Teaching, Outreach & Residency Activities
Site-Specific Performance
In the spirit of spectacle and reinventing how people view and interact in public space Kinodance creates vivid and engaging site-specific performance work. In response to the unique atmosphere, architecture and history of a place or space we compose integrated film and movement scores that deeply inhabit and organically amplify the nature of a given site. Kinodance has created site-specific work for the Boston Public Gardens, Gloucester New Arts Festival, Soundscape Movement Festival (N. Carolina), Mobius, Third Life Studios & the Nave Gallery (Somerville, MA), the Middle East (Boston), Boston Center for the Arts, Medicine Wheel Productions (Boston), among others.
Youth Enrichment
The Kinodance Company youth enrichment program offers young people (ages 8 – 18) the opportunity to work closely with professional choreographers, dancers and artists in a variety of ways.
- Master Classes (Contemporary Dance, Improvisation, Butoh, Choreography, Set Design, Intermedia Collaboration) that introduce/deepen young peoples’ understanding of technique, personal voice and process.
- Original Performances created by young people in collaboration with Kinodance Company artists. These performances will be the culmination of a week long intensive (at least 5 2-hour workshops/rehearsals) that will introduce students to intermedia work, collaboration, site specific performance and artistic process.
- Original Films created with young people in collaboration with Kinodance Company artists. These films will be the culmination of many movement and choreography workshops drawing on students’ talents and abilities, and one week-shooting intensive with the participants.
Kinodance Company artists have worked with young people of varying abilities at Boston Ballet Taking Steps, Boston Center for the Arts, Summer Stages Dance Festival (Concord, MA), Topf Center for Dance Education (Boston, MA), Cloud Foundation (Boston, MA), Northfield Mount Herman School (Gill, MA), Athol Area YMCA (Athol, MA), Odyssey High School (Boston, MA), Edwards Middle School (Charlestown, MA), and the Pritzger School (Chicago, IL) among others.
Installation
Temporary or permanent installation work is intuitively planned for individual spaces (gallery or other) and ranges from playful and celebratory to meditative and philosophical. Site specific and/or object based, installations interweave sculptural elements with video imagery, creating complex and evocative spaces while conjuring experiences of dance through abstract and representational video imagery.
Informal Performance
Kinodance Company is available to perform excerpts from company repertory including Secret Streams, Denizen and FUSE in non-traditional performance spaces including schools, libraries, community centers etc.
Lecture Demonstrations/Talks
Choreographing Cinema: At the crossroads of Cinema and Dance (1½ - 3 hours)
Filmmakers, choreographers, dancers and everybody interested in dance film collaborations are invited to attend. Journeying through the history of cinema from early silent films to music videos, we will discuss choreography on screen. We will look at current and historic tendencies, attitudes and approaches of the film world to dance. We will address how looking at cinema through the choreographic lens could bridge between the film and dance worlds and demonstrate the tremendous (yet to be discovered) potential of dance film collaborations.
Dance & Technology: A Historical Overview (1½ - 3 hours)
Provides context for Kinodance Company’s passion for kinetic art and trust for the power of interdisciplinary collaborations is the focus of this 45 minute lec-dem. The fascinating synthesis of light and projections put into motion by dancers has excited audiences for decades. The presentation guides viewers through the 20th century from the light dances of Loie Fuller in the 1900s to the hi-tech collaborations of Merce Cunningham and Paul Kaiser (US) in the late 90s and to the most recent projects of Dumb Type (Japan), Klaus Obermaier (Austria) with DV8 Physical Theatre (UK) among others. It culminates in a short live performance demonstration.
Workshops
Intermedia Performance: Choreography of Elements
(Length: 6 to 8 6-hour days ideally, but can be adapted to any length)
A laboratory-style experimental workshop for the research, creation and presentation of interdisciplinary performance work. Film/video aesthetics, projection techniques, projection surface design/conception and especially approaches to integration will be addressed through practical skill building exercises. Key works of contemporary and intermedia art as well as new technological trends will be viewed/demo’d and/or discussed to address issues critical to the investigation of interdisciplinary forms. In dance or theatre departments a special unit on performance techniques for intermedia work will be offered.
Cinema: Choreography for the Camera
(Length: 6 to 8 6-hour days ideally, but can be adapted to any length)
This workshop invites filmmakers, choreographers and dancers to explore both practical and theoretical grounds of what is called cine-dance, dance film, videodance, dance on screen, i.e. – collaboration between choreography and cinema. During the workshop, the participants will discuss and try out both shooting and editing techniques and principles used for creating dance films as well as work on creating or adapting existing choreography specifically for the camera. The participants will work in groups and at the end of the workshop, each group will create a short dance film to be screened at the closing of the festival.
Installation: Sculpting with Light, Film and Movement
(Length: 5 to 7 6-hour days ideally, but can be adapted to any length)
This interdisciplinary workshop will discuss movement in three-dimensional space in the context of light, installation, performance, and film. Students will explore light as a medium of expression, experiment with qualities of light in relation to various materials and surfaces, and create their own light sources for sculpting space and directing movement. Students will discuss and try out different concepts of movement in film such as choreography of people and objects within the frame, choreography of camera movement, editing as a way to create movement between film frames, visual music. We will also discuss ideas of using film as a moving light source in the context of installations and performances. At the end of the workshop, students will integrate these approaches to create short performances, films, and installations that will be shared with the public.
Master Classes
Kinodance artists Alissa Cardone & Ingrid Schatz are experienced leaders in dance education. They have taught master classes and lead workshops at Columbia College (Chicago), Agnes Scott College (Georgia), Connectucut College (CT), Keene State College (NH), Fitchburg State (MA), Hampshire College (MA), Boston University, UMASS Amherst, Concord Academy (MA), National Gallery of Armenia (Yerevan), Kannon Dance (St. Petersburg, Russia) among others. Classes & workshops can be tailored to a variety of age groups and include Choreography, Contemporary Dance Technique & Creative Movement, in addition to the following:
Improvisation
Improvisation, like any other dance style, is an essential skill to be learned and cultivated. It’s heart is listening and presence and its foundation is stillness. This workshop will introduce simple tools and strategies for creating rich improvisatory relationships in partners and in small groups.
Moving Body Moving Camera
There are endless possibilities when our choreographic ideas engage with processes of filming and editing. We can view movement more closely than a proscenium will allow, take our dances to unusual locations, and break the laws of force, time and space. During this short workshop we will glimpse into creating choreography that specifically engages camera into action, and get a taste of how it is to perform for the camera
Butoh Dance Lab
It is important to let go of objectives when dancing the moment. This is difficult because the human mind is built for strategy, always thinking. The dancer must hunt for methods and structures that occupy the mind and help liberate the body’s intuition. How can we be moved vs. move? How can we make our dance transparent? Exercises will be drawn from the leaders work with Min Tanaka’s Body Weather and onging training with butoh dancer and Eurhythmist Akira Kasai.