Annex

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