May 1 to 5, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Services Québec support / 320$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 22$ with Service Québec / 66$ if non-eligible 
Language of instruction: English
Capacity: 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

* Payment by credit card or e-transfer on site the morning of, if capacity allows (no reservations).

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
Combining interdisciplinary art-making with historical indigenous context, Indigenous Island seeks to provide context for settlement sites, burial practices and long term land grievances connected to the city of Montreal. Drawing on research from the development of “Stone and Bone Spectacular” for Centaur Theatre, Talking Treaties Collective’s “A Treaty Guide for Torontonians and the Canadian Centre for Architecture “Visibly Iroquoian” exhibit, participants are guided through a deep delve into the visual, symbolic, and language based hints at indigenous presence on the island. Arts based research supports a gentle learning experience, incorporating theatrical, musical and movement based activity. 

Connecting buried rivers and corresponding settlement sites, urban archeology and ancestral remains, a timeline of habitation is laid out, supported by history documentation including that of the Two Dogs wampum belt of Kanesatake, land historic land grievances in Kahnawake. Finishing with a theatrical quick creation process, a low-stakes theatrical outcome is generated and debriefed. 


BIOGRAPHY
Ange Loft (Kanien’kehá:ka, from Kahnawà:ke, QC, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada)is an interdisciplinary performing artist. Her collaborations use arts based research, wearable sculpture, theatrical co-creation and Haudenosaunee history to facilitate workshops and community-engaged spectacle. She is also a vocalist with

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan.

Recent engagements include: Artist in Residence  at OISEE/ JHI (2021), Artist in Residence at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre (2021-22), Indigenous Research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (2022) and advisory roles at advisory roles with Native Women In the Arts (2021) and OCAD University’s Indigenous Education Council (2021). Associate Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre (2015-2022) and instructor at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (2020-present).

April 24 to 28, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 115$ with Services Québec support / 385$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: n/a – full week registration only
Language of instruction: French
Questions can also be answered in English
Capacity : 12 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
Sylvie Tourangeau proposes this training focused on the personalization of your performative actions in different contexts and registers of attitude and presence. The focus will be on the nature of your creative motivations, the awareness of what inhabits you and differentiates you, the clarity of your on-the-spot decision-making as well as the transformative effect generated by your commitment to each of the actions you take. Through a learning process consisting of practical exercises, situational exercises, concrete experiences in urban space, “presentations” with instructions, and active feedback, participants will experience the full potential of their sense of performativity, regardless of the specificities of their art forms.

ACCESSIBILITY
The training includes individual work periods during which participants can work according to their abilities. For some exercises new alternatives can be suggested according to the needs of each participant. This hands-on workshop requires a certain physicality without exceeding your limits. This training based on authenticity of presence can generate some intense emotions. There is also feedback in small and large groups.

BIOGRAPHY
In performance art since 1978, Sylvie Tourangeau (artist, author, workshop facilitator and curator) is considered a pioneer of performance art in Canada. She published with the TouVA collective in 2017 the bilingual book about the performative Le 7e Sens. She founded the interdisciplinary training space Espace Sylvie Tourangeau, (Joliette 1995 to 2007) and developed a place for personalized coaching, artist residencies, workshops in the heart of Quebec’s built heritage, La maison aux volets jaunes (2015-2017), La nouvelle maison jaune (2018-2022). Since 2023, she offers the same activities near the Parc des Chutes, in Quebec City. 

