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes, Kaina Quenga

Decolonial Design principles resonate across artistic expressions—performative, visual, tactile, acoustic, olfactory, gustatory, terrestrial—and the range of living-creature-made and naturally-occurring compositions.

Embedded in each being, each Indigenous constellation of relations, larger system of systems, are organizing principles, rationales shaping their design and interaction.

Articulating an interwoven Indigenous conceptualization of choreography, in which Native movement is embedded in a larger set of relations, human motion within a world of motion, this decolonial dialogue seeks to restore our cosmological context.  

Gathering together womanist/queer/trans Native North American, Indigenous Pacific, and Palestinian movement makers and multimedia artists, activists and community organizers, critics, and educators, this dialogue illustrates the interlinked nature of our intersectional sovereign movements, our simultaneous struggles for self-determination over our terrestrial, physical, and cultural bodies.

This Studies Project took place on February 18, 2018 at 3 pm at Abrons Art Center G05.

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information please visit: www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: An ethics of (talking about) watching

May 8, 2018

In this Studies Project participants will engage in a conversation around the notion of (talking about) watching.

How do we create the space for feedback in which artists/performers and their work is addressed properly, respectfully, and/or ethically? Can/must this space be crafted collectively? Which ramifications does this have for the role of a moderator? 

Additionally, how do existing systems for feedback facilitation (i.e. Critical Response Process, Fieldwork, etc.) break down when interrupted or intervened upon by supremacist ideas of aesthetics and value? Are these systems for facilitation and feedback adequate, inadequate, or beyond repair? What alternatives have been developed? How can we develop further practices of critique in dance and performance that de-center the respondent?

Moderated by Kristopher K.Q. Pourzal with panelists Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Jaime Shearn Coan, André Daughtry, Yvonne Montoya, Mark Travis Rivera

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information please visit: www.movementresearch.org

 

Studies Project: Diasporic Interventions

November 29, 2017

With panelists from Chinatown Art Brigade (est. 2015), South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (est. 1997), and Yellow Jackets Collective (est. 2015). These collectives organize multi-ethnic Asian communities across language barriers in an increasingly gentrified and art market-driven Chinatown, connect and showcase South Asian women artists and creative professionals, and center POC/Queer/Femme/marginalized communities through political education, nightlife events, and queer archiving.

In open conversation with attendees, collectives will address: How do we do cultural work? How do we resist institutions? What Asian artist-activist legacies shape our organizing and our histories? What are our communities’ most pressing needs? This event took place on November 29, 2017 as a part of the Fall Festival 2017: invisible material.

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances, and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

 

For more information on Movement Research please visit www.movementresearch.org

 

Studies Project: Interdisciplinary Responses to the Political Moment

November 7, 2017

Collaborators Pramila Vasudevan and Piotr Szyhalski, invite artists, Salome Asega and Jill Sigman, to participate in a facilitated dialogue about the responsiveness of artistic practice to pressing sociopolitical and ecological concerns of our time. Through artist-led presentations that will detail a range of interdisciplinary strategies, this Studies Project will share how arts practitioners are making political interventions while challenging formal expectations around legibility, site-specificity, and linearity. This event took place on November 7, 2017

IN PARTNERSHIP

Movement Research works in partnership with local, national, and international organizations to create opportunities that spur interaction and exchange among choreographers and movement based artists through residencies, workshop exchanges, informal showings, and discussions.

Pramila Vasudevan’s NYC Residency is made possible by the McKnight Choreographer Fellowship Program, administered by the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts and funded by The McKnight Foundation, in partnership with Gibney Dance Center, The Playground, and Movement Research. Pramila Vasudevan is a 2016 McKnight Choreographer Fellow.

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances, and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

 

For more information on Movement Research please visit www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Stories, Strategies and Practices

October 10, 2017

This is a Movement Research podcast of Studies Project entitled: Stories, Strategies and Practices

Hosted by the Movement Research Artists of Color Council and Organized by Lily Bo Shapiro and Stanley Gambucci With Arthur Aviles, Ebony Noelle Golden, Eli Tamondong and Stephanie Acosta. This event took place on October 10, 2017.

