Contemporary Technique

Rodger Belman
Drawing from an eclectic mix of modern techniques and somatic principles, this class focuses on alignment and efficient, effective and dynamic movement through space. Starting with floor work and moving into standing, center and across the floor sequences, we will explore movement initiation, sequencing, weight and moving into and out of the floor with ease and confidence. We will investigate the tiniest, almost imperceptible shift in the body to the biggest full-bodied, space-eating movement. Together we will fly, fall, float, suspend, roll, invert, take risks, and sometimes play.  

Shani Collins
In class we view dance as a tool for presence, confrontation, and physical expression by emphasizing placement, ease of movement, rhythmic presence, and personal investigation. We will emphasize and develop key movement elements drawing from post/modern and contemporary West African Dance. We will approach studio time as a way to establish a discipline in the body and work to identify the system of skeletal and muscular support in our individual bodies. Special attention is given to the arms/ hands and to coordination as we explore multi-lingual forms of movement.  

Brenda Daniels
My class is a traditional technique class based on the exercises and principles of Merce Cunningham. A standing warm-up empasizes anatomically correct alignment, followed by an adagio, complex traveling combinations and jumps that focus on clarity, strength, and stamina.

Michelle Gibson
Class description coming soon!

Gerri Houlihan
The class is based on many of the principles from Limon technique. The center warm-up incorporates plies, tendus, rond de jambes, etc. from traditional techniques, with an emphasis on awareness of proper alignment, breath, weight and rhythm. Across the floor phrases explore these same concerns as they relate to musicality, organic movement connections, and a full and dynamic use of space. 

T. Lang
Drawing from sophisticated contemporary modern technique this class blends urban movement forming a unique style and approach. Focusing on core strength, velocity along with suppleness this class applies from repertory, improvisation, and personal experiences allowing the dancer to demonstrate complex movement sequences with intelligence and artistic expression. 

Pamela Pietro
Pamela Pietro’s teaching exists to widen the physical range and mental awareness of dancers’ technical capabilities. Pamela’s thorough knowledge and principles of strengthening and alignment lead to full physical charge and response, incorporating floor and upper body that leads to the expansive movement phrases explored across the floor. The class is pure physicality while motivating the body with clear detail, focus, and intent while exploring varied spatial directions within the environment. There is no forcing, only a space for individual learning through process.

Trebien Pollard
The class is a contemporary look at traditional ideals, emphasizing proper alignment through spinal isolations, joint mobilization, core strengthening and breathing patterns. The movement material is designed to increase the awareness of the pelvic floor and to deepen the understanding of the overall connectivity of the core to the limbs, while helping to promote the safe usage of the body in motion.  

Abby Yager
This class explores movement from the inside out. Informed by the choreographic work of Trisha Brown and drawing on various practices including The Alexander Technique, Yoga, Qi Gong and Klein Technique, this class examines the role of somatics as an essential building block of contemporary dance technique. Emphasis is placed on finding freedom of the joints, use of weight and energy, mechanical specificity and directional clarity. 

Ming Yang
Class description coming soon!

Jesse Zaritt
Each class begins with practices that activate a sense of availability. We find ways to let go of tension, fixed habits and perceptual/intellectual rigidity. Improvisational and choreographed exercises help us to find openness, clarity, and length in our bodies. 
Pleasure is linked to effort, power and strength as the class progresses and as the choreographed exercises become more complex. Phrase work allows us to research how to utilize physical states and forces such as continuous motion, spiral/rotation, sequential articulation and momentum. Throughout the class, we will encourage each other to embrace and extend our physical capacities as empowered, confident movers. Technique class will also be a place of critical thinking. The material we study exists to nourish our creative bodies/minds, challenging us to re-articulate/re-imagine our relationships to codified movement systems. 

Ballet

Jeffery Bullock
Traditional ballet forms are recognized and extended to include new dance ideas and practices for the contemporary dancing artist/dancing body. Through barre, centre work and locomotion across the floor, ballet forms are danced out. Special attention is given to developing the skills necessary to become an expressive performer. The class will focus on detailing small positions/actions and then extending/ connecting them to large full-body dancing. Attention to proper alignment and placement facilitating efficient and safe dancing is constant. There will be select days for learning ballet repertory. 

Elizabeth Corbett
This ballet class begins with a pre-barre warm-up and ends with grande allegro combinations and on occasion, phrase work drawn from the Forsythe project. During the barre we’ll take our time to work on getting grounded and connected and we’ll repeat most combinations twice. From there we’ll go on with our focus on breath and release as explore a broad range of balletic language and syntax. Directions in the body and in space, differentiation in movement qualities and rhythm will be areas of focus.