June 12 to 16, 2023

March 13 to 17, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 100$ with Services Québec support / 190$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: n/a – full week registration only
Language of instruction: French, alternating with English
Capacity : 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
Contortionism doesn’t signify “being flexible.” It is a physical technique that one learns and works with. There is no secret. Contortion is a corporeal technique, in a constant dialogue with one’s own body, and is looking for openness rather than wanting to bend. Never pushing the boundaries, we learn to collaborate with them in total respect of the body – your tool, your partner. Contortion is also a hyper consciousness of the sensations of the body’s interior and a dialogue between its limits and its aides. This workshop is about demystifying contortion and making it accessible to everyone by sharing a technique that avoids possible injuries. This technical workshop (specific warming up, alignment, endurance, specific reinforcement followed by cool-down exercises) is based on active flexibility exercises and deep stretching of the hips and the back. We will work the body’s awareness, breathing, posture and endurance. This workshop addresses all body artists who wish to improve, use, or control their flexibility; to discover a new approach to the body; to open itself to new tools to work in better ways; to develop confidence and knowledge about its own body limits that allows them to venture into a specific and particular work with the spine; to dip into the interior sensation of the body and to open a new approach using this knowledge.


ACCESSBILITY
Andréane’s approach does not work at all with form. During her workshop, Andréane offers a personal journey and a dive into the heart of one’s inner sensations. Personal limits become allies, guiding us in a process of the opening of the body. There is absolutely no goal to reach “tricks” such as: “we will touch our feet to our head”. It is a space of sensitive dialogue between oneself and one’s body. The participants, guided by Andréane’s exercises, are free to follow their own personal path in full respect of their own physical and mental abilities. Participants will be asked to sit on the floor for extended periods of time, with some exercises also done standing. Visual demonstrations are offered, but explorations are mainly guided by verbal indications.


BIOGRAPHY
Conceptual and performance artist Andréane Leclerc is interested in human encounters that guide her towards interdisciplinary and interartistic processes. Today, she draws on her 20 years of circus practice to reflect on contortion as a philosophical posture and to develop her stage language. 

Trained as a contortionist (ÉNC, 2001), she completed a master’s degree in the theatre department at UQAM (2013). That same year, she co-founded the Nadère arts vivants company with Geoffroy Faribault and her work was presented in Tokyo, Florence, Cairo, Sao Paolo, Chicago, Rouyn-Noranda and Tiohtia:ke – Moonyiang, on contemporary stages, in museums and in galleries.

Since 2015, Andréane has been teaching and offering workshops in contortion and interdisciplinary dramaturgy. In 2017, she participated in the creation of Cirque OFF (Studio 303). She occasionally acts as a dramaturgy and movement consultant and performs for various international projects. 

June 19 to 23, 2023

May 22 to 26, 2023

May 1 to 5, 2023

Feb. 20 to Feb 24, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate:  85$ with Services Québec support / 145$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 22$ with Service Québec / 31$ if non-eligible (Monday and/or Tuesday only)
Language of instruction: French and English
Questions can be asked in French or English
Capacity: 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK>

* Drop-ins payment by credit card or e-transfer on site the morning of, if capacity allows (no reservations).

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
In this choreographic laboratory, I will attempt to take the dancers into a world, both uncanny and familiar, where they can discover my language’s different facets. At the heart of this experience – each of them will experience this moment from their individual perspectives. They will be invited to freestyle following guidelines, sometimes clear, sometimes felt, allowing them to appropriate the choreographic form.

We will engage in improvisations – danced, spoken or otherwise – allowing the performer to use the most favorable medium for their intervention. I will also take the dancers to become familiar with my choreographic language. Stimulating the creation of relevant and authentic scenario-based exercises, these types of sessions and exchanges are an integral part of my creative process. All this in the world of Hip Hop music and culture.


ACCESSIBILITY
Coming soon. 


BIOGRAPHY
As a Montreal based choreographer and major figure of Hip-Hop dance in Quebec, her passion for this art was born in the 80’s when she was very young. The symbiotic relationship she has with Hip-Hop culture in her choreographic work is the essence of her artistic signature. In 2005, she created the Bust A Move Festival, which has become the largest street dance competition in Canada and is co-presented by TOHU. Spicey has also been a performer and teacher of hip-hop dance for over 20 years. Wanting to push her artistic aspirations and bring street dance creation to the contemporary stage, she founded the Ebnflōh company in 2015. She surrounds herself with accomplices and pairs who fuel her creative process. Today with Ebnflōh, d’Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé builds a choreographic language that is unique to her vision. Her artistic signature, her involvement in the community and her contribution to the artistic milieu make her a driving force in the creation of street dance in Canada. 

