Body Weather Workshop - Castlemaine

BODY WEATHER WORKSHOP, CASTLEMAINE VIC. 28-29 OCTOBER 2023

WITH GRETEL TAYLOR AND FRANK VAN DE VEN

Bodies are conceived not as fixed and separate entities, but as constantly changing - just like the weather.

Body Weather is a comprehensive approach to training and performance that investigates the intersections of bodies and their environments. The term and philosophical basis for Body Weather was founded in the early 1980s in Japan by dancer Min Tanaka and further developed by proponents worldwide. Body Weather was introduced to Australia by Tess de Quincey in 1989.

This weekend workshop is suited to dance, theatre & movement practitioners, artists and anyone interested in exploring the body, physical presence and relationships to place.

Workshop Schedule:

10am - 12.30pm Body Weather Training - Castlemaine Goods Shed

'MB' (mind/body, muscles/bones) An energetic, dynamic and rhythmic movement work-out that observes the kinesthetic sensitivity and co-ordination potential of the body while developing strength, endurance, flexibility, and grounding.

1.30pm - 4pm Site practice - nearby sites (we will car-pool to places within 20 minutes' drive from Castlemaine)
In the afternoons we will venture out to move in direct interaction with sites around Castlemaine, on beautiful Djaara Country. Through sensory and imagery tasks we will enter an embodied state of curiosity in relation to our surrounding environments.

Fee: $200/ $180 Concession - includes two days' workshop facilitation and covers costs of space hire and promotion. Workshop fee does not include accomodation or food. However we can help accommodate you for Saturday night at friends' places in the area if you need.

Info: greteltaylor@gmail.com /0425 759 988 or frank.bwa@xs4all.nl

Facilitators:

Frank van de Ven was a member of Tanaka's Maijuku Performance Company in Japan from 1983-1991. With Katerina Bakatsaki he founded Body Weather Amsterdam, a platform for training and performance. He has an ongoing commitment to the Body/Landscape projects conducted worldwide and since 1995 he has led the annual, interdisciplinary Bohemiae Rosa Project (Czech Republic) with Milos Sejn, connecting body and landscape with art, geology and architecture. bodyweatheramsterdam.nl

Gretel Taylor trained at the Body Weather Farm in Japan in 1999 and 2000 which informed her performance, teaching and research (as BodyPlaceProject). Gretel developed an improvisational 'locating' practice as a mode of relating to place during her PhD (2009) and as an ongoing inquiry, with particular interest in ecological and decolonial lenses on site-based performance. She has taught Dance and Performance at Deakin, RMIT, Monash and Victoria University, as well as regular Body Weather training at Dancehouse. www.greteltaylor.com