I teach techniques for skillful improvisation, and I use improvisation to teach skillful movement. Focus is often simply on being present, in this body, in this moment, in this place, with these people. I am as interested in what the mind does as in what the body does. Expanding awareness and choice-making is fundamental. I use improvisational scores to limit space, time and movement, and encourage choices that come from curiosity and intuition. My approach is precise and permissive; I value stillness and quiet as much as raucous virtuosity.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

TECHNIQUE FOR WHAT?
for dancing how you want to dance,  to extend your expressive repertoire, to free your mind. Breathing exercises, vocalizations, intentional direction, release work, improvisation, alignment/efficiency practices and a variety of techniques for softening, lengthening, strengthening, opening and focusing. This is an eclectic class that encourages individual expression.

PERFORMANCE AND VIDEO (with Molly Davies)
With multiple screens, cameras, mixing boards, set, lighting and movement scores, we work with relationships of video, performance and location.  Students use cameras, are introduced to computer programming for mixing live-feed and pre-recorded images, and design scores for movement and cameras. For all performance disciplines, video artists, and set designers. 

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO? WHERE DO YOU WANT TO DO IT?  FOR HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO DO IT?
Pick a place, decide what you want to do there, work on it, find out how long it takes to do it/ how long you want to do it.  Do it....maybe with video, maybe only for video, or the web, or the backyard or the corner, or ...  Get supportive critical feedback in an environment that values observation, analysis, articulation, and revision.  This is a making class, so a concentrated or multiple-session format works best.
 

COMPOSITION/CHOREOGRAPHY
For this class, composition refers to the arrangement of elements;  choreography refers to specifying the details of movements. Somewhere in both of these are the choices we make about how, when and where. We look at the environment we're given for performance. We consider source materials (the body, texts, costumes, media, sound, collaborators) and what these tell us about our values and questions.   We work with "kinesthetic delight"*, vocalizing and score-making to understand what we and the work we're making need.  We see if, how, when, where and why improvisational scores and set choreography might be our preference. (*term of Barbara Dilley's)

DANCE PARTY!!
Lots of great and sometimes cheesy music! Think dancing at a wedding with suggestions about attention, space, voice, time, energy, breathing, seeing, imagining, pleasure--all within a social field of permission, encouragement and inclusivity.

GESTURE: FORM AND FEELING

What is a gesture? What is a movement? How do these begin and end? How are they followed, directed, transformed? How is it that rational structures, i.e. scores, can provoke the expression of emotion and imagination? The tool used is the score to Motley’s solo, Dancing the Numbers.

VOCALIZING: BODY AND VOICE
Singing to, with, and not-with music, singing with and through the breaks in our voices,  singing with permission to sound anyway that feels good, singing solo and with others.  Singing in ways that might give new meaning to what singing is.  Singing to experience the range of our vocal chords and imagination. Singing with and through the body.
    

CONTEMPLATIVE DANCE FORM --3 hours/ The classical form originated by Barbara Dilley
Sitting meditation
Personal awareness practice
Sitting meditation
Open Space
Sitting meditation
Discussion

REPERTORY
DUET/Duet to Quintet
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Point of Rescue: 6,6,5,8,11
Count 25: 10,5,4,3,2,1
Dancing the Numbers: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13
Muscle Memories
She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain

TEACHING HISTORY

2023-2017
The Studio: Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, The Bahamas

2016
Bennington College
Vermont College Dance Festival/Middlebury College
University of Vermont
Johnson State College
University of Houston
Open Dance Project/Hunter Dance Center, Houston, Texas
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, Vermont

2015  
University of Vermont
Vermont College Dance Festival
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, Vermont

2014  
Helen Day Art Center
CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont

2010-2013
CDFS,  Montpelier, Vermont
The Studio@Shaw Hill, Stowe, Vermont
Bailando Dance Festival, Corpus Christi, Texas
CORE Performance Company, Atlanta, Georgia

2009
CDFS, Montpelier, Vermont
River Arts Center, Morrisville, Vermont

2007
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Shaw Hill, Stowe, VT

2006
Berkshire Ballet, Johnson, Vermont
Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas

2005
Movement Research, NYC
Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, Texas

2004
Barnevelder Center for the Arts, Houston
Movement Research, NYC

2003
University of Colorado, Boulder
Texas Commision on the Arts, Calhoun County, TX

2002
Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia

2001
Tulane University Dance Dept., New Orleans
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

2000
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam
Matsuyama Prefect: Yummi Dance Co., Matsuyama, Japan
The Kitchen, NYC
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany

1999
MousonTurm, Frankfurt, Germany
Ballet Freiburg/Pretty Ugly, Freiburg, Germany
Amsterdam Theatre School, Amsterdam

1998-97
Dancespace Project at St. Mark's Church, NYC

1997
Movement Research, NYC
University of Houston, Houston
Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT

1996
University of Houston, TX

1995
Naropa University, Boulder, CO
Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder, CO
Glenwood Springs Dance Festival, Glenwood Springs, CO

1994
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lee, MA
Morishita Studios, Tokyo, Japan
Taman Ismael Masurki, Jakarta, Indonesia

1994-91
Naropa Institute, Boulder

1991
University of Colorado, Boulder
Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany

1990-88
Regis University, Denver

1986
Colorado Council for Arts and Humanities/ Artist-in-the-Schools

1987-82
Loretto Heights College, Denver

1981-80
Space/Dance/Theater School, Houston

1979
Dallas Ballet Company
Pitsburgh Ballet Company

1977-77
University of Houston, Clear Lake City