Game on

In this 6th episode of the 2nd season we have talked with Joy Alpuerto Ritter. Former performer and associate choreographer with Akram Khan (UK) and many others (see below for full biog)

From 19' 20" onwards you can hear in detail what her class look like, but before that do not miss the other themes we talked about mainly the very insightful conversation about:

What is the difference between a dancer and a good performer

How spiritual practices can help to train performance presence

How Joy describes those rare moments on stage.

A few quotes from our conversation:  

“[When I perform] it is almost like an outer force that is leading me, but I am also open to it” 

“When I dance, when i move, I like to connect to nature. To element of fire, water, wind, animals… Animals, their intuition is so pure…   I  use that quality in my body”

 “We all crave for those moments… after time, when you look back it is a strong memory, and it feels very extreme. Your body is so exhausted and tired that your mind just accepts what is happening to you… so you kind of transcend”

“You get into a state of TRUTH. You cannot pretend… you are just there. Even though it is really tough and you think, I am going to faint on stage, and your life has been poured time… those are the moments you think: this is quite a spiritual moment”

Join her classes the w/c  15th of February 2021 as part of the TWV Academy
https://twvonline.academy/

Joy Alpuerto Ritter was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. In her youth she was trained at the balletschool Armin Krain and learned Philippine Folk Dance in the cultural dance group led by her mother. In 2004 Joy graduated at the Palucca School in Dresden, Germany with a dance diploma. She started working as a freelance dancer with choreographers like Christoph Winkler, Heike Hennig, Wangramirez and Yui Kawaguchi. After expanding her repertory in urban dance styles, she became part of the Hip Hop and Voguing Ballroom culture scene in Berlin. In 2011 she joined Cirque du Soleil as a dancer and aerial artist for the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour. Since 2013 she has been a dancer and rehearsal director of the Akram Khan Company where she continues her touring life all around the world. In 2016 she has been nominated as "outstanding female dancer" (modern) in the Performance "Until the Lions" by the UK National Dance Awards.
With her own solo work „Babae“, she has found international response as a Choreographer and is one of the Aerowaves artists 2020. Since then Joy has been creating her own work and has been collaborating as a (an associate) choreographer with Akram Khan (UK), Ballett Black (UK), Chen Shi-Zheng (New York), Riz Ahmed (UK), Viviana Durante (UK), Yang Liping (China), Florence and the machine (UK).
As a teacher Joy has been sharing her knowledge and created works at SEAD - Salzburg Experimental Dance Academy, DAF- Dance Arts Faculty in Rome, Motions Berlin, Marameo Berlin and Beijing Dance Academy in China.

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In this 5th episode of the 2nd season we have talked with Michalis Theophanous. Current performer with  Dimitris Papaioannou and Bob Wilson

Together we talked about:

- What is for Michalis performance presence

- Training in vocational schools

- Stillness in performance

- His own work as a performer, director and workshop teacher

Some quotes from our conversation with Michalis:

"Having a premiere is not the end of the process… it is the begining of it. It is about finding a reason to do it again and again and stepping a bit further each performance than what you did last time"

"Nobody told me on school how to cover 25 metres in 12 minute in a fluent movement without pausing at anytime, or how to sweat without even moving, or how to face the audience, how to take off your jacket… how to be present on stage without overtrying, without over exposing yourself and scream:  'look at me' " 

"During the rehearsals of Primal Matter, the duet with Dimitri, there is a moment in the piece, where I am naked and I need to stay there for three minutes. During the rehearsals, I was: this is a good moment for me to rest. But when I was in the theatre and I hundreds of eyes looking at me, that was and endless nightmare (...) I could’t shit my pants because I had no pants"

" After the 5th rehearsal, I was so excited because I was failing (…) so I found a way to make it happen and to be extremely precise"

"I am not here to teach, I don’t like the word teach, I am just here to share, very basic and very boring exercises that you might use or might never use in their career… they will be free to keep [the exercises} or to throw them away… but you never know when will be the moment to use them…  

"At the end of the day we train our body, we sharp our knife, it is not necessarily that we are going to use all of them in our career, but it is  our choice what we want to keep using"

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In this 4th episode of the 2nd season we have talked with Scott Jennings. Former dancer (but still collaborator) of Pina Bausch Dance Company.

Together we talked about:

- The healthiest way to approach auditions

- Adding the humanity to the act of performing

- What does it mean to exist in the space as a dancer

Some quotes from our conversation with Scott:
"in terms of skill or what I learned (from auditions): there is this thing of saying - this is me and this is what I have to offer, can we make that work, do you wanna work with me? "

Reflection about the challenges of working for the Pina Bausch co: "It was pretty intense but fascinating"  /
"It was a new way for me to face that fear of going on stage with a different sense of uncertainty as it always was this strange thing of the first time of doing a piece (on the general rehearsal) it was facing all the elements for the first time and many times in front of people as well"

"I had to find a way of just being able to exist in those pieces (Pina´s) so I suddenly became fascinated with what it means to exist in a space, on how to connect to these very human things or personal stories and how do they sit in this role of performance, how do I exist there"

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In this 3rd episode of the 2nd season we have talked about:

- Which gaps Lucy found in her training as a professional dancer

- How we build the bridge between chapters in our careers and how we go over those bridges

- The hardest mental challenge a dancer has to endure

- And how you can be in control of your happiness


“Your career is not going to come in a neat little package of what you think this is”

“I have definitely had to push for my position in the dance world”

“I was so passionate that I had to share what I have”

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In this 2nd episode of the 2nd season we have talked about:


- Which gaps Maria found in her training when she started to work with  Sasha Waltz & Guests

- How her own research has helped to know herself 

- Why to dance in these uncertain times

- And a wish for the future of dance post-COVID

"Our body is our material,  and if we do not work our material we cannot do anything"


"For me moving and dancing is deeply connecting with who I am... If I don't dance, what I am standing in this world for?"


