2024’s Summer Dance Lab is August 15-24, 2024, onstage at ODC Theater.
Scholarships for the Summer Dance Lab are available as part of our 2024 Fieldwork Applications. For more information, and to apply for a scholarship, please refer to the Fieldwork webpage.
Details for the 2024 Summer Dance Lab are not yet confirmed. The information below is from Summer 2023, and is included here for your reference as to what a typical Lab curriculum contains.
FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab
August 17-26, 2023
Countertechnique Practice, Tools, & Theory with Charles Slender-White and Rosanna Tavarez
Gaga with James Graham
Poc-Chuc Technique with Alfonso Cervera
Master Classes with Brianna Torres, Chinchin Hsu, and Shaun Keylock
Creative Process & Repertory with FACT/SF
Administrative Skills with Jeanne Pfeffer and Chloe Zimberg
Share Your Own Work at ODC Theater
For the 2023 Lab, five participants will also be invited to share their own choreographic work in a low-tech showcase on the ODC Theater stage.Attend 8 premieres in the FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival
Lab participants will also be given complimentary tickets to attend both weekends of the FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, including works by FACT/SF, Brianna Torres, Emily Hansel & Mia J. Chong, Héctor Jaime, Shaun Keylock Company (Portland, OR), Alfonso Cervera (Columbus, OH), and Taylor Donofrio (Los Angeles, CA).
details
Slender-White teaching Countertechnique
Photo by Alina Fejzo
OVERVIEW
The 2023 FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab (SDL) is designed for dancers new to Countertechnique and for those who have already had some experience with the practice. Within an open, investigative environment, participants will spend 9 days learning and experimenting with Countertechnique, Gaga, improvisation, and FACT/SF Creative Process to heighten awareness, distill intention, have fun, get sweaty, and explore unknown terrain. Like all of FACT/SF’s workshops, the SDL is intentionally inclusive and non-competitive.
Countertechnique & CT Toolbox w/FACT/SF & Rosanna Tavarez
Gaga w/James Graham
Original Creations and FACT/SF Creative Process with FACT/SF Company Members
The SDL will also include master classes from our Summer Dance Festival artists, including Alfonso Cervera, Brianna Elyse Torres, and Chinchin Hsu.
The SDL cultivates inquiry, discovery, and discussion. Through practice, conversation, and the juxtaposition of different forms, the SDL facilitates a deepening of participants’ understanding of contemporary dance via the use and application of Countertechnique and Gaga.
The 2023 SDL will accept a maximum of 30 participants. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the SDL has reached capacity.
DAILY SCHEDULE & DETAILS
August 17-26, 2023 (with August 21 as a day off)
August 17 & 24, 10am-4pm
August 18, 19, & 23, 10am-5pm
August 20, 10am-1pm
August 22, 25, & 26, 10am-3pm
All days except August 20 will include a 45-minute lunch break.
Though the schedule varies from day to day, a typical day might look like this:
10am-11:45am – Countertechnique w/Rosanna Tavarez
11:45am-12:30pm - Master Class workshop with Summer Dance Festival Artists
12:30pm-1:15pm – Lunch
1:15pm-2:30pm - Gaga w/James Graham
2:30pm-4pm – Creative Process, Rep, & Original Creations with FACT/SF
LOCATION
ODC Theater
3153 17th Street (at Shotwell)
San Francisco, CA 94110
ODC Theater has all-gender bathrooms.
TO APPLY
The FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab is designed for curious advanced and professional dancers. We are warm and open to you as a participant, and we want to learn more!
Interested dancers should send their application, as one compiled PDF, to workshop@factsf.org
Applications should include:
A brief bio
Current CV
1 page Letter of Motivation
In your letter of motivation, please address the following:
Why are you interested in the Dance Lab?
What role does dance currently play in your life?
What past experiences have you had that inform your current dance practice?
If applicable, please also share with us your past experiences of Countertechnique and information about how Countertechnique informs your current dance practice.
