DIG - Vital Physical Research (Plot 1)

This is Plot 1 of Core Dance's Summer Intensive - DIG.

This workshop is taught by Andrew Wass and Leslie Scates of Lower Left Collective/Dance Ranch.

Dance Ranch Atlanta

Dance Ranch Atlanta performance lab provides dedicated spaces for
collective/individual learning and exploration. We will use our time together to work,
investigate, and collectively widen compositional, sensorial, and performance
skills. Immersion in Ensemble Thinking offers participants an opportunity to acquire a
unique skill set for improvising choreography, and for choreographing improvisations.

Using Ensemble Thinking, ReWire Movement Method, and Contact Improvisation as
points of departure, we investigate the intra-relationships
between Ensemble Body, Weighted Body, and Solo Body practices as compositional
elements which manifest and layer into one another at every level of practice and
performance. Concentrated learning, combined with critical observations, dialogues,
and feedback will be the foci for our time together.

Lower Left Performance Collective offers certification in Ensemble Thinking (ET) to
those who develop a deep bank of knowledge and practice of ET, and possess a desire
to use ET in their performance work and teaching. The Dance Ranch Atlanta workshop
may serve as a portion of the prerequisite hours necessary for application to Ensemble
Thinking Certification Program for interested persons. More information about Ensemble
Thinking Program is available at www.ensemblethinking.com

About Andrew Wass

By experimenting with aleatoric, improvisational, and indeterminate processes, Andrew Wass finds that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humor that echoes our own vulnerabilities. He formalizes the coincidental and emphasizes the conscious processes of composition that are the generative source of much of his works. Influenced heavily by his undergraduate studies of Biochemistry at U.C. San Diego, Andrew works by creating a defined, almost crystalline palette in order to generate a myriad of possibilities. The possibilities are reduced and concentrated in the moments of execution and reception. Echoing the philosopher Wittengenstein, who said, “I am not so much interested in constructing a building as in having a perspicacious view of the foundations of possible buildings”, Andrew’s current dance research interests are in developing theory by layering disparate practices upon one another. A member of the performance groups Non Fiction and Lower Left, he is a graduate of the MA program in Solo/Dance/Authorship at the Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum für Tanz in Berlin. Currently he is pursuing his PhD in Dance at Texas Woman’s University, looking at the intractions of phenomenology, cognitive science, and improvised dance-making.

wasswasswass.com
nonfictionperformance.org

About Leslie Scates

Leslie Scates’ professional dance work spans 29 years. In 1989, she began performing
experimental dance in Houston, Texas with Sarah Irwin, Sandy Marcello, Amy Ell and Priscilla
Nathan-Murphy. She became a dance maker within the womb of Diverseworks Artspace
Houston, which was then located inside a downtown warehouse district building. Diverseworks
Artspace Houston housed a small black box theater space, as well as a performance space
extension that looked a lot like a loading dock for big trucks. Alongside veteran visual, and
multi-media artists, churning out work in this small but pumping early 90’s hotbed of Houston
art making, Scates’ choreography began to take up space. Her work was shaped by rhythms of
her inner wild sides, and executed by a cheerleading informed, professionally trained, singing,
and often yelling body. Fast forward 30 years. Scates is now known locally in Houston as the
Queen of Improvisation. Scates used to cringe at the title, but now owns it for what it’s
worth: Solid recognition as a ranked member of Houston’s modern dance lineage. The
nickname sums up 15 years of concentrated devotion to the study, creation and teaching of
improvisational performance and practices. Scates makes space for her work and talent at the
University of Houston’s Dance Program as an adjunct faculty member, teaching and refining
Dance Improvisation and sharing knowledge with students and faculty. She continues to
incubate her work and practices at the University of Houston, and inside the Blaffer Art
Museum through collaborative projects. Scates belongs to Lower Left Performance Collective,
regularly works with Sophia Torres, Roxanne Claire, CORE Performance Company, David Dove,
and with those whose proposals spark a keen interest. Scates holds a BA in Psychology from
the University of Houston, is a Licensed Thai Yoga Massage Therapist, and works at a local
Houston bookstore full time. Scates is an unusual, delightfully fun and effective Small Team
Corporate Consultant, teaching Ensemble Thinking and ReWire-Dancing States to diverse
ensembles in offices, parking lots, conference rooms, movement studios, medical buildings, and
educational settings. Using the improvisation systems of Ensemble Thinking and ReWire-
Dancing States, Scates teaches ensembles to hone and organize communicative, cooperative
efforts, and to be the best at what they do, and how to recognize when they are not. These
ensembles have included math professors, persons with early onset Alzheimer’s and their
caregivers, marketing creatives, musicians, professional dancers, choreographers, dance
educators and dance students at all levels of training. In 2012, Scates was named one of
Houston’s 100 Top Creatives by the Houston Press. The Houston Press also awarded her a
choreography prize in 2000: “Best Dancing on the Side of the Road”, for her site- specific dance
project, Drive By Dancing.