Combining Disciplines for Creative Performance
Taught by K.J. Holmes
August 16–22, 2020
| ||||||||||
|
|
This workshop brings together decades of somatic research, ideokinesis and release techniques. It will offer students the opportunity to discover the innate wisdom of the body for creative performance. Basic anatomy and physiology expand our range of choice and the quality of movement and voice and enable us to make the invisible visible. Our investigations will include the external space, time and place, using the environment of Bearnstow as the landscape of the imagination.
Through improvisation and composition we will explore musicality and phrasing, how the senses influence and motivate our movement choices, and how we craft time and space. We will explore and work in all of Bearnstow—forest, lake, paths, cabins, weather. There will be time each day for an early morning yoga class, group sessions, and individual time for exploring and developing material. And there will be time to wander in the wonder of Bearnstow for research and relaxation. Each student will be required to keep a journal of activities, experiences, observations, and thoughts. The time at Bearnstow will be very much about the unfolding of each participant’s imagination and the shaping and crafting of it as we absorb the influence of each other and all that is the nature of Bearnstow.
|
K.J. Holmes, independent dance artist, singer, poet, actor and teacher based in Brooklyn, N.Y., has helped to define, first as a student and now as a teacher and performer, many contemporary improvisational practices, studying with Andre Bernard and collaborating with forerunners Simone Forti, Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson and Image Lab and Steve Paxton. K.J. has been a student of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Body Mind Centering since 1990, including the certification program 1995–99; she is a graduate of the William Esper Studio, Meisner acting with master teacher Terry Knickerbocker, and Satya Yoga with Sondra Loring. A sought-after teacher of improvisation and somatic approaches to dance, theater and voice, K.J. has a private practice in Dynamic Alignment and Re-integration. She travels nationally and internationally teaching and performing at universities, festivals and venues that range from theaters to site-specific locations to living rooms. She is adjunct faculty at NYU/Experimental Theatre Wing since 2001, Julliard and teaches through Movement Research since 1986 (A.I.R 2012–14). K.J. has performed with Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Emily Johnson/Catalyst, Mark Dendy, Lance Gries, Melinda Ring, and is continuing to develop her piece HIC SVNT DRACONES. Contact kjhlms@gmail.com for more information.
Special Film Project
Please note: This year the K.J. Holmes workshop is delighted to be filmed as part of a new project by independent artist, Tori Lancaster. All workshop participants are invited to be included, but can request to not be seen on camera if desired. Please contact us if you have questions.
 |
|
 |
|
 Back row: Molly Hess, Tyler Harmon-Townsend, Max Prum, Tori Lancaster, Ryan Tyma, Peter Kyle, Lucas Rollins-Page, and Ruth Grauert; Front row: Divyamaan Sahoo, Laura Miola, Harry Mavromichalis with Thanasi, Elise Gumbiner, Heriberto “Chino” Mendoza, K.J. Holmes, Betsey Brown, and Kayt MacMaster |
|
 |
|
 |