DanceMasters Weekend: Master Class - Brian Brooks
Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 10:00am
Bessie Schönberg Dance Studio
$19 per class, $13 for Wesleyan students
Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 10am to 11:30am
Brian Brooks, Artistic Director of Brian Brooks Moving Company, will teach a Master Class that will provide an opportunity for intermediate to advanced dance students and dance professionals to explore diverse dance techniques during DanceMasters Weekend.
This contemporary technique class will begin with a series of continuous and rigorous warm-up exercises, with an emphasis on motion and pathways through space. Using different somatic approaches to understand and articulate the body’s alignment and placement in space, dancers will explore principles of movement that can be applied to many dance forms. Highly technical sequences develop strong muscular and core support while integrating with the body’s weight and breath. Moving vigorously across the floor and through long, momentous phrases, students are able to soar through large areas with a grounded center and self.
Choreographer Brian Brooks was awarded with a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is the proud recipient of a New York City Center Fellowship (2012-2013), the Jerome Robbins New Essential Works grant (2013), and the Joyce Theater’s Artist Residency (2013-2014).
For three consecutive years, Mr. Brooks has been commissioned by Damian Woetzel at the Vail International Dance Festival to create new works featuring dancers from New York City Ballet. He is currently engaged in a multi-year tour with former New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Wendy Whelan, performing his duet as part of her Restless Creature project. Mr. Brooks choreographed director Julie Taymor’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013), which was the inaugural performance at Theatre for a New Audience’s Brooklyn home.
Following his first presentation by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts in 2002, Mr. Brooks has enjoyed three return engagements in addition to teaching annually during DanceMasters weekend. Since 2002, his dance group, the Brian Brooks Moving Company, has been
presented throughout the United States, South Korea, Montreal, and in Dusseldorf, Germany. New York City performances have included a presentation by BAM at their 2013 Next Wave Festival, repeat presentations by Dance Theater Workshop, a world premiere commissioned by the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, as well as presentations in the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, and the Works and Process series at the Guggenheim Museum. In 2012, the company was awarded with the National Dance Project’s Production and Residency grants, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts, supporting the creation of a new piece and an extensive national tour. The Brian Brooks Moving Company will premiere new work when presented by The Joyce Theater in June 2015.
As a guest artist, Mr. Brooks has created new dances at schools including The Juilliard School, The Boston Conservatory, Skidmore College, Barnard College of Columbia University, Alfred University, the University of Maryland at College Park, and Illinois State University. He was a Teaching Artist at the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education from 1999 to 2012, and has served as part-time faculty at both Rutgers University and Princeton University. Originally from Hingham, Massachusetts, Mr. Brooks has lived in New York City since 1994.
DanceMasters Weekend is a two-day immersion in contemporary dance, featuring twelve Master Classes and a Choreographers Conversation.
A Weekend Pass, which includes five Master Classes, is $75 for the general public (plus a $6 class registration fee), or $55 for Wesleyan students.
Master Classes: Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 10am to 5pm
Master Classes: Sunday, March 8, 2015 from 11am to 4:30pm
Classes are designed for students with intermediate to advanced dance experience. Master Class teachers will incorporate technique and movement combinations from their repertoire.
Call 860-685-3355 or e-mail boxoffice@wesleyan.edu to join the DanceMasters mailing list.