Dance New Amsterdam & Bill Shannon present an innovative dance workshop, TRANSLATIONS , evolving individualized disability based movement into a new dance lexicon.
The following is from Dance New Amsterdam, which is not affiliated with United Spinal Association. It is posted here for informational purposes only.
Translations
April 18th
Hours: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway
$125 (register by Monday, April 8th Monday and get a 15% discount: $106)
To Apply: Contact Florence Baratay at fbaratay@dnadance.org (212) 625-8369 Ext 205
Dance New Amsterdam is seeking up to 12 independent-living, intellectually rigorous, physically active adults with disabilities to participate in a new 1-day dance vocabulary workshop called Translations, created and facilitated by Bill Shannon, happening at Dance New Amsterdam on April 18th. Participants must be willing to take risks and complete assigned readings before the day of the workshop.
Translations is designed to promote experimentation with movement and language development for adults with physical disabilities. Translations was developed by Bill Shannon in reaction to the realization that able-bodied forms of dance dominate the aesthetics and staging of disabled dance as a field. Shannon felt that for disabled dancers with radically different bodies and modalities to endeavor to recreate historically able bodied forms was missing something. Translations poses several important questions: What is a true disability-based dance form that might hold the test of time? Does the disabled body inherently negate the notion of one classic dance form? If there exists no classic form for disabled people as a whole, might there be a disability specific process for creating and defining a personal classic form that could be shared with like disabled dancers? These questions define the focus of the workshop as each participant develops a well-defined and highly personalized dance vocabulary via a process of translation and framing provided by the facilitator, Bill Shannon.
Translations opens with a focus on the establishment of a conceptual framework, within which meaningful physical exploration and experimentation can take place. This first section includes a lecture presentation on methods and concepts surrounding dance, disability and creative sources for movement. Following the introductory lecture the floor will be opened up for a short group discussion of the concepts presented. Then, a video screening of select contemporary dance companies in the mixed ability field will be presented for more group discussion and critique. This section will end with an individual assignment for each workshop participant. While participants are working on their assignments, individual attention will be given to each participant’s process by Shannon .
The second half of Translations begins with each individual informally presenting their results from the assignment. Following the individual presentations, the group will discuss any issues that arose from the process. The group will then breakout into smaller work groups, where participants can share their ideas and movements. Finally, each small group will be expected to create a short performance to present to the other groups by the end of the day. Time permitting, the final small group work will be critiqued.
Bill Shannon has created an entire classification of movement on crutches, rooted in an early childhood history of playing on crutches and simply wanting to get around. The disability based crutch technique, born of necessity, and created to achieve small goals, expanded into a full-fledged performance dance, combining influences from his upbringing including: skateboarding, breakdancing, house dancing, slapstick references and others. Bill’s career successes include: dance performance, dance competition, performance art, visual art and multi-media cross-disciplinary investigations into the root of form and the nature of audience, specifically as it relates to motion.
