DANCE ON LAND

August 2 - 8, 2009

A seven-day workshop in nature on California’s Lost Coast

led by

SHINICHI MOMO IOVA-KOGA * SHERWOOD CHEN * DANA IOVA-KOGA

Held at inkGround, a dance center located in a remote valley of California’s Lost Coast, 6-hours drive from San Francisco, DANCE ON LAND demands training in rigorous physicality and subtle listening. Elements of nature inform our movement. In yielding to the landscape’s mandate, we discover focus and sensitivity. We exhaust the body and its habits to activate the sensate body. We investigate core kinesthetic and imagistic motives for movement in order to find dance on land.

inkGround is surrounded by trees, mountains, river, ocean, gardens and orchards. We will be working in all of these microclimates, as well as in a barn converted into a dance studio. Discovering the body in the environment and our places within it, we’ll work in solo, duet and group improvisations.

We work from the body’s intrinsic tension, releasing the unnecessary to find a balance of strength and softness. We work from the center (tanden) to move the far-reaching limbs. We develop listening in relation to time, space, motion, inner rhythms and each other.

Average of 6-8 hours of training per day

Housing is your tent.

Toilet is rustic.

WORKSHOP FEE

Register on or before May 15: $590 (you save $50!)
Register after May 15: $640
Cost includes food (dinners prepared by onsite chef Nieves Rathbun) for duration of workshop

To register, we require a non-refundable $50 deposit by June 30 to hold your place.

Number of participants is limited. Register soon.

Plan to arrive August 1 and to leave August 9

Work-trade available*

* For those interested in work-trade, help us develop inkGround! There is a week of work happening prior to the workshop, July 25-31 . Participation in the work-week waives the workshop fee, but requires food cost of $140 for the workshop time + $70 to offset food costs for the week of work (total food cost = $210). Work may include: construction, assisting in the creation of a ferrous cement water-tank, gardening and landscaping work. Relevant experience or interest required. If interested, please contact Dana Iova-Koga at daisy@inkboat.com.

BIOGRAPHY:

SHINICHI MOMO IOVA-KOGA, originally a photographer, filmmaker and theater director, entered the world of Butoh dance in 1991 (initially through Akeno Ashikawa and then consistently through Hiroko Tamano and Yumiko Yoshioka). Childhood training in Judo (under Yuzo Koga) and early adult years studying Tadashi Suzuki Method of Acting (under Yukihiro Goto) influenced his expressions. Improvisational theater methods such as Action Theater (under Ruth Zaporah) shaped his approach to the process of creating stage works. In 1998, he founded the performance company inkBoat, whose productions reference Butoh dance as well as Physical Theater and filmic conventions. Iova-Koga examines, dissects and intentionally blurs the line between various media to uproot stories contained within the body and to communicate those stories to witnesses.

Shinichi has collaborated intensively with cokaseki (Germany: 2004-present), Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany: 1996-2001), Do Theatre (Russia: 1997-present), Minako Seki (Germany: 2001-2005), Shadowlight Theatre (SF: 1993-1997), Degenerate Art Ensemble (Seattle: 2001-present), and often creates improvisation evenings with longtime production collaborators Yuko Kaseki, Sten Rudstrøm and Cassie Terman.

DANA IOVA-KOGA received her BFA from New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing, where she studied dance and choreography. After graduating, she spent several years under the tutelage of Min Tanaka on his farm in Japan. It was during this time that Dana became interested in the myriad connections between the body and nature, between dance and agriculture. It is a theme she has continued to explore on her own, and with Shinichi Iova-Koga, as they develop inkGround. She brings to her teaching physical experience from various sources, including yoga, post-modern dance, physical theater and shoveling.

SHERWOOD CHEN