Queerings is a series of workshops led by LA-based, queer-identifying artists/practitioners/guest speakers who offer their expertise, knowledge, and artistry with the general public. The intention of these teachings is to create larger coalitions between LGBTQIA+ peoples and allies, making space to build community and share in queer learnings/becomings. Workshops are virtual and will begin in April 2021, running every Thursday at 6:30pm PST. Portions of all class donations go to supporting LGBTQIA+ homeless youth in Los Ángeles.
Stay tuned as we announce our artists, workshops, times/dates!
Category Archives: Workshop
wxpt / Grisha Coleman
wxpt reading and movement lab with guest Grisha Coleman
Saturday November 23, 2019
10.30 am – 12.30 pm
free
@ we live in space
2520 W Jefferson Blvd
LA, CA 90018
wxpt reading and movement lab is a series of dance and somatics workshops led by Black artists and practitioners of color. the workshop will be accompanied by a text or two that participants are encouraged to read in advance.
send email here for questions or to receive the texts for this workshop.
Grisha Coleman is a time-based artist working in performance and experiential media. She holds a faculty position of Associate Professor of Movement, Computation and Digital Media in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, with affiliations in Schools of Dance, Design and Future Innovation in Society (Arizona State University). Her art and research project, echo::system, is a springboard for re-imagining environmental change and environmental justice. Her research in movement and somatic methods supports her transdisciplinary research; she is a member of The International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association and works with modalities of Body-Mind CenteringTM and The Feldenkrais MethodTM. Her work has been presented and supported nationally and internationally by numerous grants and awards including: 2014 Thriving Cultures Grant from the Surdna Foundation, 2014 Alpert Award nomination in Dance, 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Arts in Media Grant, Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production Fund, Creative Capital Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and New York Foundation Artists’ Fellowship.
wxpt reading and movement lab is a Show Box LA choreographers’ residency praxis of taisha paggett and the WXPT (we are the paper, we are the trees) and School for the Movement of the Technicolo(u)r People collaborative projects. Additional support comes from the California Community Foundation and UC Riverside Department of Dance.
Show Box L.A./we live in space residency program is supported from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Class with Papy Ebotani
Saturday, Sept 30, 2017
12-2pm
we live in space
2520 W Jefferson Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90018
$15 in advance/ $25 day of class
Presented in conjunction with performances of Sur les traces de Dinozord by Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako at REDCAT, Sept 28-30, 2017
Papy’s class will progress through a 30-minute warmup/technique, improvisation in solo and group forms, and compositional strategies.
• • •
PAPY EBOTANI is a member of Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako and has danced in creations of the company since 2001. He lives and works between Kisangani and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). He was a rapper and musician with different groups from Kinshasa, before turning to dance in the company of Jean-Marie Musungayi, Diba dance. He trained and followed workshops with different dancers and choreographers: Céline Bacqué, Toufik Oudhriri Idrissi, Hanna Hedman, Sylvain Prunenec, Pep Ramis, Meg Stuart, Foofwa d’immobilité and Boyzie Cekwana.
Papy has given workshops in Brazil, Brussels, London, Los Angeles and la Réunion ; and teaches regularly in Congo (Kinshasa and Kisangani) and in Rwanda.
Papy has also been invited to make and present work at numerous international residencies and festivals. He has participated in a creative residencies in Douala, Urban Scenographies project; Kinshasa Urban Scenographies; and in Dakar; as well as Potager du Roi /Versailles à Velizy as part of the program “Les Indépendances” residence, and at the Center National de la Danse in France. His solo work work Na Tempo was presented in Kinshasa, Paris (Cartier Foundation), Berlin (festival Tanz im August), Belgium (Yambi festival), Caen (Danse d’ailleurs) and Reunion; and to Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Niteroi, Belo Horizonte, Florianopolis) and London (Dance Umbrella). In 2005, Papy created a duet Ya biso (For us) with Djodjo Kazadi, also dancer of the Kabako Studios, presented in Kinshasa, Berlin, Paris, Bamako, Berne and Mons. Parliament standing (2007), for a dancer and ten locally recruited extras, was presented in Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Brussels, Reunion Island, Salzburg, and Brazil. Engundele (2009),was co-produced by and presented at the Biennale of Charleroi Danse, and the Bamako Dance Biennial Africa Dance. In 2012, he created Jogging Kilometers with Kebaya Moturi, premiered at the Connection Kin festival. For several years, Papy has been developing projects for non-theatrical venues: his latest creation, Fanfare funérailles, took place in streets and districts of Kisangani and Kinshasa (Connexion Kin 2015), as well as Kigali (Rwanda), Bujumbura (Burundi) and Sharjah Biennial (UAE).
Workshop with Sharon Chohi Kim, Micaela Tobin, and Maria Maea: Healing the voice, for female-identifying people
Sunday, August 20, 2017
6pm
FREE WORKSHOP – Healing the voice for female-identifying people
with Sharon Chohi Kim, Micaela Tobin, and Maria Maea
at
we live in space/ 2520 W Jefferson Blvd / LA, CA 90018
we live in space/ 2520 W Jefferson Blvd / LA, CA 90018
Sharon Chohi Kim, Maria Maea and Micaela Tobin are holding a free voice-healing workshop for female-identifying people as part of Maria’s residency at WE LIVE IN SPACE and their new opera, Unseal Unseam. The aim of this workshop is to help participants discover a sense of self-empowerment through breath, voice and body.