The Movement Research Artists of Color Council gathers together an intergenerational group of dance makers and performers to discuss their artistic practices and the practical realities that go hand in hand with them. Each bring a range of aesthetic and cultural lineages, career trajectories, and studio practices into the room. This conversation will hold each artist's individual experiences and knowledge of the field up as a crucial, shared resource. 

 

Studies Project is an artist-curated series of panel discussions, performances, and/or other formats that focus on provocative and timely issues of aesthetics and philosophy in the intersection of dance and social politics, confronting and instigated by the dance and performance community.

For more information on Movement Research please visit www.movementresearch.org

Studies Project: Precarious Collaboration and Equitable Conflict

May 9, 2017

Organized by Wildcat! (André Zachary, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and Eleni Zaharopoulos)

Wildcat!, a civically-minded, collaborative performance organization, brings together a panel of performers, artists, and activists to discuss how equitable conflict manifests in contemporary performance practices. How might the role of conflict be reconsidered within collaborative work? What potential lies in negotiating equitable conflict as a means of devising performance? As a means of shifting from militaristic ideas of conflict toward cyclical acts of supportive response?

Including Chloë Bass, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Justine Williams

Studies Project: Epic Memory Lab Nia Love

Nia Love re-configures and re-examines the meanings of ‘safe-space’, domesticity, and self care in an installment of her latest project, the Epic Memory Lab (EMLab). Taking the form of a potluck, Love will facilitate a candid dialogue about healing and aging that will be guided by the recipes, stories, and family heirlooms offered by attendees.

EMLab is informed by the structure of Kitchen Konversations, a series developed by Nia Love and Marjani Forté-Saunders.

 

Studies Project: Does the Dance Field Make Room for Dancer-Parents?

April 29, 2017

This conversation will take a detailed look at the culture around child-rearing as a performer. How do structures and attitudes in the field invite and support or discourage and overlook the choice to be primarily a dancer, rather than a dance-maker? In a dance economy focused on finding support for choreographers, what are the concrete ways performers are finding to navigate parenting and dancing?

Moderated by Nia Love 

With Anna Azrieli, Peggy Cheng, Heather Olson Trovato, Samantha Speis and Sarah White-Ayón

Studies Project: Appropriate Citations

April 11, 2017

Moderated and organized by Hadar Ahuvia and Ali Rosa-Salas

Citation and adaptation have been fertile and even groundbreaking creative processes. Cultural appropriations have also masked power dynamics and violent processes of dispossession. How are performance makers navigating citational and appropriative processes with intention and within a range of proximities and intimacies with their sources? How do these artistic practices contend with and complicate colonial and extractive procedures?

With Yoshiko Chuma, Malik Gaines & Alexandro Segade, Will Rawls, Rosy Simas, and Reggie Wilson

Studies Project: Talking Heads: What’s Your How?

 March 15, 2017

Movement Research's editors create a temporary "publication": a live site igniting conversation, debate and language around the current moment. Faced with extreme conservatism, how will New York City dance/performance people activate their power, access, resources and social missions? Questions will be posed and answered within a time limit. Categories include: culture in the current political climate; gossip; equity; formulating a new avant-garde in a socially responsible way. GAME SHOW! 

Gameshow players: Lydia Bell, Siobhan Burke, Jaime Shearn Coan, Yve Laris Cohen, Benjamin Akio Kimitch, Esther Neff, Ali Rosa-Salas, DeeArah Wright

Fall Festival: Financial and Personal Wellness in Dance: A Panel Discussion

November 30, 2016

A panel discussion moderated by Kay Takeda, Director of Grants & Services at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Panelists: Aaron Mattocks, Juliana May, Katy Pyle, Antonio Ramos

Since the development of the Dancers Compact from 1996 to 2002, multiple efforts have been undertaken in the field to better understand, support, and advocate for the needs of dance artists, and for the importance of self-care. This is an essential and ongoing issue for each dance artist and for the field as a whole. What are the approaches and practices that makers and dancers are developing to better sustain themselves and their collaborators, and what resources are out there for dance artists in NYC? Hear from artists Aaron Mattocks, Katy Pyle, Juliana May, and Antonio Ramos, who are each actively pursuing different ways to address these questions – and add your own experiences, ideas, and practices to the mix.

