DanceArt Lab 4: the f/old somatic\artistic artmaking - 17th July 2024

General Level DanceArt Lab 4 somatic dance and artmaking practice led by Susan Sentler and Melissa Rayne

A workshop with multidisciplinary artist, performer, dancer and Senior Lecturer Susan Sentler, from her shared research practice with Glenna Batson:

Participants will be guided through a physical warm-up and the f/old practice. Expect curated dives, artistic research, automatic captures and a playful and supportive environment.

Come along if you're curious about somatics, improvisation, choreographic research, art making, markmaking, multidisciplinary practices or all of the above!

General level suitable for anyone with a regular dance or artistic/creative practice, as well as professional dancers (any disciplines) and recent graduates/dancers in training. This Lab is open to all genders, ages 21 and up - participants over 30 especially welcome!

- Supported by Arts Council England

Workshop Fee: £8.00

Date and time: Wednesday 17th July, 10.30 to 13.30

Venue: East London Dance, Studio 2, The Talent House, 3 Sugarhouse Lane, Stratford, E15 2QS

Bring: Paper, pens/pencils, fabric of your choice and a charged mobile phone (some materials can also be provided)

Elements of this workshop will be filmed for internal use, with short clips and still imagery used for marketing purposes. If you don't want to appear on camera, please let Melissa know on the day.

About The f/old

What can a fold be? A vessel, womb, pocket, pleat, crease, cavern … an/other way to enter corporeality through the discovery of the vibrancy of thinginess. In this time together, we will explore the f/old – a practice of somatic\artistic making – of letting things appear.* The f/old becomes alchemical through improvised languaging, gesture and collaging of material and media. Come dive into and out of our enfolded topographies.

Participants will partner with material/media – paper, fabric, photography, text, drawing, and filming. The mix of materials with moving matter helps to propagate a multiplicity of possibilities, becoming an archive/anarchive** of process.

* from Tufnell & Crickmay 1988 A Widening Field: journeys in body and imagination.

**anarchive, https://3ecologies.org/immediations/anarchiving/anarchive-concise-definition/

About Susan Sentler

Susan Sentler, (she/her), is an independent artist rooted in the field of Dance and Performance, working as educator/lecturer, maker/choreographer, researcher, director, curator, dramaturg and performer. She has practiced globally for over 30 years and began teaching in Higher Education since 1992, in early 2000’s meriting Senior Lecturer status from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

As performer, she danced with the original second company ‘The Ensemble’ of the Martha Graham Dance Company in the 1980’s and has returned to performing in the past 10 years with artists such as Tino Sehgal, Xavier le Roy, Dora Garcia and Jerome Bel.

Susan’s practice is inter/trans/post-disciplinary, anchored by a honed expanded somatic relationship to image, interested in ‘dissolving the indexical’, yielding greater potential of sensorial materiality. In 2013, she received an MACP (Masters in Creative Practice, Dance Professional Practice) from Trinity Laban in collaboration with Independent Dance, London/UK.

Read more: https://thfold.net/About

About Melissa Rayne

Dance, to me, is Outsider Art…I’m a neurodivergent/disabled dancer and dancemaker and my focus is on creating anti-patriarchal and anti-abusive dance. My artistic practice has been shaped as much by my lived experience of systemic discrimination, gatekeeping and psychological abuse as it has my interests, which include feminism, surrealism, the Occult, mental health and neurodivergence and the Human Condition.

I've created work for the Thamesmead Festival, Szoloduo Fesztival, Trigger Theatre and several choreographic performance platforms in Budapest and across the UK. I've been refining my practice for three decades, traversing the realms of jazz and musical theatre dance, martial arts (MMA and weaponary), contemporary dance, codified modern techniques, Duncan, classical ballet and Butoh. I've performed with and for the likes of BBC TV/Phoenix Dance Theatre, Budapest Dance Theatre, L1/Zero Balett, Megan Mazarick and West Green House Opera, and I'm a regular puppeteer/animator at Elrow London events.

Read more: www.melissaraynedance.com

Or find me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/melissa_rayne_dance

Host or Publisher Melissa Rayne Dance