Tag: Grand Rapids Dance Scene

DITA, the practice & the person w/guest artist Marlee Grace

August 28, 2017

Join us in welcoming Marlee Grace to the Annex
wsg. Fiona Dickinson (musical accompaniment)
Tuesday Sept 5th, 6-8pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
All movers ages 16+ welcome

the practice & the person

a workshop on improvising & revealing the complete person

september 5 2017 + wealthy theatre annex grand rapids, mi

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Drawing on themes from the chapter PRACTICE in Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch we’ll navigate a series of exercises in ensemble improvisation. Making duets, trios, & group works while honoring the act of practicing as research, as performance, as the thing.

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We will generate solo material from our own bodies, practicing witnessing and being witnessed.

We will slowly combine our solo material into duets, finding ways to stay true to our own work while navigating space with others.

We will transition into ensemble work, trios, quartets, and full group improvisations.

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This workshop is open to all people 16+ years old with a willingness to explore with their bodies

DITA, Int/Adv Modern Tech w/guest artist Penny Freeh

June 27, 2017
Join us in welcoming Penny Freeh to the Annex
Thursday July 20th
7-8:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students (per class)

Penelope Freeh – Biography 2017
As a contemporary ballet and modern dancer/choreographer, Penelope Freeh honors and manipulates classicism and traditional vocabularies. Tension and emotion build through structure, relationship and rigorous formality. Images layer, amassing a history of gesture and dramatic intent. She acknowledges a balletic spine and makes room for the luscious. Lines erase as quickly as they form.

Freeh has played a vital part of the Minneapolis / St. Paul dance community since 1994. She is a two-time McKnight Fellow for Choreographers, a McKnight Fellow for Dancers, and a Sage awardee for Outstanding Performer. Her work is in the repertoires of Zenon Dance Company, James Sewell Ballet, Alternative Motion Project, Minnesota Ballet, and Gem City Ballet among others. She receives commissions and residencies from performing arts high schools, universities and regional companies; she works with opera and musical theater groups; she self-produces and seeks presenters for her personal works, working frequently with live musicians and original music.

Test Pilot, a chamber dance opera she created with composer Jocelyn Hagen, won a 2015 Sage Award for Best Overall Design and enjoyed a state-wide tour of Minnesota in the Fall of 2016.

She danced for James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years, serving as Artistic Associate from 2007 – 11. She teaches at the University of MN, the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, Zenon, and TU Dance. She is summer faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and co-director of the 2017 International Ballet Ensemble.

Formative training includes: the Dayton Ballet Dance Center, the Joffrey Ballet School and two years on full scholarship at The Ailey School.

Penelopefreeh.com

DITA, Summer Workshop w/guest artist Kristi Faulkner

May 26, 2017

Join us in welcoming Kristi Faulkner to the Annex
Monday June 19th & 26th
7-8:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students (per class)

June 19th
Contemporary Floor Work
Based on the idea that the floor is an active partner in our dancing, we will seek to “make friends” with the floor and embrace the unwavering support it can offer. Participants will connect with a sense of weight through earthbound phrases and guided improvisation, developing an intimate connection to the floor by investigating multiple points of contact for achieving efficiency moving in and out of the floor.

June 26th
Falling and Rolling
Explore sensation and surrender while learning to make friends with gravity. Dance is physics – we will explore the ways in which momentum and surface area can help us achieve efficiency moving in and out of the floor. While maintaining a continuous flow of energy and efficient use of muscle tone, we will hover on the edges of suspension and surrender to impulse.

Kristi Faulkner (Founder/Artistic Director of Kristi Faulkner Dance) is a choreographer, performer, educator and arts advocate. Based in Detroit, she creates highly physical and humorously theatrical work that embodies difference and challenges gender roles. Community engagement is integral to her artistic practice. Through workshops, lecture demonstrations, and community-based projects, Kristi pursues her mission of making dance visceral, thought-provoking, and accessible. Her work has been commissioned and presented throughout Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and New York. She holds an MFA in choreography/performance from SUNY Brockport and is part time faculty at Bowling Green State University.

