SCDT SPECIAL WORKSHOPS
SPRING 2024
in the workroom, 33 Hawley
DANIEL LEPKOFF, CAMERON McKINNEY, K.J. HOLMES, JOYA POWELL, MAYFIELD BROOKS! scroll for deets!

WEDNESDAYS in MAY, 6-8 PM
PHYSICAL DIALOGUES with Daniel Lepkoff
5 week series: Wednesdays, 6:00-8:00 PM May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
at BOMBYX CENTER FOR ARTS AND EQUITY 130 Pine Street, Florence MA!
Daniel will draw from his over 50 years of original movement research, as a performer and teacher, looking at reflexive patterns and framing dance as a physical dialogue with the environment. Each class will be a surprise and will have a special focus, drawn from the follow possibilities: Body Waves, Coordination games with walking and crawling, Interacting with objects: touch and weight, solo, duet, ensemble, Moving and being moved: partner interactions that focus on center, force, and architecture, Stillness (The movement of attention): the stand, the anatomical rest position, the activity of doing nothing, stillness compositions in space. Breathing: the interaction of the diaphragm with the psoas muscle and the connection to moving.
DANIEL LEPKOFF is a dancer, performer, writer, and teacher known for bringing the process of living movement into the studio and onto the stage. During the early 1970s and into the mid-1980s, he played a central role in the development of both Release Technique with Mary Fulkerson and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton. Over the course of more than five decades, he has looked closely at the interweaving of sensation, perception, and action arising in the body's ever-present interactions with its environment and has developed dance techniques for bringing this material into the body and onto the stage.As a teacher he is known for his continual invention of original techniques, making direct contact with information, and pursuing questions together with students. He is one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC. He works internationally and lives on a piece of land in Vermont
PHYSICAL DIALOGUES with Daniel Lepkoff
5 week series: Wednesdays, 6:00-8:00 PM May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
at BOMBYX CENTER FOR ARTS AND EQUITY 130 Pine Street, Florence MA!
Daniel will draw from his over 50 years of original movement research, as a performer and teacher, looking at reflexive patterns and framing dance as a physical dialogue with the environment. Each class will be a surprise and will have a special focus, drawn from the follow possibilities: Body Waves, Coordination games with walking and crawling, Interacting with objects: touch and weight, solo, duet, ensemble, Moving and being moved: partner interactions that focus on center, force, and architecture, Stillness (The movement of attention): the stand, the anatomical rest position, the activity of doing nothing, stillness compositions in space. Breathing: the interaction of the diaphragm with the psoas muscle and the connection to moving.
DANIEL LEPKOFF is a dancer, performer, writer, and teacher known for bringing the process of living movement into the studio and onto the stage. During the early 1970s and into the mid-1980s, he played a central role in the development of both Release Technique with Mary Fulkerson and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton. Over the course of more than five decades, he has looked closely at the interweaving of sensation, perception, and action arising in the body's ever-present interactions with its environment and has developed dance techniques for bringing this material into the body and onto the stage.As a teacher he is known for his continual invention of original techniques, making direct contact with information, and pursuing questions together with students. He is one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC. He works internationally and lives on a piece of land in Vermont

Sunday, May 5, 2-4 PM
Cameron McKinney: Master Class in Nagare Technique
While rooted in a contemporary floorwork-based sensibility, the class combines the grace of modern with the speed and fluidity of streetdance styles and capoeira. The class activates oppositional forces and contrasting sensations to achieve fluid transitions in and out of the floor. Phrases will involve every part of the body -- whether in the air or on the ground. The class focuses on how to move from smoothly high to low, and on how to rediscover "the down" through the floorwork-oriented aspects of house dance, capoeira, and contemporary dance. By shifting the focus from an internal dialogue to creating movement that, in its own physicality, can tell a story by itself, the class will delve deeper into the cathartic potential of sweat and exhaustion, while offering a new and active method of expression.
Cameron McKinney is a New York City-based choreographer and educator. As the Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance, he uses the performing arts to further connections between the American and Japanese cultures. In addition to being both a U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellow, he has been awarded choreography fellowships from The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Princeton University, and the Alvin Ailey Foundation. He has presented work and taught in twenty states and four countries, including in the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo. He has received over 30 commissions from arts institutions across the country and abroad. His professorial credits include Princeton University, Montclair University, and NYU Tisch, among others. Each year, he organizes Kizuna Dance’s Open Intensive, a week of day-long intensives made entirely free for all participants. His 2024 teaching tour will feature workshops in the UK, Belgium, France, and Germany. Cameron studied with Nancy Stark Smith in 2013 at the Bates Dance Festival and just celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kizuna Dance.. See Cameron's Instagram.
