Bessie Schnberg Laboratory in Composition

Under the direction of Gwen Welliver

May 17 – June 8, 2012

Every Thursday and Friday, 10am-1pm

Final showing on Friday, June 8 at 2pm at New York Live Arts

(no single sessions allowed)

Workshop Fee: $300 ($250 for New York Live Arts Associate Artists)

The 2012 Bessie Schnberg Laboratory in Composition will focus on how we translate ideas, images and narratives from one form or medium into another. Working with a wide variety of prompts, we will explore both figurative and nonfigurative form. The goal is to investigate increasingly complex artifacts and consider each a source for developing movement, scenes and images. Class will be conducted as a studio seminar; we will use analytical exercises and impulsive improvisations to develop movement-based projects. Participants are free to take the workshop from any angle: to develop a work in progress; to experiment without a goal; to have a forum for observation and discussion. Participants working in disciplines other than dance are welcome to apply.

How to apply

Please 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 angle(s) from which you will approach the experience. Applications should be emailed to Benjamin Kimitch, Assistant to the Artistic Director, at bkimitch@newyorklivearts.org. Application deadline is Monday, April 9, 2012 by 5pm EST.

Gwen Welliver is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City. Her work has been presented at Center for Performance Research, Dance Theater Workshop, 92nd Y Harkness Dance Festival, and Movement Research at the Judson Church. Welliver is the recipient of a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Dancing. She performed with Doug Varone and Dancers (’90-’00). Subsequently, as Rehearsal Director for the Trisha Brown Dance Company (’00-’07),she directed multiple stagings and lectured on Brown's seminal early works, an extensive repertory,and Brown's choreography for opera. Welliver teaches worldwide at the American Dance Festival, International Summer School of Dance (JP), Kalamata International Dance Festival (GR), New York Live Arts, P.A.R.T.S. (BE), and TSEKH Summer School (RU); visiting faculty positions at Bard College, Barnard College, and Bennington College. A Movement Research faculty member since 1997, and previously on the faculty at Tisch School of the Arts, Welliver is currently guest faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.

newyorklivearts.org/programs/engage/workshops.php