Education

Week 2 PRACTICES: Claudia Lavista
BODY-TERRITORY [Cultural Exchange/Mexico]
January 14-18, 1:30-3:30pm

The body is a territory of encounter, dialogue, discovery, relationship.

We are territories to inhabit, we inhabit the other and together we form a platform, a mirror and a sustenance. During this practice, the members of the workshop will experience some of the body research that CL has developed over the last 25 years as part of her artistic and pedagogical vision.

Various dynamics will be explored in relation to the concept of “Practicing Body” and “Expressive Body”. Working from the flow and control of energy in floor work, through the use of principles such as: accumulation, expansion, sense of trajectory, multi-directional use of space, circularity and sense of community.

During the session a series of Japanese Haikus are used as a creative impulse of various improvisations; as well as exercises of free stroke on paper, related to the expression of the body through various means, in this case poetry and drawing.

The main focus is on the development of a present and integrated body configuration that invites a deep understanding of the individual and social body, strengthening the use of intuition, perception and connection. The movement is approached from the action as a generator of a body-territory.

Claudia Lavista – Dancer, choreographer, teacher and manager of diverse projects, she has received several National Dance Awards both as choreographer and performer. Since 1992 she co-directs Delfos contemporary dance company. CL has created more than 50 choreographic works that have been presented in four continents. She is the founder and co-leader of the Mazatlán Professional Dance School, considered as one of the most prestigious dance conservatories in Latin America. Since 2010, she is faculty  member of the Bates Dance Festival. In 2008 she joined the National System of Art Creators and in 2011 the University of Chicago awarded him a Mellon Fellowship. Her videodance “Entre paredes de agua” wins the Donna et Cinema Award for the Best Video Creation in Spain 2012. She continuously gives master classes and workshops and creates work with several organizations around the world. Since 2012 she directs the Platform for choreographic creation “Interactions, bodies in dialogue”. She is interested in collaborative, community and interdisciplinary projects.

January 14-18, 1:30-3:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Lois Greenfield: Claudia Lavista

Weekend 2 PRACTICES: Kim Epifano
Dance/Body Song “(Be) your village” – Excavation and Reckoning
January 13, 12:30-5:30pm

Exploring how we work individually and also collaborate with a greater village with each person’s own background and current existence, join master teacher Kim Epifano in a process of self-excavation, awareness and reckoning. Epifano will guide an investigation of abstract storytelling. Incorporating improvisational physical action, imagery, essence, guts, contact improvisation, vocalization and theater. With depth, honesty, integrity we will support one another with a deep sense of imagination, curiosity and healing. Please bring knee pads, journal and something to write with. *One object that represents family to you!

Live Musician to be announced

January 13, 12:30-5:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Zackary Forcum: Kim Epifano

Weekend 2 PRACTICES:
Monique Jenkinson + Mica Sigourney
QUEENT!
January 12, 12:30-5:30pm

A workshop about how to be on stage, and what to do with your hands. And your eyes. A workshop for dancers, wannabe queens, and anyone who walks across stages. Fauxnique and Vivvy have culled performance technique and theory from years of drag performance and stage time. In this workshop we practice performance technique to: enhance embodied presence on stage, consider impulses from the imagination, lip sync with your elbows, become your own spotlight. The class ends with a 2.5 hour LIVE IN PERSON simultaneous makeup tutorial performance by Vivvy and Fauxnique.

Monique Jenkinson is Fauxnique. She performs in a variety of contexts locally, nationally and internationally, most recently in her feminist cabaret show The F Word at ART/Harvard and her most recent work Girl (a collaboration with Marc Kate) at Joe Goode Annex. She is writing a drag memoir for Amethyst Editions/Feminist Press.

Mica Sigourney is VivvyAnne ForeverMORE!- co-owner of the Stud Bar and hostess of Vivvy’s Grand Opening and FACES. S/he performs and makes works in Sweden, Ireland and SF mostly. Check out micasigourney.com or vivvys.com for more info. She’s great at weddings.

January 12, 12:30-5:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo courtesy of Sherwood Chen 

Week 1 PRACTICES: Keith Hennessy
Political Witchcraft For The Current Era
January 7-11, 3:45-5:45pm

Magic involves poetic and embodied action in a ritualized context to influence both consciousness and material realities. The pretend influences the real. Working with dancing, somatics, tarot, and spell crafting we will create a laboratory of activist magic. How can bodies and imaginations be decolonized and liberated? How can dancing respond to anxiety and trauma? Wicca, activist San Francisco rituals, and cross-cultural indigeneity influence this working.

