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Workshop Intensive Descriptions and Biographies
Gaby Agis (23 Sept)
Skinner Release Technique is an image-based technique about shedding outer layers to find primal grace, power, economy & intensity, and ultimately, ones own process.
Biography Gaby Agis is one of the pioneers of collaborative performance in Britain, working with leading artists of her generation from other disciplines in galleries, museums and theatres. She founded Gaby Agis & Company in 1985 and the artists she has worked with are Turner Prize nominee Isaac Julien, sculptors Kate Blacker and Cornelia Parker, composers David Sylvian and Gavin Bryars, architects Muf, and the director Atom Eyogan. In 2000 she was commissioned to choreograph a piece for the Royal Opening of the Millennium Bridge, and her recent works include Explict Faith performed at LSO St. Luke's in 2003, and Touch Un-Sited, which was performed as part of the celebrations for Architecture Week 2005. Her wider involvements include Falling Wide, the Ripe Nights seasons at the Union Chapel, artist discussions for the South Bank Centre, and numerous curatorial roles at Chisenhale Dance Space. Since 1993 Gaby has taught the Skinner Releasing Tecnique throughout Europe, and annually at the Skinner Releasing summer program in Seattle.
Dinah Siman (28 Oct)
The workshop will cover Pilates inspired exercises on the Swiss ball for aerobic fitness, core stability, spinal mobility and co-ordination. After this more lively start we will progress to a movement sequence to enhance individual myofascial awareness. We will then work through a number of Gyrokenesis(R) exercises which come from the Gyrotonic(R) programme, giving an introduction to this unique movement system.
Biography Dinah Siman has been teaching movement classes for 26 years, devoting the last 9 of these to Pilates, Franklin Method, Chi Ball Method and most recently Gyrotonic(R).
Susan Schell (9 Dec)
COLLABORATIONS WITH THE UNKNOWN: Authentic Movement is a form that assists both movers and witnesses in deepening their attention to the moment. It provides the individual the means to discern the motivation and origin of their own impulses and cultivates the discipline and trust necessary to follow them. In its sparseness, it allows us to engage in the interplay between receiving and responding, assumption and awareness, being and doing. It is truly a form that fits all and can serve as both a foundation and a springboard for many kinds of creative expression. After moving, there is often time given for drawing, writing or verbal exchange as well as the possibility of re-inhabiting any movement material that was particularly compelling. Coming to know ourselves, both as movers and witnesses, develops our abilities to listen evermore closely to the subtle weave that gives us ground.
Biography Susan Schell has taught and performed dance throughout the US and abroad. Her work is deeply influenced by her extensive study of Contact Improvisation, Action Theater and Authentic Movement, which has included collaborative projects with many innovators in the field of improvisational dance. She has been on the faculty of several programs for the study of Authentic Movement and has periodically served as adjunct faculty in dance at the University of Maine. She has been a contributing editor for A Moving Journal, a publication exploring themes related to the practice and study of Authentic Movement. She lives with her husband and two sons in Chesterville, Maine.