Courtney Harris
In this class, students will practice the fundamental concepts of the Classical ballet tradition, while grounding classwork through anatomical awareness that considers each student’s unique facility. Classes are designed to build core strength and standing leg support that then becomes transferable to a range of dynamic movement possibilities. Breath, lyricism, phrasing, full-bodied integration, and personal expression are emphasized with the intention of connecting students to the joys of movement exploration. 

Tom Shoemaker
Fundamentals will be the main focus of this beginning/intermediate level ballet class. Concentration will be placed on proper body alignment and clear articulation of classical technique, with an emphasis on musicality, phrasing of movement sequences and coordination. The class will consist of a traditionally structured barre, followed by center work where we will explore and connect ideas and concepts of basic ballet while refining the aesthetic and expressive qualities that lead to performance.   

Composition

Rodger Belman
Through improvisational and compositional exercises, students will generate material to create solo, duet, and group studies in a safe and supportive environment. Students will be encouraged to take risks as they explore and investigate movement ideas and acknowledge and honor their intuitive creative tendencies and choices. Through guidance, classmate support and feedback, and self-reflection, students will tap into their self-knowledge and learn to communicate what they know, thus finding their own unique choreographic voice.  

T. Lang
Storytelling, exploration strategies and improvisatory investigations are used to generate movement and phrases.  Choreography will then be deconstructed, dissected and detected, allowing the choreographer to pin point and reveal their true authentic voice.  This composition class challenges and guides the choreographer into unleashing their imagination; creating juxtapositions of the mind and body that stirs the soul. 

Amanda Miller
Class description coming soon! 

Ming-Lung Yang
Class description coming soon! 

Jesse Zaritt
Composition/Performance: Activism, Improvisation and the Practice of Performance
The first three weeks of this course will investigate relationships between activism and choreography, addressing the following questions:  How can art making be a form of activism?  In what ways can dance artists bring concerns for justice and social change to their choreographic projects?  How can the effectiveness of these projects be discussed? Neil Harris and Jesse Zaritt will co-teach the first three weeks of this class.  Our studio work will draw on established models that bring together performance and social change such as Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed.  The focus, however, will be on developing new ways to connect choreography, performance and activism.  Jesse Zaritt will teach the second part of this course, which will continue an investigation of the relationship between art and activism, but through the lens of performance practice rather than choreography.  During this portion of the class, we will work with improvised performance scores.  We will use these scores to challenge and re-imagine the conventions of dance performance.  In order to construct these scores, we will research the work of visual/performing artists as well as draw from our experiences merging activist and dance practices.  We will facilitate an open space for discovery and change.  The course will culminate in a performance for the ADF community. 

Repertory/Performance

Pamela Pietro
Repertory for 16 – 18 year olds
A highly collaborative and creative process involving young artists with inquisitive minds. We will be creating a dance by exploring and generating material through improvisation and compositional practices, partnering skills, daily journal writing and feedback about our process. 

Trebien Pollard
Repertory for 16 – 18 year olds
This experience is devoted to the bringing together of multiple disciplines to create a distinct work that challenges perception and meaning. The work will be a creative response to contemporary events that inevitably highlight an intimate portrayal of humanity. 

Abby Yager
Trisha Brown Repertory: Solo Olos
Sololos is one of the purest expressions of Trisha Brown’s love affair with choreographic structure and wit. It is a study of cause and effect in which dancers respond to instructions called to them from a dancer offstage. Governed by strict adherence to a set of rules and requirements, it exists in endless permutation as a function of these improvised calls. The vocabulary is entirely fixed, yet the form is composed in the moment by those who perform it.

Ming-Lung Yang
Class description coming soon!

Footprints
6WS students will have the opportunity to audition for ADF’s Footprints program. Students chosen to perform in a Footprints piece will have the chance to study intensively with a choreographer for the full 6 weeks. Footprints will give students a chance to experience working within a professional dance company environment. They will also have the rare opportunity to perform on ADF’s main stage as a fully produced part of the ADF performance series during the last week of the festival. Click here to view the 2013 Footprints program.