Passage a dialogue with doulas, dancers, and caregivers

 Movement Research Studies Project, "Passage a dialogue with doulas, dancers, and caregivers" - June 7, 2016


Moderated by Risa Shoup with panelists Anna Carapetyan, devynn emory, Robert Kocik, and iele paloumpis.

This Studies Project will bring together dance artists who also work in the field of care-giving: end-of-life, beginning-of-life, navigators of illness and wellness. Why do many dancers become doulas? What is the overlap between guiding bodies through the cycles of life, and guiding bodies through space? What is it that draws dance artists to this profession? How do we acknowledge the specific needs of different communities and that all care is not equal/universal?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diversity and Accountability: A conversation with the MR Artists of Color Council

 

 

 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Diversity and Accountability: A conversation with the MR Artists of Color Council" - November 2, 2016


With Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Alicia Ohs, Lisa Parra, Marýa Wethers and Tara Aisha Willis.

The artists driving this new Movement Research initiative open their current conversations to a wider audience, sharing thoughts on the Council’s mission and their experiences as artists of color within Movement Research’s programs. In support of accountability efforts underway within Movement Research and working towards two-way transparency, the Council invites the concerns of the community around cultural diversity, equity, and sustainable structural integration into the space.

 

 

 

 

 

Back to School with Teaching Artists

 

 

 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Back to School with Teaching Artists" - October 11, 2016


Initiated and Hosted by Diana Crum, Director of MR's Dance Makers in the Schools Program.

Using the context of the Movement Research lineage and community as a base to move out from, this roundtable discussion is an opportunity for teaching artists to gather and share their current ideas, inspirations, and practices. We'll kick off the conversation with invited guest speakers Mariangela Lopez, Jules Skloot and Adrienne Westwood. 

 

 

 

 

Does the Dance Field Make Room for Parenting

 

 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Does the Dance Field Make Room for Parenting" - October 11, 2016
Initiated and moderated by Nami Yamamoto and Netta Yerushalmy 

With Yanira Castro, Rebecca Davis, Ursula Eagly, Shannon Hummel, Craig Peterson, Stacy Spence and Donna Uchizono.

We discussed and examined the culture around child-rearing in our field - in what ways do structures and attitudes in the field integrate and invite this choice and in what ways do they, often unconsciously, ignore or discourage this reality? How are artists who are also parents perceived? What are some of the concrete decisions and conditions individuals in the field employ to make it work? 


 

 

 

 

Body Disrupt

 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Body Disrupt" - May 18, 2016
Initiated and moderated by Kathy Westwater 

With Mat Fraser, Petra Kuppers, Marissa Perel, Cathy Weis, and Wendy Whelan

Artists with disabilities and artists whose work disrupts normative notions of what constitutes a dancing body will come together in conversation. We will consider the artistic work of the panelists and how it opens up possibilities for dance to move beyond narrow historical paradigms to include a more expansive range of physical experience and formal content. 


 

 

Puppetry and Dance


 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Puppetry and Dance" - April 5, 2016
Conceived by Nami Yamamoto

With Patti Bradshaw, Chris Green, Dan Hurlin, Christopher Williams, Nami Yamamoto

Panelists will discuss their various perspectives on the integration of puppetry and dance in live performance. Like dance, puppetry is a hands-on, physical art form. What happens when the puppet appears onstage? This conversation will explore how artists are bringing these two forms together in unique ways and how they complement and inform one another. 


 

Band of Outsiders: Women

 

Movement Research Studies Project, "Band of Outsiders Women" - March 1, 2016
Organized and Moderated by Sam Kim With Lorene Boubshian,  Moria Brennan, Shelia Lewandoski, Noopur Singa, Adrienne Truscott

Women dominate the dance and performance field in numbers, but not in visibility, ‘success,’ or positions of power. Let’s keep the issue at the forefront and explore how to rectify this. One of the biggest untapped resources is women helping and supporting other women more vocally and consciously—as the majority, our collective efforts would have a massive impact on leveling the field. In this panel, we’ll discuss how to effect change and meaningfully support the majority of our fellow practitioners. Any gender expression is welcome and all are encouraged to participate.


