Annual programme of film and video based around dance and the body
8pm Friday 30th, 10am – 10pm Saturday 31st March
The Universal Hall, Findhorn 
Focus: A unique insight into the work of highly influential, award winning video dance artist Katrina McPherson. The programme includes a selected retrospective of over 15 years work and a curated programme of Katrina’s most influential and inspiring movers and makers from the world of dance film.
Katrina has long list of Scottish and international collaborators that includes Kirstie Simson; Scottish Dance Theatre; Ricochet Productions and the Tibetan-Chinese choreographer, Sang Jijia. Her works are regularly screened at festivals around the world. New media artist Simon McPherson has edited and co-produced on most of the video works directed by Katrina and will joining her to present the curated programme.
Invited speaker Chirstinn Whyte will introduce and present the retrospective.
| Screening Times (provisional, subject to change): |
| Friday 30th March |
| 8pm |
Selective Retrospective |
 |
Video dance works by Katrina McPherson introduction and led discussion with Chirstinn Whyte. Includes the Award Winning ’There is a Place’ |
|
| Saturday 31st March |
| 10am |
Selective Retrospective (second screening) |
|
Video dance works by Katrina McPherson (no introduction) |
|
| 2pm |
Force of Nature (75mins) |
|
A feature length dance documentary featuring acclaimed dance improviser Kirstie Simson. A specially filmed performance, documentary footage and in-depth interviews, reveals Kirstie’s passionate belief in the power of dance to bring people together and transform lives. |
|
| 8pm |
Curated Programme |
|
Short films and videos based around dance and the body. Introduced and discussed by Katrina McPherson. Includes work by Jonathan Burrows and Adam Roberts, Doug Rosenberg, and Gina Czarneck. |
Tickets:
Limited capacity for this cafe cinema event
Buy an Event Pass and come to as many screenings as you wish £15
Single screening tickets £6
About the venue:
An intimate style cafe cinema will be set up in the basement of the Universal Hall. Drinks will be permitted. We are negotiating the sale of alcoholic drinks and/or BYO.
Box Office: (on sale from 7th Feb)
Event passes available in advance. Single screening tickets on the door only
The Phoenix Shop 01309 690110 and www.thebooth.co.uk
Click here for more information on Katrina and Simon McPherson.
Photo by Gao Yan and Song Wenjia -Katrina teaching at Beijing Dance Academy
Benno Voorham
Friday 13th – Sunday 15th April
This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience!
See also:
Evening of Contemporary Dance Performance II
Three riveting dance solos by three compelling dance artists with
Benno Voorham
Rosalind Masson
Special Guest
There’s a visual poetry in Our Oceans Are Drowning , a thoughtful quality in Masson’s movement that lends subtlety and eloquence to her eco-sensitive message. The Herald
Friday 13th April 8pm
The Universal Hall, Findhorn
Benno is a highly distinctive and original teacher and performer with over 25 years of experience. A major force in the European Contact Improvisation scene, he has organised two major teaching conferences (ECITE) and introduced CI to several Eastern European countries. This is his first, long awaited visit to Findhorn.
Contact Improvisation is a dance form in which the point of contact with another dancer provides the starting point for a movement exploration. It is most frequently performed as a duet, but can be danced by more people. There can be music or it can happen in silence. It is about sharing weight, rolling, suspending, falling, passive and active, energy and awareness.
During this workshop will spend time working on various skills and exploring the underlying principles of Contact Improvisation, playing with physical forces such as gravity, levity, momentum and inertia. We will work with different scores and structures for improvisation with a strong focus on developing a playful and subtle presence in our dancing.
Articulation and playfulness are two keywords for this workshop in which we will dance for and with each other. Dances in which we can expect to be in physical contact at any moment and at the same time keeping an awareness of ones own directions in improvising.
In my work as a dance maker and improviser I am interested to explore the crossroads between dance, contact improvisation and theatre. Using the potential of the human body and contact improvisation to tell stories through movement in a non-literal way.
