COVID-19 Protocols: TDT strongly encourages wearing a mask while at Winchester Street Theatre, but it is not required. Please do not attend in-person classes if you have a fever or are experiencing any other symptoms of COVID-19, have tested positive for COVID-19 within 10 days of the class, or have been in close contact with someone suspected or confirmed of having COVID-19.

About the class
This contemporary technique class prepares participants to work with both scored improvisational tasks and set movement sequences, prioritising both the individual and the collective movements of the room. This class invites dancers to work with an awareness of the perpetual changes occurring in mind, body, emotion and energy while negotiating movement tasks and movement sequences. There is an underlying emphasis on creative problem solving and functional anatomy. This class privileges how our way of thinking about our bodies creates a felt sense in the body that is malleable through practice.

Improvisatory Scores
The improvisatory scores propose systems of support from inside and outside of the body, invite the articulation of both joints and flesh, and activate the mind as a catalyst for shifts in sensation and perception. The scores incrementally layer movement strategies while attending to how bodies are made and shaped through practice and culture (individual and shared). Guided improvisation is an opportunity for dancers to invoke the imaginary as a practical tool to actualize movement and interpretive states previously unrealized.

Set Movement Exercises and Movement Sequences
The class progresses with set exercises that incrementally move from the horizontal (floor work) to the vertical plane (standing work and air bound action) and encourages another application of the opening score’s propositions. With an openness to the possibility of functional anatomical change, the structured material invites dancers to explore precisely how and when their bodies are activated into movement. The set exercises are intended to offer dancers a structure for exploring multiple approaches and entry points to the material by prioritising the notion that there is “no one way” to work with movement. The content of the set movement/movement sequences is derived from an amalgam of movement modalities including: Bartenieff Fundamentals, Release-based technique(s), Mobility training, Inversions, Image-based improvisation, and social line dancing.

In this class, guided improvisation and set movement become containers for attention. They are strategies for remaining present, feeling the senses work in concert, and becoming attuned to the perpetual and dynamic negotiations within our body and the space we share.