"When I move, LIFE is passing though my body... so when I dance, I feel alive"


"If you know yourself, you are not in this game of reacting anymore... so you can have a dialogue"


Podcast music theme by: Bensound

How to follow Maria's work:

Facebook

Instagram

[email protected]

Maria will be teaching onsite classes here

www.marameo.de

www.tanzfabrik-berlin.de

www.idwbudapest.com 

Upcoming Performances

www.sashawaltz.de

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In this first episode of the 2nd season we have talked about
- individual practice
- why it is important to keep training even in the midst of uncertainty
- how Lali trains when she is alone
- about how vital is to maintain curiosity
- how teaching  practice informs your dancing and choreographing
- wish list for post-covid time

To know more about Towards Vivencia: HERE

Book our classes: HERE

How to book (2 minutes video): HERE

Towards Vivencia Instagram

Lali's instagram

Lali Ayguadé Company Fb page

Music: www.bensound.com

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As part of out unique online training Towards Vivencia, once a month we invite dance-artists we admire to talk about Peak Performance Presence, how to sustain a long and successful career in the arts and what are the books and other resources our guests feed from.

In this fifth episode we had a conversation with master Julyen Hamilton. In this episode we talked about: 

• Daily practice and how to be ready when you want to be ready
• What are the perks and responsibilities that comes with being a freelancer
• How to gain clarity with one’s decisions
• What is a good performance and how it feels
• The difference between teaching and performing
• Humanness, Baryshnikov and the extraordinariness of ordinariness 
• What Julyen would do if he were rich
• A vital lesson for teachers 

RESOURCES:

Autobiography of a Yogi

by Paramahansa Yogananda

Ways of Seeing

by John Berger

BBC series: Youtube link

Blue dog DVDs

For more episodes: Towards Vivencia website

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As part of out unique online training Towards Vivencia, once a month we invite dance-artists we admire to talk about Peak Performance Presence, how to sustain a long and successful career in the arts and what are the books and other resources our guests feed from.

In this fourth episode we had a conversation with Paolo Mangiola, artistic director of Zfin Malta, the national company of Malta. In this episode we talked about: 

• Why dancers are the main asset of any dance company
• Interdependency 
• What is the role of a national dance company and why they should exist
• A dystopian future where Earth’s rotation slows down and gravity increases exponentially 
• What does Paolo Mangiola look for on a dancer during an audition process
• Presence, humanity and honesty in performance
• What Zfin Malta next season looks like
• What happens to artists when the work you want to make has been made by Boris Charmatz already
• How all the negative answers we receive throughout a lifetime equipped us to go further and further
• How do you know whether a piece has changed your life…

Resources we mentioned

• 21 lessons for the 21st century by Yuval Noah Harari 
• 1984 by George Orwell 
• Strange Days by Kathryn Bigelow 

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As part of out unique online training Towards Vivencia, once a month we invite dance-artists we admire to talk to Jorge Crecis about Peak Performance Presence, how to sustain a long and successful career in the arts and what are the books and other resources our guests feed from.

In this third episode Jorge had a conversation about contemporary dance in India and the third edition of The Goa Dance Residency, a not-for-profit choreographic research and dance education program. In this episode we have founder Nathaniel Parchment and current director Navala ‘Niku’ Chaudhari talking about: 

• From world class dancers to founders and curators of Jungle Contemporary Dance
• The answer from whenever you need to justify why dance should be available to everyone
• Hunger, excitement, commitment and determination
• How to fight the disillusionment that often arrives in our dance careers
• The power of training presence
• How to avoid feeling disspointed for not achieving all our daily chores

Resources they mentioned

• The wisdom of the body moving by Linda Hartley
• Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) Lessons: http://openatm.org/

To know more about the Goa dance residency and how to apply:

https://goadanceresidency.com/



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As part of out unique online training Towards Vivencia, once a month we invite dance-artists we admire to talk to Jorge Crecis about Peak Performance Presence, how to sustain a long and successful career in the arts and what are the books and other resources our guests feed from.

In this second episode Jorge had a very intense, comprehensive and profound conversation where they talked about: 

- How to make a very difficult first question to Ben Duke (my apologies for that Ben…)

- What makes a performer an incredible one and how Ben Duke spots them

- Trusting indirectness and creating space in the creative process

- Tools to do nothing in performance and still be seen. Holding the space is a practice

- Half an hour in, Ben tell us what was the definitive point where he felt: this is enough.

- UK and Europe the invisible barrier that is there

- Keep your energy and your quality by saying no to projects that doesn’t serve your strategic or artistic vision and how to manage the financial uncertainty that comes with it.

- And what is an ideal world for Ben Duke

You can find more about him here:

Website: https://lostdogdance.co.uk/

Instagram: lostdogdance

FB: https://www.facebook.com/lostdogdance/

Next workshops and performances: https://lostdogdance.co.uk/tour-dates/

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