COMPOSITION WORKSHOP with Alexandra Beller and Adele Myers October 15, 2007

This class is designed to help emerging and advanced artists challenge their habits and move more deeply into their process. For younger choreographers, the class is geared towards the development of a personal process that is effective and inspiring. For more experienced choreographers, the goal is to break through choreographic patterns and habits that stifle new forms and fresh ideas. Some topics covered include:

Monday october 15
Making Movement: ways to jumpstart the creative process in terms of creating vocabulary. How do you invent movement that is fresh and unique? How do you challenge habitual forms and patterns?
Making Movement Meaningful: creating material that is personal, expressive and narrative without falling into patterns of mime, cliché, or confessional movement. How do we speak through movement in a way that is open to interpretation but strongly felt? How do we use material from our lives to make work? Can our lives inspire phrase material that is daring, expressive, and true?

Tuesday october 16

Daring the Space: developing the skills required to use space as a communicative tool. How does architecture between bodies and space create resonant imagery? Working with dancers, we examine strategies for staging bodies architecturally and rhythmically. We also examine dancers in space for satisfying and dynamic structures in order to understand architecture from the outside.

Wednesday october 17

Wild Words: using text as an element in a dance work, either spoken or as inspiration. What are the uses of text within a dance and how do we respect the power of language and of movement equally without overshadowing one or the other? How can both speaking and moving be act of survival?

Thursday october 18

Dancing for Two: the process of making duets, from either the outside or the inside. You are invited to bring a partner to class if you are in a collaborative process together, but you are free to come on your own. We will investigate techniques for creating vital, inventive vocabulary, organic partnering, and relationship building sequences. We will talk about the nature of relationship within duet structures and about ways to communicate that relationship through duet movement.

Friday october 19

The Metaphor of Things: using objects for their metaphorical value as well to inspire, conceal, and communicate. How does an object absorb the correct amount of value within a dance? How are objects treated and what does that say about the person using them? How can an object reveal character, story, emotion and metaphor just by being onstage? How do we choose the appropriate objects for our needs?

Official Website: http://www.dnadance.org/compworkshop.html