Taja Will
Class Description: "Choices and How They Echo Within Space"
Monday, July 1st, 7:30pm-9pm
This class will focus on the intersections of structured improvisation, somatic modalities and contact improvisation skills. Structured Improvisation will serve to inform our body's connections to elements such as space, time, geometry and range. Somatic modalities serve to inform our embodied relationship to ourselves, anatomical intelligence, our choices and how they echo within a space. Contact Improvisation will be the vehicle for movement that seeks relationship, textures of touch and our consent to be in dialogue with a partner or ensemble.
As a fundamental part of my pedagogy I employ a restorative justice lens to these ways of moving. I am interested in using language that acknowledges systems of power, privilege and the historical marginalization of individuals who are BIPOC, queer, non-binary, trans, and artists with disabilities. In the era of #metoo I am committed to boldly transparent consent in touch based dance forms. It is my intention to develop this awareness in every class for bolder, safer spaces of inclusion.
Biography:
Taja Will is a dance maker and educator based in Minneapolis. Will's work is grounded in somatic practices, structures of performative improvisation and contact. Will has recently been a guest teacher and adjunct faculty at several institutions locally and throughout the United States. Taja Will has presented workshops at Earthdance Creative Living, Moving Arts Lab, Sierra Contact Festival, wcciJam, Dance New England, Zenon Dance School, the Peaceable Barn, and the Lion's Jaw Festival among others. Will also works in healing justice and as an advocate for artists especially serving as a liaison for artists in experimental forms, people of color and the LGBTQ communities.