When: 18-22nd July 2011
The teacher: Kathleen Hermesdorf
Kathleen Hermesdorf is a dance maker, performer, improviser, teacher & organiser based in San Francisco since 1991. She has been a member of Bebe Miller Company (2006 BESSIE), Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (1999 IZZIE) & Contraband/Sara Shelton Mann, co-directed Hermesdorf & Wells Dance Company with Scott Wells (1994 GOLDIE) and has collaborated extensively with Stephanie Maher. She has many awards, reviews, interesting artistic associates and a BFA and MFA in Dance Performance & Pedagogy. With musician Albert Mathias, she directs la ALTERNATIVA, an apparatus for deeply integrated motive & sonic stimulus via collaboration, creation, improvisation & exchange. The work manifests in performance, production, commission & programming, and the company is in residence at KUNST-STOFF arts and in association with ODC School & Theater. Alternative Conservatory is a modular, mobile, intensive & immersive international training ground in dance & related forms.
www.la-alternativa.us
The workshop: G.U.T. Techniques
A general unified theory of the act of motion from internal impulse to external expression, motivated from the gut (centre), requiring guts (courage/instinct) and translating to good & possession. The practice organises a hybrid of ideas to encourage deep awareness, understanding and impetus of the moving & performing body. The work is a progression of somatic investigation, energy cultivation, hands-on instigation, improvisation, technical & mechanical experiments, methods of falling, flying & inversion and 3-dimensional phrase-work. The class is an intimate & animated arena for exploration, amplifying sensate virtuosity, kinetic efficiency, interactive intelligence, creative instinct and physical stamina.
© Domenico Giustino
(I’m in the background of that photo somewhere…)
My verdict: This workshop was a spirited way to begin ImpulsTanz. Bopping away to the likes of Lhasa and White Strips, Kathleen’s class was an engaging mixture of inversion and countered forces within the body.
Beginning with a warm up inspired by Qigong, we balanced masculine and feminine energies in the body which not only centered the body, but unified the energy of the individual’s in the room.
Short improvised phrases accross the room dictated by a single parameter, Kathleen’s class progressed through a series of inversions, which my sense of balance can’t quite get the hang of. It’s something I believe to be coming more and more into dance – the savvy dancer will practice going upside down, working the cogs of the body and being comfortable in such a position.
If Kathleen’s class were a recipe, it would be a whipped, spicy number with a twist. Intoxicating to consume with an unusual play on the tastebuds. In short though, it leaves you wanting more…
Anyone want to fly me to San Francisco?