Soft Shoe Somatic with Bill Coleman
Dates: July 15th - 19th
Days: Monday to Friday
Times: 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Cost: $18/class
Class Description:
Somatic Soft Shoe integrates Bill’s somatic process with tap dance. A gentle physical preparation will lead into body tremors, and shaking eventually allowing rhythm to manifest. All while moving through the whole body and exploring space.
Teacher Bio:
Bill Coleman is a choreographer and performer. His choreographic work has been presented at the Tramway in Glasgow, New York’s Dance Theatre Workshop, Place Des Arts, Montreal, Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Bill collaborated with the legendary jazz band the Sun Ra Arkestra to create Hymn To The Universe in 2008, and is featured in OutSideIn, a 40-minute 3D film that premiered at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Coleman’s work has transcended traditional theatrical settings to include mountain tops, rainforests, prairies and urban construction sites. He has created a bold collection of large-scale, site-specific works, collaborating with diverse groups including WWII veterans, Aboriginal communities, fishing villages, ranching towns and urban neighbourhoods. He uses dance as a means to unite communities within their natural environment and past locations include Banff, Gros Morne and Grassland National Parks, the steppes of western Mongolia, Long Plain First Nation Pow Wow in Manitoba, the Great Bear Rainforest in BC and Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood.
Coleman uses a unique methodology of movement he has developed through his life as a dancer. It involves accessing an embodied cognitive state to explore movement, and as an approach to technical practice as well as performance. The aim is a heightened awareness of the senses that induces both physical control and involuntary movement, allowing participants to access new territories of physical experience and exploration. Coleman currently uses this technique in all his dance practice as well as in local kindergarten classes, open adult workshops, collaborations with organizations such as National Parks Canada and Toronto Community Housing and as a point of departure for research in collaboration with the Department of Cognitive Science at McMaster University.
