In conjunction with their residency and performances at Performance Works, Maya Dalinsky and claire barrera are offering three workshops, two of them free! claire and Maya are two dance-artists exploring themes of friendship, language and memory through immersive games and scores that draw on the vast wealth of archived materials from their decades-long relationship.
- October 5 | B.F.B.F.F. (Best Fantastic Binomial Friends FOREVER) | movement workshop for friend duos
- October 10 | Fantastic Binomials: Elastic Words | a language generation workshop
- October 12 | Moving Views | videowalking workshop
B.F.B.F.F. (Best Fantastic Binomial Friends FOREVER
Movement Workshop for Friend Duos
Sunday October 5, 1-3pm
led by Maya and claire
FREE
What if we valued friendships as much as we do romantic partners and bio family? This workshop, intended specifically for friend pairs, will use movement and language prompts to explore and strengthen a form of kinship often dismissed in society. We’ll play with shared histories, difference and points of tension, collaboration and intimacy and open up a new space in which to nurture friendship.
Sign up with a close friend and get ready to indulge in your favorite memories, inside jokes and states of delirious play.
This work is the foundation for the performance piece The Fantastical Power of Two and seeks to honor friendship and all the messy, ecstatic, hilarious, challenging, and terrifying baggage that comes with it.
Come dressed in comfy clothes for moving and bring along some photos, songs, favorite shared objects, from your personal friendship archive. claire and Maya will reach out to participants prior to the workshop with further guidance on what materials to prepare for this time together!
This workshop is open to all ages and abilities, and no prior experience in dance or other art modalities necessary. We will always practice explicit consent and participants are encouraged to join in, sit out or otherwise modify their participation however they need. Please reach out to the facilitators if you have any questions or specific access needs.
Fantastic Binomials: Elastic Words
Language Generation Workshop
October 10, 10am – noon
for ages 10+
led by Maya and claire
Fantastic Binomials is an exploration in writing and dance inspired by the work of Gianni Rodari, an Italian pedagogue who developed exercises to nurture imagination through collective processes. One such exercise is ‘fantastic binomials’, which prompts writers to find two not-easily-related words and bring them together to spark the storytelling imagination. claire and Maya were inspired to expand this exercise into dance and movement with the aim of cycling between the verbal and non-verbal as a form for experiencing affinity and difference.
We will guide participants through some of the exercises, games and performative scores that came from our 3+ years of research and are currently the foundations for The Fantastical Power of Two performance at PWNW. Be prepared to move, talk, write and play through words, phrases and movement sequences of your own choosing. We will not work with set material but invite you to discover the elastic reciprocity between movements and words through guided improvisation and play. Come equipped with a pen and paper!
Ages 10+, no previous experience in writing or dancing necessary. We will always practice explicit consent and participants are encouraged to join in, sit out or otherwise modify their participation however they need. Please reach out to the facilitators if you have any questions or specific access needs.
Moving Views
Videowalking Workshop
Sunday October 12, 1-4pm
led by Maya
for ages 12+
Cost: sliding scale $20-50
Moving Views is a hands-on laboratory to explore the intersections of choreographic and cinematographic processes through a hybrid practice called videowalking.
Videowalks guide spectators through a space by inviting them to re-play and embody the gestures, trajectories and experiences of the original cameraperson by overlapping pre-recorded images onto the real space (a bit like DIY augmented reality, see https://vimeo.com/showcase/11616722/video/759435154).
The process of creating videowalks is founded on tools from the fields of choreography, improvisation and cinematography. In this introductory lab, we will explore some of these foundations as well as create short videowalks to explore the space – and the perspectives of others – on the heels of our moving images.
This workshop intentionally relies on everyday technology and participants are kindly asked to bring their own portable devices (smartphones, tablets, or any image recording devices that have an integrated screen or can playback the video it records) to work with. The devices can be older models, preferably ones they feel comfortable letting other people handle. The device should have enough battery power to last up to 20 minutes unplugged and free memory space for video recordings of up to 300 MB. Maya will bring a small stock of backup second-hand devices but may not be able to provide a device for every participant.
For ages 12+, no previous experience in dance or film is necessary. We will be filming on handheld devices and moving through space with cameras in hand. The practice involves working eyes open and closed, and looking at screens for extended periods of time. We will take breaks to rest our eyes and brains as the videowalking can induce a sense of vertigo or dizziness in some. The practice has not yet been adapted to people with blindness, please contact Maya if you have questions about accessibility.
Performance Works NW || Linda Austin Dance 