Class Class
Imitation, invention, re-actionism and devotion

This class will work on the class form as art object. Using all our experience as class takers we will become class makers, paying attention to choices of form and content as potential meaning generators. Using each other as students we will explore the performative position of teacher, student and of the transmitted information. Language choices, voice modulation, style of transmission, identity of "studio", teacher attire, general ambiance, time framing, invented and existing techniques will be implicated as well as the over-all rhythm of the object. Imitation, invention, re-actionism and devotion are all welcome starting points. More creative and compositional than pedagogic, this workshop address itself to dancers who feel comfortable improvising and shifting roles from teacher to student fluidly.



FAT (Fake Art Therapy)

Attention: this event is not really fake, definitely not therapy and the art part is up for grabs.

In this workshop we practise small group performances (2-4 people) wherein the performance terrain is displaced from the stage towards the sensation of one body.
Using the real somatic knowledge and concentration skills picked up along the way of practising dance we will develop performance scores that address the esthetic experience of one audience member (whom we will also be from time to time).
The spectacular aspects of the medical, beauty care and body work environments are possible starting places for our performance practices. The generally assumed passivity of the spectator will be magnified in this situation and allow it to deepen its intensity. We can solicit a place of deep active attention (thinking) that arises from relaxation and passivity. What kind of "content" can be addressed in this situation? Until what point can we continue to construct our performances from purely formal issues? As we proceed with these performances we will try to continue to make art, not just nice experiences.
IMPORTANT: As therapy assumes a pathology that needs fixing or resolving, we are definitely NOT doing therapy. That being said, here is our code of ethical conduct within the context of this workshop:

- We will assume the basic wholeness of our audience members and not try to fix them
- We will take the idea of transformation implied in the performance experience and try to bring it closer to the surface
- We will take the imperative to "consider the public" literally
- We will examine the entertainment value of care taking
- We will make performances that will be deeply reassuring while constantly shifting the experience of identity within the audience members body

This form will allow us to play doctor and at the same time investigate and shake up performance tropes, what could be more fun?
Please do not take this workshop if you have difficulties being touched or difficulties with communicating safe personal boundaries.


Jennifer Lacey
Jennifer Lacey is choreographer/dancer from New York presently living in Paris. Her training and performance experience in New york had a wide range, from 5 years with the Randy Warshaw Dance Company to more experimental and improvistional works of Yvonne Meier and Jennifer Monson . She has been presenting work worldwide since 1991 at venues including P.S. 122, the Kitchen, the Klapstuk Festival, the Vienna Festwochen, ImPulsTanz, Tate Britian Danças na Cidade, the Bienale de Lyon, Montpellier Danse, Big Torino, Tanzquartier Wien, Centre Pompidou, Kyoto Arts Center, the Kaiitheater a.o.
Since her arrival in France in 2000 she has been able to develop in depth her tendency to interrogate the methods of dance production and their relationship to product and form, arriving at work that is often but not always performative.

In the last 10 years, Jennifer Lacey has worked often in collaboration with visual artist Nadia Lauro producing performances and installations. Their last production "Les Assistantes" is currently touring. At present Lacey is collaborating with Antonija Livingstone on a new piece for the Avignon Festival. As far afield from traditional dance performance as the work often goes, Lacey is commited to her essential point of view as a dancer and strives to produce a thinking body of work in which poetics transcend a conceptual basis.

She has taught technique, improvisation, compostion etc. all over the globe for the last 15 years in institutions, studios and festivals. As a teacher Lacey has been influenced by her continuing studies with release technique pioneer Joan Skinner as well as her interest in yoga and Qi Gong. Her teaching, emphasises the form through sensation and action as well as the relationship between process and product. She is currently overseeing the Essaies programme at the Centre National de la Dance in Angers.