Your Life, Your Story, Your Dance Series
Come join us for an exploration and inquiry through movement.
Workshop, Saturday, October 8, 10 am -5 pm: “Your Life, Your Story, Your Dance”
With Gennie Brukner, Henry Wai, and Vivek Patel. A Day of art making, dance making and life focusing through Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation Dance, martial arts (Ninjitsu) and visual arts.
We’ll ask the big questions: Who am I being in this body, in my relationships, in the world? What’s holding me back? For what am I willing to give my life? How might I move through my life with presence, attention, and intention?
$90-105 for the day. $75-90 for early registration.
Located in Toronto at the Lower Ossington Theatre, Light vegetarian lunch included. Register with Patricia [at] playthink.com or directly at http://yourlifeyourstoryyourdance.eventbrite.com.
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Workshop, Saturday, October 15, 10 am – 4 pm: “Your Creation Story” a day of butoh, dance making, storytelling, creative writing, and visual art
At “What Next” 7-12 Fraser Ave. With Maureen “MomoButoh” Freehill and Patricia Kambitsch. This workshop will enhance any performance, creative, healing and artistic practice by exercising imagination and increasing energy flow to reveal hidden gifts of the soul through the body. We will cultivate capacity for freedom of movement, powerful presence and transformation. Second day rehearsal and performance option: Members of the workshop will be invited to participate in performance and second day of workshop rehearsal on October 16. (For those choosing to continue on Sunday, this extends the workshop as a two-day experience, and quite a deal!) Light vegetarian lunch included. $90-105 for the day. $75-90 for early registration
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Performance, Sunday, October 16, 7 pm: “Creation Stories” an intimate performance and gallery show including members of the October 8 class at “What Next” 7-12 Fraser Ave. ($15, or free for attendees of Saturday’s workshop)
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THE PRACTICES
BUTOH was founded by dancers Hijikata Tatsumi and Kazuo Ohno in the 1960’s. This originally Japanese avant-garde performance art utilized principles from traditional Japanese theater and contemporary dance, poetic imagery, meditation and theatrical improvisation to create a unique art form that now influences artists of all genres worldwide.
CONTACT IMPROVISATION dance supports us in being present, fully embodied and physically intelligent through movement exploration and deep listening in contact with another person. Contact Improvisation is a free play between two or more moving bodies. Practices includes following a physical point of contact and supporting and giving weight to a partner. Sometimes quiet and meditative, sometimes wild and athletic, it is a dance open to all bodies and enquiring minds.
AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT is a practice of embodied presence that will help you become deeply connected with yourself through the use of movement and sound in the presence of a witness. You will be invited to close your eyes and open up to your inner landscape of experience; then to move and sound spontaneously (which can include stillness and silence) out of this relatedness to yourself. Authentic movement can be great fun, deeply moving, and powerfully restorative. It can help you to shake off the bindings of inhibitions and self-consciousness, whether inherited or self-imposed, and free you up to commune with your essential self.
THE ARTISTS
MAUREEN FREEHILL MFA is a master of being moved & utilized by the forces of nature—with over 30 years experience performing & facilitating Embodied Arts. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of MomoButoh Dance Company, an international performance collective based in Seattle area (www.momobutoh.net); Founder & Builder of SOMA Pavi11ion: School for Embodied Arts in Nature on Whidbey Island, WA; DailyDance™ & LifeArt Mastery Mentor (www.lifeartmastery.com). Her work springs directly from teachings of Kazuo & Yoshito Ohno; with whom she lived, studied & performed for 5 years in Japan. Her training includes an MFA in Directing Asian Theater, Dance Therapy at Naropa U. featuring Anna Halprin & certificates in Transpersonal Hypnotherapy & Hatha Yoga Instruction (Shambava/Shoshoni Center). She developed an international network of over 700 butoh enthusiasts (www.butoh.ning.com) as well as a repertoire of over 500 DailyDance™ videos for YearOfButoh (www.dailydance.net). She tours internationally & as guest artist at leading university dance & theater programs including Duke U, U of AZ, Seattle U, Virginia CU, E. Carolina U. & others. Her major butoh performances include solo & group appearances at festivals from Chuncheon, Korea to Asheville, NC.; touring & performances with Kazuo & Yoshito Ohno, Harupin-Ha (Tamanos), Katsura Kan, Joan Laage & Diego Pinon. She loves to dialogue about Embodied Arts & is currently working on her first book “Keys to a Life of Dancing Freely.”
HENRY WAI started dancing at the tender age of 44 and has been exploring a world of movement possibility and fun ever since. He has learned with a variety of Contact Improvisation teachers including Nancy Stark Smith, one of the pioneers of Contact dance. Henry delights in introducing Contact Improvisation to newcomers and has a particular enthusiasm for teaching people with little or no dance background.
GENNIE BRUKNER trained for three years at the Authentic Movement Institute in Berkeley, California. She also trained with Ruth Zaporah in Action Theatre, Emilie Conrad Doud in Continuum Movement, Charlotte Selver in Sensory Awareness and Nina Martin in Ensemble Improvisation. Her work is always informed by her meditation practice.
PATRICIA KAMBITSCH has been leading interdisciplinary arts workshops and groups for over fifteen years. A visual artist and author, she explores the interplay of painting and writing with other forms including performance art and dance. She is a member of MomoButoh Dance company.
Ottawa hosts the annual Ontario Regional Contact Jam 2012!
