Category Archives: Workshops

Workshops

Tuesdays 9/18 – 10/9 – MOVING FOR MEANING with Yvonne Ng and Matthew Eldridge

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Movement workshops for artists of all disciplines to tap into our creative energy and experiential knowledge. Led by dancer/choreographer Yvonne Ng, B.F.A., M.A. and RSW Matthew Eldridge, they will blend the Open Source Forms© movement approach with creative practices to explore issues in artists’ health. Time will be set aside for facilitated reflections on each session’s movement focus. Limited spaces available. No dance experience needed.

Facilitators: Yvonne Ng is a choreographer, presenter, arts educator and artistic director of princess productions. She is the recipient of the Murriel Sherrin Award, Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, New Pioneers Arts Award, Chalmers Arts Fellowship, Soulpepper’s Community Artist Award and the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts – New Talent. Matthew Eldridge is a Registered Social Worker. He has held social work positions across southern Ontario in hospitals, family health teams and a community health centre. Matt has a background as a competitive trampolinist/gymnast and performed as an acrobat in the Cirque du Soleil production of Dralion.

Venue: Array Music Space, 155 Walnut Ave., Toronto

Dates: Tuesdays – September 18, September 25, October 2, October 9

Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Registration: Participants must sign up for the entire series. Pay-What-You-Choose. Options are: $28, $40 for the entire series (that’s $7 or $10 per session). To register, visit https://artistshealth.com/aha/creations/.

Workshops

September 10-12, 2018 – Open Source Forms & Creative Play with Susanna Hood

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September 10, 11, 12, 2018

10am-1pm

Dovercourt  House 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON

$80 for all 3 classes ($30/class)

Drop-ins welcome for day 1 and exceptionally for other days depending on previous experience

To Register: meryem.muginov@gmail.com

Minimum $30 deposit required on registration

In this three-morning workshop, Susanna offers introductory level OSF material in combination with improvisation structures using movement, voice, drawing, and writing.  OSF, founded by dance artist and master teacher Stephanie Skura in 2008 is a fluid expansion of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), developed as a revolutionary way of learning by Joan Skinner in the 1960’s. Some basic principals underpinning the work are: that we are all born with natural grace and coordination with free and open voices & natural creativity; that in letting go of learned patterns of holding, of preconception, and of expectation we can connect to our own inherent process and potential; that sound is an expression of and release of energy; that learning through allowing instead of forcing gives us access to fullness with less effort; that we can be physically touched and transformed by the use of imagery; that play is a fundamental part of our humanness. (To learn more about OSF and SRT please visit https://opensourceforms.com and http://www.skinnerreleasing.com/aboutsrt.html).

The nature of the working process is web-like, cumulative and will happen in layers with no two days exactly the same. This is why the sessions are best experienced in their entirety. We will work with touch, deep-state imagery, and waking-state exercises and scores for improvisation. The sessions are guided mostly through experiential learning, allowing for the timing of each individual’s process of discovery and integration, working both together and alone but in community.

The class is open to adults of all ages, performers and non-performers alike. The class will cater to the average level of its participants’ previous experience with OSF/SRT.

Susanna Hood Biography:

Susanna Hood is a compelling performer, maker and teacher in dance and music and was the artistic director of hum dansoundart (https://humdansoundart.wordpress.com/company/) from 2000-2013. Beginning her career in 1991 with the Toronto Dance Theatre, independently she has performed the works of many Canadian choreographers, composers, and filmmakers. She performs widely as an improviser in dance and music, and has collaborated extensively in theatre as a movement director.  Her choreography, compositions, and interdisciplinary collaborations have been presented locally, nationally, and internationally on stage and film since 1991. Her work is marked by a dynamic synthesis of voice and movement, creating intimate, raw and sensual performance work.

