Movement Research Studies

«Movement Research Studies»are designed for dancers interested in exploring movement possibilities on the floor and integrating them into set material. There is some resemblance to traditional dance classes where students learn set material by imitation but the learning approach is quite different.

In a sort of decomposition process, students explore and experiment with the patterns underlying the movement of a phrase. As I prefer verbal instructions to demonstration, students learn to rely on their own kinaesthetic sense while exploring movements. In the second part of the class, students are asked to integrate the material and movement patterns by learning a challenging movement phrase. Though each student will perform the same phrase, each will have accessed the movements via his or her own kinaesthetic exploration and autodidactic learning process.

The class can be adapted to specific wishes of the organizer or the students. Though designed for dancers, the class is open to anyone who is used to working with pre-given movement material. 2–3 hours is good amount of time for this class in a workshop or dance training setting. Dancers are advised to bring kneepads. For whole-day workshops, Movement Research Studies can be combined with a Contact Improvisation  class or the Feldenkrais Method.