|
For Application Process and Form, click here.
The Summer Stages Dance Workshop, which includes 40-50 advanced-level dance students and five emerging choreographers, lies at the heart of Summer Stages Dance’s programming. Led by an 10- to 15- member faculty drawn from the world’s premier contemporary companies, the program ranks among the most respected and innovative summer dance programs in the nation.
Held every July, the three-week workshop not only includes rigorous training in ballet, modern, improvisation, composition and repertory, but also offers an unprecedented opportunity for seasoned professionals, advanced level students and new choreographic talent to work together on the creation and performance of original new works.
“ After I graduated from The Boston Conservatory, I began to dance and teach professionally in the area, but unfortunately there aren't many places where one can take classes that are challenging and new . Summer Stages provides people like me with an amazing opportunity to learn from legendary master dance teachers. I have learned or re-learned dance techniques that are NOT offered anywhere in the Boston/Cambridge area.” — Jimena Bermejo, SSD Workshop Student, 2006
For Class/Performance Schedule, under construction.
Ballet (Richard Colton, Teri Weksler)
This class is a blend of ballet techniques, approached with strong musicality, and an emphasis on correct alignment and movement dynamics. The class covers the full range of ballet vocabulary, from the barre to center adagio and grand allegro. Students develop a strong sense of phrasing and an awareness of ballet as a vital foundation for all forms of dance.
Modern (Germaul Yusef Barnes)
This course focuses on the development of core strength, alignment, and artistic expression. Material is drawn from a diverse movement vocabulary to stimulate and develop the dancer’s techniue and kinesthetic imagination.
New Work and Reconstruction (Dan Wagoner)
This class is a unique opportunity to work with legendary choreographer and dancer Dan Wagoner who will be reconstructing three dances from his repertory and creating new work. The class will start with a short warm-up and move to the learning of this repertory. Special attention will be given to technical skills, alignment, movement quality, rhythmic understanding and an overall grasp of the aesthetics of each dance. The music for these dances covers a wide range: blue grass, country western, Shostakovich, Bartok, rags, Von Ubern, and Serge Prokofiev.
 Choreographers’ Project
Choreographer’s Project Fellows create a new work on a company of dancers selected from the Workshop. The Choreographers’ Project culminates in a public performance as part of the Choreographers’ Project Showcase.
Making Dances (Tere O’Connor)
Tere O'Connor has developed a method for teaching choreography, which grew organically out of his own auto-didactic research into the art form. Rejecting a "good/bad" paradigm, his desire is for artists to create problem-solving systems based on the structure of their own thought process and to rigorously pursue the "science" of their poetics. Through the daily creation of little dance works, the artist focuses his/her attention on developing an analytical eye for the fundamental metaphors in the work. The process involves locating, through a hyper-personal investigation, the seeds of a universal voice. To facilitate a method for developing a "vocabulary" and to extract meaning from it, a series of questions are posed. These are based on the emotional range in the body, internal music, dramatic
structure, history, culture, aesthetics and the inter-relatedness of these elements in a work. Time is spent considering the elision of personal reference with common human themes and the particular way in which these co-exist in dance. The goal is to gain the objectivity necessary to scrutinize the referential arena of one's work resulting in dances whose legibility is found in exactitude of structure - detached from denotative interpretation of "symbols".
 Delicious Movement(Eiko & Koma)
Eiko & Koma’s movement vocabulary, and compositional and performance techniques, which employ images, body articulation, floor work and transformation, are the common ground. Through personal digestion of the material, and of the improvisation and nonchalant partnership that supports it, participants are encouraged to acquire personal taste and flexible discipline to suit their
own moving body. Dancers will be guided on a series of exercises designed to increase skills and awareness in the areas of focus, coordination and stance.
 New Media/Technology (Nell Breyer, with Alissa Cardone, Lorraine Chapman, Bronwen MacArthur)
A workshop for students to generate solo works, focusing on the skilled use of new media/technology, collaboration and improvisation to extend and transform the experience of dance. We will explore a range of media that express, frame and extend the body in space (from dancers, sounds and lights, to cameras, projection and digital technologies).
Creative Technical Practice (Sara Rudner, Peggy Gould)
This is an introductory workshop in physical practice, theory and philosophy. Each participant will be encouraged to develop greater awareness of individual challenges, both structural and conceptual, which may in turn provide clues for solving technical problems. As technical issues arise, they will addressed from the anatomist’s point of view. Students will be engaged in the concepts of experiential or functional anatomy.
For more information on The Workshop at Summer Stages, call 978.402.2339. For application instructions, click here.
Curriculum details and faculty are subject to change without notice.
 |
“Summer Stages is indeed a familial feeling, both because it gathers diverse generations of dancers together with dignity and because it incubates artistic ambitions. Summer Stages encourages an intimate relationship with the larger dance world through their pre-performance rehearsals and post-show discussions, and it knits the local dance community closer together through its classes and concerts. If you haven't already, I encourage you to find how many ways you can fit into this community and discern the Summer Stages Dance difference for yourself.” — Karen Krolak, Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse and SSD Workshop participant, 2006 |
|
The Workshop: July 6-26, 2008
Repertory