Class Descriptions

Movement

In this portion of the workshop participants will focus on creating phrases by using the space around us, props and sound. Class will begin with a warm up to help become grounded and open to movement and creation. Dance is in everything and is not bound to one place and has the ability to transform spaces and objects. We will explore those themes and challenge ourselves to think outside the box within the realm of movement and choreography.

Architecture

In this portion of the workshop, participants’ focus will revolve around mapping, with a particular emphasis on capturing movement within space. The history of Information graphics and the various methods used to chart data and map space will be covered first. This will prompt participants to imagine the act of mapping differently and perceive it as a creative artistic tool beyond just a visual aid. Next, participants will learn about mapping in 2D and 3D by covering both surfaces and multidimensional space using different techniques and materials, from conventional tape and strings to innovative tools that challenge traditional boundaries.

By tracing movements and stories within the spaces we inhabit, workshop attendees will reimagine maps as avenues for artistic expression through which we explore the interplay between space, form, and movement.

Production 

In this lecture-based class, students will learn the basic structures of storytelling in a site-specific, immersive experience context and how that can translate into their own choreographic work. Students will also create a zine to implement those structures that they can use as tools to further expand for their final performance.

Immersion

The audience journey workshop will consider how space can be disassembled and reassembled, contracted and expanded as the audience becomes a part of the content and the flow. We will explore how what is inside you, all of the associations and references can become the structure, the physical container and how we can foreground our intentions to include the experience of the audience.

Immersion | Heidi Duckler

Heidi Duckler is the Founder and Artistic Director of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler is a pioneer of site-specific place based contemporary practice. Through the use of expanded techniques and a methodology that encourages us to understand how dance, born from our experience, can be a tool for awareness, Duckler has contributed to redefining the field and has created more than 400 dance pieces all over the world.

Duckler was the recipient of the 2021 Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship and most recently, her film “Where We’re Going” has been selected for first prize by the Cinedanza Festival jury amongst 28 films from around the world. “Where We’re Going” was also selected for the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Digital Media Wall in their new building in downtown Sacramento, scheduled to premiere in 2022. Currently, Duckler is on faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Film and Media Studies Department.

Duckler earned a BS in Dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in Choreography from UCLA, and served as a Board Member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement Council. Awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences award, and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award. Duckler was a recipient of the 2019 Oregon Dance Film Commission and her work received the award for Best Choreography for the Lens at Verve Dance Film Festival

Movement | Sasha Rivero

Sasha Rivero is a first generation American performing artist multi-hyphenate – dancer, singer and model. She was raised by her Belizean mother and older siblings in Los Angeles, CA. She attended Alexander Hamilton Performance Arts high school where she trained under Debbie Allen’s academy director Karen McDonald in ballet, modern, hip-hop, and jazz.

Alongside her dance training, Sasha pursued her other passions and also trained in voice, acting and musical theater. She then continued her dance studies at UCLA in the Glorya Kaufman World Arts and Cultures department where she graduated with a B.A. in dance studies and a minor in English Literature. Sasha signed with Bloc Talent Agency in her last year at UCLA and has been pursuing her professional dance career ever since. She has performed the works of choreographers like Daniel Ezralow, Ryan Heffington, Denna Thomsen, Jillian Meyers, Tina Landon, and Fatima Robinson to name a few. Sasha has worked on films, music videos, commercials, and immersive and site specific works.

Her credits include Heidi Duckler Dance Company, The Weekend, L.A. Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Fat Joe, Maluma, Doechii, Hozier, Jhené Aiko, The Grammy’s, The Voice, Disney, HBO, and NBC. Her passion for creating art continues to lead her down a path of exploration, oftentimes weaving together singing and dancing.

Architect | Sophie Akoury

Sophie Akoury is a multidisciplinary designer working within set design, furniture, animation, and architecture. 

Sophie received her Master’s in Architecture from the Southern Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where she was awarded the Gehry Prize in 2022 for her archival multimedia installation reimagining LA River’s history. 

She holds a Bachelor’s from l’Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut.

She has co-taught at SCI-Arc and has been invited as a visiting critic to Pratt, Syracuse University, and USC.

Sophie is currently a junior architect at Yoram LePair Architects and has previously worked at award-winning offices such as Youssef Tohme Architects and Associates (YTAA) in Paris and Bureau Spectacular in Los Angeles.

Production | Shoji Yamasaki

Shoji Yamasaki is a transdisciplinary choreographer, performer, director, writer, and filmmaker born and raised on the unceded ancestral land of Gabrielino-Tongva, recently known as Los Angeles. His work encompasses a multitude of topics that combine mimicry, translation, and storytelling that dismantles one-sided perception and challenges the viewer’s social norms. Combining his experiences, he creates site-specific and immersive experiences that allows the audience to become storytellers themselves.

He completed his B.A. Degree in World Arts and Cultures (Dance Concentration) and a minor in Spanish from UCLA in 2011 and his M.F.A. Degree in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts in 2023. Throughout his career, he has worked with choreographers such as Dimitri Chamblas, Heidi Duckler, Keith Glassman, Carol McDowell, Matthew Rushing, and Rebecca Pappas. His works have been presented at locations such as the Jerry Moss Plaza at the Music Center, REDCAT (Roy Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), Odyssey Theater, Gibney Dance (New York), and Conservatorio de Danza México (Mexico).