SEATTLE FESTIVAL OF DANCE + IMPROVISATION
DROP-INS
SEATTLE FESTIVAL OF DANCE + IMPROVISATION
DROP-INS
JULY 14 – AUG 11
$20 single class | $10 jams
All levels of the Performance Cohort classes, as well as open-level Research Week classes and intensives are open for drop-ins or a la carte intensive purchase. We suggest pre-registration, but in-person walk-up registration will be available when space allows. Check the calendar below for all drop-in classes, or scroll below for intensives.
INTENSIVES
Can’t take the full Research Week? Choose your own adventure by registering for intensives a la carte. We suggest pre-registration, but in-person walk-up registration will be available when space allows. Learn more and register below!
ANYA CLOUD + MAKISIG AKIN
A Queer High-Risk Love Practice
MIDDAY 5-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $500
The core of this contact improvisation workshop is a queer love centered survival practice of time travel/communion/habitat/performance/ritual where everything deserves to breathe. Drawing from our individual and collective identities, CI research, and choreographic research we dive into the possibilities of what rigorous and playful contact improvisation can be. We will work with different qualities/types of touch, intention and impact, technical skill building, falling and falling together, bonding/grappling/napping/fainting, soul shaking practices, professing love, failure, and hot sweaty dancing. We will work in different constellations including solo, duet, trio, small group, and whole group. We will take on contact improvisation as a generous and high-risk practice. We will build skills for navigating around that which has potential to be fatal. We will work with a kind of bonding that is only possible through bathing in one another’s sweat. We will keep re-inventing ways to be wet and pleased. The central questions of our research are: What can we do together that we cannot do alone? How many ways can we move – move with – be moved by – each other? What is possible when love is stronger than fear?
We will practice taking care as we traverse the complex realities of being racialized and gendered bodies in relationship with one another. This will be a queer, trans, and BIPoC centered space.
Photo of the artists by Tim Richards
JODY KUEHNER AKA CHERDONNA SHINATRA
No Noise
MIDDAY 5-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $500
Within our own creative process, how can we attune to our personal inspirations and impulses without all the noise? I’m finding the importance of rigorous mindfulness, relating to how our internal landscape supports our external landscape as well as our physical body. In this workshop we will be focusing on the creative process as enhanced by mindfulness, meditation, play, and present moment possibilities. We will debunk predictions, pull some tarot cards, laugh, eat a snack, talk about our obsessions and our intrigues. We’ll move somatically, improvisationally, rhythmically, and experimentally with and without noise. We will discuss recent developments in neuroscience that help us to understand how the brain processes pain and anxiety through the body. This scientific knowledge helps reinforce the power of mindfulness practices and lays the groundwork for self-compassion to enter one’s practice. If we intentionally create a state of wellbeing this week, what kind of work is possible? In this workshop there will be room for solo investigation and time to create some material to take with you.
Photo of the artist by Jenny May Peterson.
TERE O'CONNOR
MOVING MEANING
MIDDAY 5-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $500
The political, cultural and social temperature of the present, together with elements such as personal history, that of the performers, human behavior and everything else, converge in my dances to shape the dense choreographic constellations I create. The nature of consciousness is unruly and fragmentary yet in our daily lives we are fueled by an unrealistic organizational mania. My work harnesses both qualities and favors neither. I make dances to advocate for the interrelatedness of all things and to give vision to the specific music of their relativity. I look to dance as a location of freedom, where specifics are melted into the illusory and dogma is eroded by the unending fountain of pluralism at the center of dance. The capaciousness of dance has taught me how to learn.
In this workshop, we will consider how movement and its manipulation can bring us to meaning production. What lurks behind the sign systems of body and shape that we can use to create layered choreographic statements? We will make work daily and use the material to examine foundational questions about where information emanates from in movement-based choreographies. What are we “reading” from a dance and how can we shape this? Central to this examination will be the use of time-sculpting, using velocity as a tool for making.
How can meaning be stable when time is constantly running forward. We will apply these questions into our work.