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“The trauma we experience echoes through our bodies and out into our days, weeks, years, lives. We sit in that space afraid and guarded. I no longer want my pain to be the loudest part of my existence. I want to share, break it down and let go. I want to do this with others and hear their voices and find joy in our collective release.” -Maria
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The workshop will cover the basics of healthy vocal production, specifically focusing on releasing points of tension through creative sound exercises and gentle movement, culminating in a structured improvisation with the alignment of body, voice, and sound. All experience levels welcome! Please join us in this practice.
Sopranos Sharon Chohi Kim and Micaela Tobin are composers and teachers that specialize in experiential voice and new opera. Their current piece, entitled “Unseal Unseam” is a feminist response to the misogynistic narratives of traditional opera.
We are part of a creative team of female identifying artists that make new opera. We seek to use our artistic resources to tell stories–unwitnessed and undocumented– through music theatre. Our performances attempt to reclaim and reshape the female narratives that dominate traditional opera. To that end, our current piece ‘Unseal Unseam’ is an electroacoustic opera that examines the too-often invisible world of domestic violence, and hopes to provide a place for healing and solidarity. The opera will be premiering in Fall 2017 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. We want to ground the work in the lived truths of our community, so in conjunction with the opera, we are holding space in the form of an open workshop for healing the voice for any female-identifying people who are interested.
Sharon Chohi Kim is a Los Angeles-based voice artist, educator, and composer. She currently holds a faculty position at the American Music and Dramatic Academy. Sharon recently made her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut as the Mezzo-Soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Pacific American Master Chorale Orchestra. She was seen as Lucha in Hopscotch -a mobile opera for 24 cars (dir. Yuval Sharon) with the acclaimed opera company, The Industry, and as a vocalist in the West Coast Premiere of Sila: Breath of the World by John Luther Adams for the Ojai Music Festival. She has also performed with the Los Angeles Opera, El Paso Opera Company and Chamizal National Memorial, Texas; Opera Nova Scotia, and Jang Chun Art Hall and Yeoungdeungpogu Theatre in Seoul, South Korea. www.sharonchohikim.com
Maria Maea is a Los Angeles based performance artist creating through objects, sound and body. Currently in residency at we live in space, she has focused her practice on mirroring – seeking to hold intentional space to see and be seen, to collectively move healing into a space of joy.
Maria is a member of Taisha Paggett’s experimental dance company WXPT and has performed with the collective at the Hammer Museum, LACE Gallery, and the Bowtie Project. She is also a participating builder for Rafa Esparza’s adobe galleries that have exhibited group shows for brown artist at The Whitney Biennial and currently at Ballroom Marfa. Maria leads a series of movement and voice workshops GRACELESS LADY with experimental opera singer Micaela Tobin.
She collaborates and performs sound, movement and musings as UNICA and under her name, Maria Maea. www.mariamaea.com
Soprano and sound artist Micaela Tobin specializes in contemporary opera and experimental voice. Micaela currently teaches voice on faculty at CalArts and at the Los Angeles Music and Art School. Prominent voice students include Daveed Diggs (Hamilton: An American Musical). As a collaborator, Micaela premiered a new opera called Body Ship at the 2016 New Works Festival at REDCAT, Los Angeles, and the principal role in the opera, Dada Divas (comp. Jacqueline Bobak), at the XIII Festival Internacional Musica Nueva in Monterrey, Mexico. She also performed with The Industry in their groundbreaking opera, Hopscotch-a mobile opera for 24 cars. Micaela composes and performs her own hybrid of noise music and opera under the moniker, “White Boy Scream,” recently performing at the New Music Encounters Plus International Music Festival in Brno, Czech Republic. www.micaelatobin.com
Sundays with Simone and Friends
Sundays with Simone and Friends
A drop-in workshop with Simone Forti*
and on occasion with Stacy Dawson Stearns and Marbles Jumbo Radio
Sundays 2-4:30pm
$12
we live in space
2520 West Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles 90018
Schedule:
3/26 Simone
4/2 Stacy
4/9 Stacy
4/16 no class
4/23 Simone
4/30 Simone
5/7 Marbles
5/14 Simone
photo: Roberto Borri
Ishmael Houston-Jones: Workshop
Improvisation Strategies
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017
2-5pm
$25 in advance / $30 at the door
we live in space
2520 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018
2520 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018
This class is rooted in many different forms of improvisation and will offer students a foundation in diverse techniques of instinctive, intuitive, non-set dances. The class builds upon the principles of Contact and Releasing to give students a strong, personal movement foundation. It teaches students to use senses other than sight when improvising and asks that they allow their dances be guided by touch and sound as well as by narrative and emotion. Another component of the class is the use of both spoken and written text and the use of personal material. Students are asked to use language in an automatic and improvisational way. Then they are instructed to use the resultant text as a prompt to movement. This may lead to short solo or group pieces.
Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, and curator. His improvised dance and text work has been performed in New York City, across the US, and in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Latin America. Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a Bessie Award for their piece Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders. He also revived THEM, his 1985 collaboration with writer Dennis Cooper and composer Chris Cochrane for which he was awarded his second Bessie Award. He has curated Platform 2012: Parallels and Platform 2016: Lost and Found, both at Danspace Project. He is a recipient of the 2016 Herb Alpert, a 2015 Doris Duke Impact and a 2013 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Artists Awards.
