Update: Nina Martin will be teaching this weekend. Margaret Paek is unable to come due to illness.

This workshop is open to dancers with experience in contemporary dance, theatre, improvisation, and/or contact improvisation. Yoga, clowning and release technique are great too. After a short warm-up, we will explore Ensemble Thinking practice.

Times: Sat & Sun 11:30am-3pm.

"Ensemble Thinking (ET) is a system of collaborative group performance practices. These compositional exercises refine the individual’s ability to perceive, initiate, and support collective action." www.ensemblethinking.com

Open to standing or sitting (wheelchair) dancers. Dancing barefoot and in comfortable clothes that cover the knees and shoulders is recommended. Artist-parents are especially invited to register to Dancing the Parenting Workshop, Saturday May 12, 10-10:45am, same location. More info at http://foolishoperations.eventbrite.com.

Taught by Julie Lebel (Vancouver/Foolish Operations) and Nina Martin (USA/Lower Left). See bios below.

www.foolishoperations.org/about

www.lowerleft.org

Nina Martin’s (Lower Left co-founder) choreographic and improvisational work (Improvography) has been performed in Finland, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Venezuela, and the US including 17 years presenting her work while living in New York. Her choreography has received support from numerous sources including New York State Commission on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and seven choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Recently, she has received two Tommy’s (San Diego), an Irvine Foundation California Dancemaker Grant and collaborated with Shelley Senter and taught in Japan. Her work has been influenced by Elaine Summers, Mary Overlie, Trisha Brown, and Steve Paxton among other Post-Modern greats. Nina has performed with David Gordon Pick Up Company, Martha Clarke, Deborah Hay, and Simone Forti as well as being a founding member of Channel Z in New York. (see Sharing the Dance; Cynthia Novack.) Presently, Martin carves out a new dance destination in the wild west in Marfa, Texas.

Julie Lebel is a Vancouver based choreographer invested in community engaged dance and in interactions between public space and community. She graduated from UQAM with a bachelor degree in Dance in 1998 and is based in Vancouver since 2005. Her choreography was shown at Tangente in Montréal, Pulse at the Dance Centre in Vancouver, SKAMpede festival in Victoria and Series 8:08 Season Finale in Toronto. Julie's current projects are Tricoter, a short form solo for unusual spaces performed within a knitting circle and part of the new Des arts dehors program by Made in BC dance on Tour, Paper Playground, a creation for the very young premiered at the Surrey Children International Festival in May 2017, and the Foolish Operations Ensemble/Dancing the Parenting, an ongoing practice for parents dancing and performing with their young children. Julie is in the process of being certified in Ensemble Thinking under Nina Martin – Texas (a set of highly collaborative group composition tools). Her mentors are Karen Jamieson - Vancouver (embodied facilitation and Energy Body practice, 2012-2016), Patricia Reedy (Luna Dance Institute, CA, for her expertise in early years relationship based dance curriculum) and Kate Sutherland - Vancouver (group facilitation techniques, since 2014). Julie is the current Manager of Community Engagement at Made in BC – Dance on Tour. Foolish Operations Society (incorporated in the spring of 2016) is a not-for profit society dedicated to discovery and creation of dance experiences with artists and community. Foolishoperations.org

This project is supported by the Canada Council for the arts through a Travel Grant.