act/re/act

Join me for this engaging conversation with my friend and colleague Maria Gillespie. She and I have known each other for over 7 years, ever since I joined the faculty here at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. We have also performed improvisationaly together on multiple occasions, so it was wonderful to dig into her thoughts about improvisation, performance and pedagogy. Enjoy! 

Here's a bit more about Maria: Maria Gillespie is a choreographer, performer, dance and somatic educator. She is a CLMA Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst and directs MG/The Collaboratory and Hyperlocal MKE, dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration and improvised performance practice. She developed the community teaching project Parts of the Whole, sharing kinesthetic learning and expressive experiences with youth impacted by the carceral system to strengthen communities. She works with long time collaborators, Nguyễn Nguyên and Kevin Williamson, currently developing a new work, to get there from here. Regionally, Gillespie has collaborated with Present Music, Nirmal Raja, Portia Cobb, Sonja Thomsen, Glenn Williams, Nathaniel Stern, Joelle Worm, Christal Wagner, Tim Russell, and Mike Rea. Gillespie founded and directed LA-based Oni Dance (2003-2015) and was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch". Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including The Ford Amphitheatre, The Getty Museum, REDCAT, UCLA, Cal Arts, The Fowler Museum, Highways Performance Space, Joyce SoHo and CounterPULSE. Gillespie has performed and taught in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tokyo, and Mexico City.  She has taught at UCLA Department of World Arts & Cultures, Cal Arts, Loyola Marymount University, University of Iowa, Dance New Amsterdam (NY), Beijing Modern Dance Festival and was a choreographic and teaching resident in Mexico City with Apoc Apoc. Choreographic commissions include Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, Pomona College, Cal State Long Beach, Utah Valley University, University of Florida, and Santa Monica College dance departments. In 2019, received the 2019 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. She teaches dance at UW-Milwaukee.  

To find out more about Hyperlocal MKE: hyperlocalmke.com 

To find out more about Parts of the Whole: partsofthewhole.org 

To find out more about Daniel Burkholder: https://www.danielburkholder.com/

In this episode, I have the pleasure of having a conversation with Aysha Upchurch - an artist, educator, and activist. Hear how Hip Hop has informed and influenced how she approaches the world, as well as her insights about higher education, improvisation, activism, and how they all bump up against one another. It was such an illuminating conversation, I'm sure you'll love it!

A bit about Aysha: Aysha Upchurch, the Dancing Diplomat, is an artist and educator who creates, facilitates, and designs for radical change. She has shared her experience about artfully designing equitable and culturally relevant classrooms, the importance of dance and movement in education, and embracing Hip Hop as a powerful literacy as a consultant and speaker and most recently at TedxUConn.  She is a Lecturer and Artist-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she is pioneering courses and initiatives on Hip Hop pedagogy and embodied learning.  Whether on stage or in a classroom, as a US State Department cultural envoy or professor, Aysha is making moves and demonstrating how to be D.O.P.E. - dismantling oppression and pushing education.

To find out more about Aysha: https://www.ayshaupchurch.com/

To get some D.O.P.E.: https://dopeisaverb.com/

To find out a bit more about Daniel: https://www.danielburkholder.com/

Join me for this wonderful conversation with dance-maker, somatic practitioner, writer, and activist Nicole Bindler. Our conversation is quite wide-ranging, and I'm sure you'll find it as insightful and delightful as I did!

Correction: The correct title for the Sandberg Instituut's program that Nicole references is "Ecologies of Transformation".

For more info about me check out: https://www.danielburkholder.com/

For more info about Nicole: Nicole Bindler is a dance-maker, Body-Mind Centering® practitioner, writer, and activist. She has been presented at festivals, conferences, and intensives throughout the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and Europe, and in Tokyo, Beirut, Bethlehem, Mexico City, and Quito. Recent projects include teaching about consent culture and disability justice in contact improvisation; somatic research on the embryology of the genitalia from a non-binary perspective; collaborations with Diyar Theatre in Bethlehem, Palestine; teaching experimental classes such as Embodying Neuroqueer/Neuroqueering Embodiment and Polyvagal Theory and Protest through freeskewl; and presentations at the Future of CI Conference and the BMCA Online Somatic Symposium about rebuilding in-person dance and somatics communities in ways that tangibly address the inequities laid bare by the pandemic. In the coming year––goddess and pandemic-willing––she will present her work at Asociacion Cultural Guandul in Quito, The Body IQ Festival in Berlin, Somatic Kin in Bern, the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, and through Contact Improvisation Warsaw. https://www.nicolebindler.com/

