Contemporary Technique
WHAT IS THIS CLASS

Old school technique class with new school questions. This is a warm-up for being a contemporary dance artist whatever that means. Real techniques, invented techniques, practising presence, practising hope, “releasing”, sweating, thinking, feeling, moving for no reason and finding out how. Exercises are boring but sometimes important. Phrases are patriarchal but sometimes fun. Smart movers make good art. I am the teacher and I will do what I can.


Ready for Anything
Performing with an Available Body

I always thought I was the kind of performer who felt comfortable doing anything on stage. And then a few years ago I ended up in a couple of different artist's pieces where I discovered that I still had many inhibitions and frustrating limitations. So I became interested in finding ways to push past this newly discovered layer of self-consciousness into another level of “fearlessness” as a performer. I have always been fascinated by the way in which perception plays the primary role in how we construct our identities as art-makers.

My interests in this workshop are to identify methods to effect transformation in other artists who are interested in challenging their perceptions of themselves as performers. I propose the following: to take advantage of the unique phenomenon of studio/class time to create a fertile space for experimentation, to vigorously warm up the body, voice and imagination, to coach you to move through your inhibitions and improvisation and performance habits into new choices and perceptions, to employ various fictions to create a framework for questioning “who we are,” to find ways of using and sophisticating all of your abilities to create a vital, energised performance practice. We will improvise a lot and work with some set movement and text that I will bring. This workshop is open to anyone.


Miguel Gutierrez
Miguel Gutierrez, a dance and music artist based in New York, has been called "one of our most provocative and necessary artistic voices" by Eva Yaa Asantewaa of Dance Magazine. He makes solo and group pieces with a variety of artists under the moniker Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. His work, characterised by the immersive quality of the attentive state that it imposes on the audience, centres around enduring philosophical questions about desire, longing and the search for meaning.

His work has toured internationally at several festivals and venues and has received support from Creative Capital, Jerome Foundation, Rockefeller MAP Fund NYFA, NEA and NPN. In 2010 he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and United States Artists. He is the winner of three New York Dance and Performance Bessie awards. "When You Rise Up", a book of his performance texts, is available from 53rd State Press. He also invented "Deep Aerobics", an absurdist workout for the radical in all of us. For his new project he is researching the overlapping and divergent conceptions of "mind" in the fields of neurology, embodied philosophy, somatic practices, improvisation and the paranormal.
www.miguelgutierrez.org