This workshop is organized by Luis Lara Malvacias in collaboration with Show Box L.A. and sponsored by the UC RIVERSIDE Department of Dance. Free to the UCR community.
Luis Lara Malvacías – dance class series
Wednesdays: Jan 18, Jan 25, Feb 1, Feb 8, 2017
7:00p–9:00p
we live in space
2520 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018
The studio will be open at 6:30pm.
$15 single class
$50/series of 4, pre-pay here
This class offers an open space for the sharing of knowledge resulting from practice in several somatic techniques. We will focus on breath, internal structure, weight and the body’s articulations and organization, as a way to fine-tune our own needs and our own range of mobility. As the class progresses we look to integrate the parts of the body and the use of the floor. We will move in this collective space through improvisations and set phrase material. The phrase will be provided to be used for individual explorations: to manipulate it, to follow it, to watch it, to reinterpret or to copy it. This class is the result of personal investigations and is influenced by many years of study and work with Jeremy Nelson, Klein-Mahler Technique, Alexander Technique™, BodyMind-Centering® and the Feldenkrais Method.
LUIS LARA MALVACÍAS is a Venezuelan choreographer, dancer, dance teacher and visual artist. He has danced in the work of Jeremy Nelson (1994 – 2004), David Zambrano, Mark Tompkins, John Jasperse, Yoshiko Chuma, and in his own choreography. He has presented his work in New York since 1994, including DTW, PS122, Danspace Project, the Kitchen and Joyce SoHo among others. In the United States he has taught, created and presented work in several colleges and institutions. Internationally, he regularly teaches and present work in many countries in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. He was a 1998/1999 and 2002/2003 Movement Research Artist-in Residence and a 2006 Dance New Amsterdam Artist in Residence. He is the recipient of a 2006 NYFA Fellowship for choreography. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of Choreography and Dance at the University of California Riverside.
Jumatatu Poe and Jermone “Donte” Beacham – BIG BODY J-Sette Workshop
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Presented in conjunction with performances of Let ‘im Move You at Highways Performance Space
2:00p–5:00p
we live in space
2520 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018
FREE
Join Jermone “Donte” Beacham and Jumatatu Poe for two FREE dance workshops centered around experiments in J-Sette performance.
Saturday, August 6, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
Sunday, August 7, at we live in space
Join Jermone “Donte” Beacham and Jumatatu Poe for two FREE dance workshops centered around experiments in J-Sette performance. J-Sette, also known as Bucking, is a performance style popular in the southern United States, practiced widely among majorettes and drill teams at historically Black colleges and universities, and also among teams of primarily queer men who compete in gay clubs and pride festivals. The workshops will focus on bombastic performance energy, complex relationships to rhythm and music, movement precision, group dynamics, and discovering joy in flesh and community. All bodies are encouraged to participate, regardless of previous training or ability; however, we are particularly interested in preserving the space as a home of empowerment and cultural/historical positioning for queer folks of color.
Workshops will take place Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7, from 2 – 5pm. Saturday’s workshop will take place at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Sunday’s location will take place at we live in space. Donte and Jumatatu will also perform at Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica) the following weekend on Friday, August 12th. Following the three hour workshop each day, participants who are interested in performing with Donte and Jumatatu (in a short segment of the work) will be invited to stay an additional hour – until 6pm – to rehearse. Please note that participation in the performance would be unpaid. Again, all bodies are encouraged to participate.
WHAT TO WEAR/BRING:
– wear clothes that you can move in, and that make you feel good about yourself and your body
– bring water to drink
– wear shoes to dance with, also please note that there will be brief periods each day in which we do small movements without shoes
– each day, we will spend brief periods laying on the floor; you may want to bring something to wrap your hair
– we will be sweating, you may want to bring a towel
A LITTLE MORE ON J-SETTE
J-Sette is a performance form coming out of the Southern US states, namely historically Black colleges and universities. The name J-Sette is a reference to Jackson State University’s majorette line, The Prancing J-Settes. In the late 70’s, they became noteworthy for their dismissal of the majorette baton, and their use of popular music to notably athletic, sensual (sometimes raunchy), and expansive choreographies performed in stadium seats during athletic games. The adoption of popular music and the release of the baton caught on among other Southern HBCUs, and several developed their own respective styles. J-Sette is the popular culture name for these performance techniques, emerging from the majorettes. Parallel to this history, Black gay men in the south also practiced these performance traditions in gay clubs, pride parades, and now even in their own festivals competitions.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS/ARTISTS
Jumatatu M. Poe
I am a choreographer and performer based between Philadelphia and New York City who grew up dancing around the living room and at parties with my siblings and cousins. My early exposure to concert dance was through African dance and capoeira performances on California college campuses where my parents studied and worked, but I did not start formal dance training until college with Umfundalai, Kariamu Welsh’s contemporary African dance technique. My work continues to be influenced by various sources, including my foundations in those living rooms and parties, my early technical training in contemporary African dance, my continued study of contemporary dance and performance, and my recent sociological research of and technical training in J-setting with Donte Beacham. I produce dance and performance work with idiosynCrazy productions, a company I founded in 2008 and now co-direct with Shannon Murphy. Since 2012, I have been engaged in a shared, multi-tiered performance practice with NYC-based dance artist Jesse Zaritt. Previously, I have danced with Marianela Boán, Silvana Cardell, Emmanuelle Hunyh, Tania Isaac, Kun- Yang Lin, C. Kemal Nance, Marissa Perel, Leah Stein, Keith Thompson, Kate Watson-Wallace, Reggie Wilson, and Kariamu Welsh (as a member of Kariamu & Company). As a performer, I also collaborate with Merián Soto. I am an Assistant Professor of Dance at Swarthmore College.
