Cuatro Vientos Interedisciplinary Performance Lab with visiting choreographer Liz Duran Boubion and members of the Piñata Dance Collective (SF/LA).
Welcome to this community building ritual performance for women, non-binary and femme presenting dancers dedicated to healing and building solidarity for victims of gender-based violence and femicide worldwide.
Location: HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE (on unceded Tongva and Chumash land)
When: June 14-17, 2023. Includes Open Contemporary Classes, movement lab and an opportunity to perform.
Description: Each day opens with a contemporary dance class for tuning the body followed by an experimental performance lab rooted in eco-somatic wisdom culminating in two public ritual performance installations during Cuatro Vientos: Middle of Nowhere.
Within an environment of care and connection, participants will be learning choreographic phrases, vocal expression and improvisational movement scores that will lead to performing in part of the Piñata Dance Collective’s LA debut in Cuatro Vientos: Middle of Nowhere. Cuatro Vientos (Four Winds: Medio de la nada) is a multimedia dance-theater production that confronts fears and strategies of walking alone and a socio-political response to the voices of missing and murdered women and girls. In solo, duet and group scores, Cuatro Vientos invites the concept of connection as a pathway to safety in relation to others and the natural world.
The workshop is built on:
*Exploring stories held within the body through movement, drawing and writing
*Facing the 4 directions to develop an internal compass to search for lost parts of self, others or victims of organized crime or femicide
*Moving with the sounds and imagery of the wind and the anthropomorphizing of birds
*Collectively sharing practical and spiritual strategies of protection or avoidance while walking alone
*Performing movement scores based on the concepts of support, finding and saving through contact improvisation
Liz Boubion draws from Nature Archetypes, Modern Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, Somatic Awareness Practices and the psycho-kinetic imagery method (movement, drawing and writing) based on the Tamalpa Life-Art®️ process. The work is grounded in research and collaboration with women in Mexico who have lost family members or are still searching for their loved ones. Over 100,000 are still missing. In the U.S. 77% of incarcerated women are in prison for crimes in self defense. Women and girls are most likely to be killed by those closest to them. In 2021, around 45,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members (including fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers). This means that, on average, more than five women or girls are killed every hour by someone in their own family. Current and former intimate partners are by far the most likely perpetrators of femicide, accounting for an average of 65 per cent of all intimate partner and family related killings.
We dance first for ourselves in a supportive space as an act of healing and positive change.
*Boubion will be joined by local collaborative artists: Lindsey Red-Tail and Jen Hong -helping lead the community healing workshop with Sacred Plants, Wind and warrior activation, contact improv and other earth based and/or somatic movement practices.
Jen Hong is leading a segment w Contact Improv scores based on orientating the self in space, thus grounding the individual to navigate ever-shifting terrain as a means to connect and care for the other.
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*Bring water, a journal, wear clothes you can move in and bring snacks/lunch for the breaks.
Cuatro Vientos Performance Lab Schedule (Includes Part 1 + 2)
Part 1: Cuatro Vientos Open Classes! Contemporary Practices (Int-Adv). *Drop-in $18/class (venmo, paypal, apple pay only)
Wed + Thursday 6/14+ 6/15 (12 pm-1:30 pm) Open classes
Friday + Saturday 6/16 + 6/17 pre-show company class (6 pm-7:30pm) Open classes
Part 2: Performance Lab (All Levels, Pre-Registration Required) *Must attend all 4 days and open classes in Part 1 are included. $240
Wed 6/14 (2pm-7pm) + Thurs 6/15 (2pm-6pm)
Prep + Shows Fri-Sat (6 pm-10pm) (ALL: 6-7:30 company class + 7:30-8:30 dress and prep for show 8:30-10pm).
Registration Includes Part 1 and 2 = $240 (part 1 contemporary technique is optional but encouraged and there will be a break during part 2) *No drop-ins for the lab- must attend all 4 days.
*limited scholarships available please contact: admin@flaccdanza.org
Guest facilitators:
Jennifer Hong (洪慧珍) BA in Chinese, Reed College Portland, OR, 2000. MFA in
experimental choreography, UC Riverside, 2020.She has danced with many
choreographers in Portland (most notably with Minh Tran + Co), and Los Angeles. In
LA, she has performed with Rosanna Tavarez, Laurel Jenkins, Kevin Williamson, Jmy
Kidd, and Rashaun + Silas, among others. Major influences include Anna Halprin and
Frey Faust, founder of the Axis Syllabus, with whom she is a Teacher Candidate. An
initiated student of the Teacher/Wong Loh Sin See of the Chee Choong Temple in
Malaysia, a primarily Daoist practice, she synthesizes spiritual, artistic, and scientific
elements into her work and life. She co-facilitates the Santa Monica Contact Improv
Jam.
Lindsey Red-Tail is a dancer, singer and Plant Medicine tender, co-creating with
community and with the elements to share Ancestral practices. Born and raised on
unceded Tongva Land, they grew up in a home of eclectic world music carrying Cherokee,
Nahuatl/Mexican and African American Roots. Moved by an ancestor who received
visions through the Wind, Red-tail is guided by their deep connection to Nature Spirits.
“When I hike I sing and mimic the sounds of the birds. When I reach a resting point I offer
my movement up to the Sky.” As Red-tail recovers language of their lineage, they learn
Indigenous Medicine songs with sisters of the community who share from the Moon Dance
Ollintlahuimetztli Tradition in Mexico. Thank you Marisa Miquiztochtli Reyes for teaching
me these songs. Amor Amor Amor Amor.
