Open Class - approaches to improvsiation with val smith & Kristian Larsen

Name: Open Class - approaches to improvsiation with val smith & Kristian Larsen
Start: 2025-11-06T08:30:00+13:00
End: 2025-11-06T10:00:00+13:00
Location: Wellesley Studios

Schedule

Thu Nov 06 2025 at 08:30 am to 10:00 am

UTC+13:00

Location

Wellesley Studios | Auckland, AU

IndepenDance is thrilled to welcome back long-time teachers, Kristian Larsen and val smith, who will be teaching approaches to improvisation through November and December. They will be drawing on various practices and current inspirations.
All classes are 6:30-8pm at Wellesley Studios (113 Wellesley Street West, Auckland)
Thursday November 6 - val
Thursday November 13 - val
Thursday November 20 - val
Thursday November 27 - val & Kristian co-lead
Thursday December 4 - Kristian
Thursday December 11 - Kristian
Thursday December 18 - Kristian
val smith (Pākehā, they/them) is an artist-researcher and educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Their Choreoqueering practice engages play, wondering/wandering, and other sensorial forms of relationship building. Critical somatics and collaboration locate their approach to improvisation in a pleasure-seeking that is rooted in the politics of perversion.
val’s class will focus on developing our Performance Improvisation skills, refining the art of creating performance in the moment.
Let’s follow instinct,
in real time,
touch the edges of awareness and connection.
Then, what if we listen and respond without predetermining what is not yet here?
To centre that which is felt – an urgent collective unknowing.

Kristian Larsen is an obsolescing movement and sound improviser. Larsen's crumbly approach to improvisation and sonics is distracted by relationships between the body and technology. His entangling of contemporary dance spare parts with creative misuses of audio technologies is guided by humour and a wealth of performance experience.

Class Description:
Larsen’s classes will bridge from val’s and continue into an exploration of improvised sound and dance. The work asks 'how can we move away from tonality and rhythm in sound, and the conventions of contemporary dance whilst improvising new logics and coherences? With what narratives could unfamiliar sounds and bodily movements be made into a compelling gestalt?' If that sounds challenging it’s because it is, but it’s also a lot of fun to play with.
Please register for class here: https://forms.gle/wC4Kh163SbrbUCbMA or email [email protected]
We hope to see you there to end the year in a collaborative and inspiring way.