Velocity to Celebrate 20th Annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, 7/28-8/4

Velocity celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Seattle Festival of Improvisation (SFDI) with an all-star faculty line-up, performances by world-class innovators, and daily community events. One of the world's leading festivals of dance and improvisation, SFDI brings together renowned dance artists and teachers to perform, collaborate and share their creative processes. SFDI is a week of intensives, classes, jams, somatic workshops, performances and discussions focused on fostering the study, practice and appreciation of dance improvisation.

INTENSIVES // John Jasperse + Sara Shelton Mann + Chris Aiken + Shelley Senter + Amii LeGendre + Michael Schumacher

CLASSES // Jill Sigman + John Dixon + Heidi Henderson + Andrew Wass + Karen Nelson + Stephanie Skura + Tonya Lockyer + Louis Gervais + Salt Horse + Vanessa DeWolf + Michal Lahav + Eric Nordstrom

REGISTER for the 20th Annual SFDI
JULY 28 - AUG 4, 2013
Velocity 1621 12th Ave on Capitol Hill
206.325.8773 | www.velocitydancecenter.org/program/sfdi

TICKETS for Inter/National Innovators in Performance
AUG 1 / 8PM
Broadway Performance Hall 1625 Broadway
206.325.8773 | www.velocitydancecenter.org/events/box-office
$12-$18

SFDI 2013 was curated by the SFDI 2013 Panel: Alia Swersky, Beth Graczyk, Cyrus Khambatta and Tonya Lockyer with generous input from the community.

SFDI FACULTY

John Jasperse is known internationally for his innovation and experimentation with movement and choreography. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and received a Bessie Award in recognition of his body of work. He has created works for Baryshnikov's White Oak Project, Batsheva Dance Company, and the Lyon Opera Ballet. His work has been presented by major festivals and presenting organizations in Brazil, Chile, Israel, Japan and throughout the US and Europe. www.johnjasperse.org

Sara Shelton Mann and her legendary San Francisco-based company Contraband appeared on stages, in warehouses, abandoned buildings and outdoors from 1979-1996. She collaborated with Guillermo Gomez-Pena until 1999, and currently teaches her complex interdisciplinary performance style and movement vocabulary worldwide. www.sarasheltonmann.org

Chris Aiken is a leading international teacher and performer of dance/contact improvisation. His work has been significantly influenced through the Alexander Technique, Ideokinesis, yoga and the work of Ida Rolf. Chris has performed and collaborated with renowned dance artists Steve Paxton, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood, Patrick Scully and Angie Hauser. www.chrisaikenangiehauser.wordpress.com

Shelley Senter, a renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, has been investigating the application of the principles of the Alexander process to the performing body and mind for nearly two decades. She is a member of Lower Left artist collective and a repetiteur of the seminal works of Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer, which she stages internationally.

Michael Schumacher has been a member of Ballet Frankfurt, Twyla Tharp Dance, Feld Ballet, Pretty Ugly Dance Company, and Katie Duck's Magpie Music Dance Company. Working as dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Schumacher has developed a unique approach to the discipline of improvisation. He resides in Amsterdam and conducts workshops in movement analysis and improvisation worldwide. www.michaelschumacherdancer.wordpress.com

Amii LeGendre currently teaches dance at Bard College, NY after years of living and making performance in Seattle. Over the last 20 years, she has developed contact improvisation teaching material within a larger contemporary performance practice with an eye toward activism. She teaches dance to incarcerated men, opera singers, college students, colleagues, children and humans at large.

Vanessa DeWolf is an improviser, writer, and performance artist committed to autonomous and rigorous creativity. She runs Seattle's Studio Current, a season of artists in residence, and PROJECT: Space Available, which she co-curates with Mônica Mata Gillam. She is committed to aesthetic articulation, and the sharing of creative process, practice and works-in-progress.

John Dixon has been exploring the nature of improvisational activity and awareness since 1985. He has performed nationally and internationally with Kei Takei's Moving Earth, Stephanie Skura's Cranky Destroyers, and the Seattle based dance-theater company 33 Fainting Spells, among others. His ongoing interests in contemplative action and perceptual flux have led him to work with many inspiring artists over the years, including Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson, Stephanie Skura, Stuart Dempster, Nina Martin and Sheri Cohen.

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