Jan. 23 to 27, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Services Québec support / 150$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 22$ with Service Québec / 32$ if non-eligible (Monday and/or Tuesday only)
Language of instruction: French
Questions can also be answered in English
Capacity: 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK>

*Drop-ins welcome Monday and/or Tuesday only. Payment by credit card or e-transfer on site the morning of, if capacity allows (no reservations).

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
This workshop aims to facilitate research into bioluminescence and the spectrum of possibilities to generate your own light. Some living organisms produce light to communicate, seduce, protect themselves or lure their prey. We will try to materialize this biological phenomenon in the body and through small luminous scenographic installations in order to honour this intimate radiation individually and collectively. The intention is simple: to light ourselves from within in order to better vibrate.

How can the light produced by other objects – portable lighting devices – influence a state of presence through its colour, warmth, texture and even rhythm? To become an extension of gestures and produce a sensoriality in space? Whether naked or dressed in manipulable luminous and reflective materials, we will explore the ‘bioluminescent’ body; its iridescent surfaces, cellular tissues, the vibratory, sensual and inhabited corporeality of the nervous system of the polyps that make up jellyfish and coral. Cocoons, incandescence and glitters to be expected.

Participants are invited to bring light devices, materials, fabrics, textures, reflectors, clothing of their choice.


ACCESSIBILITY
There will be a lot of individual work but also small group exchanges. Some exercises suggest physical closeness. Discussion and talking circles will happen but will not take up too much space. There will be a little writing and word work. Loud music will be present 50% of the time. A similar structure will be offered each day, but in an evolving format, with new exercises added each day. There will be physical routes that require more endurance or technical dexterity, yet the material will be adaptable, there will be different alternatives offered. The exercises are 90% based on improvisational structures and some explorations will be done in the dark, or with eyes closed. The use of tools/objects or luminous materials may disturb some light-sensitive people, they will be present for about 1h. People with reduced mobility might encounter some obstacles, but they will be guided to enjoy it as much as the others. 


BIOGRAPHY
Louise Michel Jackson has been a performer for 20 years now. She has collaborated with various companies and independant artists such as Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Frédérick Gravel, Dana Gingras, Rubberbandance, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Belgium) Simon Portigal and Lara Oundjian, among others. After living in Belgium for 5 years, she moved between Brussels and Montreal, creating her first project “STROKE” aka SHUDDER in collaboration with Ben Fury (Belgium), which premiered at Charleroi-danses (Brussels 2016) and in several venues including O.f.f.t.a (2015) Tangente (Montreal 2016), Palais de Tokyo (Paris 2016) and the Festival de Lausanne 2017. She created Bright Worms (Théâtre Lachapelle April 2021), a research on bioluminescence that integrates video projection and light devices in collaboration with the sound artist Magali Babin. She has been supported as an artist in residence by the “third floor” associated with Usine C between 2019 and 2021. She regularly teaches here and abroad and these exchanges are proving increasingly crucial and complementary in her approach. Since 2021, she works in parallel in the field of plants and flowers. This second exciting profession is now essential to maintain a good mental balance and maintain a space of distance necessary to her artistic practice. 

Nov. 21 to 25, 2022

Dec. 5 to 9, 2022

Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, 2022

April 10 to 14, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Services Québec support / 165$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 22$ with Service Québec / 35$ if non-eligible
Language of instruction: French
Questions can also be answered in English
Capacity : 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK >

*Drop-ins welcome – Payment by credit card or e-transfer on site the morning of, if capacity allows (no reservations).

