Partnering
structured situations and personal discovery

Train in partnerships both improvisational and composed with a focus on full range – basic to virtuosic, abstract to dramatic and experiential to expressive. Approach partnering from four directions – energetic and somatic work to awaken sensation, articulation and efficiency; Contact Improvisation for instinctual, intelligent and imaginative responses to shared touch, weight and composition; techniques in levity, leverage, frame, grip and phrasing for power, precision and communication skills; and repertory and creative investigations to filter the information through set material, structured situations and personal discovery.




Kathleen Hermesdorf
Kathleen Hermesdorf is a San Francisco-based dance artist known for a sensate, feral and mercurial style of motion, creation and performance as well as depth, presence and range in the collaborative company work of her mentors - Margaret Jenkins (1993-99/1999 IZZY Award), Sara Shelton Mann/Contraband (1994-present) and Bebe Miller (2002-present/2006 Bessie Award). With musician Albert Mathias, she directs MOTIONLAB (www.motion-lab.net), creating work of deeply integrated dance and music that is vigorously intertwined and viscerally transmitted. They produce events for the stage, club and studio, offer training throughout the US and are on the faculty of ODC School (www.odcschool.org). Hermesdorf has collaborated with Stephanie Maher in Berlin since 1997 and she co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells, sharing a 1994 GOLDIE Award. She holds a BFA and MFA in Dance Performance & Pedagogy and teaches and creates throughout the US and Europe. She is the recipient of a 2005/06 CHIME Grant with Brenda Way via the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, a 2006/07 San Francisco Arts Commission and continuing support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.