My middle name is Mtafuta-Ukweli, which means “one who searches for the truth”.
Jermone “Donte” Beacham
I’ve been dancing has been in my blood since I can remember. It started off with hip hop dancing for my high school when I began to notice my skill. After doing that for 4 years, I was introduced to the world of J-Setting, but by women. J-Sette historically refers to Jackson State’s University’s female drill team that began in the 1970s. They “created” the dance style, and thus far have made it a distinctive form of dance. I was interested in this type of dance, but not entirely until I saw a group of males performing it. At that point, I claimed the style for myself and perfected it on my body. I began solo and eventually joined and initiated different groups. Currently, I have my own J-Sette line, Mystic Force (initiated in Jackson, MS, currently in Dallas, TX), and plan to increase our renown in this style of dance in our community, and eventually internationally. Previously, I served as co-captain of Dallas’ Texas Teasers. I have participated and competed in several events and competitions, including 2 SetteItOff video challenges, Atlanta Pride 2010, Tennessee Classics 2009, and Memphis Pride 2008. In 2015, I was named New Legendary by the Meet Me On the Dance Floor J-Sette council. Since 2011, I have been involved as an artistic collaborator with contemporary choreographer, Jumatatu Poe, through Philadelphia’s idiosynCrazy productions.
Zoe Scofield: Master Class
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Presented in conjunction with performances of BeginAgain by
Zoe | Juniper at REDCAT, March 26–29, 2015.
2:30p–4:25p
Grand Rehearsal Hall at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
$15 [$20 at door]
Utilizing somatic approaches to technique, Zoe Scofield’s classes are physically rigorous, deep, and kinesthetically challenging—a space where product-orientated results are released, and active experience reins. Inspired by a variety of contemporary dance styles, including gaga, ballet, spiraldynamik and yoga, set exercises are combined with structured improvisation. Scofield incorporates musicality, as well as visual and physical metaphors as a vehicle to surprise and further each dancer’s potential as physical and performing body. She explores the body’s inherent dynamic sensations made tangible and precise in order to foster a body that is available, aware and in command of its senses—intuitive and wise. Class is the space for beginning again with a full understanding of where we come from.
• • •
ABOUT ZOE SCOFIELD
Zoe Scofield is a dance and visual artist based in Seattle. Born and raised in Gainesville GA, Scofield began ballet at a young age, instilling in her a deep love and interest in structure, discipline and performances’ ability to create a transformative experience. In 2005 Scofield began working with video and visual artist Juniper Shuey on video, photographic and dance collaborations shown in visual art galleries, museums and theaters. She has been awarded residences, awards and grants from Princess Grace Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Performance Network, Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship and Wesleyan University, among others. Scofield has taught at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Boston Conservatory, Columbia College, University of Colorado at Boulde. Scofield and Shuey are the co-founders of Lo-Fi Annual Arts Festival and What We Talk About… an in-process feedback session for artists of all disciplines.
Pictured above: Zoe Scofield. Photo by Juniper Shuey.
Marbles Rae Shao-Lan: Walden (where are you?)
Sunday, September 7, 2014
11am–2pm
Pieter PASD
420 West Avenue 33 #10, Los Angeles, CA 90031
A dance class and lab to unscript the mind that colonizes the body—a participatory re-appro-pro-pro-priation of the body as nature. Participants (re)imprint basic patterns in nature through visualization and movement exploration, mindfulness and experiential anatomy. Tapping into the tide of cerebral spinal fluids, as well as physical and metaphysical fields vastly beyond, our attentiveness shall draw forth an original dance. This is a trans/genderqueer-friendly class open to all levels of physical experience.
Presented by Show Box L.A. in conjunction with performances of New Faithful Disco, September 13–15, 2014 as part of the Live Arts Exchange Festival at Bootleg Theater.
• • •
ABOUT MARBLES (RAE SHAO–LAN)
Marbles —dancer, choreographer, craniosacral therapist and bodyworker—lived and worked in New York City between 1995-2002 in which time they studied extensively in the Ailey and Limon studios before steeping themselves in the world of improvisation, post-modern release forms, and experimental dance composition. Marbles studied with influential teachers such as K.J. Holmes, Sara Hook, and Janine Durning, and other experimental movement practices based in Ideokinesis, such as Topf and Alexander Technique, Body Mind Centering and Continuum Movement. Through these practices, which introduced ways to re-open pathways, unwind the culturally scripted post-industrial body and reveal a responsive and dynamic organism, Marbles began to develop their voice as a dancer and dance maker, presenting work at venues and outdoor environments including Danspace Project, HERE, Prospect Park and Williamsburg Arts Exchange, and performing in the company of Susan Marshall.