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
Krump VIIZION is an experience that allows participants to dive into the Krumper 7Starr philosophy.

The workshop consists of a tour of the basics in the form of drills, and pushes dancers to tap into their creativity through elements of the street dance culture.

ACCESSIBILITY
The workshop explores the basic concepts of Krump while exploring the different ways they are transmitted in different contexts. Alter-ego, dialogue and creativity are themes that will correlate throughout the week.

We will generally begin the classes with a warm up to awaken the whole body and to activate sensitivity to our space and to other individuals. The type of and rhythms used are generally varied and are not always Krump. However, the basic techniques and vocabulary will be explained to Krump music with high intensity and volumes seeking to push the participants physically.

Some exercises will be done in sub-groups but not necessarily with contact. But rather in the form of a face to face exchange, battle style. 

All instructions are given orally followed by a demonstration. There are also movement sequences that will be explained to the participants to allow them to become familiar with the language. The pace can easily be adapted to the needs of the participants. Sessions usually end with a stretching period followed by a discussion. There may be some barriers for people with limited mobility.

BIOGRAPHY
Vladimir “7Starr” Laurore is an internationally renowned Krump artist. He co-founded the Bzerk Squad, the first Krump dance troupe in Canada and in 2008, the Gutta Zone, the first major festival of the genre in the country. He is known for his community involvement and has also launched his musical career in 2021 with his solo album entitled: ”Diff Diff”.

Nov. 14 to 18, 2022

April 17 to 21, 2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Services Québec support
Language of instruction: English
Questions can also be asked in French
Capacity: 14 people
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK >
(before April 2nd)

Participants must submit a letter of intent and a short biography by April 2, 2023 to info@studio303.ca.
The facilitators will take your background into account in the composition of the workshop.
This workshop is offered in collaboration with Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal.

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
PWM and Studio 303 invite dramaturgs, theatre artists, dancers, circus artists and interdisciplinary artists to the fourth edition of the Interdisciplinary Dramaturgy Lab. Led by Kathy Casey (dance), Dana Dugan (circus) and Fatma Sarah Elkashef (theatre), the lab is a space for artists to exchange dramaturgical tools, share challenges and experiences, and explore how we are working in these exceptional times.


ACCESSIBILITY
You will find Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s actions and reflexions on accessibility here: https://www.playwrights.ca/2022/02/14/accessibility-committee/


BIOGRAPHY
Born in North Carolina, Kathy Casey began her dance career in 1979 with the Chicago Moving Company. Settled in New York in 1980, she danced for many choreographers before joining the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1984. In 1989, she became a member of Susan Marshall & Company, with whom she had collaborated since 1981. From 1985-1989, she also assisted Mr. Lubovitch and Ms. Marshall in creation. Kathy Casey has danced in Europe, Asia, and North America and continues to give numerous workshops across Canada and the United States. Welcomed by Montréal Danse in 1991, she was appointed Artistic Director of the company in March 1996. A major portion of her work now is collaborating with choreographers on the dramaturgy of the works created for the company. In addition to her work with Montréal Danse, she also works as an artistic advisor with independent choreographers in the city.

Dana Dugan is a Montreal based artist-scholar, mother, performer, teacher, and dramaturg. She was a founding member of the Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival (Chicago, 2014-15) and CirqueOFF (Montreal, 2017). Currently, she is a member of Le PARC (Performance Arts Research Cluster) at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology (Montreal); works as research assistant for the Dramaturgical Ecologies Research Collective (Montreal); Diasporic Dramaturgies Working Group (Montreal); and serves on the editorial board for TURBA: The Journal of Global Practices in Live Arts Curation (Montreal). Dana completed her master’s degree at Concordia University (Montreal, 2018) under fellowship as a practice-based researcher investigating her circus body as a site for cultivating critical dialogues through the concept and practice of (dis)obedience. She continues her embodied research on (dis)obedience as a doctoral candidate in the Humanities Interdisciplinary Program at Concordia University (Montreal), using the body as an interface with Performance Studies and Black Studies toward an ontogenerative disruptive, transformative and affirmative politic.