Improvisation

Ishmael Houston-Jones, Curt Haworth and Yvonne Meier
Improvisation Strategies
This class is rooted in many different forms of improvisation and will offer students a foundation in diverse techniques of instinctive, intuitive, non-set dances. The class builds upon the principles of Contact and Releasing to give students a strong, personal movement foundation. It teaches students to use senses other than sight when improvising and asks that they allow their dances be guided by touch and sound as well as by narrative and emotion. Another component of the class is the use of both spoken and written text and the use of personal material. Students are asked to use language in an automatic and improvisational way. Then they are instructed to use the resultant text as a prompt to movement. This may lead to short solo or group pieces. As part of Improvisation Strategies Ishmael Houston-Jones will be teaching for the entire 6 weeks of the Festival while Curt Haworth will be teaching Contact Improvisation in weeks 1 – 3 and Yvonne Meier will be teaching Releasing, Authentic Movement and Improvisational “Scores” in weeks 4 – 6. 

Curt Haworth
Contact Improvisation: Weeks 1 – 3
… part of Improvisation Strategies
This is a class that focuses on perception and dancing in contact with another person or the environment using shared weight, momentum and gravity…. partnering, dancing closely, touching, supporting, lifting.  We will explore such skills as rolling, falling, and sharing weight through easy compression and counter balance. In this class we will break down and explore the techniques of sloughing and rolling points and explore basic forms such as body surfing and tabletops. Expect to use the whole body as a surface for encounters with the floor, another human, and the world around you The Class will dedicate ample time to open movement improvisations and explorations. Contact is ever evolving and we may delve into performance aspects of the form such as Lisa Nelson’s Tuning Score. 

Yvonne Meier:
 Weeks 4-6
… part of Improvisation Strategies
Authentic Movement
Authentic Movement is a deceptively simple form of self-directed movement. It is usually done with eyes closed and in the presence of at least one witness. The mover follows inner impulses to move freely, and the witness watches and tracks inner responses to the mover with the intention of not judging, but working on self-awareness.
Releasing
Specially designed images will enable us to let go of hidden tensions as well as align us with the natural forces of gravity and counter balance. The releasing process is designed to let us move with more freedom and economy. Spontaneous movement explorations will allow us to creatively integrate the changes in the body. Hands on work will reinforce the given directions of energy flow along the body. Interwoven music will let us journey into a deeper state of releasing. The experience of “seeing ” into our bodies will give us a wonderful tool for improvisational dance.
Improvisational “Scores”
In this workshop, we will investigate my improvisational technique, which I call “Scores.” “Scores” are essentially words, containing images, that we learn and then utilize to possess our bodies from head to toe. “Scores” can be physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual. Some “Scores” will possess different body parts. Some “Scores,” which I call “no-no scores,” explore socially-unaccepted content. We will allow these “no-no scores” to travel through the subconscious revealing to us our true opinions about them. We will utilize Releasing Technique in the warm-ups revealing to us the capability to fill our “empty” bodies with images. Authentic movement, as a warm-up, will guide us through powerful qualities.

African Technique

Sherone Price
This class will introduce students to a non-western dance form that has a long, varied history and plays a central role in the socio/spiritual life of the African people. The class will learn the dance vocabulary, perform and view a variety of styles and become familiar with rhythms and music of various African techniques. 

Hip Hop

Teena Marie Custer
This beginning/intermediate level class will introduce students to the foundational vocabulary of street dances that originated in the 70’s during the birth of the hip hop culture, and remain under the umbrella of hip hop dance today.  Each class will be an introduction to the technique behind styles such as locking, popping, b-boying/b-girling, house, and various social dances. Students will also be exposed to how these techniques are used in commercial and theatrical hip hop choreography, as well as freestyling. 

Voice and Gesture

Ellen Hemphill & Rafael Lopez-Barrantes  
Voice/Gesture Exploration for Performance Art 
This performance art oriented class is based on the voice work of the Roy Hart Theatre of France. The voice of each individual as well as the group “voice” will be explored in such a way as to contact sources of energy hidden deep within the body. The class begins with the voice as it is in each unique individual. Therefore, it is not necessary to have had previous voice training to discover what possible expression there is in each voice. The movement/gesture work in the class comes from the world of dance-theatre and will be explored in connection to the voice expression. We will use text and song and work towards informal showings of class excerpts. All the work is intended to combine exercises, voice, text and movement that can be used as building blocks towards performance.  