Keith Hennessy dances. His performances engage improvisation, ritual, collaboration, and street protest as tools for responding to political issues. He observes self and society using a queer-feminist approach to critical whiteness. Hennessy directs Circo Zero and was a member of Contraband with Sara Shelton Mann. MFA, PhD from UC/Davis. www.circozero.org

January 7-11, 3:45-5:45pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Karolina Miernik: Keith Hennessy

Week 1 PRACTICES: Sara Shelton Mann
Sketch Dancing
January 7-11, 1:30-3:30pm

Chi Cultivation and Research.  Basic structures of technical improvisation followed by compositional puzzles constructed from conversations. Dance, write, and compose  Declutter and restructure. It will be fun. You will get to explore from your own perspective puzzle solving. Find a voice and run with it. Love it.

Sara Shelton Mann has been a choreographer, performer, and teacher since 1967.  She was a protégé of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis in New York City before moving to Canada where she met Andrew Harwood and fell in love with contact improvisation. In 1979 she moved to San Francisco and founded Mixed Bag Productions, for which she has continuously served as artistic director. One of its early manifestations was the company Contraband, launched as a performance group and research ground combining the principles of contact, systems of the body and spiritual practice into a unified system of research.  Among her awards are a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 6 Isadora Duncan Awards, Djerassi Artist in Residence Awards, Headlands Center for the Arts Residency 2016, Lifetime Achievement Bay Guardian Award, 10 Women Who Made a Difference, Bay Guardian “Goldie” Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2016) and special achievement award “erasing time”: celebrating 30 years a radical dance legend, ( Sara Shelton Mann with David Szlasa and Norman Rutherford) Her Movement Alchemy training is an ongoing teaching project and is influenced by certifications and studies in the metaphysical and healing traditions. Sara’s performance work is a platform for collaboration and research in consciousness. www.sarasheltonmann.org .

January 7-11, 1:30-3:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Robbie Sweeny: Sara Shelton Mann

Weekend 3: ALTERNATIVA + FAKE Company
Improvisation as Survival Technique
January 20, 12:30-5:30pm

ALTERNATIVA + FAKE Company Improvisation as Survival Technique

FAKE Company is an eclectic international group of dance, theater, music, visual, video and culinary artists whose work is embedded and embodied in ongoing improvisational practices. They gather in a fluid and flexible container of artistic freedom within creative collaboration for intensive projects that dive into, dig under, shake up and share the current state of the human condition. Initiated by Kathleen Hermesdorf, and engaging artists who discovered each other at Ponderosa in Germany, FAKE features creative interpreters from Australia, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, the United States and New Zealand. FAKE at FRESH features Caitlin Fisher, David Jensen, Kata Kovács, Kentaro Kumanomido, Ursula Marcussen, Tom O’Doherty, Gareth Okan, and Thomas Anthony Owen.

ALTERNATIVA members – Cookie Harrist, Gizeh Muniz, Delaney McDonough, Sebastian Santamaria, Hannah Wasielewski

January 20, 12:30-5:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Robbie Sweeny: ALTERNATIVA

Week 2 PRACTICES: ALTERNATIVA
GUT Motives
January 14-18, 10am-12pm

GUT Motives is a contemporary dance class and ongoing research by ALTERNATIVA investigating corporeality from internal impulse to external expression. Exploring states and acts of motion through a hybrid of traditional, contemporary and alternative forms in order to utilize embodiment and motion as means of perception, intuition and action. Deepening awareness and understanding of the body by working with energy, touch, somatic improvisation, technical modalities and three-dimensional choreography. The class is an intimate, animated arena for physical and creative exploration, deeply informed by live, original music, and encouraging sensate virtuosity, kinetic efficiency, interactive intelligence and performance-level dancing.

ALTERNATIVA, directed by dancer Kathleen Hermesdorf with musician Albert Mathias, is an apparatus for deeply integrated contemporary dance and music. Active in San Francisco since 2000, the organization supports the creative work of the directors alongside programming which includes an annual January FRESH Festival, classes and workshops in the Bay Area, and residencies and commissions at universities, festivals and studios worldwide. ALTERNATIVA is fiscally sponsored by Dancers’ Group and has received support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, William + Flora Hewlett Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Dancers’ Group’s Matching Grant and CA$H Grant, CHIME/MJDC, the San Francisco Arts Commission and The Suitcase Fund. www.la-alternativa.us | www.freshfestival.org

Kathleen Hermesdorf is an international dance artist, educator and producer based in San Francisco. She is the director ALTERNATIVA, with musician Albert Mathias, and teaches, creates and performs around the world. She was a member of Bebe Miller Company, Contraband and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells. She is the co-director of PORCH Training Program, with Stephanie Maher, at Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen, Germany, and WILD [West Cork Contemporary Dance Festival] in Ballydehob, Ireland, with Tara Brandel. Hermesdorf brings over 20 years of experience from the field, studio and stage to her work and holds a BFA and an MFA in Dance Performance + Pedagogy.