PART OF FEET TO THE FLOOR FESTIVAL- SEE DETAILS HERE! www.apearts.org/upcoming.html
Photo by Joseph Lambert
Cameron McKinney: Master Class in Nagare Technique
While rooted in a contemporary floorwork-based sensibility, the class combines the grace of modern with the speed and fluidity of streetdance styles and capoeira. The class activates oppositional forces and contrasting sensations to achieve fluid transitions in and out of the floor. Phrases will involve every part of the body -- whether in the air or on the ground. The class focuses on how to move from smoothly high to low, and on how to rediscover "the down" through the floorwork-oriented aspects of house dance, capoeira, and contemporary dance. By shifting the focus from an internal dialogue to creating movement that, in its own physicality, can tell a story by itself, the class will delve deeper into the cathartic potential of sweat and exhaustion, while offering a new and active method of expression.
Cameron McKinney is a New York City-based choreographer and educator. As the Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance, he uses the performing arts to further connections between the American and Japanese cultures. In addition to being both a U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Fellow, he has been awarded choreography fellowships from The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Princeton University, and the Alvin Ailey Foundation. He has presented work and taught in twenty states and four countries, including in the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo. He has received over 30 commissions from arts institutions across the country and abroad. His professorial credits include Princeton University, Montclair University, and NYU Tisch, among others. Each year, he organizes Kizuna Dance’s Open Intensive, a week of day-long intensives made entirely free for all participants. His 2024 teaching tour will feature workshops in the UK, Belgium, France, and Germany. Cameron studied with Nancy Stark Smith in 2013 at the Bates Dance Festival and just celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kizuna Dance.. See Cameron's Instagram.
PART OF FEET TO THE FLOOR FESTIVAL- SEE DETAILS HERE! www.apearts.org/upcoming.html
Photo by Joseph Lambert

Friday, May 10, 10-12 PM
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
"Every cell in your body knows where down is" (Steve Paxton)
Led by K.J. Holmes
This class will focus on the sensation of our interior ocean in relation to the earth beneath our feet. Using the experiential knowledge acquired from my studies with both Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Steve Paxton, we will investigate the physical forces that continue to evolve us as well as how our imagination leads us to render dances that are voluminous and invite us into the constancy of falling into the next moments.
Bio: K.J. Holmes has been practicing Contact/Improvisation forms as process and performance since 1981. These practices have deeply informed her journey as a dance artist as well as an actor, vocalist, writer and teacher. An avid improviser and creator of solo/duo and ensemble work, she has studied with the early pioneers of CI including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Daniel Lepkoff and has also been very influenced by the Tuning Score of Lisa Nelson and Image Lab, Body Mind Centering ® and the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Ideokinesis with Andre Bernard, Meisner acting work with Terry Knickerbocker, voice and singing with Richard Armstrong, Barbara Maier Gustern and Samita Singha, among others. K.J. is a certified Yoga teacher through her studies with Sondra Loring, and a certified Ayurvedic Holistic Health Counselor through her studies with Dr. Naina Marballi. She teaches at NYU/Experimental Theatre Wing and Movement Research in NYC, as well as traveling nationally and internationally teaching, performing and creating. K.J. has performed most recently in the work of filmmaker/artist Matthew Barney, dancer/writer Karinne Keithley Seyers, music video of Mitski, as well as her own solo work 900 Bees are Humming. She is currently conducting a new ensemble piece, Blu/print, begun Fall 2023 with the mentorship of composer/instrumentalist Henry Threadgill through a grant from the NY State Dance Force. K.J. has been honored to dance in many of Steve Paxton's creations, as well as knowing him as a dear friend."Every cell in your body knows where down is" (Steve Paxton)
THIS WORKSHOP IS PART OF RIFF TALKS
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
"Every cell in your body knows where down is" (Steve Paxton)
Led by K.J. Holmes
This class will focus on the sensation of our interior ocean in relation to the earth beneath our feet. Using the experiential knowledge acquired from my studies with both Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Steve Paxton, we will investigate the physical forces that continue to evolve us as well as how our imagination leads us to render dances that are voluminous and invite us into the constancy of falling into the next moments.
