May 28 – June 1st + June 4-8. 2:30 to 6:00 pm.
Contemporary choreographer, dancer, and artistic director George Stamos received his BA in choreography and improvisation from the School For New Dance Development in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and has 20 years of professional experience in the contemporary dance world as a dancer and a choreographer.
George’s choreographic work has been presented by Agora de la danse, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, Performance Space 122, Joyce SoHo, Studio 303, Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Live Art Dance Productions, Canada Dance Festival, Fluid Festival, Tangente, LSPU Hall, Dancemakers’ Centre for Creation, Dancing on the Edge Festival, Vancouver International Dance Festival, Harbourfront Centre, and various other arts organizations. He currently dances with Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata, a contemporary African dance company in Montréal.
Participants will be guided in ways to improvise by depositing their weight, projecting lines of energy through their body and into space, using initiation points for sequential movement, shifting quickly from one energetic mode to another, and being rhythmical. They will be encouraged to think about movement as its own language, and given tools to articulate their “body-talk” to deliver clear statements full of personality and choice. In discussions, participants will be asked to consider what larger issues (sexual and class politics, for example) a given performance situation evokes, and encouraged to develop a critical eye on what we present as dance and how we move or decide not to move.
The workshop atmosphere will be collaborative and may include sound and costume experiments. There will be a lot of moving, exchanges of ideas, and plays.