Photo of Tere’s choreographic work by Maria Bartanova
SHANNON STEWART
not about thing
MORNING 4-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $400
In “not about thing,” we will move, write, watch, listen, and probably have some discussions sitting in a circle–as happens in workshops, unless we figure out how to break the circle, if we feel it needs to be broken. We will look at how language and movement come together to create multiple layers of identity, resisting the constant pressure to have to be one thing, to work in one lane, or be limited by how we are categorized. We will unpack histories, put disparate things next to each other, and be kind to our discomfort and playful with the parts that don’t fit. We will “solve” some problems through sweating it out together, potentially lip syncing riot grrl songs, recreating post modern dances described by chat GPT, or whatever else is called forth into the space.
Photo of the artist by Jingzi Zhao
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PE Workshops
MORNING 4-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $300
Each day of the Physical Education Workshop will be taught by a different member of P.E.
MON, Aug 5 | Curiosity Collection
with Allie Hankins
Allie is invested in the non-linear development of ideas when it comes to making performances. She tries to stay present with desire and dive into whatever strikes her fancy in the moment. So, let’s gather in a studio and briefly celebrate studio practices. We will likely dance/improvise, sing, write some things down, document things to revisit at some future time, and have some conversations. The workshop will continue to take shape between now and August and will be informed by Allie’s experiences dancing with ensembles, her step-aerobics expertise, her recent singing lessons, and her curiosities and where they meet yours.
TUE, Aug 6 | ~intricate tension~
with Lu Yim
In this class you can expect something slow, specific, and introverted as we explore a threshold between practice and performance. I will be guiding the class through somatic scores and pathways, based on an interest in experiencing time as a spatially dysphoric/dynamic entity.
Together, we will take on the shape of an inverted funnel, attuning to almost-imperceptible expressions. We will play in a performative range that exists half-way under water.
Most of class will be performed at ground level, with touch and non-touch options available for each score.
WED, Aug 7 | Surrender and Agency
with Takahiro Yamamoto
This workshop introduces breathing exercises and solo and group improvisational movement practice that utilizes metaphysical/spiritual trust and the commitment to surrender. At the end, group discussion will be held to explore participants’ physical experiences in relationship to their personal backgrounds. The idea of ‘post memory’ will be discussed – delving into the interconnectivity of things that we don’t know, things that we physically experience, and things that we don’t articulate.
FRI, Aug 9 | divergent strategies 🙂
with keyon gaskin
Through guided personal explorations, group movement exercises and discussion; we will play with practices that explore the usefulness of our neuro/emotional-divergences, in our lives and performance making. Attempting to develop strategies that reframe our relationship to oft negatively coded aspects or hindrances like: anxiety, embarrassment, depression… Can we play with these aspects of our being and practices to use them to propel rather than stifle us and our making? All people interested in movement / performance welcome.
Photo of the artists by Mario Gallucci
HARUKO CROW NISHIMURA
Embodiment + Presence
EVENING 3-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $200
This class will hone attention deep into the body’s interior and we will learn to work with the states that emerge.
We will explore what it means to be moved when we let go of our individual will to manifest outer shapes and tune into our dances using the tools of somatic awareness.
It will explore what it means to be moved through deep listening and to
be guided by sound and specific imagery. We will surrender ourselves to the richness of our present moments. My training
is rooted in butoh dance, physical theater, improvisation and music.
We will practice tuning into how the space, our body’s subtle energies and our physical memories can move through us, heightening our internal listening and discovering what instincts we can entrust to go deeper. We will practice both playfulness as well as pushing ourselves to our edge.We will hone our embodiment and observation, bearing witness to each other’s discoveries. In addition to dancers and performers, creative and curious people from all walks of life are welcome including those with no movement experience.
Photo of the artist by Maria Baranova
BLACK COLLECTIVITY
A Practice of Return: Choreographing Archives
EVENING 3-DAY INTENSIVE | REGISTER À LA CARTE | $200
During this workshop, participants will be introduced to the physical and archival research from the creative work of Black Collectivity. The workshop will begin with exercises to activate the senses and warm the body, including movement meditations, task based and improvisational exercises, as well as rhythm centered explorations. Class will be informed by Black archival practices within the performance project A Practice of Return. Participants will use movement to investigate their responses to these practices. Finally we will experiment with collaborative choreography as a tool to hold stories and memories that live within the body.
Led by Black Collectivity Artists: Nia-Amina Minor, Akoiya Harris, marco farroni
Photo of the artists by Chloe Collyer
PAYMENTS + DEPOSITS + REFUNDS
PAYMENT OPTIONS
To reserve your spot for a drop-in class, click the register link and complete the form. Spots are first-come-first-served. To register a la carte you will pay in full, though let us know if you need to discuss a payment plan.
