Workshop to bring Judo and Storytelling / Text in dialogue. A project by Alanna Kraaijeveld, in collaboration with the CCOV
Workshop over 2 days: Saturday August 6 and 13, 2022 from 10 a.m to 12:30 p.m
WORKSHOP 1 : JUDO
Saturday August 6 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m – FREE
This session is devoted to Judo technique. Judo will underpin a physical exploration of the role of musicality, and how this grounds execution of certain techniques.
Alanna facilitates this session. She will bring participant artists in connection with:
- Footwork, solo and in relation to a partner
- A fleet quality to support mobilization of the whole body
- Fundamental throws
- Speed, timing
- Repetition
WORKSHOP 2 : ART OF WRITING AND STORYTELLING in dialogue with JUDO
Saturday August 13 2022 from 10 a.m to 12:30 p.m – FREE
This session will introduce participants to the art of writing, with a focus on articulation of a personal story (literal or abstract). This session is facilitated by Catherine Lalonde, and will underpin exploration of musical elements of writing.
We will bring our learning from the Judo session in relationship with the art of writing and storytelling. Alanna co-facilitates with Catherine.
The goal of bringing these different disciplines and technical approaches in dialogue is to explore how musicality manifests and grounds key potentials in each. We hope to support an expansion or re-conceptualization of the role of musicality in art, and offer practical strategies to apply this learning to our physicality and expression.
CONTEXT
Message from Alanna Kraaijeveld :
The idea for the workshop arose from a desire to reconnect with and expand my thinking about musicality. I was especially interested in how components of musicality – rhythm, phrase – manifest in disciplines beyond dance. Judo and Storytelling / Text seem an unlikely and interesting pair to bring in dialogue.
Years ago, I had the privilege to do a workshop with champion Judoka Ilias Iliadis and was struck by the strong emphasis on footwork and repetition in his movement. The feet were always moving. Judo footwork is repeated or looped in quick succession – as though to potentiate through rhythm – before the throw, to accomplish the throw. What can we learn from Judo in terms of how to use musicality, so that our intention can literally land with an audience?
Timing in Judo is influenced by the players as well as the context. It is here that connection to storytelling seemed fitting: to bring the participant artist in touch with their story (point of view, will, experience) as well with the components of writing, which undoubtedly influence what is or what can be communicated.
Message from Catherine:
Writing is always a struggle, whether one is skillful and accustomed to it, or not at all. Writing entails transits and translations — from the thought carried by the body to the gesture, from the gesture to the mark on the paper, from the paper to the reader/receiver/spectator —and along the way resistances, parasites, overflows, and diversions inevitably appear. We will explore how to play with these elements, and let them surprise us.
In both workshops we will explore how rhythm, musicality or phrasing influence and create potentials in how we tell stories – both literal and abstract – exercise our will, and have it land for an audience.
Alanna Kraaijeveld BIO
Catherine Lalonde BIO
Alanna Kraaijeveld is a dance artist who performs, improvises, instructs and creates. Her approach is centered on context driven, collaborative practices. She is curious about how specificity of relationship has potential to motivate intention, movement and meaning. She embraces improvisation, and is compelled by its dynamic capability. She makes space for both plainness and blurriness in her art.
Catherine Lalonde is a poet, performer and journalist. Trained at the Ateliers de danse moderne de Montréal, she danced JOE by Jean-Pierre Perreault, and performed for Marie-Claire Forté, Lin Snelling and Guy Cools, and Jean-François Boisvenue. Since 2008, she works for Montreal newspaper Le Devoir as a dance critic and cultural reporter. In poetry, she authored The devouring of the fairies (Quartanier), received the Alain-Grandbois Prize 2018 and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Prize. Her work Foreign Body (Quartanier) received the 2008 Émile-Nelligan Prize. She is interested in the connections between dance, movement, body, speech, and writing.