(Note: Please do not include headshots or other images in your application)
Within two weeks of applying, applicants will be contacted by FACT/SF regarding their participation in the Dance Lab.
accessibility & covid protocol
The FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab (SDL) is intentionally inclusive, and FACT/SF continues to evolve and develop our accessibility practices. For 2023, that includes providing ASL Interpretation for the entire Lab should any participate need/want it, being in conversation with participants re: covid safety and risk, and any other access needs or accommodations participants might have. Our goal is to create a space that removes as many barriers as possible, and that acknowledges each dancer as a whole person.
In order to make the SDL as safe as possible, FACT/SF will continue to evaluate and revise covid protocol as the Lab nears. Our priority is to accommodate the needs of as many dancers as possible. This might mean required on-site covid testing daily (which FACT/SF would provide), required masking while indoors, required proof of vaccination, etc. Any dancers interested in attending the Lab who have specific needs regarding covid safety should contact us ASAP to discuss possible accommodations. We will publish a draft of our covid policy by the first week of August, 2023.
Please email workshop@factsf.org with any questions about accessibility, to share access needs, or to discuss our vaccination requirement. We can also be reached via phone at 415 349 0878.
TUITION
$575 (applications received by July 28)
$875 (applications received after July 28)
Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the Dance Lab has reached capacity (30 dancers max).
Once applicants have been accepted into the Dance Lab, they will need to pay a $150 security deposit to reserve their spot. Security deposits are non-refundable.
Remaining tuitions are due by Thursday, August 3, 2023.
FACT/SF has already selected four dancers to receive scholarships to the 2023 Lab. We are unfortunately unable to provide additional discounts or funding.
SELECTED PARTICIPANTS
Once notified of acceptance and successful processing of full tuition, participants will receive a Welcome Packet. Information will include: area attractions, directions, public transportation, parking, Dance Lab Detailed Schedule, and supplemental information on Countertechnique, Gaga, FACT/SF Creative Process, and more.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions or would like like to inform FACT/SF of any access needs, please email us at workshop@factsf.org. Or, call 415.349.0878.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Artists interested in applying for a scholarship to the 2024 Summer Dance Lab should apply via our Fieldwork Open Application Process. More information about this process can be found here.
ABOUT COUNTERTECHNIQUE
By continuously and sequentially directing and counter directing parts of the body through space, Countertechnique allows the moving dancer to work with an ever-changing dynamic balance. This dynamic balance reduces the pressure on the overall body structure and can be changed at any given moment. The consistent use of the counter direction in all movements is key to the technique; both the awareness and application of this principle is trained throughout the Countertechnique class. The Countertechnique theory is organized around two principal notions: the ‘toolbox’ and ‘scanning’. The toolbox is the systematically organized collection of tools for body and mind with which Countertechnique works, often visualized as a virtual map that dancers carry with them. Scanning defines the process of dancers continuously and actively observing their mindset and body in order to choose the most appropriate tool(s) from the toolbox for the situation they find themselves in. Scanning allows dancers to make active use of the toolbox in their daily practice of training, rehearsing and performing. Countertechnique was developed by Anouk van Dijk throughout her twenty-five year career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Over the last fifteen years, the knowledge and experience she gained – in constant dialogue with her dancers – was gradually transformed into a detailed theoretical system and a teaching method, which now together form the Countertechnique system.
In the 2023 FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab, Countertechnique will be taught by Rosanna Tavarez.
ABOUT GAGA & Improvisation
Gaga is the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin/Batsheva in Tel Aviv, Israel. Gaga movement classes are a guided movement experience of images, ideas, directions, and prompts. We move (however large or small) for the entire class adding layer upon layer. We will float our flesh, pull our bones, experience physical climaxes, challenge what we think are our limits, become aware of our habits and change them, and take pleasure moving and dancing in a welcoming studio. We work at your own volume, so whether you have never moved or move every day, you can connect to Gaga. We allow no mirrors, and no observers.