Bio: K.J. Holmes has been practicing Contact/Improvisation forms as process and performance since 1981. These practices have deeply informed her journey as a dance artist as well as an actor, vocalist, writer and teacher. An avid improviser and creator of solo/duo and ensemble work, she has studied with the early pioneers of CI including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Daniel Lepkoff and has also been very influenced by the Tuning Score of Lisa Nelson and Image Lab, Body Mind Centering ® and the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Ideokinesis with Andre Bernard, Meisner acting work with Terry Knickerbocker, voice and singing with Richard Armstrong, Barbara Maier Gustern and Samita Singha, among others. K.J. is a certified Yoga teacher through her studies with Sondra Loring, and a certified Ayurvedic Holistic Health Counselor through her studies with Dr. Naina Marballi. She teaches at NYU/Experimental Theatre Wing and Movement Research in NYC, as well as traveling nationally and internationally teaching, performing and creating. K.J. has performed most recently in the work of filmmaker/artist Matthew Barney, dancer/writer Karinne Keithley Seyers, music video of Mitski, as well as her own solo work 900 Bees are Humming. She is currently conducting a new ensemble piece, Blu/print, begun Fall 2023 with the mentorship of composer/instrumentalist Henry Threadgill through a grant from the NY State Dance Force. K.J. has been honored to dance in many of Steve Paxton's creations, as well as knowing him as a dear friend."Every cell in your body knows where down is" (Steve Paxton)
THIS WORKSHOP IS PART OF RIFF TALKS

Saturday, May 11, 10-11:30 AM
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
JOYA POWELL: IMPROVISATION: DIASPORIC MODALITIES
Freestyle, groove, jam: Improvisation has always been a key tool in the creation and evolution of dances of the African Diaspora. This workshop will deepen the inquiry of the Africanist aesthetic in dance through an improvisatory experiential framework. What movement conversations are created through a deep listening to self and our impulses to engage with sound/music, the environment, and our community? How do we honor the self in collective experiences? Participants will embody explorations of the improvisatory concepts, sequences, and modalities that are rooted in the dances of: Afro-Brazilian, Jamaican Dancehall, Jazz, African American Social Dances, and House. We will use the foundational improvisational principles of these dance forms through a balance of play, investigation, and rigor.
A multiethnic Harlemite,
Joya Powell is a Bessie Award winning Choreographer and Educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. Hailed by The New York Times as a “radiant performer,” throughout her career she has danced with choreographers such as Paloma McGregor, Katiti King, Nicole Stanton, Neta Pulvermacher, and Mar Parrilla. In 2005 Joya founded Movement of the People Dance Company, dedicated to addressing sociocultural injustices through multidisciplinary Afrofuturist immersive contemporary dance. Her work has appeared in venues such as: BAM, Lincoln Center, SummerStage, Harlem Stage Gatehouse, La Mama, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Dance Complex (Cambridge), Mudlark Theater (New Orleans), Movement Research @ Judson Church, The School of Contemporary Dance & Thought (Northampton), BAAD! among others. In addition to being a performance-based company, MOPDC facilitates community engagements nationally and internationally, and they hold an annual Free Day of Dance and acclaimed Winter Intensive. Joya has choreographed such Off-Broadway plays as: Fit for a Queen by Betty Shamieh (The Classical Theatre of Harlem), JOB by Thomas Bradshaw (The FLEA Theater), Ducklings by Amina Henry (JACK), Songs About Trains by Beto O’Byrne (The New Ohio Theatre). As well as regional theater productions including: The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Luna Stage, NJ), and Une Tempête by Aimé Césaire (The American Shakespeare Center, VA). Her chapters "How do you hold when you need to be held?: Dance and the embodied practice of grieving," and "A Grooveology: Reflections on Dance within Your Dance," are featured in Pandemic Performance: Resilience, Liveness, and Protest in Quarantine Times – Routledge, edited by Kendra Capece & Patrick Scorese and in Write Your Future, edited by Pepatián, respectively. Her research led her to teach and study in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, France, and Canada. Awards and recognition include: The Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Bessie Award, Dancing While Black Fellow, Women in Motion Commissioned Artist, EtM Choreographers + Composers Residency, Angela’s Pulse’s North Star Arts Incubator, CUNY Dance Initiative AIR, The Unsettling Dramaturgy Award. She is a collaborating member of Dance Caribbean Collective, Radical Evolution and is a co-leader of Angela’s Pulse’s Dancing While Black. She is also an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance and African-American Studies at Wesleyan University.
