Dance Composition & Choreography Series In-person with Eddie Oroyan

Have you always taken pre-choreographed dance classes? How about dipping your toe – in a safe, supported way – into playing with your own creativity and expression? You’ll be amazed at what will come out!

Already good at improv? Super! Let’s go!

Composing Movement Eddie Oroyan has worked with Emanuel Gat Dance since 2017, a non-hierarchically based dance company where the movers generate the material and make the main decisions on timing, staging, and intention, sometimes even in the moment of the performance. The process and performances are designed in a way to limit self-judgment and demand a present mind. It is a thrilling ride and a great metaphor for how we can live our lives. 

The class, Composing Movement, consists of games, tasks, and hacks for creating movement and for relating to each other, to our surroundings, to music. The first half of the class will focus on generating a simple phrase or two. The movement generated will come from wherever we are that day, that moment, and through processes that are fun and generous. We generally will share/exchange/make these base creations with a partner. This movement, then, will be our “clay” that we can manipulate and mold to a multitude of situations. The second half of the class will take that “wet” movement and bend it into situations that give context, relation, and meaning. 

Each week will have an intention and clear design tasks: musicality, spatial relation, intention, timing/quality. One of the main goals of the course is to help get out of the “critical mind” and remember how to play, to listen and propose. We will address creative block and rediscover the joy in the journey rather than a hyper focus on product. Eddie invites all levels of movers and makers.

Check out the current touring piece LOVETRAIN2020

 “I love dancing with Eddie! When I perform dance, I’m often using the techniques of improv. We so often are taught to follow the teacher’s movements and sometimes can end up as xeroxed copies of our teachers. We might never get the opportunity to discover our body’s own entirely raw and authentic expression. I’ve found that through improv I get to experience movement in a fresh way, as if I’m the curious observer waiting to see what my body creates – and sometimes I’m so wonderfully surprised by what comes through.” – Sarah Hodges, IONA Contemporary dance performer