workshop with Lewis Major

Lewis Major, an award-winning Australian choreographer and director has presented work to widespread critical acclaim in many prestigious venues around the world. He is in residency at Dance Cork Firkin Crane in advance of premiering new works at Galway International Arts Festival.

While in Cork, Lewis will lead an improvisational workshop for professional dance artists. The workshop operates on the basis of the participants’ own ability to improvise within a set framework of instructions based on the work of Lewis Major. Dancers are provided with imagery in order to guide them through, or find different movement qualities, focusing on what makes them individuals and artists, not just dancers. Using the idea of textures and feelings within the body, we aim to transform and expand the density of the moving form.

Once we are warm, we play with more set movement ideas and physical metaphors. We let participants explore their own curiosities while pushing them to avoid the comfortable strategies of recurrence. We focus on trying to create a sense of totality throughout the body whilst maintaining efficiency. This is done through creating awareness of the dancers' physical energy and how it's used. Some set exercises will also be introduced so dancers can try and find this totality within the movement material. To finish, we combine improvisation with set material crossing the space as individuals and as groups.

The duration of this workshop is 90 minutes.