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
JOYA POWELL: IMPROVISATION: DIASPORIC MODALITIES
Freestyle, groove, jam: Improvisation has always been a key tool in the creation and evolution of dances of the African Diaspora. This workshop will deepen the inquiry of the Africanist aesthetic in dance through an improvisatory experiential framework. What movement conversations are created through a deep listening to self and our impulses to engage with sound/music, the environment, and our community? How do we honor the self in collective experiences? Participants will embody explorations of the improvisatory concepts, sequences, and modalities that are rooted in the dances of: Afro-Brazilian, Jamaican Dancehall, Jazz, African American Social Dances, and House. We will use the foundational improvisational principles of these dance forms through a balance of play, investigation, and rigor.
A multiethnic Harlemite,
Joya Powell is a Bessie Award winning Choreographer and Educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. Hailed by The New York Times as a “radiant performer,” throughout her career she has danced with choreographers such as Paloma McGregor, Katiti King, Nicole Stanton, Neta Pulvermacher, and Mar Parrilla. In 2005 Joya founded Movement of the People Dance Company, dedicated to addressing sociocultural injustices through multidisciplinary Afrofuturist immersive contemporary dance. Her work has appeared in venues such as: BAM, Lincoln Center, SummerStage, Harlem Stage Gatehouse, La Mama, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Dance Complex (Cambridge), Mudlark Theater (New Orleans), Movement Research @ Judson Church, The School of Contemporary Dance & Thought (Northampton), BAAD! among others. In addition to being a performance-based company, MOPDC facilitates community engagements nationally and internationally, and they hold an annual Free Day of Dance and acclaimed Winter Intensive. Joya has choreographed such Off-Broadway plays as: Fit for a Queen by Betty Shamieh (The Classical Theatre of Harlem), JOB by Thomas Bradshaw (The FLEA Theater), Ducklings by Amina Henry (JACK), Songs About Trains by Beto O’Byrne (The New Ohio Theatre). As well as regional theater productions including: The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Luna Stage, NJ), and Une Tempête by Aimé Césaire (The American Shakespeare Center, VA). Her chapters "How do you hold when you need to be held?: Dance and the embodied practice of grieving," and "A Grooveology: Reflections on Dance within Your Dance," are featured in Pandemic Performance: Resilience, Liveness, and Protest in Quarantine Times – Routledge, edited by Kendra Capece & Patrick Scorese and in Write Your Future, edited by Pepatián, respectively. Her research led her to teach and study in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, France, and Canada. Awards and recognition include: The Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Bessie Award, Dancing While Black Fellow, Women in Motion Commissioned Artist, EtM Choreographers + Composers Residency, Angela’s Pulse’s North Star Arts Incubator, CUNY Dance Initiative AIR, The Unsettling Dramaturgy Award. She is a collaborating member of Dance Caribbean Collective, Radical Evolution and is a co-leader of Angela’s Pulse’s Dancing While Black. She is also an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance and African-American Studies at Wesleyan University.

Saturday, May 11, 12-2 PM
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
mayfield brooks: WAVES
In this workshop I invite you to rest and decompose. How can practices of recuperation fuel more opportunities to ride the waves of spontaneous movement creation? Ocean tides, waves, and shorelines are inspiration for how we dance together and apart. How can different ecologies of cellular integration and interspecies relationality emerge through voice, sound and movement? What does surrendering to a moment, an impulse or transgression look like? What is my body’s shoreline like?
mayfield brooks improvises while black and is based in Lenapehoking, the unceded land of the Lenape people, also known as New York City. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from Improvising While Black (IWB), their interdisciplinary dance methodology which explores the decomposed matter of Black life and engages in dance improvisation, disorientation, dissent, and ancestral healing. brooks is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a 2021 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for their experimental dance film, Whale Fall and a 2022 Danspace Project Platform artist. They were a 2022-3 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and is currently the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program.
This workshop is part of our Improvisational & Performance Festival
mayfield brooks: WAVES
In this workshop I invite you to rest and decompose. How can practices of recuperation fuel more opportunities to ride the waves of spontaneous movement creation? Ocean tides, waves, and shorelines are inspiration for how we dance together and apart. How can different ecologies of cellular integration and interspecies relationality emerge through voice, sound and movement? What does surrendering to a moment, an impulse or transgression look like? What is my body’s shoreline like?
mayfield brooks improvises while black and is based in Lenapehoking, the unceded land of the Lenape people, also known as New York City. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from Improvising While Black (IWB), their interdisciplinary dance methodology which explores the decomposed matter of Black life and engages in dance improvisation, disorientation, dissent, and ancestral healing. brooks is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a 2021 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for their experimental dance film, Whale Fall and a 2022 Danspace Project Platform artist. They were a 2022-3 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and is currently the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program.