DANCER from the DANCE 2021: Workshops and Dance Classes
In partnership with Dance Ireland
Ashley Chen
Monday 5 July, 10am IST / 11am CET / 5am EST
Live Zoom Cunningham Technique Masterclass. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
The class starts on the floor, isolating the different joints to create corporal awareness and slowly stimulating the spine. We will gradually bring the body to a standing position, experiment with Cunningham’s back exercises and explore the mobility of the spine. Once the body is warmed up, we will explore mechanical movements through improvisational tasks.
Ashley Chen trained at the CNSMD in Paris. After one project with Thomas Duchâtelet, he joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York in 2000. He moved back to Europe after four years to join the Lyon Opera Ballet where he performed works by William Forsyth, Trisha Brown, Philippe Decouflé, Christian Rizzo and Mathilde Monnier. In 2006, Ashley Chen decided to become a freelance dancer and worked with different choreographers throughout Europe, such as John Scott, Liz Roche, Michael Clark, Michele Ann de Mey, Philipe Decouflé and Boris Charmatz. He also worked with Robert Swinston as a performer and assistant on works by Cunningham.
In 2012 he established Compagnie Kashyl based in Normandy (France). He has a strong desire to investigate his individual creative process leading to significant and unconventional works. He has since created Habits/Habits (2012), Whack!! (2015, in collaboration with Philip Connaughton), Chance, Space & Time (2016), Unisson (2018), Rush (2019) and Distances (January 2021).
Jamie Scott
Monday 5 July, 4pm IST / 5pm CET / 11am EST
Live Zoom Workshop: 'Dancing through form, Following instinct' with Trisha Brown Company's Jamie Scott. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
Throughout Jamie's time with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, she had been continually intrigued by the often used Trisha directive, “do it and get off it.”
Drawing from my experience teaching and dancing Ms. Brown’s work, this workshop will touch some of the principles I rely on to marry form, effort and instinct in my dancing self.
How can we think and move in multidirectional ways and maintain awareness throughout? How does the body leave a clear visual imprint without lingering beyond the instant?
Jamie Scott works as a freelance dancer, teacher and stager in New York City. She began her New York dance career as a member of the Cunningham Repertory Understudy group from 2007-2009, then joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company until its closure in 2011. In 2012 Jamie was hired to join the Trisha Brown Dance Company and continues to be an active performer, teacher and stager for the company. She has also worked with Daniel Gwirtzman, Kimberly Bartosik, Bill Young, and Liz Gerring. She has taught at Barnard College, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, NYU, the CND Paris, CNDC Angers and leads workshops in the New York area (and remotely!) for the Merce Cunningham Trust and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. In addition, Jamie is a licensed stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, most recently co-staging Merce’s Scenario on the Lyon Opera Ballet in fall 2019. She is the recipient of a 2014 Princess Grace Award.
Anna Chirescu
Tuesday 6 July, 10am IST / 11am CET / 5am EST
Live Zoom contemporary Cunningham-based Masterclass. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
Starting with gentle floor exercises to standing, the class will bring awareness to the mobility of the spine, clarity of placement, coordination and availability of the entire body.
Technically we will try to reinforce our stability, improving our range of motion and working on rhythms. We will end the class with some small combinations, all possible to do within a small space. We will work on internal sensations as well as trying to connect to the space around us and reaching out through the walls!
Anna Chirescu trained at the Paris Conservatory and was an exchange student at UC Irvine USA. She has worked in France and abroad for different companies such as Jean-Claude Gallotta, Luc Petton, Marie-Laure Agrapart, Dance Theater Luxembourg, Liam Warren, Bill Young and Colleen Thomas and Ashley Chen. She was a member of the CNDC Company directed by Robert Swinston between 2013 and 2020. She performed Merce Cunningham works and participated in the centennial celebration. She has been making her own work as a choreographer since 2017. Anna also holds Masters degrees in Modern Literature and Cultural Affairs from the Sorbonne and Sciences Po Universities.
Peggy Gould
Tuesday 6 July, 4pm IST / 5pm CET / 11am EST
Live Zoom Workshop: 'Functional Anatomy/Symmetry/Asymmetry' with Peggy Gould. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
Asymmetry/Symmetry in Dance Training: Functional Anatomy Perspectives
In this one-hour workshop, participants will learn a series of concise movement sequences based on functional anatomy principles to illuminate our unique experiences of asymmetry and symmetry in the context of dance training and performance. We will utilize a “before and after” approach, observing the effects of these activities on each participant’s current dance practices. The aim of this work is to enhance performance of both improvised and choreographed material.
Peggy Gould is a New York City-based dancer, choreographer, collaborator, movement educator and sometime writer. Peggy has danced with Patricia Hoffbauer, Tiffany Osedra Miller, Cathy Weis, Sara Rudner including collaborations with John Scott and the Irish Modern Dance Company, Joyce S. Lim, Bryan Fox, and hopes to return to work on the postponed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Co. project, “Deep Blue Sea.” Peggy has created eleven interdisciplinary works, most recently "Hypnagogia" (2018) presented by Dixon Place, NYC. Peggy teaches in the Dance Program at Sarah Lawrence College, and serves as assistant to mentor in functional anatomy Irene Dowd. As a Fulbright Specialist, Peggy worked with dancers and educators in Ecuador (summer 2019).
