slowdanger workshops
UPCOMING:
VSPI VIRTUAL WORKSHOP ARCHIVE:
IG live: @_slowdanger_
YouTube Channel
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Alongside our performance work, we cultivate our voices as educators and facilitators. Teaching allows us to observe the necessity of movement and non-verbal communication methods to be made available to the public. We believe if a viewer has been given a personal movement experience, they will be more open and sensitive to noticing their kinesthetic reactions that happen naturally while viewing performance. We question how we can incentivize participants and audience members to invest deeper in themselves without establishing and enforcing the traditional hierarchical systems of dance performance traditions.
workshop descriptions
Resonant Body Research Lab
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Resonant Body research lab was a 4-day research lab exploring the ontological relationship of sound and body. Participants will be facilitated through research modules exploring theories in motion, invisible architectures, vibration, groove, texture and more. We will move, sound, write, hum and vocalize as ways to tune into listening deeply to somatic and sensorial information. Artists will also be introduced to the Digital Audio Workstation Ableton, as a program to collect, remix, and reorganize captured material. Movement will be used to free the voice and release the body. This took place Summer 2022 at Velocity Dance. Center's Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation.
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De-Mystifying the Box
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De-Mystifying the Box, is a 5 part open level movement workshop and dialogue series exploring the embodied and emotional impacts of the climate crisis. Within this workshop, slowdanger will engage participants in creative process frameworks and somatic experiences to sense deeper into the micro-ecosystems of our bodies. We will use groove, effort, awareness modalities, and authentic movement to move collectively for 1.5 hours. The final half hour will be used to engage in a collective dialogue process surrounding the themes of SUPERCELL and the local impacts of the climate crisis on our Pittsburgh community. SUPERCELL Advisory committee members will also be present at select workshops to support the facilitation of that dialogue with community members.
SPI
slowdanger’s ‘SPI’ is an explorational movement experience accompanied by an evolving sound score. Inspired by their studies in somatic practices, BodyMindCentering, Laban Movement Analysis, Movement Theater, Corporeal Mime, improvisational and compositional studies, slowdanger guides participants to investigate non-verbal processing mechanisms through movement, groove, and sensory stimulus. SPI is designed as an open-level practice. It challenges participants to explore connections to body, sound, and their environment. These connections are used to play, investigate, and regenerate. SPI is an open-level workshop.
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STech
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slowdanger’s ‘STech’ is a movement workshop focused on exploring contemporary and postmodern techniques through a creative and performative lens. Dancers will be challenged to view their technical foundations as a support system for further risk taking and expansion. STech asks participants to push past the commonalities surrounding technique, allowing one to further character development, qualitative filters and more.
STech is best suited for the advanced movement artists and practitioners.
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SEQUINS SEQUENCE
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Sequins Sequence is a 90 minute movement workshop led by slowdanger directors anna thompson and taylor knight. This workshop focuses on generating and linking together contemporary floorwork based movement sequences.
This practice is best suited for the advanced movement artists and practitioners.
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SPI JAMS
SPI JAMS is a virtual movement workshop series combining slowdanger physical integration movement workshops with original mixes/playlists from featured sound artists. This series was hosted on ZOOM and featured a playlist or mix from a different sound artist each session. ​SPI JAMS is an open-level workshop series.
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SPI JAMS sessions 1-5 have come to a close. Stay tuned for more SPI JAMS workshops in the future.
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ResearchStudy
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ResearchStudy is a three day invited process lab for performative research held by slowdanger. With “ResearchStudy” we intend for participants to feel challenged, empowered, and engaged. We aim to encourage physical and conceptual risk and experimentation within the individual participant through shared practice, application and response. Within an intimate yet casual atmosphere, we will play and laugh while also allowing ourselves to dive into processing insecurities and fears around witnessing and being witnessed. We will examine how performative practice can further deepen the lives and disparate practices of the invited artists.
This particular session (SESSION III) will be focused on group improvisational, structural dynamics, and internal facilitation through the lens of slowdanger's research for their upcoming work, far field, to be presented through LENS at the Kennedy Center's the REACH, co-produced and curated by Extreme Lengths Production.
**Participants are expected to attend all three days of the study. It is free for selected artists to participate. Housing and travel will not be subsidized.
If interested in hosting a slowdanger ResearchStudy email:
slowdangerslowdanger@gmail.com
SESSION II (2019)
Occurred Dec 6,7 and 8 2019
SESSION I (2019)
Occurred May 10,11 and 12 2019
TESTIMONIALS
"How would you describe your experience at ResearchStudy?"
"Excellent! I made new friends, and really enjoyed the intellectual and emotional challenge of the whole process. I felt physically stronger afterwards, and have created some collaborative relationships as a result." - 2019 Participant
"The experience was informative, liberating, intimate, stimulating and intuitive among other descriptors. I felt a strong sense of community within the research period. The engagement and focused sensitivity of the artists facilitated a safe space to explore and collaborate." - 2019 Participant
embodiment and sound slowdanger | Jasmine Hearn
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embodiment and sound is a co-guided movement facilitation and sound experience lead by Jasmine Hearn and slowdanger’s taylor knight and anna thompson. Throughout this workshop, Jasmine, taylor, and anna move fluidly between roles of leading guided movement exploration and providing sound accompaniment through looped and modified vocal and electronic instrumentation. Participants are tuned to listen deeply to somatic desire and follow impulse. Movement will be used to free the voice and release the body.
lectures
WAKE lecture, with Anna Henson and slowdanger
Wake, is an immersive mixed reality experience with multi-faceted entry points. Impulse and action from both audience and performer reverberate throughout the digital environment they inhabit. We witness how our movement and interactions with each other and our environment have visible and felt consequences. Through this experience, participants are invited to have a deepened experience of our own embodied sensations within paralleling realities.
This lecture begins with a brief embodiment primer prior to its entry point into the conceptual and technological material of Wake..
more information can be found here.
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participant testimonials
"Coming to your class is like a moving meditation. I get in touch with my body, my creative intuition, my surroundings and my relation to others. Time isn't real during Slowdanger class - and I always leave feeling refreshed, renewed, and affirmed." | ​Ru Emmons
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"If you are not a trained dancer, it’s hard to find a place where you can genuinely explore movement and dance in Pittsburgh. I’m very grateful to have found Anna and Taylor. This duo has helped me continue crafting my love for movement.
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They know how to create a learning space and make each person feel seen and welcome as they enter.
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Through their selection of music and the sequencing of exercises, they are able to coax the very best out of the individuals that come into the space.
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The bridge the world of formal training with informal expression. Every time I walk away from the class I feel more equipped to move better. This helps me with my performance as an improviser and my presence in my class when I teach (not to speak of having fun on a dance floor!)
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Their classes are about dance, but it’s very clearly situated in community. Taylor and Anna not only nurtures the individual’s capacity to move, they also create the space for the collective to connect in meaningful ways. Anna & Taylor’s class is like medicine for me. It helps me reconnect to myself, honestly express what I feel and by so doing connect to the world around me in new and meaningful ways." | Hannah Du Plessis