DITA, Int/Adv Modern Tech w/guest artist Carrie Brueck Morris

May 9, 2017

Join us in welcoming Carrie Brueck Morris to the Annex
Sunday May 21st, 2017
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
*for dancers 16+
for more information contact Amy at [email protected]

Carrie Brueck Morris is currently Associate Professor of Dance at Grand Valley State University. Originally from Minnesota, she graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in Dance and earned her M.F.A. in Dance at Temple University. Prior to her time in Michigan, Ms. Morris taught at Western Kentucky University, University of Southern Mississippi, and Temple University. She has been fortunate to perform with choreographers such as Lou Antonini, Marianela Boán, and Meghan Durham Wall, performing in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. Carrie has also produced her own choreography professionally in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Civitavecchia, Italy.

Drawing on a wide range of styles and traditions, this class will weave together principles from several different techniques, but focus most heavily on select aspects of Bartenieff Fundamentals, Humphrey-Limon, and release techniques. The class will use elements of these techniques to support the study of movement efficiency, weight shifts, breath, momentum, and dancing off-center to further total body awareness and commitment while dancing.

DITA, INT Graham Technique w/William Crowley

April 23, 2017

Join us in welcoming William Crowley to the Annex
Sunday May 7th, 2017
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
*for dancers 16+
for more information contact Amy at [email protected]

The Master Class introduces students to the Graham Technique, its basic principle of “contraction and release”, and the beneficial knowledge that comes from the awareness of one’s own center and core strength. The structure of the class is composed of floor work, standing center work, and traveling exercises. Intermediate/Advanced level students will also be exposed to learning phrases of original choreography.

William Charles Crowley, received his MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and additional training at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in NYC. He has danced with numerous companies and has garnered favorable reviews from The Detroit Free Press, The Chicago Tribune, Denver Rocky Mountain News, The Miami Herald, and Dance Magazine. William is the Artistic Director of Next Step Dance based in Miami, FL., and currently teaches throughout the United States and Europe.

#shift, an evening of dance and music, April 15, 2017

April 14, 2017

#shift
An Evening of Dance and Music
Presented by
Dance in the Annex (DITA) and ArtPeers

This night was made possible by
The Wege Foundation
Meanwhile Bar
Harmony Brewing Company

One night only, April 15th, 2017
at Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy SE
DOORS: 7:00 p.m.
CURTAIN: 8:00 p.m.
TICKETS: $15 (discounts available for CMC members)
Tickets available online at www.wealthytheatre.org

Join us April 15th, 2017, for an evening of contemporary dance and live music featuring artists from across Michigan, from the creators of TRIP THE LIGHT and Salmagundi.

#shift is an exhibition of original movement by Michigan choreographers, musicians and filmmakers. Concept premised on an original work of poetry titled, “Block Of Now” by Erin Wilson.

“I am still standing on concrete.
Even with my eyes closed, I know I am surrounded on all sides
by steel and marble and glass.
I can feel myself encircled in
the constancy of movement,
all around me, in every direction. Enveloped by sound:
the collective tongue
of anonymous voices,
the harsh screams
of mechanical noise.”
— A Block of Now (excerpt)

Music live-scored by
Paucity
James Cornish and Alex Koi

Choreography by
Amy Wilson
Hannah Sullivan and Darrell Haggard
Molly Ross
Amy Cova
Lisa LaMarre and Dancers with music by James Cornish

Films by
ArtPeers

Photography Credit: Tim Motley
Dress Rehearsal / Wealthy Theatre

DITA, Afro-Brazilian Contemporary Fusion w/guest artist Rosely Conz

March 28, 2017

Join us in welcoming Rosely Conz to the Annex
Sunday April 23rd, 2017
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
*for dancers 16+
for more information email [email protected]

Class description
Afro-Brazilian Contemporary Fusion: This class will combine contemporary dance with movement and principles of Afro-Brazilian Dances, such as community, groundedness, and playfulness. Samba and Capoeira will be juxtaposed with turns, jumps, and improvisation. Open to all levels of expertise.

