June 16 to 20, 2025
9:30 am to 12:30 pm (Mon-Fri)
Full week: $95 (taxes included)
Drop-in: $28 (available one month prior)
Language of instruction: English and French
Questions can be asked in English and French.
Yves, a saxophonist, will join us in the studio:
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
This professional workshop is supported by the Conseil de la formation continue Arts et Culture de Montréal (CFC), with the financial participation of the Government of Quebec through the Intervention-Compétences program.
CATEGORY
OBJECTIVE
This workshop is curious about the topic of improvisation. Participants should expect intentional, contextual, and technical prompts to explore improvisation. These will be the entry point for our practical engagement with the improvisation questions – how? And why? – and hopefully inspire a dialogue and rich exchange regarding respective dance traditions and/or cultures, contexts, aesthetics, and values of those in the room.
CONTENT
As said above, participants should expect intentional, contextual, and technical prompts to explore improvisation. These are inspired by facilitator experience and research. There will be dialogue through dance and verbal exchange.
Participants should expect to practice and walk away with strategies and ideas to transfer into their improvising practice.
| Workshop Pace | Workshop Features |
| Variable Fast Adaptable to the group’s needs | Intense emotional work Visual support (i.e., documentation, texts…) Short verbal applications Exercises are adaptable Subgroups exercises Physical contact between participants Floor work Jumps and shocks Cardio exercises Standing up for a long time High music or sound level |
BIOGRAPHY
Alanna Kraaijeveld
Alanna Kraaijeveld is a dance artist. Her approach values collaboration and context. She is curious about how specificity of relationship has potential to motivate intention, movement, and meaning. She studies improvisation, and is compelled by its dynamic capability. Furthermore, she makes space for both plainness and blurriness in her art.
Yves Charuest
Yves Charuest has been active since the 1980s on the Canadian jazz and improvised music scene, playing with many Canadian musicians such as Michel Ratté, Jean Beaudet, Lisle Ellis, Jean Derome and Pierre Cartier and more recently with Nicolas Caloia, Lori Freedman and Sam Shalabi among others.
Improv very well guided and inclusive. This allowed me to understand myself when I freestyle in a cypher. I feel more free and skilled.
— Sybille
