Theater | Movement | Student Testimonials Theater Classes and Workshops TimePlay: Movement Theater This class will focus on articulation and integration of the total body (core, limbs, voice, face, eyes and mind) for expression. Using improvisation techniques for movement and theater, we will place the body and its expressions in the contexts of time and space, relationship, movement, sound, environment/architecture and the dynamics created between these elements. We will work within forms of improvisational physical theater, including: Action Theater, clowning, Viewpoints and Suzuki Method. From our work in these various forms, we will draw conclusions about common threads between them, as well as, oppositional elements they offer. We will then consider and experiment with, what these different techniques (perspectives) have to offer to the various aspects of our own, individual ways of working. Students will improvise in solo, duet and group structures, and work with sound and movement; the seeds of character development; and pieces of set/structured material. centerGROUND a training for the interdisciplinary performer As interdisciplinary performing artists, we often find ourselves straddling many territories of technique and artistic practice, philosophy, etc. It is crucial that we develop for ourselves, a centerGROUND, or format for our own performance practice which addresses all of our skill sets and vocabularies, and warms us up in an integrated manner, so that we are fully present and ready to work, when we step into the rehearsal space, or onto the stage. This class offers an approach to creating your own centerGROUND. First students are offered tools for performance presence. Students will be taught foundational principles of shamatha meditative practices (sitting, and walking meditations), which will continue to be referenced through other performance trainings, including: movingGROUND technique (a combination of Body-Mind Centering ® influenced physical training, contact improvisation, and post-modern release work) and Viewpoints (principles of movement through time and space, which give us common vocabulary to discuss and compose our work on stage). The first half of the course will be used to introduce these practices, developing a form, or "Kata", which we practice together as an ensemble. The second half of the course will focus on each participant creating her/his own centerGROUND practice, through bringing together past and present practices and creating your own performance practice form. Performance Architecture a workshop in the creation of original dance theater work How do we become the best architects of our own visions? Literal and metaphorical imagery, inner and outer landscapes, personal and collective experiences; we want to traverse freely the world of performance, unimpeded by old forms and our own habits. Performance Architecture explores non-traditional techniques for composing original performance work, designed to articulate the width and breadth of your unique vision. The workshop utilizes the disciplines of Viewpoints, Action Theater, Roy Hart Vocal Work, Absurdist Autobiography, and movingGROUND technique. We'll use movement to develop landscapes/worlds; improvisation to develop compositional vocabulary; writing to unearth content; and finally, we'll hone the structure and work the details, culminating in the development of an original work and the tools to continue refining the architecture of your own performance vision. THEATRICAL COMPOSITION for the Contemporary Performer For dancers, actors, performers, directors, writers: these classes and workshops make use of several techniques for composing performance work. Based in the Viewpoints (as developed by Mary Overlie and Wendell Beavers, Barbara Dilley and further developed by the SITI Co./ Anne Bogart and Tina Landau) participants are engaged with a basic set of vocabulary to share (Time: tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition; Space: shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship, topography). Once we develop common vocabulary, there is listening and attention in the space, which makes us available to begin composition work. We begin to look at the space and compose simple images, with attention to the Viewpoints as we create stage pictures/image work. Once we have begun to hone our eyes and awareness, we will create more complex compositions, including movement, text, character, props, costumes, and lights. Depending on the length of the workshop, we will then discuss and construct narrative relationship/story within the compositions, and investigate how the compositional work created could be developed toward a full piece of work. This process is influenced by Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project's "Moment Work" technique. These classes/ workshops can be taught to all level(s) of theater-makers, and can be oriented around creation of new material, or deeper investigation of material already being written/ choreographed/ created. © Krista DeNio