Ground Work
Fall in love with falling

Train and experiment low, inverted and off-balance. Fall in love with falling. Begin with a thorough warm up and partner practice to build strength, structural instincts and control in relationship to the ground. Discover new pathways and conquer old fears moving in and through all planes. Knee pads are recommended.


Partnering
power and leverage, frame and grip

Gravity and levity, weight-sharing, power and leverage, frame and grip, rhythm and momentum, velocity and suspension. Practice through the training of common and uncommon skills, learning repertory and improvisational structures, generating material together to enhance strength, timing, precision, communication and performance.


Integration
Pool all of your resources and dance

Investigating approaches to the act of motion, the creative process and performance. Engage in energetic, somatic and hands-on experiments to generate sensation. Explore improvisation in solo and contact realms to discover new ideas with spontaneity and clarity of intention. Navigate groundwork and motion techniques to ignite and inform physical intelligence, power and three-dimensional range. Learn and create material to quicken the mind and fine tune the body. Give and receive feedback to articulate a language for action and reaction. Pool all of your resources and dance.



Kathleen Hermesdorf
Kathleen Hermesdorf is a dance maker, performer, improviser, teacher & organiser based in San Francisco since 1991. She has been a member of Bebe Miller Company (2006 BESSIE), Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (1999 IZZIE) & Contraband/Sara Shelton Mann, co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells (1994 GOLDIE) and has collaborated extensively with Stephanie Maher. She has many awards, reviews, interesting artistic associates and a BFA and MFA in Dance Performance & Pedagogy. With musician Albert Mathias, she directs la ALTERNATIVA, an apparatus for deeply integrated motive & sonic stimulus via collaboration, creation, improvisation & exchange. The work manifests in performance, production, commission & programming, and the company is in residence at KUNST-STOFF arts and in association with ODC School & Theater. Alternative Conservatory is a modular, mobile, intensive & immersive international training ground in dance & related forms.
www.la-alternativa.us