countertechnique workshop in vancouver, bc

June 23-27, 10am-5pm Daily

taught by charlie slender-white
hosted by penelope boyse and simon fraser university’s school for contemporary arts

details

• OVERVIEW

• DAILY SCHEDULE & DETAILS

• LOCATION, TRANSIT, HOUSING

• TO SIGN UP

• TUITION

• QUESTIONS

• ABOUT COUNTERTECHNIQUE

• ABOUT CHARLIE SLENDER-WHITE

OVERVIEW

The 2025 Countertechnique Workshop in Vancouver is designed for dancers new to Countertechnique and for those who have already had some experience with the practice. Within an open, investigative environment, dancers will be offered a comprehensive introduction to Countertechnique with FACT/SF Artistic Director and long-time Countertechnique teacher, Charlie Slender-White. Developed by Anouk van Dijk, Countertechnique is a contemporary dance technique that integrates intellectual intention with physical activity, strengthens and stretches the body, and enables dancers to move bigger, more fluidly, and more spatially. In addition to daily Countertechnique classes, the workshop will include discussions about and physical investigations of the Countertechnique Toolbox. Each of these sessions will help dancers deepen their Countertechnique practice while facilitating the application of Countertechnique to other dance forms and modalities.​ Each day will include a short break.

DAILY SCHEDULE & DETAILS

June 23-27, 2025
10am-5pm Daily

All days will include a lunch break.

Though the schedule varies from day to day, a typical day might look like this:

• 10am-1pm – Countertechnique Class & Toolbox

• 1pm-2pm – Lunch

• 2pm-3pm - Tools exploration with Charlie Slender-White

• 3pm-5pm – Application of tools in improvisation and/or choreography

LOCATION

Courtyard Dance Studio
Rm 4525, 4th Floor of the SFU Woodwards Building/School for Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St
Vancouver, BC
Canada

Transit

• Transit: Consider using public transit, with BC Translink buses stopping outside the foot passenger arrivals terminal and the R5 SFU B-Line. 

• Public Parking Garages (Both garages offer hourly parking options):

  • Impark Garage: Located at 450 West Cordova Street. 

  • Diamond Parking Garage:Located at 443 Seymour Street.

• Street Parking: Street parking is also available in the area. 

housing

SFU is situated in Downtown Vancouver.

For accommodations near SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at 149 W. Hastings St. in Vancouver, consider hotels like the Delta Vancouver Suites (connected to the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue) or the Ramada Limited Downtown Vancouver (one block from the SFU Harbour Centre campus).

TO sign up

If you’re interested in attending, begin the registration process by emailing Penelope Boyse at pennyboyse@gmail.com

TUITION

Full Week (5 days) Professional/Teacher: $420*

Full Week (5 days) Student (Student ID required): $375*

Group Discount (3+ Dancers): $25 off per dancer

Daily Drop-In Rate: $120/day

15% discount for payments made by May 20th

*Payment plans fare available for those who register for the full week.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions or would like like to inform FACT/SF of any access needs, please email Penelope Boyse at pennyboyse@gmail.com.

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.

ABOUT THE TEACHER

CHARLES SLENDER-WHITE has been a Countertechnique practitioner for 20 years, and became a Certified Teacher in 2012; there are 60 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 157 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.

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