FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab - 2022
Information for participants
DAILY SCHEDULE & DETAILS
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SCHEDULE
July 25-31, 2022
Monday-Sunday
10am-4pm, including a 45-minute lunch break
LOCATION
Joe Goode Annex
401 Alabama St (at 17th)
San Francisco, CA 94110
When arriving at the Joe Goode Annex, please buzz at the gate and someone will let you in. Enter the courtyard. The Annex is up the short flight of stairs and through the first door on the right.
Public Transit
The Joe Goode Annex is just a 10 minute walk from the 16th Street/Mission BART station, and is additionally accessible on the 33, 27, and 22 MUNI lines.
All BART trains running through San Francisco stop at the 16th Street/Mission BART Station.
Participants flying into SFO or OAK can take BART from the airport to San Francisco's Mission District.
Driving Directions
From US-101 N (Northbound, from peninsula or South Bay)
Exit Vermont St. Turn left onto Vermont St. Turn left onto 17th St. Annex will be on the left.
From US-101 S (Southbound, from Golden Gate Bridge)
Slight left onto Lombard St, Turn right onto Gough St. Gough St turns slightly right and becomes Otis St. Turn left onto 13th St (which is also called Duboce St). Turn right onto Harrison St. Turn left onto 17th St. Annex will be on the left.
From I-80 W (Westbound, from Oakland or East Bay)
Exit toward Civic Center. Slight left onto Harrison St. Turn left onto 17th St. Annex will be on the left.
Parking
Public transit is the best mode of transportation and parking is often difficult. Street parking is sometimes available in the area, but limited during weekday business hours. FACT/SF anticipates that there will NOT be sufficient time during the Dance Lab to move vehicles parked in 1 or 2-hour spaces. Participants are encouraged to use public transit if they can.
helpful suggestions
What to Bring
Comfortable dance clothes (including long-sleeved shirts and socks)
Many clothing layers for outside as the weather this time of year can shift quickly
Water bottle
Lunch (there are not many food options near the Annex)
Pen & Paper
Local Food Suggestions
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions or would like more information, please email FACT/SF Operations Manager, Jax Blaska, at jblaska@factsf.org. Or, call 415.349.0878.
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
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 2022 FACT/SF Summer Dance Lab, Gaga and improvisation will be taught by James Graham.
ABOUT Original creations & FACT/SF CREATIVE PROCESS
Over the past 15 years, FACT/SF has established itself in the SF Bay Area with a unique blend of technical precision, intellectual rigor, and emotional expressivity. In their recent work, Split, FACT/SF researched and began to create its own unique approach to speaking while dancing. We call this approach ‘Movement Chats’ - and it was developed by Director Charles Slender-White in collaboration with Jax Blaska, Samuel Melecio-Zambrano, Katherine Neumann, and LizAnne Roman Roberts.
Within an open and supportive environment, we will play with, discuss, and utilize practical strategies for speaking while dancing. The group will work together to develop a shared bank of movement and text, and each participant will draw from this bank to assemble their own short solos. Charles will guide the generative and compositional processes, and coach participants on shifting cognitive attention between what they’re thinking, what they’re doing, and what they’re feeling. By developing a greater facility with shifting attention, participants will find more ease, confidence, and power while speaking, moving, and relating to viewers.
Charles will provide individualized coaching and direction for each Lab participant for the creation of an original solo or duet. This process will draw on information from Countertechnique and the creative processes used to build FACT/SF’s work. 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.
masterclass with slowdanger
slowdanger’s ‘STech’ is a movement workshop focused on exploring contemporary and postmodern techniques through a creative and performative lens lead by slowdanger’s co-artistic directors, anna thompson and taylor knight. We will work with physical rigor as a motor to unfold the possibility of our body’s intuitive intelligence through a combination of
phrase material, groove, floor work, mobility/stability exercises and textural improvisational modalities.
Participants will sweat, inflate, collapse, take up space and connect to pleasure, effort and each other. Dancers will be challenged to view their technical foundations as a support system for further risk taking and expansion. STech asks participants to use their technique as a grounding mechanism to further character development, physical efficiency, qualitative filters, world building and more.
ABOUT WORKING BETTER FOR BETTER WORK: TIPS ON BEING A PRO
Working Better for Better Work: Tips on Being a Pro focuses on the logistical and administrative necessities for working effectively and equitably within the dance field. The session will cover basic strategies for presenting oneself in a professional manner, getting work, funding, and press coverage, maintaining and developing relationships, and articulating and pursuing artistic and professional aspirations. After over a decade in the field, Charles Slender-White has witnessed a great number of dance artists unintentionally misrepresent themselves and/or feel confused about how to accomplish their goals. With helpful tips and frank conversation, we’ll work collectively to identify how we can consistently put our best foot forward. Specific discussion topics will be based on participants’ particular interests.
ABOUT THE TEACHERS
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.
Photo by Kim Doeleman
SAMUEL MELECIO-ZAMBRANO, born and raised in Florida, is now based in San Francisco, California. They first encountered Countertechnique in 2017 and were so thrilled that they have continued training extensively across the globe. They attended three 'One Body, One Career' intensives (2018, 2019, 2021) and completed the Countertechnique Teacher Training in 2021. Samuel received a BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida in 2018 and following graduation, worked as a member and collaborator of Tampa City Ballet. They then relocated to Melbourne, Australia to continue their training and study Countertechnique with founder Anouk van Dijk and other certified teachers. Samuel currently dances with BANDALOOP, Robert Moses' Kin, FACT/SF, and Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works among others. They also teach regular classes at ODC Dance Commons and LINES Dance Center.
Photo by Robbie Sweeny
CHARLES SLENDER-WHITE has been a Countertechnique practitioner for 16 years, and became a Certified Teacher in 2012; there are 36 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 13 years, Charles has created 41 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. Throughout 2012, Charles 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.
Photo by Audrey Gatewood
taylor knight & anna thompson are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger, a multidisciplinary performance organism based in Pittsburgh, PA. slowdanger uses a systematic approach to movement, integrative technology, found material, electronic instrumentation, vocalization, physiological centering, and ontological examination to produce their performance work, which utilizes ritual practice to delve into circular life patterning including effort, transformation, and death. Through the process of making each piece, slowdanger deepens their understanding of energy, synergy, action, gender, time, and storytelling.
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.