WORKING ON THINGS

I often have a very eclectic approach in my teaching, swiftly swimming between different approaches and ways of moving.

A lot of what i do relates to acquiring and perfecting skill.

I am wired to practice and perfect and usually I am drawn to my weaknesses rather than to my strengths.  Through all this practicing I find all kinds of helps and techniques to transmit these skills to others. I give a lot of care to the execution of things, a lot of awareness and attention.  The actress in me is also very interested in the HOW we do things ( rather than the WHAT ). What does this communicate? How do I change the expression of this movement? Is this what I want to communicate or express?

 

For many years I have been exposed to the teaching of Martin Kilvady, who uses open form ( meaning one uses their own movements, we don’t learn set material for example ) to explore dance material and to become more eloquent in the art of dancing. This teaching offers a tremendous expansion of movement vocabulary. It creates a lot of awareness of what is happening where and when in the body. It gives freedom because we can do more, feel more.

We use our sensations to observe and work with our habits etc,…  It requires a concentrated type of approach and is very physical. 

 

Along this improvisation kind of work, I love to share my repertory. One of the things I appreciate so much in dance is how it communicates on a non-verbal level. We can understand it through another channel of communication. I therefore love to share All the dancephrases and choreographies I have specifically created for others choreographers ) or for others  or in my own work.  These choreographies range from full phrases to a sequence of short movements to even one single movement. These are choreographies I love and they feel good.

 

Lastly I am very interested in acting and theater and offer all kinds of exercises and tools in this domain.

I like to challenge dancers with speaking on stage, make them observe how they and others speak in daily life, play with inventing characters and moving out of our comfort zone.

 
The workshop is in collaboration with Danscentrum Stockholm

examples of scores and exercices are:

open dancing, hyper isolation, climbing, slow smooth steady caligraphy, moving through all asanas or all forms, moving through all levels  (floor-middle level -one leg/upper level), what is moving-what is not moving? , the burn, light and easy, slowmotion, turning,... set material: snaky, articulated, turning material, spirals, phrases with counts, airy fairy phrases, repertory, floor patterns. 

performing: acting exercices, scene-work, character work, speaking on stage,...

all of these exercices enveloped in heavenly, teenage, hiphop, french, classical, and all kinds of music!

Photo: Bart Grietens