From 2015-2017 Susanna completed the Pilot #2 of the Research Studios at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Belgium with emphasis on the synergistic relations between dance and music. Since 2004, Susanna has been teaching improvisation, composition, and voice and movement synthesis in various institutions and through independent workshops across Canada. Since 2012 Susanna has become a teacher trainer of Open Source Forms (OSF), a practice that combines the principles of Skinner Releasing method with the varied and developing practices of its teachers. . http://susannahood.ca

 

Workshops

July 23 – 27, 2018 – Stop Emulating a Cadaver: 5-day OSF and creative research workshop in Berlin with Abby Crain and Layton Lachman

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STOP EMULATING A CADAVER
w/ ABBY CRAIN & LAYTON LACHMAN

The good news is that we aren’t dead. The good news is that our humanness is comprised of primarily nonhuman specific components. The question then arises as to why movement studies is still obsessed with kinesiological compliance that is based primarily on human cadaver study. This week let’s not comply. Let’s interrogate our nonhumaness and dance from our swim bladders instead. What is a swim bladder, you may ask…it has to do with fish and nonhumans and breath. Let’s stop pretending that science is actually able to explain the mystery and magic of the moving body and see what happens.

In this week long lab, morning practice will be strongly rooted in Open Source Forms, the non-anatomically defined wild stepchild of Skinner Releasing. Open Source Forms invites us into unfettered and unpredictable whole body movement through a series of experiential images and practices. We become windstorms; we grow tentacles on our limbs; we compose ourselves of smoke.

Afternoons will be structured in a variety of ways including discussions, writing, research, and dancing together. These various structures will focus on experiential knowledge production, collective creation, and strategies for de-centering determinist movement teleologies. We will author and co-author imaginative movement scores and soak in them. We will see imagination as a continuous practice which suggests that the whole body can follow completely new patterns and associations.

—>>>

Abby Crain is a Bay Area based artist who makes dances and other structures for performance. Her solo and collaborative work has been presented in New York City, Liverpool, Chicago, Cork, Berlin, Portland and Los Angeles. She also works in the field as a teacher and performer. As a performer she has worked primarily with MiguelGutierrez and the Powerful People and Sara Shelton Mann, with appearances in the work of Kathleen Hermesdorf, Jesse Hewit, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, and Jess Curtis Gravity. Teaching credits include FRESH Festival, Ponderosa Tanzland (DE), Movement Research, and Mills College. Current research includes creativepractices to undermine the telios of anthropocentric and cadaver based anatomical theory on the moving body.

abby-crain.com
laytonlachman.com

Layton Lachman is a dance artist. She creates choreographic works, hosts events and performs as a freelance artist. Layton was based in the San Francisco Bay Area for seven years, collaborating primarily with Mara Poliak, Abby Crain, Samuel Hertz, and SALTA, as well as appearing in the works of Sara Shelton Mann, Jess Curtis, and Kathleen Hermesdorf among others. Lachman is currently a Berlin-based artist, although continues to be engaged in artistic collaborations, curation, and social organizing projects located in the USA. Her research is often in the realm of somatics and the application of these experiential practices in the creation of immersive worlds of sensorial complexity and perceptual disorientation. In addition to somatic research as choreographic methodology, Layton teaches composition and improvisation in university contexts, with recent guest lecturing positions at Beloit College, Ohio University, and Liverpool John Moores University. Inspired by Abby, during 2018/2019 Layton is in intensive training with Stephanie Skura and Susanna Hood to also become an Open Source Forms facilitator.

Dates: July 23rd-27th
Hours: 10-12:30
1:30-3:30
Where: Dock 11 – EDEN STUDIOS – Pankow
Workshop Fee: $200 – register by July 1st
$225 – register after July 1st

contact laytonlachman@gmail.com to register or if you have any questions.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1934989003187044/

Dock link: http://www.dock11-berlin.de/index.php/cat/2_3/id/p611_STOP-EMULATING-A-CADAVER-.html

Workshops

17 December 2018 – 11 January 2019: 2-4 Week OSF Winter Workshop in Italy with Stephanie Skura & Nate Dryden

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“Some of the best teaching & guidance I’ve ever received in my dancing/movement life! Don’t miss it.”  Jeremy Steward, 2017 Certified OSF teacher 

OPEN TO ALL, NO PRIOR OSF EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
Options for two, three, or four weeks, beginning with Week #1.
Weeks 1 -3 comprise OSF Introductory Level.
Participants during Week #4 have a chance to taste the rarely taught Advanced Level!

17 December 2018 – 11 January 2019
10:30 AM – 1:30 PM, Mon – Fri
Brescia, Italy

Two, Three, or Four-Week Open Source Forms Seattle Workshop

 Opportunity to study intensively with OSF creator Stephanie Skura & Co-Faculty Nate Dryden 

Participants need to begin on first day, & participate daily. Drop-in’s OK with significant prior experience in OSF or SRT.