*** To honor the complexity and tensions inherent in the work and in our different racial positionings in the current socio-political climate, I take inventory and acknowledge my positionality. My body is not neutral and I reject the centrality of Whiteness. To do this, I must first locate my whiteness and acknowledge its inherent centeredness. As Dana, situated in this moment with my own embodied dramaturgy, I move though the world as a white, artist, lover, mother (fuck the rest!) toward queering Whiteness – to uncrown Whiteness and resist its re/production. 

Fatma Sarah Elkashef
Sarah is a theatre maker, primarily a dramaturg, and the Artistic Director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM). Prior to this Sarah worked as a freelance dramaturg in Montreal and has been a part of the evolution of numerous plays and performances. Born and raised in the U.K. to Egyptian and Dutch parents, she has been based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) since 2010. Prior to settling in Canada, Sarah became the Senior Reader at Soho Theatre in London, U.K. after having lived and worked in New York City for more than a decade. Curious about  the creation and development process across performance disciplines, Sarah began the Interdisciplinary Writers’ Lab at PWM to explore ways of working not centered around text. At the National Theatre School of Canada she has worked as a dramaturg, teacher, and creator across programs since 2012. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas’ (LMDA) Bly Creative Fellowship Grant for artists who are creating new approaches to dramaturgy. In 2018 she co-created and co-directed a circus show for families, Eat Sweet Feet with Krin Haglund and The Radiant (TOHU). In March 2021 Sarah co-directed (with Sylvia Cloutier) an audio play Lâche pas la patate by Yvette Nolan for Imago Theatre. Sarah’s artistic preoccupations are rooted in her hybrid identity and practice, and she is excited by the possible futures for collaboration and process sharing across performance disciplines. 

Nov. 7 to 11, 2022

Oct. 24 to 28, 2022

Oct. 17 to 21, 2022

Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, 2022

May 29 to June 2, 2023

Oct. 10 to 14, 2022

May 15 to 19, 2023 — 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 70$ with Services Québec support / 175$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 22$ with Service Québec / 37$ if non-eligible (Monday and/or Tuesday only)
Language of instruction: English
Questions can be asked in: French and German
Capacity: 23 people — priority for full week attendance

Open to artists of all disciplines
Sex workers are welcome to use the workshop bursary to register, without having to justify their choice.

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK >

*Drop-ins welcome Monday and/or Tuesday only. Payment by credit card or e-transfer on site the morning of, if capacity allows (no reservations).

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

This workshop in cancelled due to COVID-19.

CONTENT
This workshop plays with socialized notions of sexiness + the buddhist concept of the hungry ghost. Stripper Gollum serves as a mutable figure grappling with their feelings of emptiness, longings and the longings others have of them – in order to develop a compassionate humour towards both inner and outer hauntings.

This research asks: Is it possible that we may need to (be more gentle with?)  move away from fixing “broken” parts of ourselves and instead embrace the inherent complexity of our many selves? If being whole doesn’t mean being consistent or predictable…can we embrace the complexity and diversity of our inner worlds, and recognize that everything is in a state of flux!?

THE HUNGRY GHOST:

The hungry ghost in eastern buddhism represents the insatiable hunger alive in people often associated with craving and addiction. It is represented most popularly by the spirit character “no face” in the Hayao Miyazaki movie Spirited Away and is a focal point in Gabor Maté’s book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. The hungry ghost can also be found in the Gollum/Sméagul character of J.R.R. Tolkein’s novel, The Hobbit and it’s sequel The Lord of the Rings.  

