Upcoming Events
Pro Danza Italia World and Joy of Motion present a Choreography/ Improvisation intensive in Castiglioncello, Italy with Amy Chavasse, Sarah Konner and Peter Schmitz—part of a two week festival celebrating dance and dance making in Tuscany, July 8-13, 2013.
Week one- Workshop with Doug Yuell and Peter DiMuro, July 1-6 Week two- Workshop with Amy Chavasse, Sarah Konner and Peter Schmitz
The composition/improvisation workshop with Chavasse and Schmitz is geared for pre-professional dancers to seasoned choreographers and performing artists. Students will have the opportunity to create and show their work in a nourishing and supportive environment. The workshop offers a chance for dance educators to revitalize, re-examine, re-charge, and expand teaching methods, especially teachers of composition/improvisation. The act of creative research will be cultivated and valued.
Students may enroll for 1or 2 weeks
The Workshop- July 8-13
Composition/ Improvisation/ Movement Intentionality (Amy Chavasse and Peter Schmitz)
During these classes students will investigate movement and compositional questions within an improvisational framework…The attention of this rigorous, physical discipline of research- improvisation- will be from a sensorial foundation. Working in the technique of improvisation, participants will notice not only the emergence of evocative movement material but surprising responses to questions of compositional form and structure. Part of the challenge is discovering a way of remaining in an improvisational relationship to one’s body and mind while composing.
Program Cost $475 – covers all classes, sessions, welcome dinner and final performance.
Sign up by April 1, 2013 and save 15%!
photo- Steven Schreiber
Technique (Amy Chavasse)
Work in technique class will reflect a broad range of influences from contemporary technique while supporting ideas about collaboration, adventure, travel, story telling, and improvisation. Uncovering a wide range of textures and forces that can emerge within a few fleeting moments, promote questions like: how does the body hold and transmit conflicting messages? How can we animate our choices? How do we cultivate specificity and attention to detail with humor and imagination? Challenging assumptions about sequencing and habitual pathways offers inventive and unexpected movement qualities. It loosens our grip on branded or recognized results. Building extended phrases of idiosyncratic movement with both set and improvised material results in a physically, rhythmically, intellectually and creatively rich movement experience. The constant flux and exchange of doing and reflecting heightens awareness of compositional choices and delivers a big, fat wallop of dancing fun.
Yoga (Sarah Konner)
This practice combines movement, breath, and stillness -- balancing effort and letting go. In relation to our work as movers and makers, the yoga practice affords us a focused space of laboratory to deepen our understanding of the body, the mind, and our own relationship to the present moment. As artists, we can give ourselves space to practice deepening interest and sensitivity. Within the course of the week, we will focus on different anatomical and energetic pathways in the body, with an emphasis on postural alignment. If we're lucky, we'll unveil some useful information about how we move through our days and work inside our bodies and minds, meanwhile, enjoying some sweaty bliss of exertion. There is opportunity to create your own focus within the practice -- whether it's physical, mental, emotional, or energetic, we hope to find calm, awakeness, and clarity.
About the teachers…
Amy Chavasse, Associate Professor, choreographer, performer, educator, improviser, storyteller and Artistic Director of ChavasseDance&Performance joined the faculty at University of Michigan in 2006. She has been a guest artist/ faculty member at numerous institutions, including Middlebury College, Arizona State, Virginia Commonwealth, and University of NC School of the Arts. She has taught at Florence Summer Dance since 2007, and will teach an improvisation/ composition intensive with Peter Schmitz at ProDanza Italia, July 8-13, 2013 in Castiglioncello. She has taught internationally at Duncan 3.0 (Rome), the Beijing Dance Festival and the American Dance Festival/Henan (summer 2012). She teaches contemporary technique, composition, improvisation, repertory, Creative Process, and Social Issues in Dance. As Artistic Director of ChavasseDance&Performance, her work has been presented throughout the U.S. including Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out. Her work has been produced in Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, Vienna, and Cali, Colombia. She is dedicated to establishing international connections for her own creative projects and for her students and since arriving at UM, has successfully funded three residencies by Grupo Krapp- Buenos Aires, and ResExtensa Danza Teatro Danza- Bari, Italy. Collaborations for future projects with both Grupo Krapp and ResExtensa are ongoing. She’s danced in many companies and independent projects in NC, DC and NYC, including Bill Young/ Colleen Thomas, Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and collaborates with many artists including Donnell Oakley, Jessica Jolly, Peter Schmitz, Lisa Gonzales, Sarah Konner, Austin Selden, Caroline Chavasse, Paul Matteson, Elisa Barucchieri and Aidan Feldman. She received her BFA from the University of NC School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of Washington.
email:
chavasse@umich.edu
Sarah Konner is a yoga teacher, dancer, choreographer, and Pilates instructor. She found yoga early along her path as a dancer and fell in love with the practice as a tool for deepening understanding of the body, a stepping stone to meditation, and as a method to enhance our ability to focus clearly. As an artist, yoga is a wonderful gift for cultivating depth in experience, sensitivity, restraint, and presentness-- using the physical practice of asana to find metaphors to the way we live. Sarah has a BFA in Dance and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan. She received her Yoga 200hr RYT through Yoga Effects in 2008. She is also certified in Pilates through Power Pilates and the Kane School, and offers Pilates for injury rehabilitation. Sarah lives, teaches, and dances in Brooklyn, NY.
Peter B. Schmitz has been involved in the creative and performing arts for over 30 years. He has worked as a free-lance artist in dance, theatre, and film/video. As a dancer/collaborator Peter has worked with Amy Spencer/Richard Colton, Ann Carlson, Amy Chavasse, Wendy Woodson, Tamar Rogoff, Terry Creach and Yanira Castro, Paul Matteson among others. His choreographic work has been commissioned by professional companies through out the U.S, in Europe and recently in Turkey and supported through various grant agencies. He is currently living and working in NYC as an Equity Actor while maintaining performing commitments with numerous artists.
prodanzaitalia.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castiglioncello
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Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from the program, their housing and all meals and any transportation necessary while participating in Dance in Tuscany. Although all events and locations are in walking distance, buses also run frequently for a nominal fee if desired. Dance in Tuscany also has select arrangements with several hotels for your convenience.
Housing options
Three apartments at Piazza del Torre-
2 apts. for 4 persons and 1 bathrooms- 750 euro for 15 days
1 apt. for 7 persons and 2 bathrooms- 950 euro for 15 days.
For students considering attending 2 weeks of the festival, this is a good option. One week rentals available. Utilities included.
Recommended hotels in Castiglioncello: (most include breakfast)
Hotel Riviera
Hotel Atlantico
Elba Hotel- Rosignano ( a short bus or bike ride to the studio in Castiglioncello)
Booking.com has a full listing of lodging options in Castiglioncello
Students are responsible for transportation and accommodation costs
booking.com/
Participants are responsible for their airfare and travel arrangements. Pisa is the closest airport with an easy train commute from the Pisa airport to Pisa Central Station where you can take a train directly to Castiglioncello (about 35 minutes)
pisa-airport.com
Other options are flights to Florence, and train to Castiglioncello or Rome and a 2 _ hour train north to Castiglioncello.
Check the Trenitalia site for schedules and prices.
trenitalia.com
photo- Amy Chavasse