WFSS (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday)

Projects

Charles Anderson
This repertory class will focus on excerpts from Anderson’s latest work Restless Natives, a dance theatre work inspired by James Baldwin’s Another Country. Set in a jukejoint, with blues men and women, queers, deviants and sages, Restless Natives uses Black traditions as the base for bringing people from different backgrounds together. Through a collective process, we become responsible to one another in the art of creating a piece about loving and being loved against a backdrop of racism, homophobia, and cultural shame. The two week session will be an immersive experience in his approach to dance-theatre which he calls testimony.

Elizabeth Corbett
Forsythe
William Forsythe’s vision “revolutionized” ballet’s potential. As artistic director of an extraordinary collection of dance artists, Forsythe and Ballet Frankfurt blazed a trail for contemporary dance for 20 years. One of Ballet Frankfurt’s evolving projects was the codification of a Laban-based, real-time movement analysis called Improvisation Technologies. These techniques were employed by Ballet Frankfurt not only as a method to generate set phrases of movement but also as a tool for performed improvisation. Since Forsythe’s early years with the Frankfurt Ballet many new concepts and movement generating systems have been developed in his work. Under the direction of long-time Forsythe dancer Elizabeth Corbett, dancers in this workshop will explore Forsythe’s phrase material, improv systems and scores as they create and develop their own. 

Rafael Lopez-Barrantes
Text Into Performance
This class is a hands-on exploration regarding tools for integrating text into performance. Text will be approached from the perspective of extended vocal range techniques. We will be exploring different ways of delivering text and how to materialize it into performance. We will also be looking at five basic elements in text delivery: pitch, intensity, rate, pronunciation, voice quality, and how these elements relate to the dancer. Each participant will bring a text of their choice not longer that 90 seconds long with the aim to explore it and integrate it in a performance context. The work will require active participation of students through class discussion, voice work and the creation of in-class presentations. 

Andrea Weber
Cunningham 
The Cunningham Repertory class will explore the diversity and complexity of Merce’s work over the more than 50 years he was creating pieces.  In the three week period we will learn excerpts of choreography that will delve into space and time, rhythmic footwork, clarity of line, and stillness.  We will find that the difficulty in the technique was always present in Merce’s work, yet as the decades progressed and Merce’s chance procedures evolved the work gained a denser integration.  At the end of the Intensive we will have a showing of an “Event”, the excerpts put together in a new order just for this occasion. “Events are Cunningham’s signature, site-specific choreographic collages that incorporate excerpts from past and current repertory works, and are often created for unconventional performance spaces such as museums and galleries.“

Jesse Zaritt
This repertory class will be an intensely collaborative project resulting in the creation of a new choreography. Each participant will be guided to create movement in relation to the unique capacities of her/his/their body. Our focus will be on devising strategies for radical transformation. Visual art practices such as drawing, sculpture/object creation and costume/fashion construction will also be integrated into our process.  

Select WFSS Mini Series and Select WFSS Drop Ins

Anjali Austin
GYROKINESIS®
GYROKINESIS® exercises allow one to work on the entire body through seven natural elements of spinal movement: forward, backward, left side, right side, left twist, right twist and circular, as well as all other joint articulation.  This approach systematically and gently works the joints and muscles through rhythmic and undulating movements. These movements stimulate the body’s internal organs while different corresponding breathing patterns are integrated along with the movements.  Fluidity is the key.  Postures are not held for long periods of time.  Instead, postures are smoothly and harmoniously connected through the use of breath, making exercises appear and feel more like a dance and swimming than like traditional yoga. 

Company Auditions
Many companies choose to hold auditions at ADF. These may be companies performing at ADF or companies who travel to ADF specifically to hold auditions. Company auditions will be announced at the beginning of the festival. 

Company Classes
Many of the companies performing at ADF will hold guest classes. These classes will be taught by choreographers, directors, or dancers. The ADF performing company lineup will be announced in the spring, check back for details. 

Matan Eshkar
Yoga for Dancers – Practicing from Inside
Matan’s skillful, inspiring approach to yoga and movement reflects his ongoing studies of Vinyasa, Iyengar and Vijnana Yoga, Applied Sciences and Somatic education. This class presents an integrative and accessible teachings enabling students to reach awareness of their own bodies through movement, self-exploration, and new discoveries. By means of clear language, attention to detail and creative sequencing students are invited to move slowly and safely into their bodies, sensing the skeletal lines and feeling simple and vital principles that emerge from within. This practice allows you to challenge old habits and patterns of thought, rediscover natural abilities seemingly lost and apply universal principles and tools into your practice and daily life. Breathing will become light, tension will loosen, inner pathways will open – you will perceive the body as one holistic unit, relieve pain, and move with precision and joy. Open to students of all levels from every background. 

