pathways & principles
Four full days of researching movement pathways and principles through the lens of the Axis Syllabus with Nuria Bowart and Contact Improvisation with Marcus van Duren
The aim of this workshop is to expand your movement pathways and unearth the principles that can lead to a lifetime of fruitful research
@ Studio 12 & The Finnish Hall in Berkeley, CA
January 12 - 15, 2024
Axis Syllabus
Nuria Bowart
Nuria is a professional dancer and movement artist; a student, practitioner, and teacher of Capoeira with the rank of contramestre; a practicing manual therapist and Certified Rolfer®; a movement educator authorized as a Teacher and Certifier within the Axis Syllabus© international research community; and a mother of two.
Nuria holds over 25 years of vocational research and practice across multiple therapeutic, martial, and artistic disciplines rooted in the expressive, relational, and healing capacities of the human body. She is deeply engaged with traditional forms of yoga, Western somatics, choreographic and improvisational movement arts, functional anatomy research, and more.
She is co-founder of the Field Center in southern Vermont, a residency and pedagogical center for contemporary heterodox arts practices where she currently lives, works, and manages the garden. Nuria teaches across the US and internationally. https://www.nuriabowart.com/
Contact improvisation
Marcus van duren
Marcus is a dancer, teacher and community organizer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has intensively studied movement and dance since his discovery of contact improvisation in 2012. He has been teaching classes and workshops locally in California since 2015, and seasonally travels internationally to teach contact improvisation and study as an active member of the international Axis Syllabus community. Marcus has had the pleasure of studying with Kira Kirsch, Frey Faust, Nuria Bowart, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Martin Keogh, Ray Chung, Nita Little, James Graham, Sarah Shelton Mann and many others. In addition to appreciating dance as a performing art, Marcus sees dance as a life practice. He is endlessly curious about how dance can reflect larger patterns in one's attention and serve as a laboratory to explore new ways of moving and being, both on and off the dance floor. Marcus holds an interdisciplinary BA from UC Berkeley with a focus in Theater, Dance & Performance and Psychology.
Multi-instrumentalist Rob Flax describes his music in a concise way: “I play things with strings, I hit stuff, and I sing.” Behind this simple tag line lies a rich depth of genre-bending, from classical and jazz violin to bluegrass fiddle, to blues and rock influences, and beyond. In his “One Man Band” shows, Rob uses a looper pedal and other effects to transform his violin into an entire symphony of sounds. Rob is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he received his master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation, and he currently lives in Boston. www.robflax.com
Rob Flax
Schedule
Each day we will start with an Axis Syllabus class with Nuria, learning principles for dynamic healthy solo-movement across the floor and in the afternoon we will research how these principles can be applied in the context of contact improvisation with Marcus. After each class there will be open time to lab and research questions that come up in class. This could look like zooming in on a particular movement pathway or open ended research of a score/principle. The idea of this lab time is to offer space to puzzle the details and promote a collaborative learning environment in which we can go deep, slow down and a-ha! together. Nuria and Marcus will be available for one-on-one’s and feedback.
Last but not least! There will be Jams in the evenings. Sunday we will have a performance hour with accompaniment from incredible Rob Flax, into a jam with a musical landscape offered by Rob.
Monday will be a review of the material throughout the workshop and an opportunity to really integrate the information. There will be time to explore questions/ideas that arose. One-on-ones, review and harvest. The plan for Monday is intentionally flexible to be able to align to what is alive for the group.
Meals are not provided. Be sure to bring your own snacks and food.
For meals, there are restaurants nearby. Studio 12 has a kitchen for light meal prep. Berkeley Bowl West is a short walk from Studio 12. No kitchen at the Finnish Hall.
Food?
Thanks for making the trip! We will set up an email thread for room rentals and shared housing with other participants.
Coming from out of town?
Partial attendance is a possibility and will be considered on a case by case basis. Full time attendance is preferred and will be prioritized in the case of limited space.
email: marcus.jpvanduren@gmail.com
Can I come for just part of it?
Studio 12
2525 Eighth St, Berkeley, CA 94710
The Finnish Hall
1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley, CA 94702
