Finding the Floor | Movement as Playground

Nabad (a tentative name) is pleased to announce Finding the Floor | Movement as Playground. A contemporary dance workshop with Michael Watts.

The workshop will be divided into two focuses:

The technique class will begin with playful improvisation guided by images and commands, whose purpose is to awaken the body, mind and imagination. “Release” exercises follow with the aim of relaxing and stretching the body so that the dancers find their respective relationships to the floor, gravity and the use of momentum as a tool to efficiently recycle energy when thrusting through space. A variety of exercises give importance to the use of the hands (like a child) to help come in and out of the floor. The class will finish with a dynamic choreography to encourage the liberation of primal, animalistic and raw energies.

The improvisation class is a period of play, imagination and creative and theatrical improvisation, with the aim of guiding students through a range of extreme emotions and states of being. The dancers will dig within their interiors, surpassing their respective limitations, all the while liberating themselves from form and aesthetics.

Micheal Watts is a performer, artist and independent dance educator. He comes from Aylmer, Quebec where he grew up playing competitive football, touring both Scotland and Germany. In 2005, Michael began dance training in Toronto. He decided to move to Montreal to continue his autodidactic education, taking technical classes and workshops given at Le Regroupement Québécois de la Danse and Circuit-Est Centre Choreographic. Michael’s explosive, animalistic, natural and raw movement, coupled with his natural instinct for performance led him to choreographer Dave St. Pierre, who quickly hired him to play in ‘La Pornographie des Âmes’, ‘Un Peu de Tendresse, Bordel de Merde!’, and to collaborate in the creation of the third part of the trilogy: ‘Sociologie et Autres Utopie Contemporaine’. Since January 2008, Michael has danced on stages throughout Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, United Kingdom) and in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto. He is also a guest lecturer at The National Circus School, and has taught courses at Université du Québec à Montréal and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Today, Michael lives in Belgium and dances for choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Special Formula:On Saturday, April 14, from 13.00–14.00, the class will be open to the public for an informal performance.