DanceMasters Weekend: Master Class - Stuart Singer

Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 11:00am
Bessie Schonberg Dance Studio

$19 per class, $13 for Wesleyan students

Sunday, March 8, 2015 from 11:00am to 12:30pm

Stuart Singer of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will teach a Master Class that will provide an opportunity for intermediate to advanced dance students and dance professionals to explore diverse dance techniques during DanceMasters Weekend.

The goal of this class will be to find a way of working that makes technique central to the daily movement practice without it inhibiting individual approaches to dancing. Participants will work to deepen and question understanding of dance technique, while simultaneously cultivating an individual sense of artistry, perhaps finding ways that the two practices can support one another.  Warm-up will include both learned and improvised forms that will explore joint articulation and range of motion; alignment and oppositional force; concepts of weight, force, gravity, and physical mechanics.  Traveling sequences and expansive movement phrases provide an opportunity to explore quality, “how” you dance, and the agency of the dancer to be a decision-maker inside of movement material.  Working in large groups, small groups, and solos, class will serve as a laboratory to practice performing for one another, viewing performance, and dialoguing about the unique exchange of seeing and being seen.

Stuart Singer is a Brooklyn-based performer and teacher. He has danced in the companies of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane (2004-2008), Doug Varone (2009), Wally Cardona (2008-2010), and Lucinda Childs (2011-2014), and recently toured with the world tour revival of the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach. He is currently developing projects with choreographers John Jasperse, Beth Gill, Gwen Welliver, Pam Tanowitz, and Joanna Kotze, and has previously performed in projects by choreographers Yanira Castro, Jack Ferver, Christopher Williams, Lindsay Clark, Netta Yerushalmy, Daniel Charon, Takehiro Ueyama, and Mollye Maxner. Mr. Singer was awarded a 2014 New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Outstanding Performer, and was recently named one of Dance Magazine's 2015 "25 to Watch." As a teacher, Mr. Singer has taught on faculty at Bard College, Bennington College, SUNY-Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, the American Dance Festival's Summer and Winter Intensives, and Peridance Capezio Center in New York City. Mr. Singer is currently guest lecturer at Princeton University.  He is a teaching artist for New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and has re-staged the works of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane at Montclair State University, California State University-Long Beach, Princeton University, Bard College, and the American Dance Festival. Recent guest teaching includes Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Mimar Sinan University (Istanbul). Originally from western Massachusetts, Mr. Singer began his training at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School, and is a B.F.A. graduate of the SUNY-Purchase College Conservatory of Dance.

DanceMasters Weekend is a two-day immersion in contemporary dance, featuring twelve Master Classes and a Choreographers Conversation.

A Weekend Pass, which includes five Master Classes, is $75 for the general public (plus a $6 class registration fee), or $55 for Wesleyan students.

Master Classes: Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 10am to 5pm

Master Classes: Sunday, March 8, 2015 from 11am to 4:30pm

Classes are designed for students with intermediate to advanced dance experience. Master Class teachers will incorporate technique and movement combinations from their repertoire.

Call 860-685-3355 or e-mail boxoffice@wesleyan.edu to join the DanceMasters mailing list.