Fall Festival Studies Project: An Artist Conversation between Nelisiwe Xaba and David Thomson - December 1, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project, "An Artist Conversation between Nelisiwe Xaba and David Thomson" - December 1, 2015
Part of Movement Research Festival Fall 2015: vanishing points, curated by Beth Gill and Cori Olinghouse

This event was an informal introduction to choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba who is based in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a participating artist in the festival. David Thomson led a live interview and discussion with Xaba around the political and aesthetic resonances in her work.

Studies Project: Dancer as Agent - November 10, 2014

Movement Research Studies Project, "Dancer as Agent" - November 10, 2014
Conceived by Cecilia Roos in partnership with Iréne Hultman
Panelists included Hilary Clark and Juliette Mapp

Within the field of dance, the creation process often demands that dancers develop methodologies, movement vocabularies and conceptual frames. Previously seen as the exclusive domain of choreographers, dramaturges and directors, these procedural boundaries are now shifting and eroding creative hierarchies in live performance. This has produced new, mostly undocumented relationships to working processes and bodies of knowledge. The Dancer as Agent began in 2013 as a conference held at University of Dance and Circus (DOCH) in Sweden. This conversation focused on some of the topics that emerged from that conference.

Studies Project: what we talk about when we talk about somatics - November 10, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project, "what we talk about when we talk somatics: a sharing of practices leading into conversation" - November 10, 2015
With Justine Lynch, Antonio Ramos, Shelley Senter and RoseAnne Spradlin
Moderated by Levi Gonzalez

What does the term “somatics” even mean? Can we arrive at consensus around this as an idea, a value, a practice? This event brought together artists/practitioners of various backgrounds and areas of study to lead the group in experiential practices which evolved into a collective discussion on the term “somatics” and the impact and resonance of this way of learning and being in the world.

Studies Project: What I've Learned about Choreography from Watching Movies, Films (and TV) - October 6th, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project, "What I've Learned about Choreography from Watching Movies, Films (and TV)" - October 6, 2015
Conceived by Melinda Ring
Moderated by Ryan Hill
With panelists Layla Childs, Tere O’Connor, Melinda Ring, Sonya Robbins and Larissa Velez-Jackson

How do the things we watch inform our dance making? What have our (guilty) pleasures, high and low, taught us about form, timing, structure, etc? Does our connection to TV, film and movies keep us attuned to this moment’s mind-image zeitgeist, and conversely, does a lack of attention to these mediums create a gap in relevance of this art form to contemporary culture? Panelists discussed their perspective on these questions followed by a group conversation with everyone present.

Spring Festival Studies Project: Placing Performance - May 12th, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project, "Placing Performance," Part of Movement Research Festival Spring 2015: LEGIBLE/ILLEGIBLE - May 12, 2015
Moderated by Sarah Maxwell
With panelists AUNTS, Megan Bridges and the Spring Festival co-curators, Layla Childs, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko and Samita Sinha.

What words do we use, arrange, invent, and discover to talk about the particular communicative power of performance work? How does geographic location and environment influence the creation, languaging, and understanding of dance and performance? How do digital/ virtual sites affect the consumption of dance as a living, complex, emotionally dense form? This conversation covered topics concerning locality, environmental and digital influence, and curatorial process.

10/28/10 Moving Dialogue

Moving Dialogue: A Bucharest/New York Dance Exchange
Dance Theater Workshop Showing

Thursday October 28. 7:30pm.

DTW Studios, 219 West 19th Street.

This was a post-performance discussion as part of Moving Dialogue: a Bucharest/New York Dance Exchange presented by Movement Researcj, Romanian Cultural Institute New York, National Dance Theatre Bucharest, Dance Theatre Workshop and the Gabriella Tudor Foundation. In this open showing Madalina Dan and Vava Stefanescu presented works in progress as a culmination of a residency in the DTW studios. The discussion was moderated by John Jasperse. 

Studies Project: Vulnerable Bodies and the Embodiment of Resistance - May 6, 2014

Movement Research Studies Project, "Vulnerable Bodies and the Embodiment of Resistance"
Conceived by 2012 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence Cristiane Bouger (Brazil/USA)
With panelists Dominika Laster (Poland/USA), Mariangela Lopez (Venezuela/USA), Marcos Steurnagel (Brazil/USA), and Tan Temel (Turkey)

Drawing from artistic practices that reveal or subvert the strenuous adversity of social control, this panel aims to address a myriad of perspectives on the embodiment of political resistance.