** Partially fulfills requirements for applicants to OSF Teacher Certification Program.**

Workshop participants will join OSF teacher trainees & pre-teacher-trainees for morning OSF technique sessions, bringing together a worldwide community for dancing, creative practice, & deep immersion — in a catalytic environment of colleagues with diverse experiences in teaching, healing, therapy, performance, theater, community, & visionary organization-building. 

Bookings are now open!

COST: $515 USD two weeks, $670 USD three weeks, $775 USD  four weeks. Nonrefundable deposit of $100 USD (plus applicable fees) by September 15, 2018 will hold your place. Tuition balance due by October 1, 2018 (or you have option to pay  full amount now).

REGISTRATION DEPOSIT

BALANCE PAYMENT

NEED HOUSING? Housing discount & assistance are available with early deposit! Let us know if you’re interested.

“Working with you creatively has instigated some of the most juicy & inspiring dancing times of my life… Hit the spot by offering the range from physical to embodied intellectual to creative composition…So much care and respect for the people with whom you share the learning space.”

Contact us with inquiries. We’re happy to hear from you!

Workshops

17 December, 2018 – 11 January, 2019: Year #1 of Europe OSF 2018/19/20 Teacher Certification with Stephanie Skura & Nate Dryden

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17 December, 2018 – 11 January, 2019 [similar dates in 2019/20/21]
10:30 AM – 6 PM, Monday – Friday
Year #1 of 2018/19/20 Europe OSF Teacher Certification Program
Brescia, Italy 

With teacher trainers OSF creator Stephanie Skura & Nate Dryden

We’re thrilled to inaugurate a Teacher Certification in Europe!
Participant numbers are very limited, for greatest benefit of participants.
Applicants to this program need substantive experience in Open Source Forms and/or Skinner Releasing Technique. We strongly advise, for most potential trainees, joining a 3-Week OSF Pre-Teacher Training Program before applying to OSF Teacher Certification.

COST: $3000 USD per year. Includes bi-weekly private sessions, faculty feedback on major project during Year #1, & faculty feedback on several between-year projects.
Hold your place with a non-refundable deposit of $400 USD by 15 August, 2018.
Balance is due by 1 September, 2018

Bookings are now open for trainees accepted into this program! 

Register with a deposit to hold your place now.


Please visit these pages for specifics on our OSF Teacher Certification Program & its prerequisites. If, after reading, you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

https://opensourceforms.com/teacher-training

 OSF is creatively empowering for both teachers & their students. A rigorous, soul-expanding program, OSF Teacher Certification gives a solid grounding in methods & deep understanding of the work, ultimately empowering teachers & their students to expand OSF to adapt to changing circumstances in our lives & worlds, & have options & guidelines to integrate it with other practices they embrace. A key mission is individual creative empowerment as an instigator of positive change on the planet. 

If interested in Europe OSF Teacher Certification 2018/19/20/21, please message us below, or email info@opensourceforms.com

“It’s impossible to thank you adequately for the immensity, generosity, hilarity, depth & expansiveness of what you’ve brought to this Teacher Training.”  Meaghen Buckley, Certified OSF Teacher, 2014

 

 

Register Here:

Workshops

17 December, 2018 – 4 January, 2019: Three-Week OSF Pre-Teacher-Training Program in Italy with Stephanie Skura & Nate Dryden

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Three-week Open Source Forms Pre-Teacher-Training Program in Europe.
Opportunity to study intensively with OSF creator STEPHANIE SKURA & Co-Faculty Nate Dryden

17 December, 2018 – 4 January, 2019
10:30 AM – 1:30 PM, 3:00 – 6:00 PM, Mon – Fri
Location: Brescia, Italy 

This program is recommended for anyone who plans on applying for OSF Teacher Certification. Prerequisites include, at minimum, the equivalent of a two-week workshop in OSF or SRT. If interested, please email & tell us the nature of your experience with SRT &/or OSF: info@opensourceforms.com

Bookings are now open for those accepted into this program!

COST: $1,800 USD. Includes several Independent Study Projects after the program, with faculty feedback. Hold your place with non-refundable deposit of $300 USD by 15 August, 2018. Balance due by 1 October, 2018.

Register with a deposit now.

For those interested in learning to teach OSF who need more experience in the practice before entering the OSF Teacher Certification Program. OSF Pre-TT includes the full spectrum of introductory OSF material, improvisation sessions, & in-depth discussions about methods & underlying concepts. 

