Teaching

My goal in teaching is for every participant to dance they way they love to dance, and to make performances they want to experience. Teaching is for me a reciprocally energizing necessity; it generates more energy and enthusiasm than just about anything else I do. In the classes, questions have experiential answers,  stillness and quiet are as valued as virtuosity and bold moves, and discriminating awareness imbues observation and action. (for History scroll to bottom)

 Course Descriptions

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO? WHERE DO YOU WANT TO DO IT?  FOR HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO DO IT? 
         
    Pick a place, decide what you want to do there, work on it, find out how long it takes to do it/ how long you want to do it.  Do it....maybe with video, maybe only for video, or the web, or the backyard or the corner, or ...  Get supportive critical feedback in an environment that values observation, analysis, articulation, and revision.


DANCE PARTY!!
     is an experience of dancing for anyone who wants to know her/his unique way of dancing.  It is a technique class based on what we love about moving: singing and dancing riotously or calmly; moving a lot or a little, all within a social field of inclusivity and attention. To up the game, we use suggestions about space, voice, time, energy, breathing, seeing, imagining, inner and outer stimuli, personal pleasure and parallel play.  Lots of great and sometimes cheesy music!


PERFORMANCE AND VIDEO (with Molly Davies)
         With multiple screens, cameras, mixing boards, set, lighting and movement scores, participants study various relationships of video, performance and place.  Students use cameras, are introduced to computer progamming for mixing live-feed and pre-recorded images, and design scores for movement and cameras.  This is a class for video artists, set designers, and all performance disciplines.


TECHNIQUE FOR WHAT?
     for dancing how you want to dance,  to extend your expressive repertoire,  to free your mind. Breathing exercises, vocalizations, intentional direction, release work, improvisation, alignment/efficiency practices and a variety of techniques for softening, lengthening, strengthening, opening and focusing. This is an eclectic class that provokes individual expression.

CONTEMPLATIVE DANCE FORM --3 hours/ originated by Barbara Dilley

Sitting meditation
Personal awareness practice
Sitting meditation
Open Space
Sitting meditation
Discussion

REPERTORY

Duet/Duet to Quintet
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Point of Rescue: 6,6,5,8,11
Count 25: 10,5,4,3,2,1
Dancing the Numbers: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13
Muscle Memories
She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain

CHOREOGRAPHY

Through the practice of "kinesthetic delight" (term coined by Barbara Dilley), singing, and working with scores to find movement preferences,  participants make movement structures (phrases, sequences, various kinds of movement modules) that are designed for their particular needs.

GESTURE: FORM AND FEELING

     What is a gesture? What is a movement? How do these begin and end? How are they followed, directed, transformed? How can rational structures or scores support the expression of emotion and imagination? The tool used is the score to Motley’s solo, Dancing the Numbers.

SINGING: BODY AND VOICE

     Singing to, with, and not-with music,  singing with and through the breaks in our voices,  singing with permission to sound anyway that feels good, singing solo and with others.  Singing in ways that might give new meaning to what singing is.  Singing to experience the range and happiness of our vocal chords and imagination. Working with techniques that are healthy and freeing.



Teaching History


2016 

Bennington College 
Vermont College Dance Festival/Middlebury College 
University of Vermont
Johnson State College
University of Houston
Open Dance Project/Hunter Center, Houston
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
                                 
2015  
University of Vermont  
Vermont College Dance Festival
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

2014  
Helen Day Art Center
CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont

2013-2010

CDFS,  Montpelier, Vermont
Shaw Hill Studio, Stowe, Vermont
Bailando Dance Festival, Corpus Christi, Texas

2009
CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont
River Arts Center, Morrisville, Vermont

2007

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Shaw Hill Studio, Stowe, VT

2006
Berkshire Ballet, Johnson, Vermont
Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas

2005
Movement Research, NYC
Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, TX

2004 
Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston
Movement Research, NYC

2003 
University of Colorado, Boulder
Texas Commision on the Arts, Calhoun County, TX

2002 
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia

2001 
Tulane University Dance Dept., New Orleans
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

2000 
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam
Matsuyama Prefect: Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, NYC
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany

1999 
MousonTurm, Frankfurt, Germany
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

1997-98
Dancespace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC

1997
Movement Research, NYC
University of Houston, Houston
Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT

1996
University of Houston, TX

1995 
Naropa University, Boulder, CO
Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder, CO
Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, Glenwood Springs, CO

1994

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, MA
Morishita Studios, Tokyo, Japan
Taman Ismael Masurki, Jakarta, Indonesia

1991-94
Naropa Institute, Boulder

1991
University of Colorado, Boulder
Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany

1988-90
Regis University, Denver

1986 
Colorado Council for Arts and Humanities/ Artist-in-the-Schools

1982-87
Loretto Heights College, Denver

1980-81
Space/Dance/Theater School, Houston

1979
Dallas Ballet Company 
Pitsburgh Ballet Company

1976-77 
University of Houston, Clear Lake City