Artists and scholars will address works and practices that were informed or influenced by the experience of undergoing the restrictions imposed by dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe. By approaching culturally diverse and unrelated geopolitical contexts, the event aims to give visibility to the bodies and interstices of experience that are not immediately seen by the foreign gaze.

Spring Festival: iLand Symposium - May 31, 2014

Movement Research Spring Festival, iLand Symposium
Sensing to Know / Analyzing to Imagine
Moderated by Jennifer Monson
With participants Amy Berkov, Kathleen McCarthy, Jason Munshi, Hara Woltz

iLAND SYMPOSIUM Sensing to Know /Analyzing to Imagine was a talk and walk exploring the dual perspective of the artist-scientist. Visual, aural and kinesthetic modes in science and art were explored by participants who have experience as both scientists and artists. The first hour was dedicated to discussing the participants' understanding of the intersection of these seemingly discrete disciplines and the impact of this dual perspective on their current practices. Following the talk, each participant lead a section of a walk to the Brooklyn waterfront, reading the landscape through their particular lens. Moderator Jennifer Monson drew upon her own work, and the insight of 10 years of iLAB residencies, which have developed novel ways of examining New York City's urban environment.

Participants included Amy Berkov - visual artist, tropical biologist and professor of Biology; Kathleen McCarthy - sculptor and restoration ecologist; Jason Munshi-South - professor of Biology; Hara Woltz - visual artist, landscape architect and conservation biologist. Moderated by Jennifer Monson, artistic director and founder of iLAND-interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance.

Studies Project: Artists in K-12 Schools - February 3, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project: Artists in K-12 Schools 

Conceived and moderated by Diana Crum

With panelists Lynn Brown, Donna Costello, Randy Luna, Jessica Nicoll, Jules Skloot

What is the role of the dance teaching artist in schools? Many artists make a living by teaching grades K-12 in the NYC school system. Is their goal to share their artistic practice, the ideology behind their aesthetic, tools for making art, historical reference points, movement skills, or something else? Experienced voices from different arenas of dance-in-education and others in attendance shared their questions and ideas, reflected on their practice and how the work of teaching artists impacts education and culture in this city. 

Studies Project: Dance and Publish - March 3, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project: Dance and Publish

March 3, 2015

Hosted by Moriah Evans, Editor-in-chief, The Movement Research Performance Journal

Biba Bell and Will Rawls, co-Editors, Critical Correspondence 

 

As MR's two publications - the Performance Journal (semi-annual print edition) and Critical Correspondence (monthly web edition) - move into their respective 3rd and 2nd decades, the editorial teams hoped to enter into a more robust dialogue with their colleagues in the field. 

The event brought together agents of the dance publishing world in New York and members of the interested public. Buoyed by wine and modest vittles, we broke into three working groups focused on three themes: Design, Circulation and Content. Each working group had auxiliary prompts and exercises to guide a hands-on, brains-on practicum leading to a larger, group conversation. 

In preparation, the hosts asked that attendees bring a clutch of journals, periodicals, catalogs and/or websites that serve as their primary sources for dance content. 

Studies Project: being a body out loud - April 7, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project: being a body out loud

April 7, 2015 

Conceived by Ni'Ja Whitson Adebanjo, Edisa Weeks and Tara Aisha Willis

With panelists Allison Joy, Jumatatu R. Poe and Social Health Performance Club

 

Living in a body that shouts through the underbelly, a protested or protesting body, a black body, a body of the multitudes, a body of color, a body no one believes, a body of rage or exhaustion, a body on the ground outlined in chalk. Our current moment's choreographies and vocabularies - gestures, chants, dances, collective actions - reveal (and disrupt) practices of living. What experiences do we hold in memory and body, and how do we hold them? With reverence? Power? Performers and writers responded with those in attendance. 

