DVAN workshop: Somatic Experience, Movement Awareness and Mark-Making
With Steve Batts, Artistic Director of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company
This workshop is designed for people who paint and draw and who would like to explore the relationship between those practices and their own experience of movement.
- 10.30am - 12.30pm workshop (part I)
- 12.30 - 1.30pm lunch break & networking
- 1.30 -3.30pm workshop (part II)
In the morning session we'll do a slow and gentle guided meditation focusing on the somatic/bodily experience reflex movement processes; the breath, cardiovascular system, digestive system, fluid systems, endocrine system, cellular breathing and the movement of the attention. From there we'll open ourselves, gradually and with care, to intuitive and authentic movement through the studio. We'll observe the way that movement attention changes the imaginative processes, calling different images and ideas to the edge of consciousness and into the conscious attention. We'll then begin to draw, paint, sketch, letting the intuition lead and abandoning ourselves to abstract figurative, landscape, to colour, line and texture of the mark making process. We'll pay attention to our experience of movement as we make marks and also to how attention to movement leads to new choices in how we go through the process.
After lunch we'll re-visit the somatic meditation to re-tune our attention, Then we'll go into pairs or trios to watch each other moving and to find ways to respond in real time to the movement we see. Usually the process of paying attention to our own movement heightens and refines the way we watch and see the movement in other people. We'll have the chance to share reflections on the processes and explorations and also, for those who wish to show them, the results.
The workshop will take place in Echo Echo Studios on Derry's City Walls. The Company is currently hosting a solo exhibition 'The edges of this place' by DVAN artist Sinéad Smyth which will be open to view on the day.
https://www.echoechodance.com/whatson/the-edges-of-this-place-by-sinead-smyth
The studios are comfortable and have lovely views across the city. There is a very nice sitting room/lobby/dining area where we can enjoy lunch together. There is a small kitchen with kettle, microwave, hob, crockery and cutlery.
Participants should wear comfortable clothes that are easy to move in. We'll be working in bare feet or socks as outdoor shoes are not permitted on the studio floor. If you need to wear shoes of some kind please bring a clean and light pair, preferably with flat soles. This workshop is open to all physical abilities. All movement choices will emerge from individuals. There is no expectation of achieving particular forms, steps, patterns or shapes.
Echo Echo Studios are fully accessible. There is a lift to both floors and there are good standard disability toilet facilities. There is a ramp to the city walls just outside the studio door. This ramp is slightly steeper than the usual disability access recommendations require. Please let us know if you will need help with coming up onto the city walls. We are happy to assist.
Steve Batts, Artistic Director
Please bring your own drawing/painting materials along.
A selection of hot drinks will be provided - please bring along a lunch.
About Steve Batts
Steve Batts is Artistic Director of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company, which he co-founded in the early 1990’s with Ursula Laeubli. He has an outstanding reputation internationally as a performer and choreographer; and as an inspiring teacher of movement to professional dancers, young children, people with disabilities, and anyone else who has an interest in taking pleasure in poetic movement. He leads, directs and curates all of Echo Echo’s rich programme of work, and has focused on the development of the company ensemble.
Steve has been a prolific movement artist since the early 1980’s with Jointwork Dance Group (1983-89) and Sidetrack Dance Theatre (1989-91) in Oxford, England. His work has included creating full-length works such as Intimacies for Voices Dance Company, Chisinau, Moldova (2007) and Water Under The Bridge, performed at the Theatre Institute in Kharkov, Ukraine in early 2008. He directed and choreographed Echo Echo’s Ripple Affect (2009/10), and in 2011 he performed his solo work gad gad vaso gadati as part of the Re-Presenting Ireland bill at Dublin Dance Festival, and intergenerational production Walk By (2016). In 2013 Steve curated Echo Echo’s major programmes for UK City of Culture 2013 including The Motion Ensemble and Echo Echo Festival of Dance and Movement – the Festival is now established as an annual event.
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Registration is FREE but advance booking is essential.
