4-week MODERN DANCE PLAYSHOP

Modern Dance Playshop: Technique via Conceptual Improv w/ Suzanne Beahrs

Shawl Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley, CA

Tuesdays, March 5, 12, 19, 26, 2019 | 7:30-9p

$80/series

This open-level series will cover the nuts and bolts of Modern Dance Technique through playful conceptual improvisation and a bit of set material.

Great for beginners and others who want to practice technique in a creative setting!

Modern Dance encompasses so many moves that pretty much anything goes, and we need oodles of technique to keep up with the movement range. Taking a step back from the imitation and memorization inherent in learning choreography, we will focus on technique through improvisation and straight-up game playing. We will explore the following concepts:

*CAPTURING A MOVE'S ESSENCE: Can you schloop, glide, melt, and sigh with your body? How do we play with our own internal cues for movements that are based in action and quality rather than in stepping patterns?

*3D BODY AWARENESS: Can you integrate movements of your entire three dimensional body as you dance? How do we organize our body into homolateral and contralateral patterns in both shapes and pathways?

*KINESPHERES + LOCOMOTION: We'll play with moving within our kinespheres, as if you're in a magical snowglobe whirling around to excited sluggish snowflakes, and propel ourselves through the room as if moving downhill with the wind at our backs.

*SENSATION: We will explore SEVEN body senses, focusing primarily on the vestibular system, proprioception, touch, and sight. (Can you feel the texture of your clothes on your skin as you dance? Can you sense reorientation after disorientation?)

Contact Shawl-Anderson Dance Center to register, (510) 654-5921.