Studies Project: Dance and Labor - April 29, 2015

Movement Research Studies Project, "Dance and Labor"

April 29, 2015

Organized in dialogue with Movement Research, luciana achugar, Abigail Levine and Kathy Westwater

With panelists David Thomson and Yve Laris Cohen

 

How is dance labor valued? How has it been valued? How might it be? And how can we affect the value assigned to this labor? These questions were considered across a spectrum of contexts, including individual and institutional, organized and spontaneous, and historical and anecdotal to explore how performance and dance function within our current artistic, economic and labor realities. 

10-6-14 Movement Research Town Hall Meeting

 

Town Hall Meeting

Movement Research at Eden's Expressway, October 6, 2014.

Co-Hosted and organized by the Movement Research Artist Advisory Council

Moderated by Laurie Berg, Maura Donohue and Kathy Westwater

The Movement Research Artist Advisory Council (AAC) facilitated a public discussion by sharing excerpts and quotes of meeting minutes to spark conversation and invite the public into its ongoing conversation, including threads related to economics, politics, aesthetics and creativity. 

This meeting examined the relationship between dancer and community - academic, geographic, and economic. Speakers and guests discussed economics of class-taking, the limitations and potential of University-Artist relationships, and the value of geographic vs. digital communities. 

 

Studies Project: "New Models for Presenting Dance" February 4, 2014

This is a Movement Research Studies Project: New Models for Presenting Dance in the 21st Century

February 4, 2014 at Gibney Dance Center 890 Broadway with panelists Travis Chamberlain from the New Museum, Brian Rogers from the Chocolate Factory, Sally Silvers from Roulette, and Lucien Zayan from The Invisible Dog.

New Models for Presenting Dance discussed the dynamic shift the landscape of dance presentation in NYC has undergone over the last five years. New spaces for showing work have opened, museums and galleries are regularly programming performance, and several venues that present multiple artistic genres have become specifically interested in presenting dance. This conversation with a sampling of voices from these venues created a layered portrait of the constantly shifting field of dance presentation, while examining its new directions.

 

 

 

 

 

Movement Research Festival Fall 2014 Studies Project: "FOR WHAT" December 2, 2014

This is a Movement Research Studies Project: FOR WHAT

Moderated by Ursula Eagly with panelists Morgan Bassichis, Justine Lynch, Melanie Maar, Clarinda Mac Low, Alta Starr and Marýa Wethers

December 2, 2014 at Gibney Dance Center 890 Broadway as part of the Movement Research Festival Fall 2014: MATTERING co-curated by Rebecca Brooks and Daria Faïn in conversation with Shelley Senter

FOR WHAT was a discussion led by panelists who enjoy multi-faceted engagement with the cultural field, including healing elements, social justice aspects, performance activations, and various cultural considerations. The discussion was a response to the observation that many artists decide to be of service in some way to the culture and to others and addresses questions such as what are we doing, and what are we doing it for? What does it mean to live/work as an artist at this current time, and how do we position our work in relation to everything else in our lives and our environment? And in what way are our artistic practices necessary to a collective transformation of society?

 

Studies Project is a series of artist-instigated panel discussions, roundtables, performances and/or other formats that engage issues of aesthetics, philosophy and social politics relevant to the dance and performance community.

Studies Project: "The Role of Class in Current Dance Practices" January 20, 2015

This is a Movement Research Studies Project: The Role of Class in Current Dance Practices

Conceived in conversation with Movement Research Faculty

January 20, 2015 at Gibney Dance Center 890 Broadway organized by Movement Research in collaboration with Beth Gill, Lance Gries, Eva Karczag and Gwen Welliver

The Role of Class was a series of brief and intimate discussions with various teaching artists including Julian Barnett, Michelle Boulé, Wendell Cooper, Jeanine Durning, Barbara Forbes, Zvi Gotheiner, K.J. Holmes, John Jasperse, Joanna Kotze, Nia Love, Juliette Mapp, Cori Olinghouse, Janet Panetta, Shelley Senter, Vicky Shick, RoseAnne Spradlin, Karinne Keithley Syers and Jesse Zarrit. These discussions addressed questions and ideas about dance and movement-based class through their own practices and histories. After the discussions attendants were invited to actively participate in smaller group conversations with the opportunity to share insights and proposals.

