Fall 2024

Taja Will

Oct 20, 12:30-2:30pm

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Tuning & Attuning

This workshop is a practice of connection with self and others, solo and ensemble, a duet with a ghost or an ancestor, a trio with two movers and the energy of breath/air/space. Imagine improvisation as a decolonial practice and the act of dancing with seen and unseen entities as ritual. Human and mammalian nervous systems like to connect, to entrain, to feel each other and perhaps that can happen with the energetic fields as well. 

Choreographer and educator Taja Will is a queer, disabled and indigena ritualist. They invite connection with elements, land and ancestors as a foundation for dance making and improvisational performance. From that foundation they feel it is radical to attune with other humans in coalition. 

This workshop is practice in listening to greater unseen energies, deepening connections with each other through improvisation, and together we will use some of Lisa Nelson's This workshop is practice in listening to greater unseen energies, deepening connections with each other through improvisation, and together we will use some of Lisa Nelson's Tuning Scores as a proposal for ensemble improvisation. 

Bio:

Taja Will (they/them) is a non-binary, chronically ill, queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee. They are a performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, consultant and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s artistic work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through a blend of ritual, dense multi-layered worldbuilding and everyday magic.

Taja initiates solo projects and teaching ventures and is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. Their work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. They were the recipient of a 2018-’19 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

Fana Fraser

Nov 3rd, 12:30pm - 2:30pm

SYMPATHETIC BODIES offers a gentle space for connection with self and others. Time in this creative workshop will be spent in breath-work, imagination, consensual touch, movement and vocalizations. This workshop offers a meditative atmosphere for deep internal listening, rest and rejuvenation. Space will be made for altered states of creative consciousness to emerge and be observed. Participants are invited to move with the needs of their nervous systems. We will tend to the water of our bodies and make space for song to vibrate. We will dance together with polyrhythms and music toward the practice of cultivating trust and centering hope. 

No previous ‘dance training’ is required for this workshop. 

Please reach out with any disability access needs. 

Bio:

Fana Fraser is a Trinidadian artist, producer, director and performer. Her work gravitates to expressions of power, eroticism and compassion. Fana is a Visiting Lecturer in Dance at Harvard University for Fall 2024.

Fana’s short film, ‘nesting’ was commissioned by TBA21-Academy in 2023.

A Spring 2023 faculty guest at Northeastern University - College of Media, Arts and Design; Fall 2023 Artist-in-Residence at The Watermill Center; Petronio 2022 RETREAT & RESTORE resident; 2022 BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) Artist-in-Residence; 2021-22 Abrons Arts Center Performance Artist-in-Residence; and 2021-23 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Dance, she is a 2023-2024 Movement Research NYSCA Artist-in-Residence.  

Her work has been presented at several venues including: Brooklyn Museum, New York Botanical Garden, Movement Research at the Judson Church, BAAD!, Gibney, and Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco.

From 2020-2022, Fana taught as an adjunct professor at University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  At NYU Tisch and Adelphi University she has led workshops in BFA Dance Programs. Fana has also taught workshops in the MFA Dance Program at Sarah Lawrence.

She was shortlisted for the 2020 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize.

Fana served as Rehearsal Director for Ailey II from 2016-20. As a dancer and collaborator, she originated roles and toured internationally with Camille A. Brown & Dancers and Ailey II. She has also done performance work with Samita Sinha’s ‘Infinity Folds’, Nia O. Witherspoon’s ‘Priestess of Twerk’, Sidra Bell Dance New York, The Metropolitan Opera, Bard SummerScape Opera, Andrea Miller for Hermès, The Francesca Harper Project, Raja Feather Kelly and the Feath3r theory, Miriam Simun, Jonathan González, Roya Carreras, Ryan McNamara, and many others.

A certified Gyrotonic® Instructor, Fana has extensive experience in Yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique and Somatic Experiencing®. She is also a full spectrum doula.