TECHNICAL INSTINCTS

Each class will begin by honoring foundational elements we share through dance practices – stretched legs, deep breaths, timing, and coordination – and then challenge those same pieces by using them to connect not just to time and space, but to partners as well. Professional technical training spends time tuning our courage so that we are confident in the repeated material we execute. Now, we are ready to tune curiosity. Both ways of working are in service of getting dancers to an honest place. And nothing is more honest than sweating in a room with others that have the same intentions.

 

We will start each session with Bartenieff fundamentals to warm-up. Then partner up quickly to put those strength training pathways into action by connecting weighted pelvis and soft joints low to the ground. We’ll then work our way to mid-level through quadruped actions, bracing, falling, and catching. Then we’ll move through space while standing with action items that run throughout the room. After all these activations, we begin again by layering in the human work: eye contact, pausing, listening, and tension. We will pass through productive arguments, dismantling hierarchy, and motivated empathy, all to map a new framework of discipline through improvisation.
 
Photo by Hope Youngblood 

 

Paul Singh (he/him) is a dance artist, choreographer, and educator living in New York City. He earned his BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois, USA. He has danced for Gerald Casel, Risa Jaroslow, Will Rawls, Phantom Limb Company, Stephanie Batten Bland, Douglas Dunn, Christopher Williams, Kathy Westwater, Faye Driscoll, and was featured in the inaugural cast of Punchdrunk’s NYC debut of Sleep No More. While abroad, he was a dancer in Peter Sellars’ opera The Indian Queen (Madrid), as well as Peter Pleyer’s large-scale improvisation work Visible Undercurrent (Berlin). Paul has had his own work shown at multiple venues in NYC, Berlin, and in 2004 his solo piece Stutter was presented at the Kennedy Center. Paul has taught contact improvisation (CI) around the world, and currently teaches varied technique classes (floorwork, CI, contemporary partnering) for Movement Research, Sarah Lawrence College, and The Juilliard School. In 2021, he began his role as Artistic Associate at Baryshnikov Arts Center.