Building the Scene of Dis/a/ssociation by Zach Nicol

This workshop considers states of dissociation and alienation felt in the body and produced in the social realm. We will use durational group improvisation and seek to consciously embody divergence and opposition. We will explore registers of disconnection, dissonance, and detachment in our movement.

We will lose focus and use attention, assemble a method to make our oppositions physical, and build a group scene by giving form to these impulses in close proximity. We will think about form and composition in this space of negativity and contrast.

We will question the impulse to find connection, communion, and pleasure in our movement, and ask what new relations open up as we witness and resist each Other. We will feel in the dark, navigate internal and external stimuli, and fall into overwhelm while improvising. We will use a percussive and loud sound score. We will foreclose the pleasures of dancing “together,” and discuss what it means to produce an antagonistic sociality through dance. What do modes of resistance and refusal offer us aesthetically, socially, and politically?

This is a space of inquiry, please bring a notebook, comfortable clothes, and a desire to articulate your experience.

Zachary Nicol is an artist and performer based in Chicago. Their performance and video work uses research in dance, movement, site, and image to unfold problems of representation and the performing body. Their work has been presented in Chicago at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 6018 North, Blanc Gallery, Links Hall, Pivot Arts Festival, Trap Door Theatre, Co-Prosperity, Lumpen Radio, filmfront, OuterSpace, and Compound Yellow; Krannert Center for Performing Arts (Urbana, IL), the National Museum of Romanian Literature (Bucharest), and S1 Gallery (Portland, OR). Nicol was a 2023 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, has been artist in residence with Ragdale Foundation, Annas Projects, ACRE, and Links Hall, and has received recognition and support from Lit & Luz, Villa Albertine, and Chicago Artists Coalition. Nicol has performed and contributed to dance, film, and performance projects by artists including Anna Martine Whitehead, Andy Nicholas Li, Courtney Mackedanz, Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, Adam Linder, Joe Namy, Mlondi Zondi, Alexandra Pirici, Kim Brandt, Ginger Krebs, Catherine Sullivan, and many others. zacharynicol.info

Photo by Jovan Landry

Make a date to dance every Friday this fall from 10:30 AM to 12 PM!

From February 14 through and including March 21, 2025 new instructors every week, drawn from Chicago’s wealth of dance talent, visiting artists, and exceptional students lead this sampler series of a kaleidoscope of techniques, styles and approaches.

All classes take place in the Dance Center theater and movers at all levels are welcome.

Come dance with us!

Host or Publisher The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago