Maximum Velocity Summer Festivals 2017 Announced

By: May. 04, 2017
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A world-class summer immersion bringing together Strictly Seattle summer dance intensive and the International Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). Maximum Velocity is the premiere west coast summer dance festival.

Featuring west coast dance icons Joe Goode and recent Bessie award winner Pat Graney. Velocity Dance Center's summer festivals give International participants a portal to Seattle dance and feature exciting upcoming voices in American dance such as Alice Gosti, Kate Wallich, Taisha Paggett, and Raja Feather Kelly. This summer in Seattle see works-in-process that illustrate Velocity's continued commitment to socially engaged art practice.

Velocity exists to support an art form that was created to challenge the status quo in aesthetics, race, gender, and class. Social justice is in Velocity's DNA , and everything it does comes out of revolt and a multiplicity of front lines.

Strictly Seattle is a total immersion into the Seattle dance scene. Five adult programs inspire beginning through professional level dancers with rigorous, physical, and compositional training in a challenging, creative, and invigorating environment. Three weeks of rigorous daily classes and rehearsals for beginning to professional dancers culminate in a weekend of professionally produced performances. Hundreds of dancers from across the country come together to study with renowned Seattle choreographers and stellar faculty to create and perform new work, and take their dancing to the next level. Now in its 20th year, Strictly Seattle is a supportive community of open experimentation and camaraderie where dancers form alliances for future collaborations.

Now in its fourth year: Advanced Dance Film Track takes the dance filmmaker through every step of the process as they create their own short dance film. Participants take Professional Advanced technique classes in the morning then work with filmmaker/choreographer KT Niehoff and a professional cinematographer, composer, and editor to learn the necessary elements of creating their own films - sound and choreographic elements, storyboarding, location scouting, styline, and rehearsing material through the perspective of the camera's lens. Each student will have the opportunity to shoot their film with a professional cinematographer, learning how to effectively convey their directorial vision to their cameraperson. In the final stages, students will learn basic editing skills, with a professional editor and composer available as mentors.

New this year: The Adult Beginning Hip Hop Session is for those with little or no previous dance experience. Dancers develop a new work in collaboration with choreographer Jaret Hughes of Purple Lemonade, most recently seen performing at SAM Remix.

REGISTER for Strictly Seattle Summer Dance Intensive

July 9-29, 2017
Velocity 1621 12th Ave on Capitol Hill

206.325.8773 | velocitydancecenter.org/strictly-seattle

TICKETS for Strictly Seattle Performances

July 28, 2017 / 8PM
July 29, 2017 / 2PM + 8PM
Broadway Performance Hall 1625 Broadway

206.325.8773 | velocitydancecenter.org/box-office
$20 / $25 at the door / $18 Under 25 with ID / $17 MVP / $50 Patron

The Seattle Festival of Improvisation (SFDI) is one of the world's leading festivals of dance and improvisation, bringing together some of the most highly regarded dance artists and teachers to perform, collaborate and share their creative processes. This year, SFDI brings renowned faculty such as west coast dance icon Joe Goode, Angie Hauser (Bebe Miller Company), Hilary Clark, and Taisha Paggett whose poignant work builds from the School of the Movement of the Technicolor People. Paggett is leading an intensive on the Poetics of Resistance asking how people of color and bodies on the margins endure in these times. SFDI is a jam-packed week of intensives, classes, jams, somatic workshops, performances and discussions focused on fostering the study and practice of dance improvisation.

New this year: Dance Innovators in Performance now spans an entire day of the festival for these leading dance innovators who gather annually SFDI to share their work in performance. The day of performances culminates at Velocity Founders Theater with The History of Contact Improv Through the Body created and performed by world renowned practitioners of contact improvisation, a radical indigenous American dance form that's now practiced internationally.

PLUS more performances throughout the four weeks to be announced!

REGISTER for SFDI
JULY 30 - AUGUST 6, 2017

Velocity 1621 12th Ave on Capitol Hill
206.325.8773 | velocitydancecenter.org/sfdi

TICKETS for Dance Innovators in Performance
AUGUST 4

Erickson Theatre 1524 Harvard Ave / Seattle, WA 98122

Velocity Dance Center 1621 12th Ave / Seattle, WA 98122

206.325.8773 | velocitydancecenter.org/box-office

$12 general

ABOUT THE STRICTLY SEATTLE CHOREOGRAPHERS

ALICE GOSTI is an Italian-American choreographer, hybrid performance artist, curator and architect of experiences, working between Seattle and Europe since 2008. Gosti's work has been recognized with numerous awards, commissions and residencies including being a recipient of the 2016 New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project for Production and Touring of a new work, Velocity Dance Center Made in Seattle, 2013 Vilcek Creative Promise in Dance, 2012 ImPulsTanz danceWEB scholarship, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture grant, and an Artist Trust GAP Grant. Gosti's work has been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, theaters and festivals. Dance Magazine has described Gosti's work as "unruly yet rigorous, feminine yet rebellious, task-like yet mischievous." Gosti has worked as a performer and collaborator with artists Sara Shelton Mann, Keith Hennessy, Carolyn Carlson, Mark Haim, Amy O'Neal amongst others. She is the founder of Yellow Fish // Epic Durational Performance Festival, the only festival dedicated exclusively to durational performance.

KATE WALLICH is a Seattle-based choreographer, director and teacher - named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" in 2015. She received her training from Interlochen Arts Academy and Cornish College of the Arts (Magna Cum Laude). In 2010, she founded her Dance Company, The YC, with co-founder Lavinia Vago. Her work has been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally by On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, The Rauschenberg Foundation, MANA Contemporary, Springboard Danse Montréal, TOES, Bumbershoot, Conduit, City Arts Festival, The Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery and Seattle Art Museum as well as by leading West Coast companies Whim W'Him, Raw Dance and Northwest Dance Project. She was a Visiting Artist at University of Washington, University of Oregon, Cornish College of the Arts and University of Utah. Kate has created two evening-length works with The YC: Super Eagle produced through Velocity Dance Center's Made In Seattle program and Splurge Land produced through On the Board's Performance Production Program. Kate has received awards and grants from 4Culture, Artist Trust, The Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation, Seattle Magazine's "Spotlight Artist Award" and is a 2 time AIR recipient of the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida.

Pat Graney is a Seattle-based artist working in dance/installation. The PG Company has toured to most major American cities as well as abroad. Ms. Graney is the recipient of a Guggenheim award, a US Artist Award, an Alpert Award and the Arts Innovator Award. In 2013, Ms. Graney was awarded the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Ms.Graney began KTF/The Prison Project, which has been to over 20 prisons across America as well as abroad. Keeping the Faith works with incarcerated women through writing, dance and visual arts to help them discover a sense of self and how that self relates to community. Girl Gods was just nominated for a 'Bessie' New York Dance & Performance Award.

MARK HAIM has been choreographing for over 30 years. He has created new works for the Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet Frankfurt, Limon Dance Company, Rotterdamse Dansgroep, Whim W'Him, The Wooden Floor, and has restaged his works on The Joffrey Ballet, the Bat-Dor Dance Company, Djazzex, the University of the Arts and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, among others. His full evening solo project, The Goldberg Variations, has been performed at the American Dance Festival, the Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, The John F. Kennedy Center, On The Boards and other venues in the U.S, Europe, and Asia. His newest work, This Land Is Your Land, opened the ArtDanThe Festival in Paris, and has also been performed at The Joyce Theater in NYC and in the Nasher Museum of Art as part of the 2013 ADF performing series. In 2013, he was choreographer for the Seattle Opera's productions of The Consul and Tales of Hoffmann. Mark has been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival since 1993 and was the Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington Dance Program from 2002-2008. He has also taught at the NC School of the Arts, University of Illinois, Ohio University, SMU, VCU, Cornell, JMU, Reed College, Simon Fraser University, and for schools and companies in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Russia, Argentina, Chile and Japan. He is a recipient of a 1987 NYFA and a1988 and 1996 NEA Choreographers Fellowship, and grants from the NPN Suitcase Fund, ArtsLink, Inc. and the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. Mark is a Fulbright Senior Specialist and holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Hollins University.

STEPHANIE LIAPIS' career as a professional dancer, choreographer and educator spans nearly twenty years and includes work with Doug Varone & Dancers, Nicholas Leichter Dance, Susan Marshall & Company, Nancy Bannon, the MET Ballet, Netta Yerushalmy, Faye Driscoll and Aquila Theater among others. She has been creating original works since 2008 and has been presented in NYC, Detroit, Denton, Seattle, Phoenix, Switzerland and Singapore. Stephanie holds a B.F.A. in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an M.F.A. in dance from the University of Washington. She has served as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Long Island University-Brooklyn as well as Adjunct Lecturer at Texas Women's University, the University of Washington, Barnard College, Hunter College and SUNY Purchase College. She hwas taught at Mimar Sinan Fine Art University (Turkey), Espacio LEM (Argentina), The American School (Switzerland), and many professional studio in NYC and Seattle. Stephanie relocated to Seattle Find more information at stephanieliapis.com!