Graham will also guide the participants through witchy improvisation sessions. We will build on what we research in Gaga and open up to our animal possibilities through movement, fantasy, and elemental energy.
In the 2023 FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab, Gaga and improvisation will be taught by James Graham.
poc-chuc technique
A Mexican American hybrid movement dance form that exchanges knowledge between dance forms Ballet Folklorico, Afro-LatinX social dances, and Modern dance, as a means to experiment with the possibilities of how these forms intersect, challenge, and collaborate with one another. The practice of Poc-Chuc intentionally works to offer new choreographic methods, techniques, and perspectives in theory and physical embodiment. This movement class will be a fusion of various techniques that will create rigor, SWEAT, and dancing for joy with one another.
ABOUT deep dive modules
Deep Dive Modules are 1-hour sessions during the SDL where we will take an in-depth look at one or two Countertechnique tools and/or underlying principles of Countertechnique. In addition to other topics, these modules will include the following topics:
Working with Countertechnique Tools
The Trunk and how it functions
Popping & how to release unnecessary tension in the major joints
Horizontal Falling and Dynamic Balance
Shifting Attention and Sequential Thinking
Finding the counter-direction
ORIGINAL CREATIONS
Over the course of the Lab, participants will have the opportunity to create an original solo or duet, with support and coaching from teachers, FACT/SF Company Members, and each other. There will be an informal sharing of these miniature works at the end of the Dance Lab, and dancers are permitted to ‘take the work’ with them after the Lab. And, this year, invited students will share short pieces in a lightly-teched showcase at ODC Theater on Saturday, August 26.
Master Classes within the lab
FACT/SF produces an annual Summer Dance Festival that happens the same week of the Lab. The 2023 SDF includes 6 different choreographers from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Portland, OR and Columbus, OH.
Master class with chinchin hsu
Integrate tai-chi and Beijing opera martial art philosophy/movements as a way to generate momentum to approach modern dance technique and composition. This class creates space for warm-up, technique, partnering and improvisation; investigating different momentum effects, weight transfer-motion and physical dialogue between eastern and western movement forms. Come join us to play and sweat!
master class with brianna elyse torres
This class is designed to get you to drop into the community. To commune with yourself through intentional contemporary floorwork, mindful movement practices, and improvisational techniques. No second is alike. This is a class for people interested in communication between themselves, the people and space around them and for people unafraid of their own joy, creativity and curiosities. Although this class will explore some contemporary floorwork this is an all levels class and will not include any codified choreography. Be ready to dive into your own internal physical language and to play with the roles of being a teacher and a student.
Brianna teaches from a background in hip hop, yoga, ballet, contemporary, salsa, meditation, improvisation and most importantly from the Puerto Rican diasporic perspective, please note this is where she will be teaching from, and as always from the heart. Many thanks for all the teachers in all forms, along the way.
master class with shaun keylock
Based in the Humphrey-Limón tradition, this energetic class thoroughly prepares dancers for rehearsal and performance. Blending classical vocabulary with modern technique, participants will gain movement resources to build greater awareness and control of the dancing body. The class builds in momentum and ends by using phrase work to propel through the space, changing directions, levels, and timings. Leave class feeling sweaty, organized, and inspired!
ABOUT THE TEACHERS
Photo courtesy of Cervera
ALFONSO CERVERA (He/They/El), sometimes known as Fonzy, introduces himself under the categories of Queer, Mexican American, first-generation, activist, curator, and educator. These are the platforms in which he claims and shares his embodied experience as a professor and artist with newer generations. Currently living between the borders of Los Angeles, CA, and Columbus, Ohio, Cervera creates works in various other localities collaborating and exchanging embodied practices of the Mexican American experience.
