Shamanic Improvised Presence
Improvisation and performance as potential shamanic action

An 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 recognise 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, of communicating with the dead or not-human. Performance often engages the same intentions. Each day 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? What is magic? What is the role of presence in making magic, provoking transformation, or sensing the Other worlds?


QUEER!
(Un)Dancing representations of gender and sexuality

Queer means odd or strange. Queer is a term of political solidarity for all who are not heterosexual, monogamous, and obedient. Queer is a political and aesthetic strategy of disruption and disobedience. Queer is an attitude towards the body, especially its sex and gender, and how that body is or is not compliant with social norms and rules. Queer is shameless emobodiment of abject, animal, monster, cyborg, feminist, or homosexual. Queer is an alchemical detournement of insult and slander, of violence and rejection. Queer embraces social disruption in favour of sexual liberation, and that includes in the theatre, as well as in the streets, the family, the school and beyond. When queer is dangerous it also transgresses ethnic, racial, and national borders. Queer performance is a utopian fantasia. It fails, but it fails fabulously.

How can we dance queer? How is dance already queer? How does our dancing body and choreographic mind reproduce the simplest of binary roles for man and woman? How can we fuck with that? We will dance and play, improvise and compose. Sometimes we will work directly with gesture, action, movement vocabulary, physical attitude. Other times we will work with dialogue, discourse, image, and intervention. Each class will include brief critiques of ImPulsTanz performances from a queer-feminist-postfeminist perspective.




Keith Hennessy
Keith Hennessy is a performer, choreographer, teacher and organiser. He was born in Canada, lives in San Francisco and tours internationally. His interdisciplinary research engages improvisation, ritual and public action as tools for investigating political realities. Recent awards include a NY Bessie (2009), two Isadora Duncan Awards (2009), the SF Bay Guardian’s Goldie (2007) the Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship in Dance (2005). Hennessy directs ZERO PERFORMANCE, and was a member of the collaborative performance companies: Contraband (85-94), CORE (95-98), and Cahin-caha, cirque bâtard (98-02). Recent works include "Auf den Tisch!" with Meg Stuart, "Delinquent", a work with young adults investigating juvenile crime and punishment, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and "Crotch", a solo performance developed at L’Arsenic in Lausanne, and presented internationally. Keith's recent teaching includes University of California (Davis), University of Dance & Circus (Stockholm), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Touch & Play Festival (Berlin), Ponderosa (Stolzenhagen), Tanzfabrik (Berlin) and American Dance Festival (Durham). Hennessy is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at UC Davis.
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