Marbles relocated to Los Angeles in 2005 where they worked in close collaboration and mentorship with Simone Forti, including the development of Ice Bergs, a movement practice they evolved together over a dedicated weekly practice throughout 2007 and 2008. Marbles (Rae Shao-Lan) was a founding editor of itch dance journal along with Meg Wolfe and taisha paggett. Marbles’ video, Captain, created in collaboration with Pooh Kaye, previewed at Dance Camera West in 2008 and their work Systems of Us, created with musician Tashi Wada, was part of the 2010 NOW Festival at REDCAT.
Marbles currently resides in a rustic rural setting off-the-grid north of the San Francisco Bay where they have been meditating and dancing in the indigenous woodlands of Oak, Redwood, Manzanita and Bay Laurel, and learning about sustainable farming and Permaculture. The learning and discoveries that have burgeoned from this period—much informed by the pace and pulse of nature’s orchestration—are what Marbles is attempting to retrofit into a studio practice called Walden (where are you?)
For more information contact tbmarbles@gmail.com.
Stephen Thompson
Sunday, April 6, 2014
1–3pm
Dance Studio A at the Colburn School
200 S Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
The focus of this class is on the integrity of an active body. This allows individuals to refine their personal aesthetics and expand their own movement possibilities. The classes will start with an emphasis on the body as a sensitive container. Stephen will guide participates to awaken sensorial patterns, to recognize inner and outer influence, fluctuating energy potentials, as well as finding an open and grounded state to work with, a body ready to dance. After this physical investigation the body is ready to examine its role by authoring (vs modeling), sensing (vs searching) and doing (vs interpreting). Using references of form, set material, coordination exercises and improvisational scores, participates will examine the relationship of what we do and how we do it. Through self-observation and dialogue we can redefine and re-direct our habits, skills and play into expanding and broadening our experience as artists.
Presented in conjunction with performances of Antigone Sr./Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (L) by Trajal Harrell at REDCAT, April 3–6, 2014.
• • •
ABOUT STEPHEN THOMPSON
Stephen Thompson is a performance artist, choreographer, researcher and pedagogue originally from Calgary, Alberta. His introduction to movement and performing was through competitive figure skating. He received a Bachelor of Kinesiology and Dance from the University of Calgary. Stephen has collaborated with numerous Canadian and European companies and artists including Steeve Paxton, Benoit Lachambre, Dick Wong, Antonija Livingstone and Jennifer Lacey, Fabrice Ramalingom, Public Recordings and Yves-Noel Genod. Recent projects; Trajal Harell’s 2012 Bessie-award winning Antigone Sr./Twenty Looks or Paris is burning at the Judson Church (Large), Fabrice Lambert’s Solaire presented by Theatre De La Ville, Paris and with Liz Santoro in Relative Collider in Artdanthé 2014. Stephen has presented his own work internationally within various contexts including with visual artists Xavier Veilhan, Kendell Geers (No Government No Cry 2011) and Laurent Goldring (Nuit Blanche Paris 2011).
Pictured above: Trajal Harrell & Stephen Thompson in Antigone Sr./Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (L) by Trajal Harrell. Photo by Miana Jun.
Sara Shelton Mann – Workshop: The Body Process
Saturday–Sunday, November 2–3, 2013
2–5pm
Dance Arts Academy, Studio B
731 South La Brea Avenue | Los Angeles, CA 90036
Opening systems of the body from a relaxed space we find the body that is both grounded and expanded into a multi-dimensional reality. The workshop will include chi cultivation and lots of breathing as a platform to both detox and invigorate the whole being. We will address a segment of the body each day through exploration, improvisation, touch and energy work. I bring a toolbox and we play inviting new possibilities. Featuring live accompaniment by Mark Growden.
Presented by Show Box L.A. in conjunction with performances of Hybrid 2 by Sara Shelton Mann at Live Arts Los Angeles, November 2–3, 2013.
• • •
ABOUT SARA SHELTON MANN
Sara Shelton Mann has been a major influence in the Bay Area scene with her interdisciplinary collaborations – from early work with her group Contraband, performing with Guillermo Gomez-Pena, and through her ongoing investigations of contact improvisation, interdisciplinary teaching and performance methods that work with the person as the vehicle of transformation. Her process has come from personal research and many years of study in various spiritual traditions, shamanic practices, and healing trainings. She is a Master NLP (neuro‐linguistic programming) Practitioner, certified Reconnection Healer(TM), TheReconnection(TM). and a continual student of dowsing and other healing modalities.
For more information visit www.sarasheltonmann.org
Morgan Thorson – Workshop: Get to Know Yourself
Sunday, June 23, 2013
12–2pm
Pieter PASD
420 West Avenue 33 #10 | Los Angeles, CA 90031
In GET TO KNOW YOURSELF you will practice dancing your whole self with attention and imagination. We will focus on releasing tensions through the embodiment of active images and hands-on exercises called partner graphics. This work is meant to open awareness, access alignment and coordination, and enliven our imaginations. It will also reveal how we limit ourselves with habitual thought and physical patterns. The results of this work will be power, grace and deeper understanding of how and why you dance.
