Contemporary Dance | Raul Valdez (Domin. Republic/Germany)
JULY 19–23, 2010 | 10–12 am
K3–Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg
Raul Valdez uses the weight of the isolated body in order to generate elementary impulses which develops themselves during the training to complex movements. In this process he incorporates different principles and techniques of the contemporary Modern Dance like “Alexander” or “Limón”. After the warm up Raul conduct at first the ground exercises and from this point the coordination principles are developed in a coherent way, so they turns to be dance sequences. In the foreground of Raul’s work is the energy flow through the body and its projection in the space, in order to extract from the body the movement’s power and pureness. His experience as choreographer helps him to communicate in harmonious combinations an unmistakable aesthetics as well as neu perspectives about Contemporary Dance.
Raul Valdez
was born in Santo Domingo (Domenic. Republic), studied ballett and modern dance in Santo Domingo, Cuba (Escuela Nacional de Danza) and New York (Dance Theatre of Harlem). He danced among others in the Adriana Urdaneta Dance Company and "Danza hoy" at the Theater Teresa Carrena. He toured in Europa and America. Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martin, under the direction of Oscar Araiz. Ballettensemble at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, direction Pierre Wyss. He worked together with different well-known choreographs - Antonio Gomes, Anna Maria Stekelmann, Ben Ida, Jean Renshaw etc. Choreography award "Prix Don Perignon". Choreography- assignment for the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Karlsruhe and the Ballet Nacional Dominicano. Dancer and soloist in many productions, among others at the. Staatstheater Bern.
Teaching language: German and English
Maximum number of participants: 20
Open to all with an intermediate/high level experience in Modern and Contemporary dance.
Contemporary Dance | Fiona Gordon (England/Germany)
JULY 26–30, 2010 | 10–12 am
K3–Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg
I like to follow a theme that can be integrated throughout the whole class, often one of the six basic full-body connection elements from Bartenieff-fundamentals: Breath, core-distal, head-tail, upper-lower, body half, cross-lateral. More elements might be included, like curves, swings or rolls, balance and off-balance. My style is a mixture of: Humphrey-Limon and release technique, involving also the knowledge from Bartenieff-fundamentals, and dealing with how to play with gravity, feeling the sensation of suspension and letting go and giving into the weight. I concentrate on giving the dancer a consciousness of her moving body... being aware of which muscles are necessary to elevate a movement; which are active and lead a movement and to choose which are passive and follow. I suggest that dancers concentrate on their energy source coming from their centers (core-energy), and that they try to become aware of the radiation of that energy to their extremities (distal-energy). I also stress the necessity of being aware of the connection between head and tail, weight shifting and lastly, the connection of the feet with the floor. The culmination of the class is the combination, which often integrates the theme of the class and ultimately gives the dancer a feeling of high energy output. I really enjoy seeing my dancers leave the room with a great sense of having reached limits. The dancer should develop a clear consciousness of how, where, why and when the body moves, should be able to differ between automatic motoric movement and the performance of a conscious movement. I like to motivate the dancer to come into class with a lot of energy and concentration and hope their passion for movement and dance grows during each session.
Fiona Gordon
The dancer and choreographer was born in England and studied dance at the Laban Centre in London for four years. Work with different choreographers and directors in Europe, like V-Tol Physical Theatre (London), Muriel Bader (Zurich), KOOP (Berlin), Stefan Rosinski (Berlin), Coax (Hamburg), Angela Guerreiro (Hamburg), and especially Jan Pusch (Hamburg)allowed her to acquire great experience on stage worldwide.Two of pieces were especially successful: Her solo Please Help Yourself was awarded the international Dance-theater-Solo-Award in Stuttgart in 1999, and the production Into the Blue won the Critical Prize of the Choreography Contest in Hanover in 2001. Fiona Gordon teaches modern dance and choreography at the Erika Klütz Schule and at the Contemporary Dance School Hamburg.
Teaching language: German and English
Maximum number of participants: 20
Open to all with an intermediate/high level experience in Modern and Contemporary dance.