THIS IS WHY I TEACH CLASS:
BECAUSE IT IS A PRACTICE OF GENEROSITY
BECAUSE I LIKE TO CREATE A SPACE OF LEARNING AND CHALLENGE (CAN I SAY IT THAT WAY?)
BECAUSE BY TALKING AND TRYING I FIND OUT WHAT I ALLEGEDLY BELIEVE AND THEN BY BEING SURPRISED AT WHAT I SAY AND DO I WONDER IF I DO, IN FACT, BELIEVE IT
BECAUSE IT RE-CONNECTS ME TO THE PLEASURE OF DANCING WHICH IS WHAT GOT ME STARTED ON THIS WHOLE MESS OF A LIFE
BECAUSE I LIKE TO SEE WHO’S OUT THERE
BECAUSE I LIKE TO HELP PEOPLE OUT
BECAUSE IT IS A WAY TO MAKE CONNECTIONS WITHIN A BODY (A PERSON) AND BETWEEN BODIES (PEOPLE)
BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN TRANSFORMATION
BECAUSE IT IS HUMBLING
BECAUSE IT IS INTERESTING, NICE, RARE AND NERVE-RACKING TO BE IN A ROOM OF OTHERS PRACTICING SOMETHING TOGETHER
BECAUSE THE OLDER I GET, THE MORE NECESSARY IT BECOMES TO CARVE OUT AN INTENTIONAL TIME FOR DANCING
BECAUSE IT ALLOWS ME TO SEE OTHER PEOPLE AS BEAUTIFUL AND CAPABLE
BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE FEW THINGS I THINK I’M GOOD AT
BECAUSE IT GROUNDS ME
BECAUSE IT STILL MAKES ME NERVOUS, WHICH MEANS I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN, WHICH MEANS I’M ALIVE
BECAUSE I AM DREAMING OF YOU NOW AS I PLAN IT, SO IT’S ALREADY BEGUN
BECAUSE AFTERWARDS I USUALLY HAVE A GOOD DAY
Current Classes
Making work
This workshop focuses on the creative process in making body/movement-based performance/dance. A variety of approaches to creating - intuitive, improvisational, and analytical - are exploited to uncover your individual interests, your process and your work. The workshop consists of unequal parts making, discussing, improvising and watching the work of other workshop participants. I distribute articles ranging from artist statements to critical theory to contribute additional “voices” to the mix. My interest is in creating a space in which traditional notions of dance are critiqued, absorbed or discarded in the service of creating performance that comes from a vital place. An ongoing question throughout the workshop is how to make work that is located in a contemporary context.
You Do You: Feldenkrais and Dancing, Scores for Improvisation
The Feldenkrais Method® reawakens, restores and revitalizes the capacity for movement and function in all bodies. It is a spectacularly generative practice for people who are devoted to movement as a means of exploration and expression. In this workshop we will begin each day with an Awareness Through Movement lesson and from there go into scores for embodied improvisational dance practices that can be used either in process, or as performances in-and-of themselves.
Baby, this is what you came for
or
I’m walking on my future
“… politics is activity already in motion. It does not await ignition.” – Randy Martin
This workshop is a moving think tank. Choreography can be a framework for deploying difference in a time of increasing anxiety. What do I mean by difference? Who is in the room. What does it mean for us to be together? We are not the same but we are bound by invisible tethers and the strangeness of behaving together. I am interested in the strangeness and try to tease it out in ways both systematic and spontaneous. We make by doing. We perform as we make a performance, or participate in a workshop. I will share ways that I harness immediacy, mystery, relevance, irreverence and import. I am interested in what is definitive and unstable. Are we foolish for still being inspired by performance? I like dancing. I like it a lot. We become beautiful in the process of performing but beautiful is not enough. I want to hold all of us. I want the differences held. Do you care to join? It is all too much.
RED LEATHER YELLOW LEATHER
Miguel Gutierrez's works have been notable for their expressive use of the voice. In this workshop, Gutierrez will lead the participants through simple warmups to help them to discover pliable, relaxed and expansive voices, ready for an array of approaches to sound making in performance. We will sing together, create songs in groups, and play with different approaches to text. Influences include studies with Barbara Maier, Linklater Technique, Alexander Technique, and the Feldenkrais Method. This workshop is open to anyone!