Under the direction of Gwen Welliver

May 11-June 3, 2011
Every Wednesday and Friday, 10am-1pm at Dance Theater Workshop
(no single sessions allowed)
Final showing: Friday, June 3 at 2pm
Fee: $250 Dance Theater Workshop members / $300 non-members
Application deadline EXTENDED: Friday, April 15, 2011 by 5pm EST

Mission: Dance Theater Workshop’s Bessie Schönberg Laboratory in Composition provides an opportunity for experienced choreographers to investigate and share their work in a supportive, structured environment. Over the course of four weeks, a select group of artists will work to develop new material under the direction of guest choreographer Gwen Welliver. Participants are encouraged to use the workshop to challenge the boundaries and assumptions they bring to their creative process. The Lab will culminate in an informal showing in Dance Theater Workshop’s Robbins Studio on Friday, June 3rd at 2pm

Workshop Description: Through dance and large-scale “drawings,” real and imagined, this composition workshop will focus on how we translate ideas, images, and narratives from one form or medium into another. Investigation will flow both ways: how drawings catalyze or transform movement and, conversely, how choreographed group movements “become” drawing. This process is not abstract per se; instead, it explores abstraction as an action, a process, and a presence. The interplay between drawing and movement performance will be a starting place for creation, observation and discussion. The remainder of the workshop’s experimentation with translation will be determined by the material that is developed and the interests and experience brought by the participants.

How to apply: Send a letter of intent, a brief biography and artist statement highlighting your background and relevant experiences. Tell us why you are interested in participating in the Lab and specify the goals you hope to accomplish during the workshop. Applications should be sent to Ben Kimitch,Community Liaison/Programming Assistant at ben@dtw.org.

Gwen Welliver Biography

Gwen Welliver is a dancer, teacher and choreographer who has been based in New York City since 1990. Her movement research and teaching practice has developed over twenty-seven years of work with an extraordinarily wide range of choreographers. Welliver performed with Doug Varone and Dancers (’90-’00), received a ‘Bessie’ for Sustained Achievement (’00), and subsequently served as the Rehearsal Director for the Trisha Brown Dance Company (’00-’07). With TBDC she directed stagings of Brown's seminal early works, an extensive repertory, and Brown's choreography for opera. Prior to working in New York CIty, Welliver performed in Philadelphia with ZeroMoving Dance Company (’88-’90), under the direction of Hellmut Gottschild who was once a teaching assistant to German dancer and choreographer Mary Wigman. Welliver has also performed in works and projects by Dana Reitz, Ohad Naharin, Douglas Dunn, and Jeff Duncan, among many others.

Welliver teaches worldwide in academic and conservatory settings. Venues have included the American Dance Festival (North Carolina; Chile), Barnard College, Bennington College, International Summer School of Dance (JP), Kalamata International Dance Festival (GR), P.A.R.T.S. (BE), and with support from the Suitcase Fund, the Moscow Contemporary Dance Summer School ‘TSEH’. She has been on the faculty of Movement Research (NYC) since 1997, and is presently on the adjunct faculty of Tisch School of the Arts (’95-’00, ’09-present).