Dancing the Wild Symphony: An Embodied Exploration into How the Sounds of Nature Move Us

Dancing the Wild Symphony: An Embodied Exploration into How the Sounds of Nature Move Us

 

Dancer Christina Stout will be facilitating a 4-day experiential movement workshop, called Dancing the Wild Symphony: An Embodied Exploration into How the Sounds of the Nature Move Us.

The workshop runs August 23-26th and is in connection with Confluence Gallery's "Music as Muse" exhibit in the Methow Valley, Washington. This workshop marks the culmination of a year of focused art-making, dance, and performance training for Christina. All levels of dance experience are welcomed, but some history of embodied movement practice will be quite helpful. The workshop does not cost any money; the value exchange is your sincere commitment to all workshop times and the culminating performance at Confluence Gallery. 

Out-of-town participants are welcomed to camp on Christina's property along the Twisp River, very near to the workshop locations. Please fill out the registration form below in the body of an email and return it to Christina at christinastout36@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact her directly by email or telephone at 509.997.0484 if you would like to participate and have questions. 

Christina Stout is a lifelong dancer who makes her home in the Methow Valley. Having grown up doing ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theater, she discovered modern dance in college, then performing professionally as a fire dancer and toured in a ritual theater troupe. Her current movement explorations, training, and projects continue to take her toward the experimental. She has had the opportunity to study intensively with--and is currently influenced by the work of Anna Halprin, Jennifer Monson, Ralph Lemon, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Luciana Achugar, and Bebe Miller. Her motivation as an artist is rooted in the exploration and expression of the human being's inherence and generative role within the more-than-human earth community. 

Workshop Focus:

In this 4-day workshop, our aim is to allow the other-than-human music of the natural world to move us and move through us in unexpected ways. We will use group, partner, and individual explorations and experiments to begin moving beyond our habitual perceptual and movement patterns in order to facilitate embodied relationship, personal process, and develop expressive material for our culminating performance. The principle of synaesthesia will bring greater dimensionality and complexity to the way we perceive and experience relationship between self and other, dancer and musician, mover and moved, performer and audience. We will tune our sensing bodies to the crescendo of the dawn chorus in an aspen grove--where we will do the majority of our movement research, we'll also spend time in the studio developing our material, and finally enact our movement score during a short performance installation in the Confluence Gallery. Our material will arise through an eclectic mix of movement research techniques, improvisational dance exercises, and soul-centric and nature awareness practices. We will enact our score in the Confluence Gallery for the closing reception of the upcoming exhibit "Music as Muse" on Friday, August 26th, at 6pm. The value exchange for the workshop is your sincere commitment to all workshop times and the culminating performance. Limited camping available for out-of-town participants. Registration form below. 

 Workshop Schedule:

Check-in/Welcome: Tuesday, August 23rd, 5-5:30pm

Workshop:

Tuesday, August 23rd, 5:30pm-8:00pm

Wednesday, August 24th, 6am-4pm (generous lunch break)

Thursday, August 25th, 6am-10am and 4-8pm

Friday, August 26th, 10am-2pm

Performance: 6pm on Friday, August 26th

Closing Circle: Friday, August 26th at 7pm

Registration Form:

Name:

Mailing Address:

Email:

Telephone:

Emergency Contact (Name, relationship, and phone number):

The questions below are an opportunity for you to place yourself inside of the context of our work and begin your journey-- imaginally, autobiographically, and practically. Through reading your responses, I can begin to attune myself to each participant and the group as a living being and gather resources for our dance-making. Thank you for your sincere responses; they will be read with great care and consideration.

What interests you about this workshop? Any expectations, hopes, or fears you can name?

What is your dance/movement/somatic/expressive arts experience?

How do you feel about getting up early to experience the dawn chorus outside in an ecologically diverse location two days in a row?

What is your performance experience? How does your body feel when you imagine being a part of an improvisational performance installation in an art gallery? 

Do you feel that you have the inner resources to stay present in the group as you move through any challenging emotions that arise throughout the workshop, including during the performance?

Can you commit to all workshop times including the performance?

Our workshop times overlap with some typical mealtimes. We will take breaks to eat and rest. Is there anything particular you would like me to consider when planning our breaks/schedule?

Anything else about yourself or your current personal edges right now that may be helpful for me to know or that you might need to give some particular attention to during our time together?

Any allergies, physical, or medical conditions that may shape your participation in the workshop?

Where you will be coming from? Would you like to carpool? As a driver or passenger?

Do you need any help with accommodations? Would you like to camp on our land? If so, do you have a tent, tiny house, camper, or RV?

Do you have a place in your home to host an out-of-town participant for the duration of the workshop?

Would you be interested in volunteering on either end of the workshop with set-up and break-down or other behind-the-scenes tasks?

Please cut and paste this form into a new email and return it to christinastout36@gmail.com. 

I look forward to dancing with you!

--

Whatever we do,
that is a prayer--

for our lives,
for the earth.