He has begun a new position as an Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University, where his research and specialization as an independent artist, focuses on the conversation between Ballet Folklorico and Afro-LatinX social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that he calls Poc-Chuc. The practice of Poc-Chuc intentionally works to offer new choreographic methods, techniques, and perspectives in theory and physical embodiment. Along with teaching, Fonzy is also the Executive Director of Show Box LA, a non-profit organization providing platforms for BIPOC and Queer artists' residencies and opportunities to share work with the wider LA community.
His collaborative and independent works have been presented at the Judson Church Movement Research (New York City), Festival of Latin Contemporary Choreographers (San Francisco), Red Cat (Los Angeles), Pieter Performance Space (Santa Monica, CA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Bushwick Studios (New York), and Lux Boreal’s 4x4 in Tijuana Mexico to name a few. His work has also been presented at numerous festivals, universities, and in non-traditional spaces.
Photo by Danny Nguyen
JAMES GRAHAM is a San Francisco based choreographer, performer, and educator. James Graham Dance Theatre, presents the work of James Graham while also curating the work of others, namely in DANCE LOVERS…duets by couples, crushes, and comrades, an annual show of duets around Valentine’s day in San Francisco. JGDT's work has been presented at ODC Theatre, Micadanses in Paris, France, in the Daegu International Dance Festival in South Korea, The Nourse Theatre and Davies Symphony Hall (commissioned by the SF Gay Men’s Chorus), UC Berkeley, Bates College, Kenyon College, University of Calgary, Canada, Kennesaw State University, The Ohio State University, Dominican University, National Queer Arts Festival, Kunst-Stoff Arts, Too Much! Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, Joe Goode Annex, HeART of Market Festival, San Francisco City Hall Rotunda, and in the Golden Gate Park National A.I.D.S. Memorial Grove.
Graham was a choreographic mentee in Margaret Jenkins’ CHIME program in 2018. In 2017 Graham received an IZZIE for “Outstanding Performance as an Ensemble” with Sebastian Grubb for their performance in JGDT’s “Homeroom.” In 2015 he received an IZZIE award for “Outstanding Achievement in Performance for an Individual” (for his Entire Season) and was nominated that same year for an IZZIE in Outstanding Choreography for JGDT’s “Guilty Survivor.”
Graham received an M.F.A. in Dance from The Ohio State University in 2010, focusing on performance, choreography, and video. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2005 with a B.A. in Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. He is a member of the Joe Goode Performance Group. In 2020-21 he has been creating outdoor Movement Rituals on/for the Solstices and Equinoxes.
CHINCHIN HSU (she/her/她), was born and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. moved to the U.S. in 2004 and now resides on Ramaytush lands; a southeast asian immigrant, a teaching artist, now a dance mama of two little humans. she has trained in tai-chi, chinese martial art, chinese ballet, western ballet, various modern techniques, improvisation and composition. chinchin has shared her works in MLD (Taiwan), Dorsch Gallery (Miami), Dance Lovers, FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival, Kunst-Stoff Arts, SAFEhouse Arts, Joe Goode Annex, SF Asian Art Museum. chinchin was acknowledged the best individual performer in The Isadora Doncun Dance Awards (Izzies) 2020. chinchin is curious how the experience of migration and motherhood combine themselves in this process of creativity and how they will manifest a stage sharing performance today.
Photo by Alex Iverson Cress
SHAUN KEYLOCK is an award-winning choreographer, director, teacher and dancer based in Portland, Oregon. Driven by his long-standing interest in new movement research and cross-disciplinary collaboration, his work has led him into dialogue with an array of artistic forms, including dance, film, theater, and visual art. The result of these interactions have garnered the attention of leading festivals and institutions, ensuring Keylock’s position at the cutting edge of contemporary dance in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2018, Keylock founded Shaun Keylock Company to encompass his extensive work as an artist and director. The company is known for its distinctive visual style and unique approach to contemporary dance and performance. As principal choreographer for the company, Keylock creates compelling, original works with the dancers that are at once both technically sound and radically subversive. The company has been presented by On the Boards (Seattle); Dance Source Houston; Breaking Ground Dance Festival (Phoenix); Austin Dance Festival; Ten Tiny Dances and New Expressive Works (Portland).
