a digital, donation-based embodiment experience
June 1–26, 2020
We are grieving. We are raging. We are desperately searching for new modes of existence while figuring out how to survive in an abruptly isolated reality. We’re all doing it, but it does not touch everyone in the same ways. Gross injustices, so systemic they are invisible to most, are being exploited. Many are coming to terms with the fact that our safety is not guaranteed. For others, that fact is disturbingly familiar. Some are frustrated by certain immobility. For others, this hybrid virtuality has always been necessary. If we are to emerge from this moment of pause with any options other than a reactionary jerk back to “normal,” we must use this time to imagine new futures. And we must start with reimagining, or re/training, ourselves.
While ARCOS has been exploring the boundaries of the virtual realm for years, we have all suddenly been plunged into it more deeply than before on a global level. We offer Re/Training to cultivate a new relationship to time, to movement, to our physical/digital selves, and to our ever-growing, though currently distant, translocal communities. We offer Re/Training not to escape the present moment or in an attempt to recreate the ecstasy of dancers gathered in physical practice. (There are so many amazing artists out there offering small-space adapted technique classes—check out our recommendations!) We too, anticipate the time when we can rigorously pursue the dynamic limits of our physicality, and we’ll be ready to offer our in-person training and individualized networking programs for independent professional performing artists. But right now, we are exploring what else is possible…
For all these sessions, you will receive a Zoom link, but you are NOT LINKED TO YOUR SCREEN! Sessions will largely be facilitated aurally, you will not need to see the image at all times. Check out our GUIDELINES FOR VIRTUALITY to help set yourself up for optimal embodiment.
Donations
(Venmo @ARCOSdance or PayPal)
ARCOS offers these Physical Practice Sessions by donation. All funds collected from this series will support our ongoing Training + Development Programming, including our ability to rent space for physical classes when it is safe to do so. Our instructors and collaborators are paid from other funding sources; your donation will not effect their compensation. You will find donation options when you register.
Part 1: Physical Practice Sessions
M / W 12–1:15pm CT
T / Th 10–11:15am CST
Part 1: Physical Practice Sessions
June 1–26, 2020
M / W / F 12–1pm CT
T / Th 10–11am CT
ARCOS is committed to our Training and Development mission to cultivate the whole artist. With our semi annual professional workshops we strive to curate a diverse range of relevant practices for independent artists working and making in the 21st century. This moment is calling for something equally responsive to the needs of right now. We’ve curated Physical Practice Sessions designed to re/train our bodies in sensation, function, energy, and most importantly—imagination. All instructors are drawing from somatic modalities and integrating their embodied knowledge into new, multi-modal forms. We offer Re/Training Part 1 to address your human/cyborg/imaginative body. Your dancer body is welcome but not required for this experience. We will not be training to rehearse and perform as we have known it to exist. We will open the possibility of creating a new body, capable of moving differently in this world and the world in which we will soon re-emerge.
Guidelines
Registration required at least 30 minutes in advance to receive Zoom link. Please do not share the Zoom link. This will be our only way to track participation for reporting purposes.
You will receive the Zoom link 20 minutes prior to class start times.
Classes will generally be one hour in length. If the instructor plans to go longer, they will announce at the beginning of the session and make a logical break to leave after one hour if needed.
Zoom rooms open 15 minutes pre- and post-class times for chatter + emoji sharing
Offerings
Monday (12–1pm CT): Anatomy + Subconscious
with Kelsey Paschich
This class will be an exploration of anatomy and the subconscious mind through movement. The conscious mind can obstruct physical practice and limit the body’s capability. This class will soften the mind into a flowing state of openness and look deeply at the possibilities of experiential anatomy. Moving through improvisation into making, this class is a container for finding new approaches to rigor, effort, and creation.
Preparation: A space where you can take one step in all directions and feel safe moving your limbs.
Tuesday (10–11am CT): Digital Class + Coffee
with Erica Gionfriddo
This facilitated movement research session is designed to connect us to the pleasure of building a new, personal body technique. Through continuous movement, we will re/train our physicality through/as metaphor to flex our imaginative capacity for moving in the world. We will focus on repurposing our physical space, on filtering without escaping, to ground us firmly in the present moment. Structures and trajectories will be nonlinear, fluid, and highly personal. You are welcome to incorporate your physical and emotional surroundings into your exploration.
Preparation: Whatever space you are inspired to move in that day. You should be able to hear the facilitator, but it is not necessary to watch the video feed.
Wednesdays (12–1pm CT): RARE MIXTAPE Feldenkrais® ATM
with Ekalos Reed
All Feldenkrais® lessons focus our attention on the process of learning itself and on our personal relationship to learning, rather than correcting or controlling anything. In these more rarely taught lessons we will attend to our ourselves in ways that may be surprising, confounding, strange, paradoxical. We can use these lessons as inputs/disruptors to inform our work as artists in many different intersecting realms including but not limited to orientation, imagination, voice, unconscious patterns, etc.
Preparation: A place that is warm and comfortable to lie down so that you can attend to small differences in your movements, thoughts, emotions, and general approach to yourself.
Thursdays (10–11am CT): GYROKINESIS® in Practice
with Erica Gionfriddo
The GYROTONIC® Method is a 360º movement system focusing on internal traction to strengthen the body at its longest. GK combines principles of dance, yoga, Tai-Chi, and swimming to organize and activate the energetic body as the primary source of movement. In these sessions, we will explore a range of GK Level 1 and 2 material and directly apply key concepts in guided movement explorations.
Preparation: A chair or stool (preferably a height that allows your knees to be lower than your hips when sitting), yoga mat (or large bath towel), and a towel or t-shirt for assists. You should find enough room to lie down and extend all your limbs without bumping into anything.
Fridays (12–1pm CT): Coffee Chats (and sometimes movement)
with Guest Artists
TBA
Part 2: The Audi[O]smotic Sessions (Ether series)
ON HIATUS
ARCOS has been developing a collaborative mediated embodiment practice that engages the imaginative power of listening, posing the possibility of moving from sound, rather than with it. Digital sound manipulation magnifying the labor of their moving bodies, participants work to shift from listening to a state of aural absorption; moving from the molecular impulses that arise from listening with the entire body. We offer Re/Training Part 2 as an open invitation to work with ARCOS as we excavate our physical and digital bodies for a new movement language. These (longer) sessions will be facilitated by text and live audio manipulation and include ongoing dialogue as we discover the conditions of aural absorption as a movement aesthetic.
From June 1–12, sessions will be open to all. You are welcome to come to one or all sessions, or come and go as is useful to you during this window. From June 15–26, participants should be available to commit to all sessions (prerequisite: attending at least 2 previous sessions). We will be seeking movers to commit to virtual happenings presented on June 25 and 26 as part of ARCOS’ (now digital) artistic residency at Laboratory Spokane (WA).
Preparation: Whatever space you are inspired to move in that day and a notebook/paper for writing. We recommend wireless headphones or an external speaker to amplify your device for the best sonic experience, but these are not by any means required.
Guidelines
Registration required at least 30 minutes prior to session start time.
You will receive Zoom link 20 minutes prior to session start time.
June 1–12: Open sessions, all are welcome
June 15–26: Seeking participants for virtual happenings June 25 + 26 (must commit to all sessions and, ideally, all Physical Practice Sessions during this period as well)
Compensation
ARCOS will offer a stipend to final participants based on the number of hours spent in exploration June 15–26. ARCOS is committed to raising awareness of the need to recognize the full value of artistic labor, in part by offering compensation for participating artists.