Presented in conjunction with performances of The Other Thing by Morgan Thorson & Meg Wolfe at REDCAT, as part of the New Original Works Festival, August 8–10, 2013.
• • •
ABOUT MORGAN THORSON
Morgan Thorson is a dance-maker based in Minneapolis. She is a Guggenheim, McKnight and USA Artist Fellow as well as a certified Skinner Releasing practitioner. She teaches dance at University of Minnesota and Wesleyan University’s Creative Campus.
For Morgan, dance-making is an occupation of necessity. A core interest in her dance-making is the tension between the physical limitations of the body, the expansive nature of the imagination, and the emotional current inside the movement. Her works have been presented at a variety of international, national and local venues such as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Dance Theatre Workshop and Performance Space 122 in New York, and London Improvisation in Performance. She has been a resident artist at The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC); the Centre Choreographique National De France-Comte in Belfort, France, and a MacDowell Artist Colony Fellow.
Bebe Miller & Angie Hauser – Workshop : Hybrid Expression
Saturday, April 6, 2013
12noon–3pm
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
This is a released-based technique and partnered improvisation class that accesses full-bodied dancing in relationship to our partners, our individual intentions and dynamic space. Materials and strategies are based on BMC-based repertory and choreographic methodologies.
Presented in conjunction with performances of A History by Bebe Miller Company at REDCAT, April 4–7, 2013.
• • •
ABOUT BEBE MILLER
Bebe Miller has been making dances for over 30 years and formed Bebe Miller Company in 1985. Known for a mix of virtuosic dancing and fundamental humanity, her choreography has been produced at major dance centers throughout the US and abroad. In addition to her ongoing work with her ensemble, Miller has received commissions from Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadanco, Britain’s Phoenix Dance Theatre and Johannesburg’s PACT Dancen, among other groups across the country and abroad. Collaboration being fundamental to her creative process she has worked with numerous composers, visual artists, writers, filmmakers and directors; she has received four Bessie Awards for choreography and direction, most recently for her collaboration with the 11-member creative team in Landing/Place (2005). She is a United States Artists Ford Fellow and recently was named as one of the inaugural class of Doris Duke Artists, a program of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards. Currently a Professor in Dance at The Ohio State University, she is a member of the International Artists Advisory Board of the Wexner Center for the Arts and serves on the board of Bearnstow, an arts retreat in central Maine.
ABOUT ANGIE HAUSER
Angie Hauser has been a dancer/collaborator with Bebe Miller Company since 2000. She has contributed to BMC works Verge, Landing/Place and Necessary Beauty, receiving a BESSIE award for her work in Landing/Place. In addition to her work with BMC she is a dance maker, performer and teacher who has been presented throughout North America and Europe. She collaborates with many gifted artists in the field of dance improvisation including Andrew Harwood, K.J. Holmes, Darrell Jones, and Kathleen Hermesdorf. She has an ongoing collaboration with dance artist Chris Aiken creating evening length improvisation performances in collaboration with musicians and other dancers. She is an Assistant Professor at Smith College, Northampton, MA.
Pictured above: Darrell Jones and Angie Hauser. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
luciana achugar – Workshop: Feeling is believing
Saturday, March 30, 2013
12noon–2:30pm
Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
1238 W 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026
“I like to think of dance class as a chance to grow a new body. I am in a process of developing the language that gives me access to a more sensual, animal, connected, bloody, fleshy, fatty, bony, magical, deeper than even the marrow of the bone, vibrational body; and I’d like to share it with you. Using a lot our imagination, using our breath and our voice, using touch and also sometimes discussing and learning tools for strengthening connections and for letting go of patterns of use of ourselves. Always moving towards pleasure…”
—luciana achugar
Presented by Show Box L.A. in conjunction with performances of PURO DESEO, by luciana chugger at Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, March 30–31, 2013.
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ABOUT LUCIANA ACHUGAR
luciana achugar is a Brooklyn based choreographer from Uruguay. She makes dances to be FELT as they are SEEN and as an occasion for communion. achugar developed her voice as an artist in close dialogue with the NY and Montevideo contemporary dance communities. She began making work collaboratively with Levi Gonzalez in 1999, and in 2002 she started working independently. Her work is concerned with the post-colonial world, searching for an undoing of this abuse of power from the inside out. She is a two-time Bessie Award recipient.
Jeremy Wade: Scanning/Queer Scores/Have a Nice Trip
Sunday, February 3, 2013
12noon–6pm
Live Arts Los Angeles
4210 Panamint Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065
The process begins with a thorough warm up of Yoga or Pilates to stretch and strengthen our bodies, then delves into experiential anatomy work based on Ideokinesis. Through a series of somatic visualizations using gentle verbal cues and inspiring music, Wade’s hypnotic practice cultivates awareness and conscious participation with the holographic body. The visualizations can be esoteric, psychedelic, punk rock, ridiculous and even Sci-fi in nature. While guiding the group through their anatomy, Wade introduces a sensual and shifting pallet of imagined environments. The combination of inspiring music, gentle suggestive verbal cues and working with eyes closed serves as a generative framework for a very nice and sweaty trip!
Presented by Show Box L.A. in conjunction with performances of Fountain by Jeremy Wade at Foxfairy Studios, February 4, 2013.