Keylock has taught workshops and master classes throughout the Pacific Northwest and Texas. He has served as a guest faculty member at universities and dance schools, including the University of Oregon, Texas A&M University, Columbia Dance, The Portland Ballet, NW Dance Project, BodyVox Dance, and Velocity Dance Center in Seattle.
Presently, Keylock continues to create new works with his company of dancers in Portland, as well as teach both emerging and professional dance artists through his unique approach to choreography and dance making.
Photo by Kim Doeleman
ROSANNA TAVAREZ has a diverse background as a performer/entertainer and has worked with Marina Ambramovic, Ryan Heffington, Travis Payne, Tony Michaels, and Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide. She also toured with N’SYNC and Jessica Simpson as one-fifth of the girl group Eden’s Crush and covered the Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars in addition to hosting her own shows, as a television personality for FOX, E!, TVGuide Network, and Telemundo/NBC. Rosanna is one of seven certified American Countertechnique Teachers. She has had the pleasure of sharing the practice of Countertechnique throughout the US and internationally via its online platform. She serves on the faculty of USC Kaufman and CalArts School of Dance. Her dance works have been presented by The Broad Museum, REDCAT, American Dance Festival, LA Department of Cultural Affair’s LA Dance Platform, The Odyssey, Highways Performance Space, Breaking Ground Dance Festival, and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. Her works have also received support from ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, UCLA Hothouse Residency, and Show Box LA.
BRIANNA ELYSE TORRES (she/her) is a Boricua movement artist, child of the diaspora, healer, platano lover, and birthworker currently rooted on Lisjan Ohlone lands. Brianna is an alumni of Laguardia Performing Arts High School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She is a deep believer in movement as a way to heal, grieve and access collective joy. Brianna approaches teaching with a deep reverence to the art form, and is interested in co-building a space where students can engage with their community and creative spirit.
about the founder/director
Photo by Robbie Sweeny
CHARLES SLENDER-WHITE has been a Countertechnique practitioner for 18 years, and became a Certified Teacher in 2012; there are 44 Teachers worldwide. Charles has taught Countertechnique at the American Dance Festival, Velocity Dance Center, University of Calgary, Loyola Marymount University, the University of San Francisco, CSU East Bay, L’Artere (Quebec City), Circuit-Est (Montreal), Love-In (Toronto), Chunky Move (Melbourne), and at numerous dance centers throughout the SF Bay Area. He began his dance career in 2006 with Tatiana Baganova’s Provincial Dances Theatre in Yekaterinburg, Russia. In 2008, he returned to his native California to start FACT/SF in order to make his own contributions to innovation and excellence in contemporary dance. Over the past 15 years, Charles has created 42 works, with commissions by the US Department of State, ODC Theater, CounterPulse, Acid Rain (Chelyabinsk), Dialogue Dance (Kostroma), the Yekaterinburg University of the Humanities (Yekaterinburg), and others. Described as ‘utterly absorbing’ and ‘mesmerizing’ (SF Bay Guardian), Charles’ work with FACT/SF has been performed throughout California, in Portland (Oregon), Seattle (Washington), Durham (North Carolina), Sofia (Bulgaria), Belgrade (Serbia), Zagreb (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia), and in 7 cities across Russia, working with the US Department of State to share contemporary American culture with local Russian communities as part of their ‘American Seasons’ Program. From 2021-2022, Charles served as ODC Theater’s Resident Strategist for Curation and Creative Partnerships, and he co-curated the 2022 ODC Theater Season with amara tabor-smith. Throughout 2012, he was a mentee of Elizabeth Streb as part of CHIME Across Borders at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab. Charles graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in Dance & Performance Studies and English Literature.
Banner Image Gregory Lorenzutti