These workshops are part of the March 2006 program “The Body Breaks – Butoh, Breakdancing and Beyond”

Workshops are open to all; no prior dance experience is necessary. Space is limited. Register for any workshop by March 8th and receive a two-for-one voucher to see any performance during The Body Breaks at Links Hall.

Tracing Transformation
with Marianne M. Kim and Rodney Mason
March 11, 2006
Saturday, 11:00am-4:00pm
at Links Hall
$50

Kim will guide students to create and deconstruct image and movement through rigorous butoh techniques (Hijikata and Ohno methods) and the Suzuki Acting Method. Mason will teach House dance, a style dedicated to footwork and living inside the music. Kim was an artistic associate of Chicago performance collective XSIGHT! (1993-2001), and has presented performance and video work around the world; she is currently an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s Interdisciplinary Arts Program. Since the age of 13, Mason has been performing and teaching around the country. As the last core member of Rennie Harris Pure Movement, a hip-hop dance company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture, Mason explores the outer rim of hip-hop through performance and film.

Butoh Ritual Mexicano
with Diego Piñón
March 11 and 12, 2006
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00am-6:00pm,
at The Spareroom, 2416 W. North Ave
$185

Complementing his extensive training in bio-energetics, contemporary dance and theatre, and traditional Mexican ritual, Diego Piñón danced with the Japanese butoh groups Byakko-Sha and Min Tanaka's Maijuku. Since 1987, he has continued to refine the master butoh techniques with Natsu Nakajima, Yoshito Ohno, and the co-founder of butoh, Kazou Ohno; and continues to define his own dance, Butoh Ritual Mexicano. The Butoh Ritual Mexicano approach proposes research into how to discover, to direct, and to expand personal energy through movement. Challenging physical, emotional, and spiritual limits through group interactions and dance explorations, you will receive provocation and guidance encouraging you to discover a deep and personal acknowledgment.

Body Resonance
with Yumiko Yoshioka
March 18 and 19, 2006
Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm
at Links Hall
Sunday 10:00am-2:00pm
at The Spareroom, 2416 W. North Ave,
$135

Yumiko Yoshioka was a member of the first all-female Japanese butoh dance group, ARIADONE. Living in Germany since 1988 and co-founder of TEN PEN CHii art labor, Yoshioka researches the interactivity between dance, space, and visual art. With a background in butoh, Noguchi Gymnastics and Juken (Chinese Soft Martial Arts) her workshops are based on flowing, organic movement and vital energy (ki). The root of this body work is threefold: to relax alone, to obtain a higher level of concentration, and to activate potential energy within us. Using a combination of imagery with body movement, and through a dialogue with our body, we learn not how to move, but to be moved. Consequently we realize that we are a part of a universal wholeness.

Post-Modern Butoh
with Vangeline of Vangeline Theatre
March 25, 2006
Saturday, 11:00am-4:00pm
at Links Hall
$50

During the workshop, a supportive environment will be created in order to regenerate energy through a dance offering. Participants should be willing to explore their emotions and use them as a tool for expression through the dance. The workshop will focus on connections between students, incorporating strength building exercises, and awakening the joints with bio-energetic movement. Vangeline is the Artistic Director of the Vangeline Theater, and a student of Diego Piñón and Tetsuro Fukuhara. She teaches post-modern butoh classes in New York and is a Dance teacher at Brooklyn College.

OTHER WORKSHOPS

Dancers Direct
with Molly Shanahan of Mad Shak Dance Company, and others
March 6, 2006
Monday, 6:00pm-8:00pm
$10

Dancers Direct is a series of four monthly gatherings for artist/administrators at any stage of their careers. The first hour includes information exchange and discussion about Budgeting & Finance, with the final hour devoted to silent, unstructured, movement practice. Limited to 15 participants. Subsequent sessions will focus on Grantwriting and Marketing.

Advanced Movement
with Molly Shanahan of Mad Shak Dance Company
March 27 through May 15, 2006
Mondays, 4:00-5:30pm
$12 per class, drop-in’s welcome

Shanahan's advanced movement classes stem from her improvisational, compositional, and pedagogical research, study of the Feldenkrais Method, mindfulness, and a softening of muscular holding to release the skeleton for increased expressivity and articulation. www.madshak.com

Links Hall Supporters

The Body Breaks: Butoh, Breakdancing, and Beyond was made possible with support from The Boeing Company, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, The Japan Foundation, Illinois Humanities Council (with the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly), Moveable Beast, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an anonymous donor.