2025 FACT/SF WINTER Dance Lab

January 31- February 2 & February 7-9
12pm-5pm Daily
(except February 7, which is 10am-3pm)

Joe Goode Annex, 401 Alabama St., San Francisco

Dancers are invited to attend either or both weekends.

Rosanna Tavarez - Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti

Charlie Slender-White - Photo by Alina Fejzo

OVERVIEW

The 2025 FACT/SF Winter Dance Lab (WDL) is divided into two parts. The first weekend (January 31 - February 2) is open to dancers new to Countertechnique and those with prior experience. The second weekend (February 7-9) is designed for dancers who have already had some experience with Countertechnique. The first weekend is led by Rosanna Tavarez, and the second weekend is led by Charlie Slender-White. Dancers are invited to apply for either or both weekends. More information about the Winter Dance Lab can be found below.

DAILY SCHEDULE & DETAILS

WEEKEND ONE - January 31 - February 2, 2025
12pm-5pm Daily

The first weekend of the Winter Dance Lab is open to dancers new to Countertechnique and those with prior experience. The first weekend will focus on Countertechnique basics, providing dancers new to the practice with an introduction to the technique and its underlying principles. For dancers already familiar with Countertechnique, this first weekend will allow them to return to fundamentals and discover new opportunities to apply Countertechnique tools, especially during the simplest of exercises. Classes will be led by Rosanna Tavarez. Each day will start with an extended Countertechnique class followed by explorations of anatomy, space, momentum, and cognitive awareness.

WEEKEND TWO - February 7-9, 2025
February 7, 12pm-5pm
February 8, 10am-3pm
February 9, 12pm-5pm

The second weekend will have more complex movement patterns, and is designed for dancers who are already familiar with the Countertechnique class structure and toolbox. This weekend will provide ample opportunities for dancers to explore Countertechnique concepts in greater depth, to address specific questions and challenges, to refine cognitive processes, and to discover new opportunities to apply directions and counterdirections while dancing. Classes will be led by Charlie Slender-White. Each day will start with an extended Countertechnique class. Dancers will then take a deep dive into applying Countertechnique to choreography, experimenting with either their own movement phrases or with excerpts from FACT/SF repertory.

TO APPLY

We want to learn more about you! Interested dancers should send in their application materials via THIS APPLICATION FORM.

Please email rbermudezsanders@factsf.org with any questions.

Within one week of applying, applicants will be contacted by FACT/SF regarding their participation in the Dance Lab. Please note: FACT/SF will be on vacation from December 21 - January 5. Applications received during this period will be reviewed after returning from holiday.

TUITION

ONE WEEKEND (Either January 31 - February 2 OR February 7-9)
$210 (applications received by January 10th)
$330 (applications received after January 10th)

BOTH WEEKENDS (January 31 - February 2 AND February 7-9)
$310 (applications received by January 10th)
$430 (applications received after January 10th)

  • Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the Lab has reached capacity (15 dancers per weekend).

  • Once applicants have been accepted into the Lab, they will need to pay a $75 security deposit to reserve their spot. Security deposits are non-refundable.

  • Remaining tuitions are due by Friday, January 24, 2025.

  • FACT/SF has already selected three dancers to receive scholarships and work study opportunities to the 2025 Lab.

SELECTED PARTICIPANTS

Once notified of acceptance and successful processing of 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.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions or would like more information, please email the FACT/SF Operations Assistant, River Bermudez Sanders, at rbermudezsanders@factsf.org. Or, call 415.349.0878.

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 2025 FACT/SF Winter Dance Lab, Countertechnique will be taught by Rosanna Tavarez (first weekend) and Charlie Slender-White (second weekend).

ABOUT THE TEACHERS

Rosanna Tavarez. Photo by Kim Doeleman.

ROSANNA TAVAREZ
Rosanna received an MFA in Choreography from The Ohio State University as a University Fellow and a Teaching Fellow and a BFA in Choreography from University of Michigan. She has a diverse background as a performer/entertainer and has had the honor of working 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.

Tavarez has been studying Countertechnique since 2011 and in 2016 she was selected to attend the Countertechnique Teacher Training program. She is now one of eleven certified American Countertechnique teachers. In 2023, after co-leading her first One Body One Career Intensive with Founder Anouk Van Dijk at Gibney in New York City, she became a Senior Teacher. Tavarez has had the pleasure of teaching Countertechnique nationally and internationally.

Tavarez’s work has been presented at The Broad Museum, ODC Theater, REDCAT, Dance Camera West, The Odyssey, Breaking Ground Dance Festival, LA Department of Cultural Affairs' LA Dance Platform, Sarasota Contemporary Dance and Highways Performance Space, and has been supported by CalState LA’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards, CalArts, ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, UCLA Hothouse Residency and Show Box LA.

As a dance educator, Tavarez has taught as faculty and guest artist at numerous institutions including USC Kaufman School of Dance, University of Michigan, Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, CalState Long Beach, Studio School, University of Southern Mississippi, Texas State University and Cal State LA. Currently she serves as the BFA Program Director at CalArts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance.

Photo by Alina Fejzo

CHARLIE SLENDER-WHITE
Charlie has been a Countertechnique practitioner for 19 years, and became a Certified Teacher in 2012; there are 56 Teachers worldwide. Charles has taught Countertechnique at the American Dance festival, University of Calgary, Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), the University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, CSU East Bay, L’Artere (Quebec City), Circuit-Est (Montreal), Love-In (Toronto), 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 16 years, Charlie has created 42 works, with commissions by the US Department of State, 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), Charlie’s work with FACT/SF has been performed throughout California, in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Durham, North Carolina, across Russia, and in Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Macedonia. Throughout 2012, Charles was a mentee of Elizabeth Streb as part of CHIME Across Borders at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab. Charlie graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in Dance & Performance Studies and English Literature. (Photo by Kegan Marling)

BACK TO TOP


Banner Image Gregory Lorenzutti