Queer Jam with George Stamos

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Within a structured format supported by nightclub and house music, Queer Jam encourages physical grounding, empowerment, fun and the pleasure of movement. In this guided night-at-the-club-inspired journey, participants will be invited towards rhythmic play as it is adapted to their interests and abilities. With a foundation in occidental contemporary dance practices, George’s teachings are informed by his studies of Central African dance technique at Nyata Nyata school of dance (2011-2020) and his work as a go-go dancer in Queer clubs during his formative years. Participants are asked to, if possible, bring a brightly coloured scarf or flowing fabric, wear comfortable clothing and be as flamboyantly queer as they feel, whatever that means for them.  

“I acknowledge and promote safer feminist, LGB2TQ, BIPOC and neurodiversity spaces across society. In my body of work, I have focused on the resilience and representation of diverse queer people in ways that travel across the disciplines of movement, performance art, theatre, music and digital art. I am interested in dissolving binary thinking about the above categories, and also ones concerning gender and sexuality while maintaining recognition of spaces that exist between and across them.”

Fees:
Free Workshop

Class Times:
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Class Dates:
Friday, September 17, 2021

Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, 2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

Noguchi Taiso with Gerry Morita

Noguchi Taiso is a Japanese release work developed by Michizo Noguchi that allows you to learn to move with a “water body.” All levels welcome.
Noguchi Taiso was developed by Michizo Noguchi (1914-1998) and approaches the human body as a “kind of water bag in which bones, muscles and viscera are floating.” In Noguchi Taiso, the weight of our existence (bones, blood, viscera, thoughts, emotions) in relationship to gravity is what generates infinite possibilities of movement. In this class, we look to nature through; lines, spirals, waves, gravity and weight to explore how to stand, walk, fall, crawl, and roll in the Noguchi Taiso method. The benefits of Noguchi Taiso are discovered in developing a fluid, soft, relaxed body & mind and increasing internal/external sensitivity and receptivity, while other benefits are very unique to the individual. Honestly and truly sensing the weight of our existence through Noguchi Taiso can enhance the way we approach dance as well as everyday activities.

Fees:
Class by donation
Recommended donation $15


Class Times:
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Class Dates:
Monday, July 19, 2021
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Friday, July 23, 2021

Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

Kinetics of Thought with Richard Lee

About the class

Kinetics of Thought:  An exploration of linking text, voice, and movement for building choreography and for inspiring writing. By zeroing in on various physical sensations– such as balance, momentum, and muscular tension/relaxation– and combining them with a writing practice, we will devise scores that will mutually inspire movement scores and writing.

Fees:
Class by donation
Recommended donation $15

Class Times:
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Class Dates:
Tuesday, July 20, 2021


Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

Building a Body for Play with Richard Lee

Building a Body for Play: Inspired by study of the Axis Syllabus and contact improvisation, this class examines spiralling, undulatory movement patterns, as well as the action potentials inherent to the elasticity and height of our bodies. Utilizing movement scores and brief looping phrases, we will gently play at turning ourselves into perpetual motion machines.

Fees:
Class by donation
Recommended donation $15

Class Times:
10:00 AM - 11:30 PM

Class Dates:
Thursday, July 22, 2021


Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

House Dance with Michèle Moss

House Dance: is described as an urban dance, a street form, a social approach to dance. It comes from the club and well, that is where I spent my early years. It is improvised and it plugs into a collective vibe that is all about positivity, style, freedom and good vibrations. It is part of the jazz continuum and connecting to the music and self -expression are central to the form. As an expression it includes jazz, tap, African and Latin dance, and even martial arts. Capoeira is my preferred martial art although being a ….mature dancer it is sometimes a challenge to go upside down.

Fees:
Class by donation.
Recommended donation $15

Class Times:
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Class Dates:
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Friday, July 16, 2021

Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

West African and African Diaspora practices with Michèle Moss

About the class

West African and African Diaspora practices: The music and dance of West African (Guinea, Conakry and Senegal) can excite the mind-body system. Just the same with the traditions of the African Diaspora. Try a shimmy, a jump, liberate the hips and generally more with style – You can dance! Use a story or two, imitate a bird, use some control mixed with world abandon and exercise your confidence and … You’re dancing!

