"Touching Into Text" workshop with Marissa Perel

CLASSCLASSCLASS 

presents

Marissa Perel

"Touching Into Text"

Saturdays, June 1 and June 8, 1-3pm

Description

This class will combine somatic awareness with reading to create an embodied approach to understanding language. For each class a short selection of text will be presented for reading and discussion. Through exercises that draw from various somatic practices, and experiments made up by the instructor and participants, the class will play with ways of feeling language; bringing words and their meanings into an intimate experiential sphere.

There is room in this class for contemplation, finding an individual pathway for movement and speech, and for giving space to the often daunting mind-body split. It’s possible that we will get emotional about language, that we will love or not love how some texts feel, and that we will invent radical interpretations of what we read. We will investigate who we are as bodies that are simultaneously reading and being read by others.

There is no level of ability, skill or virtuosity required for this class, except real investment in writing, reading, and taking your own body and the bodies of others seriously. Being able to listen to your body as it is reading and experimenting, and being sensitive to the processes of your peers is highly valued here. The desired outcome of this class is that participants find possibilities for integrating language and movement in their artistic processes.

The first hour of class will be a short meditation and relaxation exercise, followed by reading and discussion of the selected text. In the second hour of class, participants will find their own space in the room to investigate the text somatically, with exercises provided by the instructor and the participants. For the last hour, we will debrief on our investigations, and individually present our discoveries.

There will be guest facilitators and lecturers on specific class days coming from diverse fields of art, writing, cultural theory and criticism, poetry, music, science and healing arts practices who will either provide the selected texts, or lead discussions or experiments.

Texts will include selections from such writers as Gertrude Stein, Claire Bishop, Jack Halberstam, Dodie Bellamy, CA Conrad, David Wojnarowicz, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Camille Roy, Kim Jones, Yvonne Rainer, Amelia Jones, Peggy Phelan, Lucy Lippard, Laurie Weeks, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Roland Barthes, Carole Maso, kari edwards, Jill Johnston, Faith Wilding, Avital Ronell.

Marissa Perel bio:

I am an artist, writer, independent curator and editor whose work spans performance, video, installation, visual text, poetry and criticism. Recent work has been presented at Danspace Project, Golden gallery, Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, and Ontological-Hysteric Theater. I was co-curator of Movement Research Festival 2012: Push It. Real. Good, and co-editor of Critical Correspondence, for which I co-curated two Judson 50th Anniversary events at Judson Church and the New Museum. I write the column “Gimme Shelter: Performance Now” on the Art21 blog, and am a contributor to P-Club. B.A. Naropa University, M.F.A School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

marissaperel.com
thebodyofmarissaperel.blogspot.com
art21 blog

Admission: $8 per class

St. Nick's Alliance / Arts@Renaissance
2 Kingsland Avenue (at Maspeth Avenue), Garden Level, Brooklyn
L train to Graham Avenue (map/directions)

Wicca as somatic healing with dance artist iele paloumpis

New York Live Arts

presents

Shared Practice 

with 

iele paloumpis

Witchcraft – A Corporeal Practice

March 16 (1:30-3:30pm)

Third Floor Studios 

In Shared Practice workshops, Live Arts season artists share the physical and creative practices behind their work. Each process-focused session provides participants an opportunity to recharge their own artistry by experiencing different approaches to making and moving with similarly-motivated professionals. All classes are held on Saturdays throughout the season at New York Live Arts.

Witchcraft -- A Corporeal Practice

Over the past several months, changes in my health and body have shifted the ways I approach dance and daily life. Without concrete answers from doctors and various bodyworkers, I’ve been looking to Wiccan ritual as a somatic practice of integration, acceptance and healing. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how all bodies - whether elderly, disabled, or otherwise "different" - can enter into dance. For this Shared Practice, we will look to magical herbs, astrology and the lunar calendar, as well as our own unique and defiant bodies, to generate restorative movement. Come with an awareness of something you might like to shed, heal and/or embrace.

--iele paloumpis 

$15/class. Class size is limited. Advance purchase is recommended to guarantee a spot. Click here.

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Rebecca Brooks on the Alexander Technique [audio]

Rebecca admiring her niece's poise. Photo by Michael Kopald

Since opening my teaching studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in July, I have been thrilled to be able to devote so much of myself to teaching private lessons in the Alexander Technique. If you've come for a lesson, a class, or to just to visit, you know that the studio is a calm and lovely space, a truly uplifting environment. -- Rebecca Brooks

Click here for my interview 

with dance artist 

and Alexander Technique teacher

Rebecca Brooks (29:11)

Rebecca Brooks is a dance artist and Alexander Technique teacher based in New York City. Fundamental to her performance work is a commitment to developing sustainable practices that enhance conscious awareness for the performers and the public alike. Her teaching and art practices are integrally linked. Rebecca is an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher, having graduated in 2009 from Balance Arts Center. She teaches primarily out of her studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is on faculty at Movement Research, Balance Arts Center, and St. Margaret's House. She has also taught at CLASSCLASSCLASS and the Fieldston School in NYC, and at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. Aside from her work as a teacher, she is an active dancer, performer, and choreographer. She is currently dancing with luciana achugar, and other recent performance work includes projects with Marina Abramović, Maria Hassabi, Heather Kravas, Katy Pyle, Susan Rethorst, robbinschilds and Kathy Westwater. Rebecca’s own work has been presented throughout NYC. Co-founder, AUNTS; co-curator, Movement Research Festival Spring 2007: Reverence (Irreverence); Artistic Director, Rockbridge Artist Exchange.

Learn more about Rebecca's Alexander Technique classes and other projects at www.rebeccakelleybrooks.com.