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ABOUT JEREMY WADE
Jeremy Wade is an American dancer/choreographer based in Berlin. He graduated from the School For New Dance Development, Amsterdam in 2000. Wade premiered his first evening length work titled Glory at Dance Theater Workshop in 2006, for which he received a Bessie Award. Since then, Wade has been living in Berlin, working closely with the Hebbel Theater and Dramaturge Eike Wittrock. His most recent performance works include …and pulled out their hair (2007), Throwing Rainbows Up (2008), I Offer My Self To Thee (2009), and There Is No End To More (2010). In 2011 Wade embarked on a six month research phase titled “identity and transgression” from which he created the solo Fountain and a new trio To The Mountain. In addition to the creation of performances and a rigorous teaching practice, Wade has always been drawn to the curation, production and hosting of ecstatic events. This interest evolved from his experience as a host of vibrant parties and night clubs in New York City during the mid-90s, and his role as a founding member of Chez Bushwick in Brooklyn. He curated the Politics of Ecstasy Festival in 2009 at the Hebbel am Ufer together with Meg Stuart, Eike Wittrock and Brendan Dougherty. Wade also curated Creature Feature, a queer performance series in 13 editions from 2009 to 2011 at Basso, Berlin.
For more information visit http://www.jeremywade.de
Ishmael Houston-Jones: Doing It
Saturday, November 17, 2012
1–3pm
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
What is your first impulse? Can you trust it? What happens when the judge falls asleep? Can sight be a handicap? Can you know too much? This is a workshop about Composition.
Presented in conjunction with performances of THEM by Chris Cochrane, Dennis Cooper and Ishmael Houston-Jones at REDCAT, November 15–18, 2012.
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ABOUT ISHMAEL HOUSTON-JONES
Ishmael Houston-Jones is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, and arts activist. His improvised dance and text work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America. Houston-Jones’ Nowhere, Now Here was commissioned for Mordine and Company in Chicago in spring 2001 and Specimens was commissioned for Headlong Dance Theater in Philadelphia in 1998. In 1997 he was the choreographer for Nayland Blake’s Hare Follies at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1995-2000 he was part of the improvised trio Unsafe/Unsuited with Keith Hennessy and Patrick Scully. In 1990 he and writer Dennis Cooper presented The Undead at the Los Angeles Festival of the Arts. In 1989 he collaborated with filmmaker Julie Dash on the video Relatives, which was aired nationally on the PBS series Alive From Offf-Center (Alive TV). In 1984 Houston-Jones and Fred Holland shared a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for their Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders. In 2010 Performance Space 122 and the New Museum supported the reconstruction of Houston-Jones’ 1985/86 collaboration with Dennis Cooper and Chris Cochrane, THEM. The piece has since been presented at the American Realness festival (New York, NY), Springdance (Utrecht, NL), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), and TanzImAugust (Berlin, Germany). The reconstruction of THEM received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award in 2011. Houston-Jones is currently touring with Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People in And lose the name of action.
Gob Squad
Saturday, September 22, 2012
3–5:30pm
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
The acclaimed multimedia collective of artists from the U.K. and Germany leads a masterclass that serves as an introduction to their working process, and methods of using the individual performer to filter, digest and interact with the wider culture, history and society around us. Company members lead this performance workshop right in the set of Gob Squad’s Kitchen, exploring their unique blend of theater and real life. This workshop is open to students, artists, performance makers and film makers, 16-years or older.
Presented in conjunction with Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good) by Gob Squad at REDCAT, September 20–23, 2012.
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ABOUT GOB SQUAD
Gob Squad is a group of UK and German artists who make performances and videos that search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger. The seven core members work collaboratively on each work’s concept, direction and performance of our work. The ensemble explores the point where theatre meets art, media and real life. In addition to theatres and galleries, Gob Squad places performances at the heart of urban life—in houses, shops, underground stations, car parks, hotels or directly on the street. Everyday life and magic, banality and utopia, reality and entertainment are all set on a collision course and the audience are often asked to step beyond their traditional role as passive spectators and bear witness to the results.
For more information visit www.gobsquad.com
Margit Galanter: Being Scene
Saturday, August 25, 2012
11am–2pm
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90057
In this workshop, we’ll investigate our creative practice threads while dealing with the explicit challenges of presence, communication, and collaboration. We’ll work in the rich arena of multisensoriality, receptivity, stillness, and one’s own unique performativity. Solo action <-> group action, tuning, and warming-up as a compass for compositionally brilliant presencing. One of the mysterious challenges of performing is to see and be seen at the same time, and with that, sensing while acting. Being Scene is a forum for sensuary live installation experiments, highly influenced by the mosaic of somatics and sensory perceptual research.
Presented by Show Box L.A. in conjunction with Swap/Meet #01 at Bootleg Theater, August 24–26, 2012
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ABOUT MARGIT GALANTER
Margit Galanter’s fascination regarding the construction and value of movement has drawn her to collaborative embodied research for decades. Margit is a movement investigator and dance poet living in Oakland, CA, and she presents and teaches inter/nationally – places like Mills College, Naropa University, city streets, PS122, Movement Research, SOMAFest, and Pieter Performance. Her work is highly influenced through her ongoing artistic research strands and her long-term practice in movements as diverse as Lisa Nelson’s “Tuning” Scores, Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine, Wild Goose qigong, Amerta Movement (Javanese movement meditation developed by Suprapto Suryodarmo), The Feldenkrais Method, and Open Source Releasing technique. In the Bay Area, she collaborates with Abby Crain through Art Workouts, as well as media artist Kadet. Her practice, Physical Intelligence, encompasses her unique perspective, helping people experience the innate clarity and vitality one can uncover through the potency of movement.