STRIPPER LINEAGE:

Stripping has roots in many dancing cultures including the ballet, as an exchange between dancer and patron. It is a form of sex work intertwined with complex power dynamics, stigma, secrecy, self-employment, unstable employment, underground economy, the purchasing of pleasure, charm industry and so much more. It’s important to note that this form of indoor sex work sits on a different part of the safety spectrum than outdoor and survival sex work- even if there may be overlap between the two.

5 DAYS, 2.5 HOURS:

This workshop will begin with a work-out that draws from qigong, physiotherapy and wxmb cxre – a practice in breath, voice and movement to warm the body from the inside out. Participants will experience a spine, breath, and voice tuning that extends towards the limbs with a high level of physicality before diving into state based improvisations. 

The research aspect of this workshop plays with the myth of personality and contradiction. We will deep dive into state based research and turn it into a few repeatable movements before creating a group choreography that playfully dances the hypocrisy of human experience. Be prepared to sweat!…and travel through time on your somatic journey as we explore different aspects of the self.

APPROACH
I invite people to be mindful when playing with these movements. I encourage working at the “resilient edge of resistance” – a term named by Chester Mainard. This term was formed in the context of erotic massage to describe a touch that isn’t too hard and isn’t too soft. How can we apply this term as a way of exploring movement? I’m not sure about you, but I imagine it in a way that balances pushing one’s limits while taking care in the social context of a workshop. Take what you need and leave the rest.


BIOGRAPHY
Moving between sound and performance, Be Heintzman Hope is a facilitator of music, dance and embodiment ritual based between Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang, colonially known as Montréal and the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (musquem), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Wateuth) peoples. 

Their practice bridges dance training with conflict resolution, healing and community arts. They hold workshops in transitional spaces, dance institutions, universities, DIY contexts and festivals that center queer, trans, racialized bodies and sex workers — offering meditation, singing and dance as medicines to those on the front lines of their healing journeys. 

Oct. 3 to 7, 2022

May 8 to 12, 2023 

Sept. 26 to 30, 2022

Sept. 19 to 23, 2022

Sept. 12 to 16, 2022 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 90$ with Services Québec / 500$ is non-eligible
Drop-in class rate: n/a – full week registration only
Language of instruction: English
Capacity: 23 people, priority to full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER >

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT // Seems like now, more than ever, we need to find creative ways to be together, talk to each other, and make collective efforts to thrive and survive. In their 4 decades of working as Split Britches, Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw have been creating collaborative performance with diverse communities while, at the same time, developing ways of using performance as a method for meeting their own life challenges. Their workshop will share these tried-and-true techniques and explore old-and-new possibilities for making collaborative performance for this current moment. They will encourage independent vision and skill while cultivating an interdependent cohort of creators. In a relaxed yet structured environment, they will work with impulse movement techniques, impulse writing, autobiographical and found text, music, personal fantasy, popular culture, and conversation to give performers of all abilities – even non-performers – the tools to create a collective performance from individual issues and concerns.

ACCESSIBILITY // Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw have experience running inclusive workshops and facilitating participants with diverse needs due to age, disability, and neurodivergence. Although not officially provided, the workshop can accommodate additional support such as ASL interpretation and Audio Description. Each day will begin with a ‘go round’ session during which participants voice their personal concerns and needs for that session. The day will then be divided into two parts: 1) a series of exercises-writing, movement, and material gathering- that will be conducted individually or in pairs; and 2) collaborative sessions designed to share, collate, edit and create as a group. All exercises, including movement and impulse work, will be guided by each individual’s capacity and pace. Part of the collective performance-making process will focus on incorporating diverse visions, needs, and abilities into a group offering.  