Rosely Conz is a Brazilian dancer, choreographer and teacher. In 2016, Rosely finished her MFA in Dance, already holding a MA in Performing Arts and a BFA in Dance. For the past 15 years, Rosely has been performing and choreographing professionally for Brazilian dance companies such as Dançaberta Dance Group and Packer Dance Co. She had her work funded by grants in Brazil such as FICC (Fund for Cultural Investments) and Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), Merge Dance Company at the State University of Texas. Her most recent work was sponsored by the Atlas Black Box experimental studio, in Colorado.
Rosely’s present research focuses on issues related to foreignness, displacement, and cultural cannibalism. Collaboration is part of Rosely’s philosophy which led to partnerships with Ana Baer (Texas University), Bailey Anderson (CU-Boulder), Julia Ziviani (Unicamp- Brazil), Adam Sekuler (CU-Boulder), amongst other incredible artists.

DITA, Int/Adv Modern Tech w/guest artist Molly Ross

January 3, 2017

Join us in welcoming Molly Ross to the Annex15801290_10154818685651873_395422611_n
Sunday Feburary 12th, 2017
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
*for dancers 16+
for more information contact Amy at [email protected]

Join Molly for an athletic, playful, and energetic class combining floor and release techniques.

Molly Ross is an artist focused on making work that finds connections between the absurd, the flawed, and the private. In Grand Rapids she collaborates on the multi disciplinary project BIG LOTTO. Before relocating to Grand Rapids in early 2016, she danced professionally in Chicago Illinois with Khecari and Hedwig Dances. She has studied movement at the University of Michigan, the London Contemporary Dance School, and in Northern Israel on Kibbutz Ga’aton.

DITA, Self Care for Dancers w/guest artist Heather Vaughan-Southard

November 28, 2016
Join DITA in welcoming Heather Vaughan-Southard to the Annex15073446_10154827254922859_6845085225028762584_n
Sunday December 4
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
$15/$12 students w/ID
For dancers 16+
email [email protected] for more information

Heather Vaughan-Southard is a dance educator with rich experiences directing programs and teaching in higher education, K-12 public schools, non-profit and private studios. With an approach of teaching dance as a liberal art, she draws from her experiences dancing professionally in Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles to create experiences that move beyond the boundaries of a studio, producing well-rounded, thinking dance citizens. She is author of the blog EducatingDancers, where she chronicles her perspectives on dance and dance education and is the K-12 columnist for the popular online magazine, Dance Advantage. Heather represents Dance in the Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment project (MAEIA), tasked with developing a blueprint and assessment specifications for premier arts education in the public schools. As a dancer, Heather has performed nationally and internationally, and has performed works by Mia Michaels, Donald McKayle, Bob Fosse, Lar Lubovitch, Billy Siegenfeld, Alexandra Beller, and Debra Levasseur-Lottman. Her choreography has been commissioned by such organizations as Michigan State University, Grand Valley State University, Dance in the Annex, Lansing Community College, and Happendance. Heather holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan, a BFA in dance from Western Michigan University.14915246_1090428331025389_6264332058765574624_n

This class guides you to connect with yourself, with others, and within a community. Drawing from pilates and somatic dance movement vocabularies, you’ll be invited to move within and beyond your movement habits to find expressive movement that meets you where you are and represents where you want to be, and how to get there. Come fight holiday and social stress in the medium you love best- movement.

DITA, Improvisation for Performance w/Amy Wilson and F. Dickinson

November 15, 2016

IMG_0011Join DITA Artistic Director Amy Wilson and musician F. Dickinson for an afternoon of live music and guided improvisation in the Annex!

Sunday November 20th
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
$15/$12 students w/ID
dancers 16+ email [email protected] for more information

This class will explore improvisation, including contact improvisation, for performance in solo and ensemble work. Dancers will explore and create with guided structure, while spontaneously performing inner-directed movement with live musical accompaniment.
All levels and all styles of movers are welcome. fiona

Amy Wilson is the Artistic Director of Dance in the Annex (DITA) – a Grand Rapids based modern dance collective. DITA regularly hosts master classes, produces large-scale concerts, and creates live and dance-film works that are site-specific with an emphasis on process. DITA calls Wealthy Theatre home base but collaborative works regularly take place at GRAM, UICA, Art.Downtown, and SiTE:LAB. She is currently faculty at Michigan Ballet Academy, has served on faculty at GVSU and is guest artist and choreographer at studios and univerisities around West Michigan.

F. Dickinson is an experimental ambient project from noise artist / multi-instrumentalist Fiona Dickinson. Intersecting organic folk instrumentation with slow atmospheric drones and ruminating loops, the sound echos and responds to the space and moment.

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