 

Photo: Morning exercises on the roof of Itten College, 1931, from "Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus and later" by Johannes Itten

Studies Project: "Dance and Music Now" October 7, 2014

This is Movement Research Studies Project: Dance and Music Now

With Panelists: Douglas Dunn & Steven Taylor, Melanie Maar & Kenta Nagai, Edisa Weeks & Katie Down 

October 7, 2014 at Gibney Dance Center 890 Broadway proposed and moderated by Philip Ellis Foster 

Musicians and dancers have a long and storied relationship with one another, from traditional forms that wed music and dance to narrative storytelling, to orchestral ballets, and on to Cage and Cunningham collaborations. This evening explored the multifaceted ways artists are addressing this relationship today, with a focus on musicians that perform live with dancers and movement-based performance work. Artists discussed and examined their various dynamic approaches to collaboration between and across these fields.

Photo: Kenta Nagai and Melanie Maar by Ian Douglas

 

Studies Project: "Evolving Dance Pedagogies" March 4, 2014

This is a Movement Research Studies Project: Evolving Dance Pedagogies

With Panelists: Maura Donohue (Hunter College), Simon Dove (formerly of Arizona State University), Neil Greenberg (New School), Patricia Hoffbauer (Hunter College, Princeton University) and Mariah Maloney (SUNY Brockport)

March 4, 2014 at Gibney Dance Center hosted by Critical Correspondence

This conversation between professors from a variety of university dance departments addressed the changing relationship between their programs and the field of dance. Panelists discussed the emergence of dance studies and the model of the artist/scholar; issues of access, privilege, and the shifting economic structures of professional dance. Our panelists considered how these conditions affect their students and the way they structure their curricula.

 

 

Movement Research Fall Festival 2013 Studies Project: "We Came to this City to Shit On a Stage" December 3, 2013

Movement Research Studies Project: We Came To This City To Shit On A Stage

Adrienne Truscott With Panelists: Sara Beesley of Joe's Pub, Eric Dyer of Radiohole, Vallejo Gantner of PS122, performer/choreographer/curator Colin Self, and choreographer/performer Gillian Walsh.

Gibney Dance Center, December 3, 2013 as part of the Movement Research Festival Fall 2013 “Le Song, Ya?!” curated by Adrienne Truscott and Jibz Cameron aka Dynasty Handbag

The conversation revolved around the following question: "How do we make, define, and notice 'transgressive' art in a city whose identity, economy and landscape are increasingly manicured, welcoming, mainstream, highly visible and inaccessible?"

Movement Research Fall Festival 2013 Studies Project: "Performing Vulnerability" December 4, 2013

Movement Research Festival Fall 2013 Studies Project: Performing Vulnerability

Adrienne Truscott with panelists: niv Acosta, Ben Asriel, Hilary Clark, Miguel Gutierrez and Juliana May

Jimmy's 43, December 4, 2013 as part of Movement Research's Festival Fall 2013 "Le Song, Ya?!" curated by Adrienne Truscott and Jibz Cameron (Dynasty Handbag)

 

This Studies Project revolved around the questions: What does it mean to be vulnerable in performance? Is vulnerability a state or can it be "done?"

Note: At about 53 minutes into the conversation there is a short missing section due to technical difficulties.

Movement Research Studies Project: "Vulnerable Systems: Moving Beyond Sustainability" November 5, 2013

2013 Movement Research Studies Project: Vulnerable Systems: Moving Beyond Sustainability

Jennifer Monson and Movement Research

Gibney Dance Center, November 5, 2013

 

This Studies Project discussed how the reality of climate change has brought an increased awareness around the fragility of our environment and a heightened interest in sustainable practices. How do we move beyond sustainability towards resiliency, a term currently in broad use in the social sciences? How do we address the current crisis from its roots, rather than perpetuating unworkable systems? Is change a value or an action? How can our practices within the dance community serve as models for adapting to change? Participants discussed different framings of sustainability from the perspectives of various fields, including social science, economics, and urban ecology in a roundtable conversation which invited the dance community and the larger public to explore concrete ways to create resilient systems in their own communities and beyond.

