Termination of contemporary dance training in Antwerp
February 11th, 2009Dear dancer,
Monday we had to make the regretable descision to stop the daily classes for the rest of the season.
This descision is based on a number of reasons:
First of all the difficult winter circumstances in the new studio (well known to the people taking class lately) and second the dreadful decision of the government not to subsidize dancetraining in Antwerp. Most importantly it is due to the very poor attendance since we started offering daily training instead of 2 days a week.
So:
- This week (9-13th of February) the classes of Julie Bougard will still take place.
- After that there will be no more classes, except for the 9th of March till the 3rd of April, where there will be daily classes with Retina Dance Company at the ccBe. We will keep you posted on this.
If you recently purchased a 10 or 15 class training card, the remaining number of classes will be reimbursed. For this reimbursement, we ask you to drop in to one of this week's classes (tue-we-thu 10.30am, fri 10am Atelier 11). We will only reimburse cards that are still valid!
With pain in our hearts we need to say goodbye to you for the rest of this season, but we hope you understand.
In the meanwhile we will think long and hard about where the organisation goes from here and we will of course keep you up-to-date.
Your reaction to this can always be posted to:
Thanking you all for your support in the past, present and future!
Not to miss out on: Julie Bougard at DWH!!!
February 3rd, 2009From February 9th untill 13th classes will be given by Julie Bougard!!! No excuses to miss out on this amazing teacher now that you have the chance to take her classes in Antwerp!
Julie's class begins with a floor work to develop an autonomy of the different axis and to free the energies of the body. Through a work of breathing, stretching and focusing on different muscle groups, the floor becomes the support to expand movements.
The class continues to standing position. The dancers’ use of space focuses on gravity and the skeleton mechanism.
The class is structured in three parts:
1. Floor work including stretches, a warm up of the main muscle groups and the realignment of the bone structure. The floor section ends with a variation, using the floor as a friendly support.
2. Standing work structured as a ballet barre, including pliés, tendus, grands battements, etc… The standing syllabus re-works the essential basics of dance technique.
3. Variation of movement using weight,momentum and the skeleton structure as the main tools to cover space.
Based on release technique, ballet technique and on her own personal work , the class is energizing and prepares the dancers to work.
Check her website! There is a little viedo of her class!
Julie Bougard (*1972) studied at the ballet school "La leçon" in Brussels, at the "Arts Educational Schools" in London and followed many training in Europe and the U.S.A. She danced in the work of Alain Platel (Gent), Sasha Waltz & Guests, Jan Lauwers, Thierry Smits and Joanne Leighton (Brussels), and Lance Gries (New-York). In 1996, she created her own company and produced several dance-theater pieces. Since 1999 she lives between Brussels and Berlin and collaborates with Thomas Lebrun, Chris Kondek, Yann Mercanton, Sven Seeger, Marc Stephan and "La Compagnie de la Sonnette" (Bruxelles). She also teaches daily professional training in dance schools in Berlin, Paris and Brussels. She conducted various workshops for dancers and actors in Bucharest, Budapest, Lille, Wittenberg, Montréal, and Brussels. Julie Bougard also teaches movements and dance for mentally handicapped people in Belgium.
Coral Ortega, debutante @ DWH, but DWH debutante for not inviting her earlier
January 29th, 2009Coral Ortega (Madrid, 1974) is a contemporary dancer who´s living in Brussels since 2003. She graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid in 1996, in Ballet. But very soon she stepped into the field of contemporary dance and started to explore different ways of scenic expression. In 1998 she entered in the Spanish contemporary dance company 10&10, where she stayed as an interpreter for six years. In the core of that company she started to develop her skills as a teacher and assistant for the company. Later, after quitting the work with 10&10, she danced as a freelancer with several choreographers in Europe, a.o. Olga Cobos (Palamos- Munich), Ted Stoffer (Brussels), Virginia Garcia (Barcelona), Manon Oligny (Montreal) and Joanne Leighton (Brussels). Since three years ago she started to develop her own work and created multidisciplinary performances where she's investigating the balance between contrasting scenic elements. She made two short pieces (Fake Plastic Life and Restos) and one longer (Hier) in collaboration with the Belgian musician Niko Hafkenscheid. As a choreographer she made some short pieces for theatre- (Maltrago, Els visitants) and dance-companies (Debla, Burgos), like “Paredes anónimas”, piece selected for the “Young choreographer festival” in Dublín, 2007. Currently she's working on “My name is…”, a performance subsidized by the government of the city of Madrid. As a teacher she regularly gives workshops in release technique and contact-improvisation, both in Spain and in Belgium. She has been invited by the Conservatorio Superior de Madrid (upper grade of contemporary), Danscentrum Jette (Brussels), ACT (Liege), Carmen Senra (Madrid),...and also gives classes for actors and movers (CNC, Cristina Rota, Madrid; Tightrope, Waterloo).
Class Descripition
The class is dynamic, directed to the control of the own energy in order to get freedom of movement. Through exercises we explore different ways of using muscular tension and articular alignments, going from the simplest gesture to the biggest virtuosity. The core is the consciousness of the own centre, moving through the space in an energetic but still organic way. The class starts with a warm up on the floor, using the breath and the momentum to get the strength. The exercises bring us gradually to the standing up position, where we work on the tuning of the muscular chains, always moving fluidly through the space. The class finishes with a small composition, where we get the combination of all the tasks. The influences that Coral uses to create the exercises come from Aikido, contact-improvisation and release-techniques.
Next week: Filip Van Huffel!
January 24th, 2009From January 26th until 30th classes will be given by Filip Van Huffel!
!!! Note: from now on classes on Mondays and Fridays will be at 10.00h instead of 10.30h. Like this it is possible for you to also take the ballet class (from Marie-Louise Wilderijckx) at 12.00h, which is also in Deurne!
Everybody know's Filip's classes, with their distinctive free and fast moving style.
Filip Van Huffel trained with a range of contemporary dance teachers around Europe. He danced for Claudio Bernardo, Air de C and Company Thor in Belgium, Frey Faust in Germany and Random Dance Company in London before co-founding Retina in 1995. Retina has produced fifteen company works that have toured internationally and since 2000 Filip has worked as the sole artistic director. Independently, Filip is also regularly commissioned to create works for other companies, which have included several commissions for the South Bank Centre London, Higher Institute for Dance in Belgium, Akademi, Iudanza in Venezuela, Shobana Jeyasingh, StopGap, Ludus, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, X:ida Dance in Austria, EDge, the post-graduate company from London Contemporary Dance School and The Curve Foundation. He is regularly invited to teach workshops internationally and has also created a Dance for the Camera production Freeze for BBC/ACE.