Shamanic Improvised Presence
Improvisation and performance as potential shamanic action

A weekend experiment to investigate the relationship between improvised dance, performance and shamanism. Exercises and experiences in presence, transformation, breath, altered states of being, trance, awareness, ritual, and performance.
I have been studying ritual, both ancient and contemporary, for over 20 years. I recognize the many continuations and disruptions between religious practice and the Western concert stage. Shamanism, in a general usage, refers to the ritual/spiritual practices of working with unseen forces, of energy, of transforming space and time, of shifting meaning and perspective. Performance often engages the same intentions.
Throughout the weekend we will, in action and conversation, question the concept of Presence. What is it? How do we experience it? Can it be choreographed? What can we learn about presence through improvisation?



Keith Hennessy
Keith Hennessy is a Canadian-born performer, director and organizer living in San Francisco since 1982. Creating performances for theaters and streets, Keith’s work is marked by queerly evocative images, untamed physicality, and sharp political texts. He directs CIRCO ZERO, a diverse crew of circus and music artists working the fusion of spectacle, ritual, and action. Hennessy’s most recent choreography includes “SDF USA”, a performance poem about homeless despair, “Mercy”, an experimental circus with circus artists, dancers, and performers and “Chosen”, a solo performance by Hennessy which explores questions of fate, land, and identity through dance, rant/prayer and aerial action.

Keith has won numerous American awards and commissions for his collaborative work as a choreographer, performer, and organizer, besides international commissions from Les Subsistances (Lyon), Les Laboratoires (Aubervilliers) and La Villette (Paris). His work is discussed in the books “How To Make Dances in an Epidemic” (David Gere, U of Wisconson, 2004) and “Gay Ideas” (Richard Mohr, Beacon, 1992).

Keith’s solo work has been produced throughout the U.S., in Canada, Israel, New Zealand, France and Australia, including several gay and lesbian performance festivals. From 1998 to 2002 he performed with CAHIN-CAHA, cirque bâtard, a French/American, mongrel circus based in France. Keith was a member of the extreme performance collective CORE and a founding member of CONTRABAND, an award winning, internationally acclaimed dance/performance company directed by Sara Shelton Mann. From 1991 to 2003 Keith co-directed 848 Community Space, a thriving urban performance gallery. He has been teaching unique hybrids of performance, improvisation, circus, and public ritual for 20 years and has been on faculty at JFK University, University of San Francisco, Goddard College, and the New College of California. Keith is a member of Alternate ROOTS, a visionary service organization for community-based artists, and serves radical cultural agendas as a consultant, director, teacher, curator, and agitator. In 2003 Keith was intentionally arrested twice as part of the largest global mobilization for peace in world history.