Movement Research Studies Project: "Dramaturgy as Practice/Dramaturgy in Practice: Part 2," October 1, 2013

Part 2 of the 2013 Movement Research Studies Project: Dramaturgy as Practice/Dramaturgy in Practice,

Amanda Loulaki and Susan Mar Landau

Gibney Dance Center, October 1, 2013

with Panelists: Annie Dorsen, Katherine Profeta, David Thomson, Talvin Wilks, Susan Mar Landau, and Vanessa Anspaugh

This Studies Project Discusses the relatively new and evolving phenomenon of a dramaturg as an active participant in the conceiving and making of movement-based works. Conceived as a two-part event, Dramaturgy as Practice/Dramaturgy in Practice speakers explored both the ontology and the workings of dance dramaturgy today. This second event brought together dramaturgs, choreographers and dancers to engage in an in-depth conversation on the experience, effect and possible implications of the presence of the dramaturg in the choreographic process.

Part 1 of the Dramaturgy Studies Project took place on May 5^th 2013 and is available as a podcast at:

http://movementresearch.libsyn.com/movement-research-studies-project-dramaturgy-as-practice-dramaturgy-in-practice-may-5-2013

11-25-2013 Movement Research Town Hall Meeting

Town Hall Meeting

With Speakers Walter Dundervill, Marjani Forte, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Melinda Ring

Gibney Dance Center, November 25, 2013.

This meeting looked into Movement Research’s existence as a theoretical model of openness and experimentation, and the fact that Movement Research doesn’t dictate but rather creates a space in which to follow one’s own intention or aesthetic. Speakers and guests questioned what shifts have occurred in the role MR plays for us as dance artists and in the culture at large, whether there is a tension between the individuality and the collectivity that exists in the MR community of practice, thought and doing, and the making/marketing of our identities. As well as the role that the dancer/dance-maker play in an age that valorizes and fetishizes making.

Movement Research Studies Project: "Town Hall Follow Up" June 25, 2013

Town Hall Follow-Up: Alternative Economies

Moderated by Kathy Westwater

With panelists Tamara Greenfield, Ilona Bito and more.

Josie's, June 25, 2013.

This is a Movement Research Studies Project: “Town Hall Follow-Up: Alternative Economies,” moderated by Kathy Westwater and including panelists, Ilona Bito, Liliana Dirks-Goodman, and Tamara Greenfield. This event took place June 25, 2013 at Josie’s.

In a follow-up discussion to the 2012 Movement Research Town Hall, this conversation looked deeper into structures and alternatives that have manifested within the recent and current dance economy. Moderator Kathy Westwater, panelists and attendees reflected upon different ongoing conversations to glean further insights and understandings on the topics of value, money, time and dance-making.

Movement Research Studies Project: "Peter Sellars and Faustin Linyekula Dialogue," September 17, 2012.

Peter Sellars and Faustin Linyekula Dialogue

September 17, 2012 

French Institute Alliance Française

Dialogue moderated by Barbara Bryan and Simon Dove

In partnership with Crossing the Line Festival, and copresented by the Museum for African Art

Friends and artistic collaborators, director and choreographer Faustin Linyekula and stage director Peter Sellars come together on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street to speak about each other’s work and the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change.

Movement Research Studies Project: "Performing the Changing City," Mar 19, 2013.

Performing the Changing City
Organized by Abigail Levine and Paloma McGregor
With panelists luciana achugar, Randy Martin, Jenny Romaine, and Niegel Smith

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, March 19, 2013.

"...careening astronauts and bank clerks glancing at the clock before lunch; actresses cowling at light-ringed mirrors and freight elevator operators grinding a thumbful of grease on a steel handle: student riots; that dark women in bodegas shook their heads last week because in six months prices have risen outlandishly; how coffee tastes after you've held it in your mouth, cold, a whole minute." --Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren

Hurricanes, transit strikes, planned and unplanned explosions, occupations... Bike lanes, bus lanes, protest pens, command centers... Pedestrian zones, redevelopment zones, disaster zones... How is the landscape of our city changing and what are the possibilities for creative response? Looking at the shifting social, economic, and literal topography of our city through the frame of transformative events and policy decisions, we ask the question: what is the role of artists, activists, and all citizens in conceiving, creating, and defending (a notion of) public space? And conversely, what is the role of public space as a partner in creative expression and action? luciana achugar, Randy Martin, Jenny Romaine, and Niegel Smith reflect on our shifting urban landscape and offer opportunities to imagine how we might enact our city in the future.