MAYA SOTO is a choreographer, performer and award winning arts educator. Her work includes concert performance, movement installations, dance for theater and film. Maya brings together classical dance training and a sense of imaginative play. She has created 6 evening length works including Inner Galactic (2015) which was supported by creative residencies at 10 degrees in partnership with Velocity Dance Center (SEA), Exit Space (SEA) and Higher Ground (OR). Her choreography has been commissioned by numerous West Coast festivals and venues including On the Boards (SEA) and Conduit's Dance+ Festival (PDX). As a performer, she has worked with many notable artists including Amy O'Neal, Sandstrommovement and KT Neihoff. Currently, she dances for Michele Miller/Catapult Dance. Maya is a passionate advocate for arts education. She teaches dance at Velocity Dance Center, the Northwest School, Seattle Theatre Group - Disney Musicals in Schools and the EMP Museum. For 10 years, she has worked extensively as a teaching artist in the public school system and developed several successful youth dance programs. In 2014, she received a Velocity Dance Champion Award for significant contribution to Seattle dance. Maya holds a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts and a Washington State Professional Teaching Certificate. mayasotodance.com

JARET HUGHES has over 20 years of dance experience, with Hip Hop being his specialty along with training in Modern, Jazz, Ballet and African. Jaret has over 18 years of choreographing and teaching experience with all ages, including over 15 years at Elizabeth's Dance Dimensions in Bellevue, Washington. Jaret's choreography credits include the L.A. Clippers Spirit Dance Team (guest choreographer), Seattle Supersonics Dance Team for 5 years, founder of 2wisted Elegance from Seattle and LA's debut of 2wisted Elegance with the help of his good friend Joey Cooper, Modazz Competition Teams at Elizabeth's Dance Dimensions, co-choreographer and dancer for EVE in LA, and assistant choreographer / assistant Artistic Director for the "Invitation Feedback" video contest submission for Janet Jackson. Jaret Competed on Destination Stardom in Hawaii. Jaret's performances include: Seattle's Kube 93's Summer Jam for 3 years with Twisted Elegance, which included sharing the main stage with artists such as Destiny's Child, Ginuwine, Busta Rhymes, Blackstreet, Naughty By Nature and many more; various Hip Hop shows throughout Seattle including Daniel Cruz's Battle of Seattle Remix 3 and 4 and, most recently while living in LA for 2 1/2 years, performances with Breed OCLA for numerous dance competitions and guest performances for the DVD Release Party for "Step Up 2: The Streets". Jaret has shared his choreography expertise with various high school and college dance teams throughout Washington, California and Idaho.

ABOUT THE SFDI INTENSIVE TEACHERS + GUEST ARTISTS

ANDREW MARCUS founded Disappearance in 2010 to explore boundary space between the ordinary, the beautiful, and the sublime. Disappearance develops practices to effectively transcend such boundaries; to encourage experience of the magical and the erotic; and to unequivocally engage the Real. Marcus Holds an MFA in Dance and Performance from Arizona State University. His experiments with improvisation and somatic practices date to 1980, and he is active internationally. The School Of Disappearance opened in 2013. Previously, Marcus founded The Slow Training For Embodied Projects and Marcus Vesseur Moves with Wilma Vesseur (Netherlands) from 2007, toward alternatives to stage performance practice. Between 2001-2010 he developed Sensation And Form, a physical approach to dance composition and Technique For A Soft Body, a synthesis of his studies of release techniques and contact improvisation. From 1992-2001 he was adjunct faculty at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU/Tish School Of The Arts.

TAISHA PAGGETT is a Southern California?based dance artist whose individual and collaborative interdisciplinary works re?articulate and collide certain western choreographic practices with the politics of daily life to interrogate fixed notions of black and queer embodiment and survival. Such works include the Dance Company project, WXPT (we are the paper, we are the trees) and the School for the Movement of the Technicolor People, which have collectively been supported by Clockshop (Los Angeles), the MAP Fund (in conjunction with Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), National Performance Network, Diverseworks (Houston), the Fusebox Festival (Austin) and Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, amongst other institutions. Most recently as a dancer, paggett has worked with Every House Has a Door, David Roussève/REALITY, Yael Davids, Meg Wolfe and with Ashley Hunt through their ongoing collaboration, "On movement, thought and politics," amongst others. Paggett is an assistant professor of Dance at UC Riverside.

