class descriptions
Big Rig Dance Collective
MODERN TECHNIQUE - Thursday 12-1:30p
with Lily Sloan
Class weaves release technique and improvisation with rigorous phrase work to investigate artistic choices and test movement range. Focus on alignment, risk, reach, and gravity.
IMPROVISING BODYWORK - Friday 4-5:30p
with Amanda Jackson
This class integrates contact improvisation with what feels good: bodywork! Students will experience giving/receiving and experiment with partner work to develop playful and grounded ways to move with others.
CONTEMPORARY REPERTORY WITH A FITBALL - Saturday 10-11:30a
with Crysta Caulkins-Clouse
What all can one accomplish before one has to fail? Based on explortory movement studies on a fitball. Students will explore Crysta's recent work "Until it Slides Away." This is a developing work gathering student movement studies of partnering with a fitball - exploring balance, range of motion, weight shifts, and passing the ball from one person to another.
MODERN TECHNIQUE - Thursday 12-1:30p
with Lily Sloan
Class weaves release technique and improvisation with rigorous phrase work to investigate artistic choices and test movement range. Focus on alignment, risk, reach, and gravity.
IMPROVISING BODYWORK - Friday 4-5:30p
with Amanda Jackson
This class integrates contact improvisation with what feels good: bodywork! Students will experience giving/receiving and experiment with partner work to develop playful and grounded ways to move with others.
CONTEMPORARY REPERTORY WITH A FITBALL - Saturday 10-11:30a
with Crysta Caulkins-Clouse
What all can one accomplish before one has to fail? Based on explortory movement studies on a fitball. Students will explore Crysta's recent work "Until it Slides Away." This is a developing work gathering student movement studies of partnering with a fitball - exploring balance, range of motion, weight shifts, and passing the ball from one person to another.
Brittany Lopez
NOT JUST ANOTHER CONTEMPORARY DANCE CLASS - Thursday 2-3:30p
In this contemporary dance class, we will reject the idea of failure by embracing risk-taking as a positive experience; we will be bold and dance beyond the edges of our kinesphere; we will cultivate a culture of enthusiasm that encourages and celebrates others (and our) success in class. This contemporary dance class will explore the ideas of gravity, on/off balance, spirals and more through a mixture of improvisation and athletic phrase work. Dance - have fun - connect with others - save the world!* (no guarantee of saving the world included with this class).
NOT JUST ANOTHER CONTEMPORARY DANCE CLASS - Thursday 2-3:30p
In this contemporary dance class, we will reject the idea of failure by embracing risk-taking as a positive experience; we will be bold and dance beyond the edges of our kinesphere; we will cultivate a culture of enthusiasm that encourages and celebrates others (and our) success in class. This contemporary dance class will explore the ideas of gravity, on/off balance, spirals and more through a mixture of improvisation and athletic phrase work. Dance - have fun - connect with others - save the world!* (no guarantee of saving the world included with this class).
Alex Karigan Farrior
CONTEMPORARY TECHNIQUE - Friday 2-3:30p
Contemporary dance technique focuses on classical modern principles of contraction, release, and spiral. We will explore spinal articulation, low center of gravity, weight shifting, and structural alignment while on the floor, standing, traveling through space, and a concluding combination. While researching these technical elements, the class also promotes the investigation of individual movement style and expressivity. This structure encourages artists to embrace form and function while exploring personal potential and deepening sensitivity.
CONTEMPORARY TECHNIQUE - Friday 2-3:30p
Contemporary dance technique focuses on classical modern principles of contraction, release, and spiral. We will explore spinal articulation, low center of gravity, weight shifting, and structural alignment while on the floor, standing, traveling through space, and a concluding combination. While researching these technical elements, the class also promotes the investigation of individual movement style and expressivity. This structure encourages artists to embrace form and function while exploring personal potential and deepening sensitivity.
Matthew Cumbie
FINDING RESOLUTION - Thursday 4-5:30p
What does it mean to resolve something?
How do we know when one thing is ending and another beginning?
How do we know when something is resolved in our practice? In our life?
This workshop will unpack and explore what it means to ‘find resolution,’ and frame our findings in multiple ways. From resolving movement, to bringing a body of movement to a close, to reflecting on our movements out in the world, we will work collaboratively to share practices, create connections, and inspire each other to cultivate an environment of curiosity and generosity.
HOLDING HISTORY, MOVING BODIES - Friday 12-1:30p
At our most basic level, memories are stored when certain cells reorganize and strengthen connections with one another: our bodies, literally and figuratively, are living archives. We are shaped by our experiences and the histories we inherit. What stories, then, do our bodies tell? And how is that in conversation with the places we live, the people we meet, and the communities we are a part of?
This workshop will explore and examine the ways our dancemaking can help us connect and hold onto the his/her/their/stories we share, and the possibilities of working across disciplines. With resources from collaborator Dr. Nino Testa (Women & Gender Studies professor at TCU and board member of The Dallas Way), this workshop will also connect with on-going research about local LGBTQ+ stories and movements, dabble in concepts of queer world-making, and will share creative tools and practices for dancemaking and dialogue (grounded in Dance Exchange methodologies).
RISK AND RESILIENCE: A PHYSICAL PRACTICE - Saturday 11:45a-1:15p
Grounded in contemporary dance forms, this movement-based class will invite us to fly and fall, and to frame our physical findings through risk and resilience. When we cultivate the ability to listen and integrate multiple sensory experiences between these practices, we expand our range of movement and choice-making. We will grow our technical dancing capacities, moving between improvised modalities and choreographed structures; at times we will work individually, and at times we will work with our community. Through it all, we will look for the joy that grows from dancing together.
FINDING RESOLUTION - Thursday 4-5:30p
What does it mean to resolve something?
How do we know when one thing is ending and another beginning?
How do we know when something is resolved in our practice? In our life?
This workshop will unpack and explore what it means to ‘find resolution,’ and frame our findings in multiple ways. From resolving movement, to bringing a body of movement to a close, to reflecting on our movements out in the world, we will work collaboratively to share practices, create connections, and inspire each other to cultivate an environment of curiosity and generosity.
HOLDING HISTORY, MOVING BODIES - Friday 12-1:30p
At our most basic level, memories are stored when certain cells reorganize and strengthen connections with one another: our bodies, literally and figuratively, are living archives. We are shaped by our experiences and the histories we inherit. What stories, then, do our bodies tell? And how is that in conversation with the places we live, the people we meet, and the communities we are a part of?
This workshop will explore and examine the ways our dancemaking can help us connect and hold onto the his/her/their/stories we share, and the possibilities of working across disciplines. With resources from collaborator Dr. Nino Testa (Women & Gender Studies professor at TCU and board member of The Dallas Way), this workshop will also connect with on-going research about local LGBTQ+ stories and movements, dabble in concepts of queer world-making, and will share creative tools and practices for dancemaking and dialogue (grounded in Dance Exchange methodologies).
RISK AND RESILIENCE: A PHYSICAL PRACTICE - Saturday 11:45a-1:15p
Grounded in contemporary dance forms, this movement-based class will invite us to fly and fall, and to frame our physical findings through risk and resilience. When we cultivate the ability to listen and integrate multiple sensory experiences between these practices, we expand our range of movement and choice-making. We will grow our technical dancing capacities, moving between improvised modalities and choreographed structures; at times we will work individually, and at times we will work with our community. Through it all, we will look for the joy that grows from dancing together.