Fees:
Class by donation.
Recommended donation $15

Class Times:
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Class Dates:
Sunday, July 18, 2021


Class Location:
New Dance Horizons, ​2207 Harvey St, Regina, SK

About Artists

Montréal based queer artist George Stamos has been active in the professional contemporary dance world as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher since the mid-1990s. Originally from Nova Scotia Canada, George received his BFA (Dance) from The Amsterdam University of the Arts in 1993 and spent his formative years in the queer performance art and contemporary dance milieus of Toronto, London, Amsterdam and New York. More recently, in 2018 he completed the graduate diploma program at the Department of Communication Studies of Concordia University. 

In both 2009 and 2017, George was invited to be a resident artist at the Baryshnikov Arts Centre in New York, and from 2012 to 2015 at Agora de la Danse in Montréal. George also received the much sought-after Northrop McKnight Fellowship for International Choreographers Award in 2014. 

George’s choreography has received critical acclaim, including his most recent piece One Kind Favor that premiered in February 2020 at Montréal Arts Interculturel. As a dancer, he has worked with many pioneering Choreographers, most notably Benoit Lachambre, Sara Shelton Mann, and Zab Maboungou, and regularly performs in his own work.

Gerry Morita (BA Dance/ MFA Theatre) has lived and worked in Vancouver, Montréal, and Tokyo as a dancer, choreographer, performance artist and teacher before moving to Edmonton and becoming Mile Zero Dance’s Artistic Director in 2006. Her work has toured Poland, Turkey, Estonia, Canada, and Japan.  

Morita’s body of work involves continuous inquiry into new ways of seeing movement, the body, and the spaces between us. She studies and teaches contact improvisation, Noguchi Taiso and other somatic-based and improving techniques, working with artists from all disciplines in a vast array of both conventional and site-specific venues. She has received the Mayor’s Award for Innovation in Artistic Direction, the Edmonton Salute for Excellence, Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund and was one of Alberta’s 25 Influential Artists recognized in 2016.

Richard Lee is a performer, creator, and educator based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). In addition to B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Alberta, he has independently trained in contemporary dance across North America and Europe. Past adventures with Mile Zero include Night Cuts, R.V. There Yet?, Archival B.A.M., Dances & Devices, Endangered Species, and Knowledge Box. He has also danced in works for Mélanie Demers, The Good Women Dance Collective, Tania Alvarado, kloetzl& co., Amber Borotsik, Cloudsway Dance Theatre, and Troy Emery Twigg, among others.  His own creations (dance, theatre, and stuff-in-between) have been presented by Mile Zero Dance, The Good Women Dance Collective, The Expanse Festival, Dancers' Studio West, and CanAsian Dance. In 2015, he was honoured with a Sterling Award for his work on The Antyssey, co-written with Joel Crichton.

Michèle Moss is choreographer, researcher and community animator based in Calgary but engaged in a world of dance from NYC to Dakar to Havana and more. She considers herself a citizen of the world; born in the UK of Jamaican and British parents, raised in Montréal and frequent flyer in search of the best vantage point from which to consider dance and dancing. Michèle began as a tap-dancing tot in the UK and then had the good fortune to study at NCC in Montreal (Negro Community Centre). She went on to participate in studio training, nightclub practices and urban dance forms. Her practice and professional performance career on the stage as well as earning two degrees allowed her to move into the academe. She is currently an associate professor in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary-with pedagogy, global dance practices and jazz dance as her focus.  She greatly enjoys her UCalgary teaching, creative and ethnographic research, as well as local and national commissions, international teaching and the many opportunities to conduct ethnographic research in the field and at home. She is co-founder of concert jazz dance company and community school, DJD (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks) in Calgary, Alberta and continues to be involved in many aspects of the company and school. The company just celebrated 38 years this past March 2021. Michèle has continued to enjoy a vibrant career performing, creating, researching, teaching internationally and serving locally and nationally. Her choreographic work has been supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Heritage Canada as well as numerous awards/scholarships to support her work and research in performance-creation, ethnography in numerous field sites and at home. Michèle is most at home in the teaching and learning circle. Moss’s most recent commissions DJD (2021) COVID Drive-in show and NAfro Dance in Winnipeg, Manitoba at (2019). Recent ethnographic research and teaching assignment was in Senegal, West African at Ecole des Sables.