Body Weather Workshop - Somers, Mornington Peninsula
Event description
Body Weather is a comprehensive approach to training and performance that investigates the intersections of bodies and their environments. Bodies are conceived not as fixed and separate entities, but as constantly changing - just like the weather.
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.
Saturday 4th May 10am-4pm RW Stone Pavillion, Camp Hill Road, Somers
We will introduce aspects of Body Weather training, including MB (mind/body, muscles/bones), and sensory perception activities into improvisation. MB is an energetic, dynamic and rhythmic movement work-out that observes the kinaesthetic sensitivity and co-ordination potential of the body while developing strength, endurance, flexibility, and grounding.
Sunday 5th May 10am - 4pm Coolart Homestead & Wetlands, 40 Lord Somers Rd, Somers
We will venture out to move in direct interaction with sites around Somers, on beautiful Bunurong and Boon wurrung Country. Through sensory and imagery tasks we will enter an embodied state of curiosity in relation to our surrounding environments.
Facilitators:
Frank van de Ven was a member of Body Weather founder Min 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 (via her platform 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 regularly at Dancehouse. www.greteltaylor.com
Contact: frank.bwa@xs4all.nl or greteltaylor@gmail.com
Please note: Workshop fee does not include accommodation or food. However, we may be able to assist with arranging camping or share accommodation. Please get in touch well in advance if you would like to arrange accommodation.
Image: Still from Encroach, Gretel Taylor & Laki Sideris, BodyPlaceProject. Filmed at Somers, 2018.