Please contact Shirley Wong, operations@velocitydancecenter.org, for any questions or clarifications about registration or payment.
REFUND POLICY
Velocity’s refund policies were created to offer as much flexibility to our community as possible, while still protecting SFD+I from risk and instability.
Drop-in registration is non-refundable.
The refund schedule for Ultimate SFD+I, Performance Cohorts, or Research Week is:
- Before June 19: All registration fees, less the $250 non-refundable deposit, are fully refundable for any reason.
- After June 19: All registration fees are 50% refundable for any reason.
- After your first class begins: All registration fees are non-refundable for any reason, including illness or injury.
The refund schedule for all a la carte intensives, workshops or classes (available after June 20) is:
- After you register: All registration fees are 50% refundable for any reason.
- After your first class begins: All registration fees are non-refundable for any reason, including illness or injury.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
ZOE | JUNIPER: IN PROCESS SHOWING
IN-PROCESS SHOWING: New Work by zoe | juniper & Xiu Xiu
July 19th, 7:30pm, Downtown Seattle
FREE RSVP to lilach@zoejuniper.org for the exact location.
This project is a collaboration with Xiu Xiu (Jamie Stewart and Hyunhye Set), directed by Zoe Scofield with dramaturg Mikhaela Mahony, Choreography by Zoe Scofield, set and visual design by Juniper Shuey, puppeteer Joe Seely and four stellar dancers. This piece is inspired by an experience of being falsely accused of sexual misconduct while being a survivor of sexual assault.
The piece examines the Crucible, the reversal of Roe vs Wade, the backlash against the MeToo movement, the insidiousness of patriarchy, and Jordan Peele’s horror films, and will be performed live by Xiu Xiu and dancers on Juniper’s sculptural set. Peele’s film and T.V. work turns racism into physical horror and like a monster in a horror film, the patriarchy mutates to survive. Currently, it has taken to co-opting the language of feminism and resistance, while stripping our rights away. Each time we lose more agency over our lives and our bodies, this project becomes more relevant.
Please join us for a first look into the beginnings of this work as we wrap up a week long residency in Seattle.
SHORT SHORTS | OPEN PERFORMANCE NIGHT
Short Shorts: Open Performance Night
18th & Union Tue, July 30 | 7:30PM
“Short Shorts” is an open stage for short performances in any live genre. It is a place to practice the art of performance, and test new work in front of an audience. We hope to foster a supportive environment where you feel you can experiment, play, & improvise, as well as perform something polished. You are welcome as a performer, an audience member, or both!”
The event is Pay-what-you-can. Doors at 7:15. Sign-up to perform at the door. Performances must be 5 mins or less, and must not harm yourself, others, or the space.
Contact us if you have questions: short.shorts.team@gmail.com, or @short__shorts__ on Instagram and Facebook
AMY O'NEAL: RESIDENCY SHOWING
Amy O’Neal Residency Showing
JUL 18 | 8pm BASE Experimental Arts + Space
TICKET RESERVATION
For this residency, Amy is researching her next evening length work Again, There is No Other: The Remix, which samples and reimagines concepts, movement, and experimental performance tropes from her body of work exploring societal constructs of race and gender. Merging practices from Black social dance culture and contemporary dance, she will explore with a multi racial and generational cast of femme identified dance artists to revisit and reinvent from her long history of performance making. She will spend the first week exploring new solo ideas sampling from previous solos and reconnecting with Ellie Sandstrom, who danced in her work with locust and AmyO/tinyrage 2000-2010. The second week, physically multi lingual movement artists Amaria Stern (LA), Nia-Amina Minor (Seattle), Annie Franklin (Chicago), and Tracey Wong (Seattle) will explore ideas from Amy’s previous works In the Fray (2010), The Most Innovative, Daring, and Original Dance/Performance You Will See this Decade (2012), Opposing Forces (2014), There is No Other (2015), Again, there is No Other (2016), A Trio (2019), and There is No Other (The Remix) (2021). What feels relevant now? What needs to stay in the past? Where do we go from here?
Space is limited– please reserve a free ticket in advance. Masks are encouraged, but not required at Base.