Price: Waged and Supported Artists £120, Independent Artists/Students £95
Special Deal! Three day workshop + evening meals + performance ticket £145 / £115
Click here for how to book.
9.30am – 12.30pm
Friday 20th – Monday 23rd April 2012
The Universal Hall, Findhorn 
Vanda Scaravelli, who died in Italy in l999 at the age of 9l, may be best known to many yoga students for her influential book ‘Awakening the Spine’, with its striking photos of her in her 80′s performing challenging poses with ease. Vanda’s knowledge developed from initial study with Iyengar and Desikachar. Her own distinctive approach to yoga evolved throughout the rest of her life.
The emphasis of this approach to yoga is not on achieving postures but using them to undo tension and find integration. The practice is an ongoing exploration of the relationship between the parts of the body and between our movements and the breath, the ground and the space around us. Gradually a new network of muscles is brought into use. Then our movements come from the spine and bring us back to the spine and the whole body pulls together. We train our attention so that we can feel more, impose less, and allow the intelligence of the body to reveal itself.
From her early beginnings as an Iyengar Yoga teacher in the mid seventies, Sophy has found freedom of movement through the practice of Scaravelli-inspired yoga. She first met Vanda Scaravelli in 1991, when she was invited to become Vanda’s student. This meeting became a key stepping stone for her yoga practice. At Vanda’s house Sophy met Diane Long and recognised in her practice the same freedom that she saw in Vanda. Sophy invited Diane to teach her and her students in London and since then they have been meeting regularly to practise and teach together.
Cost:
£210 Includes vegetarian lunch. Some daily places may be available closer to the time.
A 25% non-refundable deposit is required when booking. See booking information page.
See also:
My Skin is Still Singing
Dance Performance by
Kirstie Simson
& Michael Schumacher
Friday 18th May, 8pm
The Universal Hall, Findhorn
Force of Nature – Film
Full length documentary
featuring Kirstie Simson.
Screening as part of
Movers and Makers 2012
30th and 31st March
Kirstie Simson
Michael Schumacher
Monday 14th – Friday 18th May 2012
The Universal Hall, Findhorn
Two of the world’s most inspirational and generous dance improvisors
Kirstie Simson: Improvisation and Listening(10am – 12.30pm)
Kirstie Simson has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called “a force of nature” by the New York Times, she is an award-winning dancer and teacher who has “immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance” (Time Out Magazine, London).
Classes draw from Kirstie’s knowledge of contact improvisation, dance techniques, Aikido and her extensive experience of improvisation in performance.
The focus will be on exploring uninhibitedly the huge potential of the body’s response to the primal urge to move, inspired by deep energies released through human interaction, physical challenge and through the excitement of discovering new territory, new sensations and a daring to go beyond inherent ideas of limitation.
In recent years Kirstie’s focus has been directed towards the art of deep listening within her practice of improvisation. During this workshop she will be sharing her insights and understanding of the essential quality of listening within the art of improvisation, and how this pertains to her experience of improvisation in performance.
Michael Schumacher: Improvisation and Instant Composition (2 – 4.30pm)
The versatile dance-artist Michael Schumacher is a master of improvisation. He has danced with Frankfurt Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance, the Feld Ballet and the Pretty Ugly Dance Co and currently performs with the Magpie Music Dance Company.
The aim of this workshop is to develop conscious presence while improvising in a performance. Each session begins with exercises that explore relationships between thought, movement and presence in the immediate environment. By promoting a greater awareness of sensory input, the performer becomes better equipped to interact with their internal and external impulses.
The session continues with examples of both fixed and open structures in which the participants improvise with such elements as dance, music, text and light. Through practice and theory, participants explore a process by which they collectively experience spontaneously created compositions.
Price: Independent Artists/Students £160, Waged and Supported Artists £220
A vegetarian evening meal is available each day for £7
Click here for how to book.
Kirstie Simson & Michael Schumacher
8pm 18th May 2012