photo by Kenzi Green

Join me to start a new season of act/re/act with this amazing conversation with Ruth Zaporah. Active in improvisational performance since the 1960s, Ruth shares her wealth of knowledge about improv, Zen Buddhism, and navigating the world as an improvisational artist. The creator of Action Theater, Ruth has a unique lens as an expert performance and a highly regarded teacher. Check out this conversation as I'm sure you'll find much to learn within.

In this, the final episode of the second season of act/re/act, Cass Tunick returns, but this time to interview Daniel - a bit of a role reversal.

We touch on an array of subjects including dance improvisation, performance, the Feldenkrais Method, freedom, making choices, how to relate to music when improvising, and a story about my grandfather who was a bricklayer.

Find out more about Cass here: http://www.cassieterman.com

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Enjoy!

PS. if you have any ideas of people whom I may want to interview for the third season of act/re/act podcast, please send suggestions to [email protected] Thanks!

Welcome to my conversation with Audrey Chen, a wonderful and captivating musician who I have had the pleasure of first seeing her perform in the early 2000s in the DC/Baltimore area, where we both lived at the time. I have also collaborated with Audrey in a work commissioned by The Kennedy Center and have had the opportunity to perform with her a number of times, but not in a number of years. It was a pleasure to catch up with her, hear how her improvisational practice has evolved, and what she's up to these days.

See Audrey's complete biography below. 

In this conversation, Audrey and I discuss practical considerations in artistic decisions (or, how one's life can dictate artistic choices), parenting, being surprised, the importance of exercise, training, her use of voice and cello, and the difference between performing in an ensemble, a duet, or solo. Was a great conversation! 

Find out more about Audrey here: www.audreychen.com

Listen to some of her music here: https://soundcloud.com/audreychen

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Welcome to my conversation with Ed Sarath, a Professor of Music in the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, as well as the director of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies. He founded and serves as president of the International Society for Improvised Music, and has written two books on music, improvisation, and consciousness. 

In this conversation, Ed and I discuss jazz, free improvisation, Integral Theory, teaching improvisation, and how meditation supports an improvisational practice. Was an amazing conversation. 

Find out more about Ed here: http://edsarath.com/wordpress/

Find out more about his work here: https://www.jazzcosmos.com

Find out about the International Society for Improvised Music here: http://www.isimprov.org

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Welcome to my conversation with Cass Tunick, a senior teacher of Ruth Zaporah's Action Theater, and an amazing performer in her own right. 

In this conversation we talk about, of course, improvisational performance, but also training, collaboration, what happens when you walk on stage with absolutely no plan, Buddhism, and the practice of getting lost. 

Find out more about Cass here: http://www.cassieterman.com

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Finally, the beginning of the second season of act/re/act!

To start this second I have a fascinating conversation with Melanie George, a dancer/choreographer who's artistic practice is rooted in jazz dance. She is one of the few jazz dance artists, that I'm aware of, who actively incorporates improvisation in her teaching and choreography. In this episode we discuss why Melanie explores improvisation in her jazz dance practice, what she means by shared movement vocabulary, improvisation as a choreographic tool, and how to explore the known knowns. 

Find out more about Melanie George here: https://melaniegeorge.org

Find out more about Melanie's Jazz Dance Direct project: https://www.jazzdancedirectory.com

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

In this, the fifth and final episode of season one of act/re/act, I have a conversation with multi-media artist and DJ, Alvin Hill . In this conversation we discuss how Alvin began DJing in the 80s, how he prepares for a gig, the relationship he tries to develop with a crowd, DJing as an improvisation art, and his multi-media performance group, Alvin Hill Media Ensemble.

Find out more about Alvin Hill here: https://www.alvinhill.com

Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org

Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Alvin's Bio:

Alvin Hill is a technology based artist whose work takes the form of performances and installations and often combines sound, still image, video, projection, light, physical computing, and DJ arts.

Enjoy!