Dance ICONS in partnership with Dance Loft invites you to the 2018 ANNUAL D.C. DANCE IMPROVISATION FESTIVAL!
Explore, Create and Discover– all day long!
See schedule below:
9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
CONTACT IMPROVISATION
Originally created by Steve Paxton
Teacher: Juliana Ponguta
10:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
GAGA MASTERCLASS
Originally created by Ohad Naharin
Teacher: Candice Scarborough
* Bring lunch and join our dance circle from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. *
12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
IMPROVISATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES
Originally created by William Forsythe
Teacher: Vladimir Angelov
2:15 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
THE UNDERSCORE
Originally created by Nancy Stark Smith
Teacher: Ken Manheimer
* Join us for a complimentary and informal Wine & Cheese reception *
4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Dance Loft’s Meeting Room
More information about the workshops and the teachers:
CONTACT IMPROVISATION was introduced as an avant-garde dance in 1972 by Steve Paxton who led its development into the 21st century. In CI there are no established dance vocabularies to manipulate. Instead, the CI form practitioners instantly generate fresh movement material. The absence of pre-planned choreography requires the practitioners to use intuitive and reflexive responses. There are preliminary rules of safety. As practitioners become familiar with the CI foundation, they gradually master skills to maneuver each other and negotiate multiple movement choices.
GAGA TECHNIQUE Gaga is the movement language that was developed by Ohad Naharin throughout many years, parallel to his work as a choreographer and the artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company. The language of Gaga originated from the belief in the healing, dynamic, ever-changing power of movement. Gaga provides a framework for discovering and strengthening the body and adding flexibility, stamina, agility, and skills including coordination and efficiency while stimulating the senses and imagination. The classes offer a workout that investigates form, speed, and effort while traversing additional spectrums such as those between soft and thick textures, delicacy and explosive power, and understatement and exaggeration. Participants awaken numb areas, increase their awareness of habits, and improve their efficiency of movement inside multilayered tasks, and they are encouraged to connect to pleasure inside moments of effort. The language of Gaga is in a continual process of evolution, and the classes vary and develop accordingly.
IMPROVISATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES was developed by William Forsythe, who uses different algorithms and operations to maneuver and play with movement material, aiming to create unique vocabulary. Although Forsythe uses the ballet lexicon, he intentionally abandons the traditional technical demands to execute the ballet position in the traditional relationships between body parts. Forsythe often sets specific movement phrases in dancers, and then asks them to manipulate and modify them by using his algorithms. His principles of transforming movements use body parts modification, spatial variations, and time manipulation.
THE UNDERSCORE is an ensemble improvisation "score" (recipe), developed by Nancy Stark Smith, with a foundation in Contact Improvisation. It involves a clear, intuitive progression and many elements similar to those of a CI jam, but with a more coordinated progression and focus. It provides an opportunity for anyone, regardless of their movement and improvisation experience, to engage in moving together as part of a group, in a vital balance between shared structure and freedom that is rare in daily life.
MORE INFO ON THE MASTER TEACHERS
Vladimir Angelov is a renowned professional choreographer, educator, and author with an extensive career and experience. Currently he is the Executive Director and Founder of the International Consortium for Advancement in Choreography - Dance ICONS, Inc.
Ken Manheimer has studied Contact Improvisation, the Underscore, and Authentic movement with many central teachers, including Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, and Sue Schell. He has taught on many occasions, and has performed over several years with local choreographer Nancy Havlik's dance performance group. Ken also is the long-standing coordinator of the DC Sunday CI Jam and helps to organize the Spring East Coast Jam retreat.
Candace Scarborough was born and raised in the Baltimore area. She received a B.A. in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park where she was a recipient of the Creative and Performing Arts Scholarship. She has performed with AndaryDance, Graham Brown, Denise Leitner, Helen Simoneau Danse, maree-remalia/merrygogo, and Ashley Thorndike-Youssef. She currently dances for PearsonWidrig DanceTheater and Kendra Portier. In 2016, Candace moved to Tel Aviv, Israel to study Gaga, where she became a certified Gaga teacher in 2017 under the direction of Bosmat Nossan. She has taught Gaga classes in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas, Atlanta, and Toronto.
Juliana Ponguta was born in Bogotá, Colombia, she is a dance maker, performer and educator whose works and practices explore the relation between imagination, creativity, instinct, and recently, being an immigrant in USA. Her dance education and performance engagements have taken her to Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Cuba and United States. “Finlandia”, a theater work created by the art collective "La Montón", co-founded by Juliana, was performed at the Festival Buenos Aires Danza Contemporánea 2016. She currently co-leads DC Movement Research, she is part of Nancy Havlik’s dance performance group, and Dance Exchange invited teacher and performer.