JOE GOODE is a choreographer, writer, and director whose first concern as an artist is to provide a "deeply felt, profoundly human experience" in the theater. He is widely known as an innovator in the field of dance for his willingness to collide movement with spoken word, song, and visual imagery. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007, and the United States Artists Glover Fellowship in 2008. In 2006 Goode directed the opera Transformations for the San Francisco Opera Center. His play Body Familiar, commissioned by the Magic Theatre in 2003, was met with critical acclaim. His work has been recognized with numerous awards including a New York Dance and Performance Award (a "Bessie"), and several Isadora Duncan Dance Awards ("Izzies"). Goode has also been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the James Irvine Foundation. Goode's work has been commissioned by institutions nationally over the last thirty years.

ANGIE HAUSER is a choreographer, performer, and teacher. Her work is grounded in improvisation and collaboration. She is a senior member of Bebe Miller Company receiving a BESSIE Award for her creative work with the company. Since 2000 she has collaborated with Miller as a dancer, performer, writer and artistic collaborator. Her long time collaboration with dance artist Chris Aiken has yielded multiple grants from the National Performance Network, and work presented at national and international venues including The Dance Center, Links Hall, Bates Dance Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church and Florida Dance Festival. Other choreographic projects include collaborations with nationally and internationally recognized dance artists Jennifer Nugent, K.J. Holmes, Darrell Jones, Andrew Harwood, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Paul Matteson, and musicians Mike Vargas, Jesse Manno, Tigger Benford, and Andre Girbou. She has danced with the companies of Elizabeth Streb, Liz Lerman and Poppo Shiriashi, and taught dance technique, choreography, contact improvisation and improvisation throughout North America and in Europe. She received her MFA from Ohio State University.She is on the dance faculty at Smith College in Northampton, MA.

HILARY CLARK is a dancer, teacher and choreographer, performing in pivotal experimental dance and theater work, touring nationally and internationally. She received a New York Dance and Performance Award (2008) for her work with Tere O'Connor, luciana achugar, and Fiona Marcotty. She has also worked with Luke George, Jen Rosenblit, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Young Jean Lee Theater Company, Jon Kinzel and Larissa Velez Jackson. Aa a 2015 Artist in Residence at collective address (NYC), she explores the role and work of the dancer as well as developing Duet for/with/including Jen. Her solo, Accessories of Protection, premiered at Danspace Project (2012), her work as performer and choreographer is documented in Jenn Joy's book The Choreographic (MIT, 2014). Clark has taught at Chunky Move, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Pacific NorthWest College of Art, and Movement Research. She recently opened Citrine Pilates & Wellness in Brooklyn, NY.

ANYA CLOUD: I dance with the body that I have to cultivate radical aliveness. As a contemporary dance artist my research includes making, collaborating, practicing, performing, and teaching. I value sharing my work in diverse contexts and with diverse people. As a dancer and dance maker I have worked with and/or performed for Sara Shelton Mann, Nancy Stark Smith, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Karen Nelson, Eric Geiger, Karen Schaffman, Yoalnde Snaith, Leslie Seiters, Mary Reich, and Kristianne Salcines among others. My ongoing work with Sara Shelton Mann profoundly impacts my artistry. I have had the pleasure of teaching at Tanzquartier, Freiburg Contact Festival, Contact Austria, Israeli Contact Improvisation Festival, Ibiza Contact Festival, wcciJAM, Salt Dance Fest, and Ukraine Contact Improvisation Festival. I hold an MFA in Dance Theatre and I currently teach Dance at CSUSM, in addition to co-directing PADL West. I am also in the Feldenkrais Certification Training Program.

Recipient of the 2016 Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography, Raja Feather Kelly was born in Fort Hood, Texas and is the first and only choreographer to dedicate the entirety of his company's work to Andy Warhol. He is the creator of Andy Warhol'S 25 CATS NAME SAM; Andy Warhol'S DRELLA (I LOVE YOU Faye Driscoll); Andy Warhol'S 15: COLOR ME, WARHOL; ANOTHER 37 REASONS TO CRY (ANOTHER WARHOLIAN PRODUCTION); Andy Warhol'S TROPICO; and many short works, all of which have been created and performed throughout various theatres in New York City. For over a decade, Kelly has worked throughout the United States and abroad (Austria, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom, and France) in search of the connections between popular culture and humanity and their integration into experiential dance-theatrE. Kelly currently choreographs, writes, and directs his own work as Artistic Director of the feath3r theory, a culture-driven dance-theatre company.

SEE FULL BIOS + COMPLETE LINE UP >> http://velocitydancecenter.org/festivals/sfdi-2017-class-descriptions-faculty-bios/

Maximum Velocity is made possible through the generous support of 4Culture, ArtsFund, The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Pacific Continental Bank, The Pruzan Foundation and The Seattle Foundation.



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