THIS IS WHY I TEACH:
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 Workshop Offerings
Into the Weirdness
In this workshop we tap into “uncanny” relationships of self to other, time, environment, and space. We find ways to identify the strangeness that is always present, but so often repressed. Dance is a way to uncover and express desires, excess feelings, and the multiplicity we all hold. These exercises reflect approaches I use in my work, and they also serve as practices to negotiate what it is to be in a room of individuals together.
Making work
This workshop focuses on the mysterious, maddening, and vital process in making dance and movement-based performance. I offer proposals to you to make short performances and then through a series of questions you become aware of what your tendencies and strategies are. The “aboutness” of your work is revealed to you through the way you make it. We will make, discuss, improvise, and watch each other’s work. I distribute articles ranging from artist statements to critical theory to contribute additional voices to the mix. In my experience, making work is a confrontation with your desires, habits, value system, politics, imaginative capacity, and directorial strengths and weaknesses. Before you make anything, you are already something. Let’s find out what we can bring into the world.
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.
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!