[CI-Announce] summer intensive training

[Ray Schwartz]

The Zen Monkey Project
Summer 2000 Intensive Training.
9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Monday thru Friday
June 12-30
Cost:  $450 (U.S.)

Come join Katharine Birdsall, Ray Eliot Schwartz, and members of the Zen 
Monkey Project for three weeks of Body-Mind Centering, Alexander Technique, 
Contact Improvisation, Release Technique, Vocabulary, Improvisation, and 
Public Performance.

Since its inception in 1995, the Zen Monkey Project has been consistently 
exploring the boundaries of somatic movement education and contemporary 
dance forms.  Their style is rigorous, experimental, and alive.  
Investigating the body, developing dynamic presence, and supporting 
curiosity are hallmarks of their distinctive synthesis.

The curriculum will include:

Body-Mind Centering (BMC):
BMC is a creative approach to embodiment and movement re-education.  Its 
principles guide the student on a journey towards understanding the powerful 
wisdom contained within the substance of the human body as well as how this 
substance is expressed through fundamental patterns of movement.

Alexander Technique:   We will explore methods of freeing the body/mind from 
postural sets, thus leading us away from the inertia of habit and towards a 
way of being with ourselves; one which is responsive rather than than 
reactive.  We will have the opportunity to step out of the technique classes 
which ask us to approach learning through the repetition of form and into a 
world which offers refreshment in the everyday movements of standing, 
sitting, lying down, and squatting.  We will also investigate the work of 
anthropologist Raymond Dart whose developmental movement patterns were 
adopted by F.M. Alexander.  The patterns consider movement from an 
evolutionary point of view.

Contact Improvisation:  Contact Improvisation is about becoming a conscious 
mover while creating partnerships with yourself, your environment, and 
others.  Our time will be spent developing the basic principles of the form; 
with special attention to warming up into the dance, rolling in and out of 
the floor, following the point of contact, and weight sharing.

Technique: Daily class integrating comprehensive warm-ups, phrases, and 
dynamic movement through space.

Vocabulary:  We will use several methods to create individual, original 
dancing languages.  These include Authentic Movement, writing, recognition 
of content during improvisation, building phrases from dynamic physical 
states, and using text and/or music as source material.

Improvisation:  How do we balance the internal focus of kinesthetic 
experience with a generous and fully aware sense of what is going on around 
us?  Particular attention will be paid to differentiating "behaving" from 
"composing".  We will gain experience in qualitative variance as well as the 
ability to make clear choices in relation to content, time, and space.

Public Performance:  Students will have an opportunity to present work to 
the Charlottesville community made prior to or during the workshop on the 
final weekend in a "loft" style performance space with basic technical 
support.


About Charlottesville and the New Dance Space:
The New Dance Space is located on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, a 
pedestrian mall designed by Lawrence Halprin, the husband of dance pioneer 
Anna Halprin, and the architect responsible for the FDR Memorial in 
Washington, D.C.  The Mall is a vibrant cross-section of populations and 
personalities which becomes even more lively in the summer. A "cafe" 
ambiance and an incredibly warm community make hanging out not only a 
pleasure but a fascinating show.  Charlottesville itself is nestled in the 
foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, 20 minutes from the natural beauty of 
the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive and home to the  University of Virginia 
and Thomas Jefferson's other architectural delight, Monticello.

The faculty:

Ray Eliot Schwartz is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer.  He is a 
graduate of both the North Carolina School of the Arts and Virginia 
Commonwealth University.  He is a certified practitioner of Body-Mind 
Centering and a founding member of Steve's House Dance Collective, the Zen 
Monkey Project, and THEM. He travels extensively facilitating and studying 
awareness and movement arts.  Most recently he has been an instructor at 
Columbia College for Women, Hollins University, Middlebury College, The 
Governor's School for  the Arts, and The Bates Dance Festival. He will be 
teaching and performing in Europe this Spring as well as continuing to work 
with the Zen Monkey Project and in private practice as a somatic educator.

Katharine Birdsall receieved her her B.A. in dance at Tisch School of the 
Arts at NYU in 1991, and became a certified teacher of the Alexander 
Technique in 1996.  She has taught internationally and has had creative work 
presented in New York City, New Hampshire, Florida, Belgium, Masachusetts, 
North Carolina, and throughout Virginia.  Her performing career has spanned 
the broad range of concert and experimental dance.  This includes many roles 
in classical ballets and original roles in the work of Lisa DiRibere and Ben 
Harkarvy.  In the realm of modern dance, Katharine has performed the work of 
Deborah Jowitt, Lynda Tarnay, David Parsons, BeBe Miller, David Hurwith, Ray 
Eliot Schwartz, Savitri Durkee, Jenifer Clark, Lyndsey Rockwell, and Rachel 
Shaw.  As an inproviser she has performed extensively on her own, as well as 
with ZMP, Felice Wolfzahn, Sycamore, Ann Law, and Tara Mooser.  She has also 
danced full seasons with Quiessence Dance in Washington D.C. and with Miki 
Liszt Dance Co. in Charlottesville.  Katharines's teaching is informed by 
her studies of Contact Improvisation, Skinner Releasing, Klien Technique, 
Alexander Technique, Zero Balancing, Ballet, Authentic Movement, Yoga, and 
Tai Chi.  She has been mostly devoted to developing and researching the 
dancing process at New Dance Space and with the Zen Monkey Project since 
1994.


Students are responsible for their own housing; June is a good month to 
sublet here. Currently there is an option for free housing, get in touch for 
details.
For more information or to register for the training please call (804) 
295-7856
or E-mail us at Ray987@hotmail.com

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