This is an exciting workshop for a bunch of reasons, but to start, our music will be created LIVE and in large part, spontaneously. Music and movement will listen and dialogue back and forth just as much as we ourselves will listen to and dialogue with mind, heart, body, and breath.
As we are experimenting with movement and sound, we will also be (un)intentionally creating a collective piece of art (while we are surrounded by the visual art of the gallery in which we will move!). This collective piece actively demonstrates basic underlying concepts of buddhism, including interconnectedness and impermanence and the beauty of both.
You will learn how to listen to your body on a whole new level -- understanding its intuition, emotion, and feeling languages better than ever before -- but you will also learn how to listen to and participate in a communal body conversation.
This is not ecstatic dance. We are not seeking to lose ourselves or transcend anything.
We are experimenting with becoming more alive as we sink into what is referred to as the "mud body" of Japanese Butoh.
In seeking deeper aliveness, we are ready to take full responsibility for our own lives and the life of our community in new and more compassionate ways.
Movement art and music are two of the most basic and earliest ways humans interacted with one another in sacred ritual. Our movement art and music naturally ritualizes our experience of being one among many and what our default identity is in that context and whether or not it's an identity that is functional. In this work, we can observe our habits and patterns while at the same time experimenting with new ways of being, all in a safe and nurturing space.
Jeremy Yama is a multidisciplinary visual and sound creator whose projects and interests encompass both compositional and improvisational music and textural sound in it's raw form. He has most recently been involved in the improvisational sound duo ZONK as well as being a contributing member to Pittsburgh's experimental sound collective Hunted Creatures. https://huntedcreatures.bandcamp.com/ . For this workshop, Jeremy is particularly interested in the intersectional and transactional potential of sound and movement in a guided therapeutic setting.
Christine Serfozo is a trauma-sensitive movement artist with a comprehensive knowledge of somatic psychology. She's studied many forms of dance, with a special focus on Butoh and Modern which, in conjunction with biomechanics, breath techniques, and body inclusion, are the foundation for her work. She's interested in developing choreographic processes that create cathartic release and emotional growth, as opposed to typical choreographed 'productions.' She develops her processes through experimentation with a communal group of movement artists, and they are accessible to any level of movement experience. Most recently, she developed a process that expresses, integrates, and transforms the human experience of grief. She's currently creating sequences that will foster the expression of sacred sensuality outside of an objectifying gaze. Her ultimate goal is to inspire deep body listening leading to the fundamental freedom that can only be found in the essential creativity of our very cells. More: christineserfozo.com