CONNECTING LANDSCAPES- A BERLIN/NEW YORK MOVEMENT CHOIR

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

What: Movement Choir Event
Who: professional dancers, movement specialists, dance educators and movers
When: October 5th, 2008 at 15:30 hours (3:30)
Where: grounds of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Produced by: URBANCHOIR Project in cooperation with EUROLAB Laban Conference

We invite all dancers and movers to share in creation of a site-specific dance piece in the spirit of the movement choirs created by Rudolf Laban in Berlin during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Connecting Landscapes – A Berlin/New York Movement Choir will continue a dialogue between Berlin and New York begun in 2007 as an 80 person Movement Choir in Washington Square Park, New York. The Berlin Movement Choir will be performed on the grounds of Haus der Kulturen.

URBANCHOIR Project seeks volunteers to collaboratively create this unique site-specific performance event which will close the EUROLAB Laban Memoriam Conference. In the tradition of Laban’s movement choirs, the event will combine improvisation and interaction among participants, viewers, and the architectural spaces around Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Please sign up to take part in this exciting performance event! Please apply by September 1st to the following email: KiSpeDance@aol.com

1. In your response, please include the following: your name, address, email, phone number and a short description of your background, movement or related study, and profession.
2. Participants must commit to one rehearsal at Haus der Kulturen der Welt on Saturday October 4th at 12:00 to 14:00 (12:00 – 2:00) and be at the space by 14:30 (2:30) before the performance on Sunday October 5th
3. Participants will be notified by September 5th of further details and also directed to a link on our website http://kristispessard.com/pages/movement.html for ongoing information.
4. There is not a participation fee associated with this event.

URBANCHOIRS Project is based in New York City and directed by Kristi SpessardCMA in collaboration with a group of Choreographers and Laban Movement Analysts including Cheryl Clark-HopkinsCMA, Balinda Craig-Quijada, and D. Chase Angier. Our mission is to investigate the transformative nature of large movement choirs for participants and viewers and discover the relevance of this choreographic form to the 21st Century. As artists we are interested in cross-cultural exchanges and how the “life story” (atmosphere, architecture, nature, and communities) of a cityscape influences movement behavior and action. Our goal is to create an experience that demonstrates one of many directions a movement choir can take depending on the individuals involved and the specific site.

Movement Choirs are thought-provoking aesthetic experiences, which transform peoples’ perceptions of their everyday movements and redefines social spaces through the overlap of architecture and interactive dance. A Movement Choir is a choreographic format created by movement theorist Rudolf Laban (1879 – 1958) that created solidarity and excitement among participants and viewers alike.
An architect himself, a choreographer and a visual artist, Laban believed Movement Choirs, promoted a basic need in human society: sharing, relating and constructing together.