Dervish In Progress workshops with Ziya Azazi
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/28 – LPAC Boyer Studio (003)
9/29 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/30 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
10/1 – LPAC Troy Studio

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10/4 final workshop
1 – 5pm – LPAC Troy Studio

These workshops suggests a space for the participants where they can challenge their limits through whirling, stimulate their ability for the thrift of bodily energy, and through these abilities reach their goal movement within their own genre, spending less energy, with a higher level of awareness. Whirling is not the main objective of this workshop. The greater goal is to improve one’s physical, emotional and mental awareness through whirling and the exercises prior to that. It leads the participants to perceive and accept what is befalling throughout whirling, and reach an innovative movement by means of whirling.

More about Ziya Azazi…
Ziya Azazi was born in 1969 in Antakya, Turkey. Since 1994 he has been based in Vienna, Austria. He holds Austrian nationality and speaks Arabic, English, German and Turkish. From the late nineties up to the present, Ziya Azazi’s dance practices have been primarily based on experimental whirling and repetition, which reflect his personal, artistic, conceptual and motional analysis of traditional Sufi dance. He searches for the simultaneous representation of contradictory perceptions of physical awareness and a high state of ecstasy, experimenting the intensities of speed and tension made possible through whirling. He aims at transforming the usual whirling dervish image and the classical Sufi dance into a spectacular form, thus proposing possibilities for personal ritual, that do not rely on the boundaries of existing belief systems. His work searches for the Dervish at a high level of speed, tension and emotion, and creates a space for the viewer to encounter and experience these moods. Through his performances, Ziya Azazi seeks to represent the moment of realisation when the Dervish begins to enjoy his/her achievement through the joyful and ecstatic repetition of whirling: the looping and spinning which leads to trance.

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/ziya-azazi/

Join us after David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT
on Friday, September 25, 2015
for a post-show conversation with the performers,
led by Charmian Wells.

9/19 & 9/20
Creative Workshop in Choreography workshop
1 – 5pm each day
LPAC Troy Studio

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Black and African (repertory class)
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/21 – LPAC Boyer Studio
9/22 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/23 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
9/24 – LPAC Troy Studio

These classes will serve as an introduction to internationally acclaimed choreographer/performer nora chipaumire‘s choreographic material used in development of her work, portrait of myself as my father. The work incorporates kinesthetic (physical), aural (vocal), and intellectual (scholarly) inquiries in the generation of physical language that helps situate more in the world(s) she inhabits. Choreographic material considers the following questions: what is portraiture? what is masculinity? what is the black body and what is its language? what is the African body and what is its language? This workshop is intended for advanced and mature dancers and includes themes particular to men of African descent.

More about nora chipaumire…
Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and currently a resident of New York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for the past decade. She has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica and the U.S. A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law, Chipaumire holds an M.A. in Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/nora-chipaumire/

Please note, the following locations have changed from the LPAC Troy Studio to a NEW LOCATION for upcoming Cooper workshops:

Workshops and classes – NEW LOCATIONS
David Zambrano 9/16 – LPAC Frear
nora chipaumire 9/21 – LPAC 3 (small studio)
nora chipaumire 9/23 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
Ziya Azazi 9/28 – LPAC 3 (small studio)
Ziya Azazi 9/30 – Matchbox Tarble Commons

Please mark your calendars!

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/david-zambrano/

Friday
September 25
8PM
followed by a post-show conversation with performers, led by Charmian Wells

Saturday
 September 26
8PM
preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells

As part of the 3 week series CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM, taking place from September 12 – October 4, 2015, Swarthmore is excited to bring SOUL PROJECT to campus. The show begins…spontaneously…an extraordinary, unpredictable presentation and experience of being continuously alive. On, like a candle. The music starts and dancers emerge from the audience, moving to a sublime live recording of a “vintage” soul singer – Aretha Franklin, Ike & Tina Turner, Bettye Lavette, Gladys Knight & The Pips – following their own movement quest to embody the dance as deeply and powerfully as the singer reveals the song.

SOUL PROJECT conceived and directed by the legendary David Zambrano, in collaboration with a cast of six remarkable performers from Mozambique, Slovenia, Slovakia, South Korea and Venezuela, simultaneously creates a sense of heightened perception and grounded physicality. Designed to be performed in an open space-a gallery, black box, gymnasium, ballroom, church, large stage, or even outdoors – SOUL PROJECT is a series of virtuosic solos, each lasting the length of a song; but the order of the solos and their location in the space is a function of chance, making each night’s performance unique.

 Along with this performance, the college will host a unique series of technique and repertory classes in various dance vocabularies and improvisation methodologies, an informal presentation of performance ideas from the three featured artists, and informal discussions with the campus community around new notions of contemporary performance. All events happening at Swarthmore College are free and open to the public. More details are available online: http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm

Sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundaiton, Philadelphia’s FringeArts and Mascher Space Co-Op. Additional classes hosted by Mascher Space Co-Op (information available here: http://www.mascherdance.org/events/) Additional performances of SOUL PROJECT will be in the Philadelphia FringeArts program: http://fringearts.com/event/soul-project/.