Ty Boomershine
Wednesday 7 July – Friday 9 July, 10am IST / 11am CET / 5am EST
Live Zoom contemporary Cunningham-based Masterclass. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
Ty's class is framed by the structure of a Merce Cunningham class as well as incorporating elements from the many choreographers he has worked with which allows for an engaged neutrality that is useful to navigate through various approaches to movement. His class focuses on rhythmic, spatial, and physical clarity, encouraging the use of mental as well as physical prowess. Leaving behind the idea of a fixed front, the class explores the use of all spatial directions and works with the concept of using the centre of the body as a generator for movement, freeing the extensions of the body to work independently, while combining this with a sense of coordination and multi-tasking throughout the body.
He has taught the companies of Dansgroep Amsterdam, Dance Works Rotterdam, Emio Greco | PC, Krisztina de Chatel, Kamea Dance Company, Lucinda Childs Dance, and at several Academies, Universities, Festivals and open professional studios throughout Europe and the United States. He has taught workshops and master classes for both Lucinda Childs and Emio Greco, as well as assisting Lucinda Childs in the setting of her works in Europe and the United States.
Ty Boomershine, USA, studied dance at the Fort Hayes School for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ohio, completing his studies with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. In New York he danced for Dan Wagoner, DANCENOISE, Gus Solomons Jr., Bill T. Jones, Ton Simons, Merce Cunningham repertory ensemble, and Lucinda Childs. In the Netherlands he worked with Rotterdam Dance Group, Karin Post, LeineRoebana, Giulia Mureddu, Emio Greco | PC, and Nicole Beutler. In 2009 he restaged and performed in Lucinda Childs’ iconic works Dance and Available Light , and in 2012 he performed as a featured soloist in the remounting and subsequent 4 year world tour of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s opera Einstein on the Beach. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Dance On Ensemble Berlin which focuses on professional dancers over the age of 40. Celebrating their lived experience by commissioning new works and reviving important radical works from contemporary dance.
Elizabeth Corbett
Wednesday 7 July and Thursday 8 July, 4pm IST / 5pm CET / 11am EST
Live Zoom Workshop: William Forsythe Improvisation Technologies and Phrase Modification with Elizabeth Corbett. Open to professional level dancers and advanced level participants.
As a dancer with William Forsythe's company in Frankfurt, Corbett explored many new dialogues in dance. Forsythe’s companies blazed a trail for contemporary dance for more than 40 years. One of the evolving projects was the development of systems-based, real-time movement analysis approaches termed Improvisation Technologies. Evolving concepts and methodologies will be explored in Corbett’s classes. These can be used as tools for performed improvisation, as inspiration for choreographic material, or in developing new dialogues. Dancers are invited to play with systems-based improvisation and to share their dance knowledge.
Elizabeth Corbett danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet before she moved to Europe. There, she became a soloist with William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet and danced for over a decade in works including Love Songs, Artifact, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Enemy in the Figure, Steptext, Behind the China Dogs and other Forsythe works. Ms. Corbett now teaches ballet, improvisation technologies, and Forsythe repertory internationally. She was Dance Coordinator for Anne Teresa DeKeersmaeker's school of contemporary dance, PARTS, in Brussels from 1999 - 2005 and danced in a work created for her by Ms. DeKeesmaeker in a Rosas/Impulstanz production called With/For/By. She has been choreographic assistant to William Forsythe, Ms. De Keersmaeker and for Robert Wilson in productions for the Paris Opera and Rosas. Ms. Corbett has taught classes and workshops for dance companies, festivals and schools around the world including Dance Ireland, PARTS/Rosas, Impulstanz Vienna, Cullberg Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Movement Research, Dance Platform Istanbul, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Beijing Dance Academy. She received her MFA from Hollins University in 2019 and has contributed works in Memphis, to New Ballet Ensemble Company and School since 2007.
Photo: Agnes Noltenius.
Jonathan Kelliher
Friday 9 July, 4pm IST / 5pm CET / 11am EST
Live Zoom Irish Traditional Dance (Munnix) Workshop. Open to all, no previous dance experience necessary.
Traditional Irish Dance Master Jonathan Kelliher will deliver a workshop in the very unique and beautiful North Kerry “Munnix” style traditional Irish dance. This style dates to the early 1700s and was handed down through the generations to present day by traditional dance masters.
Dance experience is an advantage but not required as Jonathan will give you the history of this special dance style from North Kerry and teach you the basic steps and how to put them together.
Jonathan Kelliher is the Artistic Director of Siamsa Tíre’s National Folk Theatre programme. He has been studying the North Kerry style of dance since the age of 6 and followed in the footsteps of a long line of North Kerry Dance Masters to become one of the most respected voices in discussing the style, its history and is known as one of the best exponents of the style in Ireland.
He has performed in and directed numerous productions for Siamsa Tíre, including Evolution for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Tearmann, Rithim/Rhythm, a collaboration with Printz Dance project. In 2009 he directed Moriarty, he performed in What the Folk at the Dublin & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. He directed and performed in Anam for Dublin Dance Festival in 2016 and directed An Ghaoth Aniar for Siamsa Tíre in 2018.
