This workshop aims to expose participants to a variety of approaches in developing a dance practice that includes performances in diverse environments: from the meditative calm of a natureside solo to collective flashmobs in the street, not forgetting architectural settings and interior environments that are not normally used as a theatrical space.
Each day the workshop will explore a new setting to give dancers the possibility of establishing links with a wide array of environments. The following themes will be addressed: dance in nature, public encounters (including improvised performance in the public square in front of the National Theater), industrial zones, and exploring the interior of a non-theatrical space (public library of Le Breuil). A fifth day will be dedicated to sharing a work-in-progress performance developed during the workshop and created by participants. These experiences will assist dancers in approaching location as a choreographic tool, as well as open a dialogue about art in public spaces.
Film screenings and discussions will enhance the practice-based elements of the workshop and expose participants to international artists’ work in the field of site-specific dance and performance. Topics of discussion include: history of spite-specific dance, the politics of site-specific performance, site-specific forms of presentation (video dance, flashmobs, processions, etc.). The workshop will also offer advice and resources related to funding and producing site-specific performances.
The workshop will be led by Franco-American dance artist Marisa C. Hayes. Marisa has performed with a variety of companies in the US and France that engage site-specific performance practices, including The Dance Brigade (Cincinnati/San Francisco), Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont), and Jinen Butô (France). Marisa has studied a variety of dance techniques including Western improvisational methods, as well as Butoh in Japan at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio. In 2007 Marisa founded Body Cinema, a dance-theater company based in France that works internationally. She is also the founder and co-director of the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy, a global platform for dance films. Her own projects in video dance have won awards from the New York Dance Films Association and Pentacle Movement Media New York. These site-specfic dance films have been selected for screnings at international festivals including Frameworks (New York), the International Dance Film Festival of Tokyo, Signes de Nuit (Paris), DansCamDanse (Belgium) and Coregrafico Elettronico (Naples, Italy), among others. She has received commissions in live performance and video dance from Tanzhaus NRW (the state-sponsored dance theater of Dusseldorf), The National Theater (France) and the City of Nancy (France), to name the most recent. In addition to performing and choreographing, Marisa also enjoys teaching and writing about dance. She has worked with students from the University of Music and Dance (Cologne), the Conservatory of Burgundy (France) and the University of Burgundy. Publications include pedagogy and video dance research articles and essays in Conversations Across Dance (the dance journal of the Society of Dance History Scholars), Repères (the dance journal of the French National Dance Biennale), The Directory of World Cinema (a book published by Intellect Press, UK) and Theater, Dance & Performance Training (research journal published in London, UK).
WHO: The workshop is open to all dance artists and students (over the age of 18) from any dance style or complementary field such as theater, circus, performance art, etc.
WHEN: Tuesday August 2 – Saturday August 6, 2011.
SCHEDULE: 40 hours of instruction + additional resources