Robbie Cook
Vinyasa Yoga
This class will focus on a well-rounded asana practice.  Starting with simple breathing exercises (Pranayama) and moving into sun salutes to build heat, we will examine various standing poses, paying close attention to alignment and sequencing between the postures. After preparing the joints of the body in the upright postures we will move to seated postures to go even deeper into the bodies’ possibilities. From beginning to end the goal of asana practice is to achieve a balance with extension, flexion, twisting and inversions to arrive with clear intention for seated meditation (Dhyana) before final relaxation (Savasana). 

Restorative Yoga
The focus of this class will be on the restorative aspects of Yoga practice. Moving slower in and out of postures while using pranayama (breathing exercises) to guide all the movements, which helps to calm the nervous system, while also restoring and renewing the body after a lot of dancing, in order to bring balance.  Some poses will be held longer in order to unwind the hips, back, ankles and shoulders as well as the mind. A short meditation will also be included as well as a long savasana (final relaxation). 

Teena Marie Custer
Hip Hop
This beginning/intermediate level class will introduce students to the foundational vocabulary of street dances that originated in the 70’s during the birth of the hip hop culture, and remain under the umbrella of hip hop dance today.  Each class will be an introduction to the technique behind styles such as locking, popping, b-boying/b-girling, house, and various social dances. Students will also be exposed to how these techniques are used in commercial and theatrical hip hop choreography, as well as freestyling. 

James Frazier and Guests
Open Showings
In Open Showings students share choreography for the purpose of receiving feedback.  The Workshops are moderated by James Frazier and include a rotation of guest artists, who offer comments along with other observers.  Presenting in Open Showings is required for inclusion in the Student Concert. 

Courtney Harris
Ballet
In this class, students will practice the fundamental concepts of the Classical ballet tradition, while grounding classwork through anatomical awareness that considers each student’s unique facility. Classes are designed to build core strength and standing leg support that then becomes transferable to a range of dynamic movement possibilities. Breath, lyricism, phrasing, full-bodied integration, and personal expression are emphasized with the intention of connecting students to the joys of movement exploration. 

Ishmael Houston-Jones, Curt Haworth and Yvonne Meier
Improv Jams
Saturdays from 8 til 11 PM
Practice your Improvisation skills with musicians and dancers from the ADF community. Jams are led by the Improvisation Strategies teachers. 

A jam is an open improvisation.

A jam is an opportunity to play, to research, to experiment, to express, to work it out, to connect with others. 

A jam is a different kind of working space. It’s not a class, not a rehearsal, not a performance, but some kind of fusion space that combines all of these. In a jam, we soften the distinctions between learning, inventing, playing, and expressing. We allow the dancing body to provoke other kinds of logic and intelligence.

The jam is a creative space governed by mutual respect and awareness. Dancing alone, in duets, in small and large groups, in silence, and with music, we stretch our understanding and potential.

Yangkeun Kim
Healing Techniques
Injury on dancers often takes place when full stretching has not been carried rather than out of physical movements. Dancers need to warm up with stretching prior to starting to dance, along with the strengthening of muscular power at its preparatory stage. This study aims at inquiring into how dancers can produce an aerobic exercise effect on physical and muscular power intensification by using bands as a light load for a long time.  Furthermore, bands can be widely used inasmuch as they provide the best convenience, effect and safety than any other tools or bare hands. In addition, bands have a good effect on the prevention of injury from excessive stretching as their elastic cord elasticity is utilized. Bands have been used for strengthening muscular power and improving elasticity by rehabilitation departments and athletes.  Warming-up of dancers using bands by taking advantage of their merits may lead a dancer to achieve muscular power intensification and elasticity, being of help to the prevention of injury from excessive stretching.

Amanda Miller
Ballet
Class description coming soon!

Musician Workshops
ADF also features workshops taught by the world-class ADF musicians. These change from year to year, but in the past have included music technology, pairing music with choreography, music resources for dancers, music copyright issues, drumming ensembles for dancers, and rhythm/movement patterns based on rhythmic languages from India.

Pam Pietro
Pilates based Body Practices
A mindful approach to gaining a deeper understanding of cross-training that coincides with the daily ritual of taking technique class. With the individual dancer in mind, we will consider each class as a movement laboratory focusing on strengthening, opening and aligning the body in preparation to perform a variety dance forms. All classes are based off of Pilates Matwork, Kinesiology, Anatomy/Physiology and the Irene Dowd Principles.