For more information visit www.margitg.wordpress.com
Kyle Abraham
Saturday, October 22, 2011
1–3pm
Blankenship Ballet at The Alexandria Hotel
501 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
The opening warm-up sequence focuses on the fluidity of the spine, articulation, and core body strengthening and then builds up to challenging, creative and invigorating phrase work. Participants experience a personalized post-modern movement vocabulary full of intricate gestures and fearless floor work.
Presented in conjunction with performances of Radio Show by Abraham.In.Motion at REDCAT, October 19–22, 2011.
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ABOUT KYLE ABRAHAM
Kyle Abraham, professional dancer and choreographer, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Over the past few years, Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dancing and choreography including a 2010 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show along with a 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, a BUILD grant and an individual artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship and 2009 was honored as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch. Abraham was heralded by OUT Magazine as one of the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama.” His choreography has been presented throughout the United States and abroad, most recently at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York’s City Center, Montreal, Germany, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan and The Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Abraham’s most recent work, The Corner, commissioned by Ailey 2, is currently touring internationally with great reception .
For more information visit abrahaminmotion.org
Papy Ebotani
Saturday, October 8, 2011
1–3pm
Blankenship Ballet at The Alexandria Hotel
501 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Presented in conjunction with performances of more more more… future by Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako at REDCAT, October 5–8, 2011
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ABOUT PAPY EBOTANI
Papy Ebotani is a member of Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako, and lives and works in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He started out as a rapper and musician before becoming a dancer for Jean-Marie Musungayi’s Diba danse. He has been a performer with Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako since July 2001. He has trained with a wide range of dancers and choreographers, among them Fred Bendongué, Céline Bacqué, Toufik Oudhriri Idrissi, Hanna Hedman, Sylvain Prunenec, Pep Ramis and recently Meg Stuart at Tanzwerkstatt Berlin. Papy has also been invited to make and present work at numerous international residencies and festivals. Currently he works with Kenyan dancer and choreographer Edwin Kebaya. He has taught numerous workshops in Brasil, Brussels, London and la Réunion while continuing to teach in Congo.
Photo by Agathe Poupeney.
Miguel Gutierrez: Ineffable Intangible Sensational
Sunday, July 17, 2011
12noon–3pm
Blankenship Ballet at The Alexandria Hotel
501 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
“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?” —Miguel Gutierrez
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ABOUT MIGUEL GUTIERREZ
Dancer and choreographer Miguel Gutierrez creates solo and group works with a variety of dancers, music, and visual artists under the moniker Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. Gutierrez’s work has been presented in various American venues, including Dance Theater Workshop and The Kitchen in New York, DiverseWorks in Houston, and the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont, as well as at international festivals. He has received three New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, is a 2010 Fellow in Choreography from the Guggenheim Foundation and a recipient of a 2010 Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant for Artists; he has also received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the National Performance Network Creative Commissioning Fund and New York Foundation for the Arts’ Fellowship and BUILD programs. He teaches regularly around the world and has worked with a wide variety of extraordinary contemporary dance artists, such as Joe Goode, John Jasperse, Juliette Mapp, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Lacey, Deborah Hay, and Alain Buffard. Miguel was the curator of the Dance and Process series at The Kitchen from 2005–06. WHEN YOU RISE UP, a collection of his performance writings, is now available from 53rd State Press.
For more information visit www.miguelgutierrez.org
Amii LeGendre: Beyond Vertical
Saturday, April 30, 2011
1–3pm
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater)
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
This class is a fusion between a modern dance technique and contact improvisation. This class explores supported (safe) dancing on the floor, in the air, and upside down. The class begins on the floor with flow-based exercises focused on opening joints, tuning into breath and sensation, and finding meaningful pathways for safe motion out of and into the floor. Standing alignment work with a focus on core support, spiral, and joint release support eventual disruptions into designed falling pathways and upside-down work. The goal is to seek, adore, and make peace with disorientation in full-scale phrase work and contact dancing. The class stresses upper body strength and attention to one another and to the space in order to support wild disorientation, and to ultimately dance a fluid athletic vocabulary.
Presented in conjunction with performances of Faith by Pat Graney Company at REDCAT, April 28-May 1, 2011.
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ABOUT AMII LEGENDRE
Amii LeGendre is on faculty at Bard College, where she teaches dance technique and choreography. She received her B.A. from Connecticut College and her M.F.A. from University of Wisconsin. She is the artistic director of LeGendre Performance Group, which she found in 1994, and has performed her work throughout United States and in Canada, Ecuador, Peru, Hong Kong. She served as faculty at Cornish College of the Arts from 1998–2005, and has been a guest artist as part of the Bard Prison Initiative. She has received residencies from SUNY New Paltz, Connecticut College, Vassar College, Wesleyan University, Purdue University, Texas Woman’s University. Her research focuses on site-specific performance, contact and performed improvisation, and performance and activism.
Show Box L.A. 