BIO // Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw are co-founders of Split Britches . Since 1980, they have created an interconnected repertoire of performance and social engagement work, which is part of a larger, lifelong project to facilitate communication, wellness, and social change through performance. Recent projects include Ruff (2013), a performance exploring the experiences of having a stroke; Unexploded Ordnances (2018), a combination of performance and public conversation on subjects of anxiety, ageing, and unexplored potential; and Last Gasp (2020), a meditation on demise – demise of ageing bodies, civil conversations, and a sustainable planet. Over the 40 years, they also remain committed to collaborating with diverse communities. This manifests in the founding of WOW Café in NY; developing projects in domestic abuse safe houses in upstate NY and in LGBTQ+ communities in Minneapolis; collaborating with seniors on a performance about sex and ageing; working in women’s prisons in Brazil and the UK: developing performance with Taiwan Women’s Theatre Festival and creating therapeutic workshops for stroke survivors. Both Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw are Guggenheim Fellows and Peggy was the recipient of the Doris Duke and USA Artist Awards.

Sept. 5 to 9, 2022

Apr. 3 to 7, 2023

May 9 to 12, 2023 – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (Tue.-Fri.)
Price for the 4 days: 150$
*Drop-in class rate: n/a – full week registration only
Language of instruction: English
Capacity : 23 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK >

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
The main focus of this workshop is a conscious research of our body/mind/soul unification, so we can deeply enjoy the intrinsic process of metamorphosis in the spirit of dance.

Through a continuous exploration of our past collective memories, we can strike a vein of abundant creative resources, enriching the essence of our dance and life.

Everything is in resonance with each other.

Body Resonance is a key to opening up the doors of an ever-changing world inside and outside of ourselves, which helps the body to unfold its potentials, holding them up until they shine and tremble.

Through a dialogue with our body, we can learn to be moved by inner and outer forces, thus realizing we are a part of the wholeness.

A dance of metamorphosis inevitably appears. 

ACCESSIBILITY
My workshop content which can be made accessible to the people with physical disability:

• – Release exercises, inspired by Noguchi Taiso (Gymnastics), using a sense of gravity. They can be done either standing, sitting or on a chair.
  – Breathing exercises, with sounds and voice, but they are also doable without any sound.
  – Organic movement, where the participants can adjust the position, dimension, speed and quantity according to their physicality.

The workshop is:

• – A combination of images and physical movements with exercises such as the figure 8, waves, drawing a circle with each body parts.
  – A structured improvisation and choreography which can be adapted according to the physical level that I can guide.

BIOGRAPHY
Yumiko Yoshioka is a Japanese Butoh dancer, dance teacher and choreographer originally from Tokyo. Since 1988 she has been based in Berlin. 

Yumiko was a former member of Ariadone from 1974 to 1982, the first female Butoh company. In 1978, she performed with Carlotta Ikeda and Ko Murobushi in Paris Le Dernier Eden- Porte de L’Au-Delà, the very first Butoh performance to be presented in a public theatre outside Japan.

Between 1995 – 2016 she was a core member of TEN PEN CHii Art Labor, an interdisciplinary and experimental art formation as a dancer and a choreographer along with Joachim Manger (visual artist) and Zam Johnson (composer and musician) .

Since 2016 she has been working as a solo dancer and in many collaborations with international artists. Dancers encourage Yumiko to unfold her own personal style of dancing and choreography.

www.yumiko-yoshioka.com

2023 – 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Services Québec support / 190$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: n/a – full week registration only
Language of instruction: English
Questions can also be answered in French
Capacity : 15 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK >

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
Interstitial Listening (IL) is a somatic technique designed to hone awareness of the continual discretization of events in spacetime, such that performers may intervene aesthetically in the intervals out of which rhythms in movement and sound emerge. IL involves the repetition of a seemingly simple yet impossible task, that is: to synchronise one’s behaviour—tapping, breathing, walking, dancing—with the tempo of a metronome that starts out regular, but becomes increasingly unpredictable from one beat to the next. Rather than subjugating the temporality of one’s own movement to that of the metronome via anticipation or imitation, IL explores strategies to perform in continual relation with another(’s) temporality even as it remains beyond immediate control. The somatic dimensions of IL involve bringing awareness to the behaviour of one’s own awareness, and to the effects of disciplinary habits, to engage more fully with the inherent musicality of movement itself. www.interstitial-listening.com


ACCESSIBILITY
Open to performers with diverse training and abilities. Much of the practice is self-directed, within clear guidelines, so individuals can make choices about how to engage in each moment. Feel free to contact us in advance if you have any questions about accessibility!


