Noguchi Taiso was founded in Japan by Michizo Noguchi in the mid nineteen hundreds. Noguchi Taiso is a form of physical training that taps into the natural phenomena of earth’s pull and push powers on our body weight to create fluid movement – a method that Professor Noguchi perceived as more peaceful and less egocentric. This workshop offers new ways to improve movement efficiency while letting go of unnecessary tensions.

Mari Osanai’s own practice evolves from and interweaves Noguchi Taiso with Classical Ballet, Modern dance, Yoga, Tai Chi, Jazz, and traditional Folk dance. Her performances and workshops draw keen interest around the world.

MARI OSANAI, dancer, choreographer and Noguchi Taiso trainer comes to us from Aomori, Japan. After training in Classical Ballet, Modern Dance, Jazz, Tai Chi, and traditional Folk Dance, Mari became interested in exploring movement in new ways. She went on to study dance choreography under Mr. Hironobu Oikawa and Noguchi Taiso training and its philosophy with Professor Michozo Noguchi (1914-1998).

Mari stands by the theory that materials that constitute our body are undoubtedly of this Earth and have participated in and experienced the creation process of the Earth. Therefore our body, having lived here and now, includes the entire history of the Earth. What we call ‘life’, ‘body’ and ‘mind’ are precisely phases of change and flow of the earth. There is no absolute standard for all things.”

Mari Osanai’s unique and complex movements are created by interweaving a combination of techniques she has studied over her career as a dancer. Her approach to movement research and exploration begins with a heightened awareness of gravity’s influence on the body and the body’s connection with the centre of the earth. Over the years, Mari has performed and taught workshops in Japan, Canada, the USA, Greece, and Germany.

This workshop is a moving think tank. Choreography can be a framework for deploying difference in a time of increasing anxiety. What do I mean by difference? Who is in the room. What does it mean for us to be together? We are not the same but we are bound by invisible tethers and the strangeness of behaving together. I am interested in the strangeness and try to tease it out in ways both systematic and spontaneous. We make by doing. We perform as we make a performance, or participate in a workshop. I will share ways that I harness immediacy, mystery, relevance, irreverence and import. I am interested in what is definitive and unstable. Are we foolish for still being inspired by performance? I like dancing. I like it a lot. We become beautiful in the process of performing but beautiful is not enough. I want to hold all of us. I want the differences held. Do you care to join? It is all too much. 

Miguel Gutierrez lives in Brooklyn, NY. He creates dance-based performances, music and poetry that focus on desire, identity and the search for meaning. He is a 2016 Doris Duke Artist. His work has been presented in venues such as Centre National de Danse, Centre Pompidou, ImPulsTanz, Fringe Arts, Walker Art Center, TBA/PICA, MCA Chicago, New York Live Arts, Live Arts Bard, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He has received support from Creative Capital, MAP, National Dance Project, and Jerome Foundation and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, United States Artists, New York Foundation for the Arts, Tides Foundation as well as a Foundation for Contemporary Art award and four NY Dance and Performance Bessies. He recently premiered This Bridge Called My Ass, a group performance that bends tropes of Latinidad to articulate new relationships to identity and form. It was presented by The Chocolate Factory as part of American Realness 2019. He currently performs a music project called SADONNA, where he turns Madonna’s upbeat songs into sad anthems. He runs LANDING, an educational initiative at Gibney, and his book When You Rise Up is available from 53rd State Press. www.miguelgutierrez.org 

This 5-day residency workshop was an encounter with the practice of choreographer, performer, and dramaturge Lee Su-Feh through an exploration of Fitzmaurice Voicework® (FV). FV is a somatic approach to voice that “explores the dynamics between body, breath, voice, the imagination, language, and presence. The workshop introduced participants to the foundational concepts of FV and explored them as part of a larger play of creating work.

Lee Su-Feh is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and dramaturge who has spent the last 30 years exploring the human body as a site of intersecting habits and histories. Born and raised in Malaysia, her early training began with a mix of traditional and contemporary South-east Asian dance and theatre. Since then, she has studied contemporary dance and theatre in Europe and North America with a variety of teachers and has along the way, developed a somatic approach to movement and voice deeply influenced by her lifelong studies in Chinese martial arts, Qigong and Daoism. Since 2010, she has been exploring the Fitzmaurice Voicework® in her practice; and is a certified Associate Teacher of the method.