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Four + Four Days in Motion

8th International Theatre Festival

24th - 31st October 2003

International Theatre Festival Four + Four Days in Motion
announces workshop

INVESTIGATING DANCE
AS A NAVIGATIONAL
/MIGRATIONAL PROCESS

- part of the project Bird Brain- Jennifer Monson (USA)

22nd - 31st October 2003

Deadline for application is October 7th, 2003

Applications, including a CV in English,
can be sent by e-mail to ctyridny@login.cz or to
Čtyři dny, Celetná 17, 110 00, Prague 1, Czech Republic

Payment:
The registration fee is 700 CZK/400 CZK for students,
must be paid in cash the first day of workshop

Schedule of workshop:
daily from 12 p.m. till 17 p.m.

Venue:
spaces of the former brickyard, V Šáreckém údolí 37, Prague 6

Transport connection:
buses 161, 254, 312, 316, 356 from underground station Dejvicka,
gate Ruzyne - airport, more on www.ctyridny.cz

Workshop description:

Monson invents her signature dances as a way to mark the passing of lives, of small things taken for granted, of civil liberties and freedoms. In the workshop Monson will create a site-specific piece based on her current project - The Bird Brain duck and geese migration. The Ducks and Geese Migration is the third of four navigational dance projects which make up Jennifer Monson Dance's Bird Brain. This multi-year project investigates migratory patterns and habits of birds and other animals, as well as their biophysical and metaphorical relationship to humans as fellow travellers in the world. Bird Brain includes four inter-related components: site-specific public dance performances; panel discussions with artists and scientists; dance workshops for students and the general public; a web site which tracks the migrating birds and dancers. Bird Brain strives to link the dance and conservation communities, forging new connections between science and art, and revealing the overlap between nature and culture. Bird Brain aims to have significant impact on each site we visit, illuminating the importance of sustaining and preserving habitat for migratory species, and deepening our dynamic relationship with nature through the kinetic medium of dance. By literally following the migratory routes of the animals, Bird Brain weaves together a community across continents, ecosystems and cultures. In the creation of the work in Prague concepts of flocking and the expanded intelligence that can emerge from collective consciousness, as well as the influence of wind and weather patterns will be explored. Each of the performances will be preceded by a movement workshop in which the Bird Brain dancers will guide local audience members through dance explorations of human perceptual and sensory navigation techniques, heightening the audience's sensory experience.

Jennifer Monson about her workshop:

In this workshop we will bring an investigative curiosity to our inquiry of how we improvise. Working within a conceptual base of what it means to navigate we will isolate various improvisational activities such as making transitions, creating locations, and sustaining energetic states, to bring a deeper understanding to our own personal and intrinsic improvisational logic.

Jennifer Monson - biography

Jennifer Monson has been pursuing an original approach to experimental dance forms in NYC since 1983 when she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. In that time she has created a wide body of work that incorporates well-developed collaborative relationships with many artists including Zeena Parkins, John Jasperse, Yvonne Meier and David Zambrano. The BIRD BRAIN Gray Whale and Osprey Migrations each provided over 30 free outdoor performances from Mexico to Canada and from Maine, through Cuba to Venezuela.
Over the past seven years, she has curated several dance/music improvisation festivals and has a strong commitment to improvisation as a performance form. She has participated in improvisational festivals in New York, Stuttgart, Germany, Minneapolis, Montreal and San Francisco as a teacher, performer and panellist. Monson is a dedicated teacher to a wide range of communities in New York City. She also teaches releasing, improvisation and composition.

Workshop is organized in co-operation of Four Days, mamapapa and Konfrontace