BIOGRAPHY
Teoma Naccarato and John MacCallum have been collaborating since they met in 2013. Their collective work draws on their backgrounds in music composition, choreography, computer science, and creative writing, as well as their deep interest in performance art and philosophy. Together they have created numerous video and performance works which take as their starting point the materiality and temporality of the heart. Recent projects include III: Once Removed, III: Tangente, Synchronism, and Portraits, presented in Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Phoenix, London, Hamburg, and Berlin. Since 2016 they have developed the practice of Interstitial Listening (IL) through intensive residencies and workshops with dancers and musicians world-round. Teoma holds a PhD from the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, and an MFA from the Ohio State University. John did his PhD in Music Composition at UC Berkeley, and his MM at McGill. They currently live in Berlin with their cat.

Dates à venir 2023 –
Full week rate: 45$ with Services Québec support / 105$ regular rate
*Drop-in class rate: 11$ with Service Québec / 23$ if non-eligible 
Language of instruction: English
Capacity : 12 people, priority for full week attendance
Open to artists of all disciplines

REGISTER FOR THE FULL WEEK>

*Drop-ins welcome. Payment by credit card or e-transfer. Please arrive 15 minutes early if you plan to drop-in.

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT
This series of workshops will focus on creating and developing your new performance and/or visual art piece. The first two days will cover an overview of our collective arts practices. This can help define for yourself and others the way you work. Understanding how we reach our final art pieces, examining process and learning about how others work can inform our practice to help us achieve greater success. We can then move to the development of our own pieces, assist each other and use this time to workshop our ideas in a group setting. This opportunity is ideal as working together collectively will give us immediate feedback and allow us to gather more resources more quickly. You can leave this workshop with a better understanding of the way you work and the best practices of others and perhaps leave with a new work or the development of a significant idea.


ACCESSIBILITY
This workshop is online, using the Zoom platform. There will be discussions and visual sharing. The work will be done individually and in groups.


BIOGRAPHY
Skeena Reece is a Tsimshian/Gitksan and Cree artist based on the West Coast of British Columbia. She has garnered national and international attention most notably for Raven: On the Colonial Fleet (2010) her bold installation and performance work presented as part of the celebrated group exhibition Beat Nation. Her multidisciplinary practice includes performance art, spoken word, humour, “sacred clowning,” writing, music, video/film, photography and visual art. She studied Media Art at Emily Carr University. She was the recipient of the Reveal – Hnatyshyn Award (2017), British Columbia Award for Excellence in the Arts (2012) and The VIVA Award (2014). For Savage (2010), Reece won a Leo Award for Best Performance in a Short Film. She performed at the 17th Sydney Biennale, Australia. Recent exhibitions include, Interior Infinite at the Polygon Gallery 2021 and the Women and Masks Research Conference for the Boston University, Massachusetts.  

Sept. 17 to 21, 2018

Mar. 8 to 12, 2021

June 6 to 10, 2022

June 13 to 17, 2022

Jan. 24 to 28, 2022

Aug. 24, 2021 + Aug. 26, 2021

Nov. 1 to 5, 2021

Aug. 31, 2021

Oct. 4 to 8, 2021

Sept. 29 to Nov. 24, 2021

Jan. 17 to 21, 2022

Feb. 7 to 11, 2022

Feb. 14 to 18, 2022

Feb. 21 to 25, 2022

March 18, 2022

Feb 6 to 10, 2023

Apr. 4 to 8, 2022

Apr. 25 to 29, 2022

May 2 to 6, 2022

May 9 to 13, 2022

May 16 to 20, 2022