The Anatomy of Gesture
We will explore dance improvisation and performance through the lens of gesture – which for us means the crafting of intention and awareness. Gestures can take the form of specific movements, shifts of attention, making the choice to coordinate one’s actions with others. Gesture can take the form of devising or activating improvisational scores. We are interested in how the syntax of gestures gives a performance an overall sensibility and ground for connections. We believe that it is just as important to attend to the intervals between gestures and the gestures themselves. Our classes will be movement-based, encouraging dancers to develop poetic instincts that are born from both practice and intuition.
Join us for Plots 1, 2 or both!
10AM-5PM
Each day will consist of a 2-hour morning class, 1-hour lunch and 4-hour research in the afternoon.
Where?
139 Sycamore St.
Decatur GA, 30030
What?
DIG, personal and collective movement research, is Core Dance’s summer intensive for professional dance artists. Intended to provide a space for group-minded and individual learning and exploration, artists will investigate the art-making process, tune their creative voice, gain tools in technique, methodologies for movement invention and composition and performance studies. Led by art-makers from around the world, participants will experience a rigorous investigation of the body in space and the connection towards one another while expanding their artistic and movement research practices.
Plot 1 will be led by Keith Hennessy.
About Keith's Process:
4 days of training in contemporary, experimental, politically-activated dance, performance, and live art with KEITH HENNESSY
"Everything you touch, you change.
Everything you change, changes you."
-Octavia Butler
We will focus on dancing in relationship, dancing with one or more partners, dancing with the other, and dancing with the multitudes of the nonhuman: from ancestors to biome, context to architecture, ecosystem to desire.
We will look for ways to touch and move each other, while negotiating the limits of COVID era social distancing. We will use energy, rope, wood, thread, eye contact, sound, desire, and intent to bridge the distances between us. Everything we do will be a political metaphor, a poem and a prayer, as well as a practice of presence and realness.
There will be time for talking each day, questioning and analyzing the work and the world. Conversation and inquiry will be rooted in bodies, in our shared practice, in movement and dance/performance-making. We will improvise more than compose and hopefully the difference between these forms of choreography will become less relevant with each passing day.
We will explore the current trend concepts of anti-racism, decolonization, and trauma-informed healing, especially as they relate to our dance/political ecosystems and our personal/community embodied histories. We will not resolve anything but we will seek insights and practices that might help...
All participants will be asked to prioritize empathy and solidarity. Self-care within this context is a must.
