On the occasion of the dance-theatre piece 30 Cecil Street, seen at Bmotion Dance 2015, its author and performer Dan Canham has given a dance class explaining his training and his aims.
After presenting himself as an actor in dance companies and a dancer in theatre companies, Dan sets what he wants to reach in the following two hours: show humanity behind technique.
Starting in a circle, warming up the single parts of the body, he focuses on finding a centre stability and an outer awareness. The dancers continue to develop their outer knowledge walking round the space until they find connections and negotiations among them while running.
While the first part has been taken from a work done with a Polish company, the second part steals from the Suzuki actors training method. The dancers start charging their centre, holding a chosen position and giving it a meaning, till they start to relate one to the other. They are asked never to act, but to feel the movement not filling it, so the audience can let in.
All the second part plays with different music and rhythm, switching the dancers as players or audience. They have to build energy through each step, keeping it alive, always remaining connected with an open eye to what’s going on in their discovery process.
With this power, you are now ready to go on stage! So the final part deals with improvisation, asking the dancers to use music as impulse, not following their usual movement but their emotional inner status. Space becomes the frame where the dancers play with their habits and the unknown, never forcing the surrounding but inviting it to interact.
by Lara Crippa
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READ MORE ABOUT DAN CANHAM
READ MORE ABOUT THE OOTHER ARTISTS SELECTED BY AIRWAVES
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Tags: Aerowaves, bmotion2015, Dan Canham, operaestate
