Postworkshop | 26. August - 1. September 2002
Contact/ Improvisation/ Performance
Through the years of studio practice, teaching, and performing; my work has emerged as an ongoing process of attending to my experience while moving, bringing to consciousness and articulating the myriad ways the senses bring perceptions into the body. As new discoveries arise, they become my current fascination, thus guiding me in developing a vocabulary of movement states, options for response, compositional tools, and ways of seeing. I apply this evolving sensitivity to making performance. For me, performing is an act of faith in the power of the body with all its humanity, vulnerability, sensitivity, intelligence, and passion to speak out and offer knowledge and a vision of a way to survive and to thrive in the face of our most dubious future." My aim is to share some of the physical discoveries I have made and through this offer one model of an approach toward exploring movement and making dances. We will use developmental movement as a base. The work can be arbitrarily divided into two areas: 1. Explorations of movement in response to perceptions arising in the tissues of the body: touch, weight, force, center, and stretch. These explorations are drawn from Contact Improvisation. 2. Exploration of movement in response to vision: ways to use the eyes, perceptions of space. The day will be divided into two work sessions with a break in between.
DANIEL LEPKOFF
DANIEL LEPKOFF's work is rooted in an exploration of physical sensation and the body's response to its environment. This research has led to a practice of improvisation as a performance form and a way of seeing. Daniel was a central figure with Steve Paxton and others in the development of Contact Improvisation since its first public showing in 1972. He has been active in developing both the teaching and performance practice of Contact Improvisation, exposing this work for the first time to audiences across the United States and Europe. In the '80's in New York, Daniel performed in the works of Trisha Brown, Mary Overlie, Judy Padow, and Nancy Topf among others, and created his own solo and group work. He has collaborated with improvisational performing groups. Freelance Dance: (Daniel Lepkoff, Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Christina Svane) and the NY performance ensemble Channel-Z: (Paul Langland, Daniel Lepkoff, Diane Madden, Nina Martin, Stephen Petronio, Randy Warshaw) as well as duet collaborations with artists Paul Langland, Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton, and others. He is one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC. He travels extensively, performing and teaching throughout the United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, and South American.