Photo by Frédérique Ménard-Aubino
October 13 – 15
Friday: 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 – 4:00 pm
Harbour Dancentre, 139 Bastion Street
Drop-in Available
This 3- day intensive is a residency workshop that will be divided into practice and creative process. Pulling from their practices of Open Source Forms and Action Theater (see practice descriptions below), Susanna Hood and Sarah Bild will guide participants through physical and sensory awakening of the body/mind to prepare for creative practice.
Inviting breath and imagery into the physical self, we will open ourselves to our physical and metaphorical environment and practice noticing, tending to and following creative impulses as they arise, opening a dialogue between inner experience and outer awareness. We will develop short studies, share them with the group and learn to speak about what we see.
How do we move from the playground of creativity, the free generating of material to creating meaning in performance? How does one impulse invite another? How do we give shape to those impulses? What are the structural possibilities at our disposal? How do we embody them for full expression? How do we frame them in space and time? These are questions we will investigate and experience.
Be sure to catch the artists in performance Saturday night, October 14, 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM as they put their practice to performance in Frying Pan #14 – A physical improvisation.
Learn more about the artists, Action Theatre and Open Source Forms
ACTION THEATER (the basics)
Action Theater is a unique form of improvisational theatre developed by the American
performance artist, Ruth Zaporah. Fundamental to the practice is an embodied presence in
performance, where the experiencing of the body informs the content of the moment, moment
by moment.
We work towards this embodiment through specifically guided improvisations focusing on
formal tools as well as more abstract imagery, on vocalizations and use of words. These playful
and rigorous exercises, which isolate and recombine movement, sound and language, broaden
our range of improvisational skills helping us to become open and creative in the present
moment. Always working from an embodied state, we develop spatial awareness and access to
our imagination, crafting creative impulses into clear images, stories and dreamscapes. This
technique turns the mind inside out, examines existing habits and opens up new possibilities.
Working in solos, duets, trios and as an ensemble, we bring attention to the details of our
physical choices, to the quality and range of our vocalizing. We approach speech and words as
physical actions in building narratives.
OPEN SOURCE FORMS (Basics)
OSF, founded by American dance artist and master teacher Stephanie Skura in 2008 is a fluid
expansion of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), developed as a revolutionary way of learning
by Joan Skinner in the 1960’s. The work focuses on the cross-fertilization of physical practice
and creative process. It is guided by the philosophy that the source of creativity and physical
wisdom is available in each of us and can be accessed through the shedding of limiting holding
patterns.
Classes draw on the fundamental, introductory-level OSF material. The pedagogy is web-like
and cumulative. Each session is unique and draws on modalities of touch, deep-state imagery,
alignment and coordination-focused physical explorations, vocal exploration and scores for
improvisation. The participant is offered practice tools that support resilient, ergonomically
aligned, dynamically supple, and spatially responsive physicality while engaging their deep
creative and imaginal capacities. The sessions promote experiential learning, allowing for the
timing of each individual’s process of discovery and integration, working both together and
alone within community.
Drop-in Available
Friday, October 13, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday, October 14 & 15, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Harbour Dancentre, 139 Bastion Street
3 Days: $150
Friday: $60
Saturday: $100
(Participation in Friday and/or Saturday is required to attend on Sunday)
Drop In pricing info: Sunday: $100