June 2007
MOVEMENT + DANCE WORKSHOPS
CPR presents an exciting double-bill of contemporary dance workshops—for dancers who want to extend their range and form as well as for those with little experience but who like to move!
Limited places available – book now!
PRECISION CONTACT WITH JESS CURTIS & MARIA FRANCESCA SCARONI
9 June | 11:00 am – 4:00 pm | £40 / £20 | The Foundry
Contact Improvisation is an improvisational dance form utilizing physical principles such as touch, momentum, gravity, friction, resistance, counterbalance, lifting and falling. Primarily practiced as a duet form, Contact trains the senses and reflexes to allow for nuanced communication through touch, and the playful interaction of weight and momentum in space.
The dancers work at the speed of reflex, tuned to the speed of falling. -Paraphrased from Steve Paxton
PRECISION CONTACT is a skills-based workshop for movers who want to increase the awareness and precision in their dance. Participants will address and practice 1) sustaining a clear point or points of contact, 2) the modulation of speed and pressure, 3) control during inversion, supporting and riding, 4) sensitivity to the floor, 5) integration of multiple foci, and 6) extending the variety of qualities in your dancing and your ability to move easily and intentionally between them.
JESS CURTIS (USA) is the choreographer and director of San Francisco based dance company Jess Curtis/Gravity. His work transcends interdisciplinary boundaries, integrating contemporary dance, performance, improvisation, aerial acrobatics, music and physically and culturally diverse collaborators.
MARIA FRANCESCA SCARONI (Italy) is a performer and teacher whose work with Manuela Bondavalli Danza (Italy) has rooted her dance practice in release-based contemporary techniques and Contact Improvisation. Maria joined Jess Curtis/Gravity in 2004.
CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DANCE WITH FRANCIS ANGOL
16 & 17 June | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | £80 / £40 | The Foundry
CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DANCE is a two-day workshop that introduces African dance from a contemporary perspective. It draws from the main African dance forms—Ghanaian, Ivorian, Nigerian, Senegalese and South African—as the basis of its movement and dance vocabulary—as well as Contemporary, Caribbean and Jazz dance styles. Participants will learn a unique yet accessible articulation of African dance, one that is rooted in the traditional but informed by present forms.
FRANCIS ANGOL (UK) is an established choreographer, performer and tutor of Contemporary African Dance. He is currently the Artistic Director of Movement Angol and Director of Dance at Islington Arts Factory (North London). Francis has been guest artist in residence in many countries including Jamaica and Nigeria, and his choreographic work has been performed to packed audiences at Sadler’s Wells (London)