ABOUT THE INTENSIVE
As an able-bodied dancer, I began doing mixed-ability dance work as a result of making a dance with two men who were blind (and their guide dogs!) in 2003. Even though I had for a long time followed the philosophy that all bodies move in beautiful and interesting ways, it wasn’t until after I made Sextet and started teaching mixed-ability classes that I began to see more clearly the need for ongoing inclusive dance classes in Austin. People with all kinds of bodies—both with disabilities and without—need a place to gather and move together.
In 2010, Forklift Danceworks and VSA Texas partnered to present Body Shift—our first-ever weekend intensive in mixed-ability dance. This inaugural weekend was a huge success, so much so that we have expanded the program by offering monthly Saturday classes as well. If you attended last year’s workshop, have come to a Saturday class, or are entirely new to this work, I welcome you to Body Shift 2011.
I envision a dance community for Austin in which people with all kinds of bodies participate in classes and perform publicly on a regular basis. Mixed-ability dance challenges an art form that is led predominantly by non-disabled artists; my hope is that Body Shift will help to create an environment that empowers people with and without disabilities to fully embrace dance as their own, and that it will promote the idea that all kinds of bodies have a place in contemporary dance.
We have once again gathered an outstanding group of faculty members for this weekend’s workshop who have much expertise in inclusive dance work. Each has her/his own unique perspective on teaching and we have formed the weekend’s schedule based on what they are most eager to teach. I encourage you to take every single minute of class!
Thank you so much for your interest in inclusive, mixed-ability dance and I look forward to dancing with you at Body Shift.
— Allison Orr, Artistic Director of Forklift Danceworks
REGISTRATION AND OTHER DETAILS
View a PDF of the entire schedule »
Cost
Each class is $15 | Entire weekend is $60-70 (sliding scale)
Filtered water provided, but please bring your own water bottle.
Class size is limited. Registration deadline: Monday, October 10th
Registration
Register here for the entire weekend or a single class »
Walk-up classes are $15. Walk-up students will be allowed into class on a space-available basis. We highly recommend that you register in advance, even for a single class. Checks/Cash/Credit cards are accepted at the door.
Location
Classes will take place at Galaxy Dance Studio on Friday and Saturday and Anna Hiss Gym on the UT Campus on Sunday—accessible facilities located in central/south Austin.
Galaxy Dance Studios
1700 South Lamar, Suite 338
Austin, TX 78704
Galaxy Dance Studios is located at the rear of Lamar Center. Look for for the blue and white “Galaxy” sign in the stack of business signs on the west side of Lamar (YogaYoga is also one of the businesses). Located on the 3, 5, and 331 bus routes.
Anna Hiss Gym
Wichita & Dean Keeton Streets
University of Texas Campus
Austin, TX 78712
Access to the entrance of Anna Hiss is on the terminating end of Wichita, south of the intersection with Dean Keeton. Pass through an open breezeway to reach this terminating end of Wichita. Located on the 1, 5, and 22 bus routes, among several others.
FACULTY BIOS
Laurie Ellington has been living, loving and breathing dance for the past 15 years. Her passions include Contact Improvisation, Ecstatic Dance, Authentic Movement, Contemplative Dance and Meditation. She has studied, taught, and danced worldwide. She received her International DanceAbility Teacher Certification in 2010 and performed at ImpulzTanz Festival that same year. In her teaching, Laurie uses sensitivity, openness, and curiosity to investigate different states of awareness; inviting and enticing participants to go beyond their edge; discovering new and insightful ways of being in the moment and moving from that place.
Tom Giebink has been passionately involved with Contact Improvisation since 1984. Tom has studied, performed and collaborated with the founders and leading practitioners of the form, including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Scott Smith, Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson and many others in thousands of dances over the decades of his dancing CI. Tom has been involved in mixed-ability dance since 1988 during the early years of DanceAbility development by Alito Alessi and Karen Nelson. From 1992-95 he lead mixed-ability dance arts development workshops on Vashon Island, WA. He also collaborated with wheel chair dancer/choreographer Charlene Curtiss (Light Motion Dance Co./Seattle) from 1995-97, and taught classes at Austin’s Marnie Paul Arts Center for three years.
Julie Nathanielsz currently directs The Meeting Point, which began life engaging real-time ensemble (music and dance) performance, and continues to evolve new directions in choreography. Her work has been recognized by the Austin Critics’ Table, and presented by Fusebox Festival, Musical Bridges Around the World, the Blanton Museum, and the American Dance Therapy Association, as the keynote performance for its 2008 conference. Julie has taught at Austin Community College and University of Texas, and independently, leading workshops for Grrl Action, Sisters Midwifery, Performing the World, among others. Her teaching is deeply influenced by a physical practice woven from studies in instant composition, meditation, Body Mind Centering, and Skinner Releasing.
Olivia O’Hare is a theatre artist, dancer, and pilates instructor who completed coursework toward the PhD in Performance as Public Practice at UT where she focused on movement theory and analysis of contact improvisational dance and DanceAbility. She has performed and worked with numerous Austin-based groups including Improvisational Movement Project, Actual Lives Austin, and Cliff Diver Productions and runs a private practice, Pilates by Olivia.
Allison Orr is Artistic Director of Forklift Danceworks and is known for her inventive dances that include all kinds of people—from Elvis impersonators to maintenance men, sanitation workers to Venetian gondoliers. Sextet, which featured two trained dancers and two men who were visually impaired and their guide dogs, was chosen by the Austin Critics’ Table as 2003’s Most Outstanding Short Work of Dance. As a teacher, Allison has taught a wide variety of students, including children, adults over 65, and people with disabilities. In 2005 she received a commendation for her work with visually impaired people from the City of Austin Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities. Allison has an MFA in Choreography and Performance and is a Professor of Dance at Austin Community College.
Michele Owens, one of five dance educators in the nation chosen for the NEA’s 1993 Artcorps Program, believes in the universal power of dance to touch people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. This drives her dance residency projects in the public schools, such as Wings, which involves students with disabilities from Crockett High School who tour and perform in the schools. Michele, with Wings, was the featured artist for the 2005 Dance for the Planet festival. Michele is also Director of Austin’s only modern dance school for children at Café Dance, on faculty at the Performing Arts School at Zachary Scott Theater, and a VSA Texas teaching artist.
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This project is funded and supported in part by the Puffin Foundation, City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.