movement for actors & dancers
movement for actors
Movement for acting is a rich field of exploration and application. I combine somatic and ensemble approaches with applied Laban/Bartenieff. Somatic approaches help actors engage sensation, awareness, visualization, imagination and meaning-making to move in relationship to gravity and space, connect to their core and sequence movement through their bodies. Ensemble approaches help actors connect to and create with others, with movement enabling intuitive, sensitive, empathetic cooperation to take place without the need for words. The Laban/Bartenieff system helps actors dive deep into exploring physicality for character, and to have the creative tools and understanding needed to expand their range of expression. Since 2013, I have applied this work as a guest teacher and/or adjunct faculty in San Diego area universities including The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program and San Diego State University’s MFA in Musical Theatre Program
movement for dancers
A somatic approach is hugely beneficial for dancers, especially those who may have been trained with an “outside in” approach. Reconnecting dancers with their own body wisdoms of sensation and visualization, and helping them re-find their inner patterning, offers them an internalized approach to embodying such concepts as balance, grounding, and fluidity. In addition, the Laban work offers a dazzling spectrum of dynamic qualities, spatial relationships, and engagement of the whole self.
My work includes teaching somatic approaches and Laban/Bartenieff based principles and application on teacher training courses, dance training courses and professional development summer schools, and additionally performing in Laban-resource dance films, including Living Architecture: Rudolph Laban & the Geometry of Dance and Mapping Space: Choreographic Resources for Dance Education.
choreography for theatre
& dance
In the USA my choreographic work for theatre has included productions of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado about Nothing”, “Romeo and Juliet”, and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, and Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” for The Bishop’s School, La Jolla.
In the UK, my choreographic work for dance included co-choreographing with Panta Rei Danseteater and Amanda Banks & Nathaniel Reed; choreographic contributor with attikDANCE and Bare Bones dance companies; and producer and choreographer for educational and community performances and films. In the USA my choreographic work for dance has included “Wherever the Muse Doth Lead", for University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) Undergraduate Dance Program