Though not a commitment to the full OSF Teacher Certification Program, the 3-week Pre-Training Program provides prerequisites** & a sense of the nature of OSF Teacher Certification, to better know if it’s for you. It’s a ‘first pass’ at the complex array of considerations hidden behind the teaching veil, all required to effectively facilitate these transformative sessions. 

Unless you have many years’ experience with this practice — & even if you do — this preparatory program is recommended for all OSF teacher-trainees.  It renders the rigors of OSF Teacher Certification more digestible, less overwhelming, and more fun! Sufficient experience in the less-demanding-but-rigorous atmosphere of OSF Pre-TT makes all the difference in maximum digestion during Certification and, ultimately a gratifying & successful teaching career. Though there are no short-cuts in this training, we come to appreciate the rich rewards of an authentic, grounded process that guides us smoothly along our journey. 

** If you’ve already had the equivalent of one two-week OSF workshop, this 3-week program will complete your prerequisites to apply for our next OSF Teacher Certification Programs. 

 OSF is creatively empowering for both teachers & their students. A rigorous, soul-expanding program, OSF Teacher Certification gives a solid grounding in methods & deep understanding of the work, ultimately empowering teachers & their students to expand OSF to adapt to changing circumstances in our lives & worlds, & integrate it with other practices they embrace. A key mission is individual creative empowerment as an instigator of positive change on the planet. 

“Thanks again for the generous and thoughtful processes you bring into the world and invite others to be part of.” Kristine Knutson, participant OSF Pre-TT, Certified SRT teacher

“Stephanie Skura is one of the most inspired & inspiring teachers I’ve ever studied with. She is a singular teacher whose wisdom & breadth of experience are a gift to those interested in expanding their perception of movement, where it comes from, and how it can trigger deep creativity on numerous levels.”  Juliette Mapp, Choreographer & Teacher, NYC

“One of the most memorable dance educators I’ve studied with…She allows you to unfold in ways that are innate, yet unknown to you.”  Laura Reichhardt, Choreographer

 “I had such a fabulous time dancing, & felt so open and alive after each class.”  Eva Karczag, Teacher & Choreographer, The Netherlands

“This work feeds me in ways I’m not able to access otherwise.”  Alwyn O’Brien, Visual Artist, Canada

Register Here:

Workshops

June 18 – July 13, 2018: Year #1 of Seattle OSF 2018/19 Teacher Certification with Stephanie Skura & Co-Faculty

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June 18 – July 13, 2018 [similar dates in 2019]
10:30 AM – 6 PM, Monday – Friday
Year #1 of 2018/19 Seattle OSF Teacher Certification Program
19th & Roy, Capitol Hill, Seattle

With teacher trainers  Stephanie Skura (OSF creator) &  Co-Faculty

COST: $3000 USD per year. Includes bi-weekly private sessions, faculty feedback on major project during Year #1, & faculty feedback on several between-year projects.
Hold your place with a non-refundable deposit by February 15, 2018.
Balance is due by April 15, 2018

Bookings are now open for trainees accepted into this program! 

Register with a deposit to hold your place now.

Balance Payment

Participant numbers are very limited, for greatest benefit of participants.  Applicants to this two-year program need substantive experience in Open Source Forms and/or Skinner Releasing Technique. We strongly advise, for most potential trainees, joining a 3-Week OSF Pre-Teacher Training Program before applying to OSF Teacher Certification.
Please visit these pages for specifics on our OSF Teacher Certification Program & its prerequisites. If, after reading, you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

https://opensourceforms.com/teacher-training

 OSF is creatively empowering for both teachers & their students. A rigorous, soul-expanding program, OSF Teacher Certification gives a solid grounding in methods & deep understanding of the work, ultimately empowering teachers & their students to expand OSF to adapt to changing circumstances in our lives & worlds, & have options & guidelines to integrate it with other practices they embrace. A key mission is individual creative empowerment as an instigator of positive change on the planet. 

If interested in Seattle OSF Teacher Certification 2018/19, please message us below.

“It’s impossible to thank you adequately for the immensity, generosity, hilarity, depth & expansiveness of what you’ve brought to this Teacher Training.”  Meaghen Buckley, Certified OSF Teacher, 2014

 

 

 

Complete your registration here: