Dance Improvisation with Alvin Collantes and Colleen Snell

Join Colleen and Alvin on this deep-dive into dance improvisation. Practice spontaneous movement to train, connect and enjoy!

This 4-session masterclass will run from 10am-11:30am (EST) on Thursdays, once per week from March 24th-April 14, 2022. It will be an international collaboration between Alvin Collantes (Berlin/Israel) and Colleen Snell (Canada). Alvin and Colleen will create prompts for one another, inspired by their long-time study and practice of improvisation as a form, to challenge new discoveries for all participants. Each week we will alternate who is leading the class (Alvin, Colleen, Alvin, Colleen). The primary purpose of the class will be to engage in this dialogue not only conceptually, but in an embodied way.

As we dance we will move from impulse, learn to trust our instincts and tune into our senses. We will draw inspiration from our habits, be curious as we challenge them and open up a wide range of dynamic qualities. We will explore techniques and approaches to encourage specificity in movement.

Each class will begin with a warm up and guiding question. We will then experience a series of dance improvisation tasks, culminating in group reflection and feedback.

*Recommended for movers with 5+ years of training, 18 years of age and older.

What you will need:

– Zoom access and a webcam

– Writing implements (pens, pencils, erasers)

– Paper (notebook recommended)

– Loose clothing for movement, water bottle

– A space to move (enough room to lie down in, and stand up without touching the ceiling)

Section 1: ALVIN LEADS, responding to Colleen’s question

Section 2: COLLEEN LEADS, responding to Alvin’s question

Section 3: ALVIN LEADS, responding to Colleen’s question

Section 4: COLLEEN LEADS, responding to Alvin’s question

* The course is subsidized by Frog in Hand to be under $12 per class! Thanks to our funder, the City of Mississauga, for making this low rate possible.

History

Our first season of Dance Improvisation was held in Winter 2021 and our second season of Dance Improvisation was held in Spring 2021 on Zoom with a group of talented and explorative folks of different artistic backgrounds. They were guided through opening their senses, structures and techniques for improvisation, scores, site-specific work, and developing improvised dance.

If you have any questions about this class, please contact us.

About Alvin

Alvin facilitates a dance floor meditation session called “Dose of Pleasure” that empowers humans to make impactful change by harnessing the power of groove and cultivating the pleasure body. Guided through sensational poetry and super groovy music, the session is for you to release the tension and recharge your batteries so we can remember who we are.

The online livestream sessions gathered a community of dancers all over the world including Australia, Canada, The Philippines, Mexico and Germany. When restrictions loosened in Berlin, Alvin hosted sessions at Tempelhofer Feld (a former DDR Airport located in the city centre), which gathered 100-150 dancers with social distancing per session. This movement has been featured in Nike X Zalando Winter Campaign, ARTE TV, Vice Germany, iHeartBerlin and DW News. This movement has been awarded a special grant by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

For more information: www.alvincollantes.com/doseofpleasure

About Colleen

Colleen works with a broad range of movement organizations as an educator, choreographer, collaborator, outside eye, fight director and performer. She co-founded site-specific dance-theatre company Frog in Hand in 2012. Colleen devises and performs collaborative work with musicians, poets, actors, fight directors, visual artists and martial artists. Choreographic commissions include Stories in the Woods (2021/2019), Toronto Fringe (2018, 2019, 2020), Block Party (2017), Creature (2016), Springboard Danse (2015) and Guelph Dance Festival (2015, 2016). As a dancer Colleen has created roles with Dancemakers, TOES for Dance, Transcendance Project and Alysa Pires. In England she completed a Masters Degree at the London Contemporary Dance School. An avid bilingual arts educator, Colleen is committed to developing and sharing cultural capital with diverse learners. She is devoted to improvisation as a vehicle for discovery, training, sparking creativity and tuning into the present moment.