Teachers

Kirstie Simson

Dance Improvisation That Offers Resilience and Support in Difficult Times

Kirstie Simson will share her work and underlying embodied philosophy over the course of 4 sessions. She will also facilitate an evening sharing of 2 films she has made, followed by a talk about her relationship to physical practice in the context of the troubled times we are living through.

There is deep inspiration and rigor in a practice of improvisation that posits vulnerability at its heart.  Developing the skills to be able to care for, engage, respect and respond to that state of vulnerability in oneself and others gives life to improvisation that is powerful and transformative. 

Bio

This is the work that Kirstie engenders through facilitated exercises, open time for play and exploration, movement scores, observations and discussion.  Much of the work is experienced through partnering and connection with others, balanced with solo time for processing and reflection. Kirstie shares the movement practices and underlying philosophies she has developed over forty years of teaching dance improvisation. She is interested in creating a safe space where participants feel they are seen, heard, and supported to discover, move, and share from the deepest parts of themselves. This helps facilitate meaningful dances that evolve our practices.

Kirstie draws from her knowledge of Contact Improvisation, dance techniques, the Alexander technique, Aikido, meditation and her extensive experience of improvisation in performance.  Her work explores the huge potential of the body’s response to the primal urge to move, inspired by the energy released through human interaction, physical challenge and playfully daring to go beyond inherent ideas of limitation. 

Charlie Morrissey

Move On Up

This workshop will explore movement as a primary mode of being in and engaging with the world.

It will utilise practices that map and un-map our bodies, it will explore sensory and extra-sensory modes of engaging with ourselves, others and the environment to notice how we compose and are composed.

We will work with our own and other bodies in and out of contact, building multi-directional, grounded movement, engaging with the lightness and weight of our moving selves.

Imagination as a creative and basic tool of physical survival will be central.

The classes will be fed by practices of Contact Improvisation, Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine, Lisa Nelson’s Tuning `Scores and by my own ongoing movement and performance practices.

We will work with scores and structures that open space for exploration and discovery. 

The work will be rigorous, physical and we will MOVE.

Bio

Charlie is a performer, teacher, collaborator and director who has been working with movement for more than 35 years. 

He has worked with performance at small and large-scales in theatre, gallery and site-based contexts in the UK and internationally. Recent projects (23/24) include Supernature, a solo created with Siobhan Davies in response to her film Transparent at Wainsgate Chapel; Scáling, a duet with Markéta Stránska co-commissioned by Candoco and Sadlers Wells at Schwere Reiter: HERD – a large-scale site-specific sound project with Artichoke and Orlando Gough across multiple sites in Yorkshire; and Anushiye Yarnell’s A Marathon of Intimacies at Chapter in Cardiff. He is currently exploring dancing the Goldberg Variations with Lucy Suggate.

His work is influenced and inspired by long-term working relationships with artists including Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Scott Smith, K.J.Holmes, Kirstie Simson, Karen Nelson, Siobhan Davies, Katye Coe, Andrea Buckley, Becky Edmunds and many others.

Charlie also organises and co-curates Wainsgate Dances with his partner Rob Hopper in Yorkshire, UK – an artist-led space for experimental dance. It includes daily dance practice, residencies, workshops, and performances.

http://www.charliemorrissey.com

SARANTOULA  SARANTAKI

Dance | Choreography | Teaching

Bio comming soon…

Structure and program

This year Létanec brings an opportunity to go through two consequent journeys with inspiring teaechers. To research, create, simplify, be – in a small format of 40 dancers. The pre-festival workshop is one day extended and will set a solid and yet moldable ground for the adventure of the festival. The festival will have two intensives, one in the indoor barn and other on the outside platform and around.

Pre-festival workshop extended with Kirstie Simson (September 5-8)

Thursday  – arrival, class in the afternoon, welcome circle in the evening
Friday – morning – workshop, afternoon lecture and screening
Saturday – morning – workshop, afternoon jam
Sunday – morning – workshop, lunch – goodbyes/transition

Festival: intensives with Charlie Morrissey and Sarantoula Sarantaki (September 9-14)

Sunday – afternoon arrival, evening – welcome jam Friday – morning – workshop, afternoon lecture and screening
Monday, Tuesday – morning – intensives, afternoon – labs, evening jamSunday – morning – workshop, lunch – goodbyes/transition
Wednesday – silent morning and 8 hour jam
Thursday – morning – intensive, afternoon – research, rehearse for performative evening
Friday – morning intensive, afternoon Underscore
Saturday – morning – last class into jam, lunch and goodbyes

This program is a draft and may slightly change on site.