Albert Mathias is a multi-disciplinary musician based in San Francisco since 1991. He creates and performs composition and sound design for dance, theater, film, video and audio mediums, and is the music director of ALTERNATIVA, with dancer Kathleen Hermesdorf. He was a member of Bebe Miller Company and Contraband. Mathias has produced 15 records of original music and collaborated in numerous bands, most notably LiveHuman, an internationally acclaimed improvisation-based trio with DJ Quest and bassist Andrew Kushin. Mathias attended California Institute of the Arts and Ali Akbar College. His eclectic sounds can be found on I-Tunes, Bandcamp and CD Baby.

January 14-18, 10am-12pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Robbie Sweeny: ALTERNATIVA

Week 1 PRACTICES: ALTERNATIVA
GUT Motives
January 7-11, 10am-12pm

GUT Motives is a contemporary dance class and ongoing research by ALTERNATIVA investigating corporeality from internal impulse to external expression. Exploring states and acts of motion through a hybrid of traditional, contemporary and alternative forms in order to utilize embodiment and motion as means of perception, intuition and action. Deepening awareness and understanding of the body by working with energy, touch, somatic improvisation, technical modalities and three-dimensional choreography. The class is an intimate, animated arena for physical and creative exploration, deeply informed by live, original music, and encouraging sensate virtuosity, kinetic efficiency, interactive intelligence and performance-level dancing.

ALTERNATIVA, directed by dancer Kathleen Hermesdorf with musician Albert Mathias, is an apparatus for deeply integrated contemporary dance and music. Active in San Francisco since 2000, the organization supports the creative work of the directors alongside programming which includes an annual January FRESH Festival, classes and workshops in the Bay Area, and residencies and commissions at universities, festivals and studios worldwide. ALTERNATIVA is fiscally sponsored by Dancers’ Group and has received support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, William + Flora Hewlett Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Dancers’ Group’s Matching Grant and CA$H Grant, CHIME/MJDC, the San Francisco Arts Commission and The Suitcase Fund. www.la-alternativa.us | www.freshfestival.org

Kathleen Hermesdorf is an international dance artist, educator and producer based in San Francisco. She is the director ALTERNATIVA, with musician Albert Mathias, and teaches, creates and performs around the world. She was a member of Bebe Miller Company, Contraband and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells. She is the co-director of PORCH Training Program, with Stephanie Maher, at Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen, Germany, and WILD [West Cork Contemporary Dance Festival] in Ballydehob, Ireland, with Tara Brandel. Hermesdorf brings over 20 years of experience from the field, studio and stage to her work and holds a BFA and an MFA in Dance Performance + Pedagogy.

Albert Mathias is a multi-disciplinary musician based in San Francisco since 1991. He creates and performs composition and sound design for dance, theater, film, video and audio mediums, and is the music director of ALTERNATIVA, with dancer Kathleen Hermesdorf. He was a member of Bebe Miller Company and Contraband. Mathias has produced 15 records of original music and collaborated in numerous bands, most notably LiveHuman, an internationally acclaimed improvisation-based trio with DJ Quest and bassist Andrew Kushin. Mathias attended California Institute of the Arts and Ali Akbar College. His eclectic sounds can be found on I-Tunes, Bandcamp and CD Baby.

January 7-11, 10am-12pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo by Robbie Sweeny: ALTERNATIVA

Weekend 1 PRACTICES: Sherwood Chen
Faux Neutralities
January 5-6, 12:30-5:30pm

When we move, what are the subjectivities embedded in conditioning, positioning and pleasure specific to each person? Beginning with rhythmic, reckless warm ups across the floor to court destabilization, we will shift to partnered, group and solo scores to examine and cross-infect our respective moving bodies. We will play with and challenge notions of neutral, consequently to exalt multi-centricities. Bring a notebook, a blindfold and partialities in full bloom.

Sherwood Chen performs and leads workshops internationally. He has worked as a performer with artists including inkBoat, Grisha Coleman, Xavier Le Roy, Amara Tabor-Smith, Anna Halprin, Yuko Kaseki, Jess Curtis, Min Tanaka, Sara Shelton Mann, Arcane Collective and Christine Bonansea. For over twenty years, he has contributed to Body Weather research.

January 5-6, 12:30-5:30pm

1 Practices Workshop – $125 | 4 Practices for $450 | 8 for $800 | 12 for $1100 | 13 for $1150
Pricing for 1 Day Weekend Workshops: $65

REGISTER FOR FRESH PRACTICES
Learn more about the full FRESH Festival here.

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View all FRESH events (Performances + Practices) at the Annex

Photo courtesy of Sherwood Chen