Welcome

An opportunity to move your body, enjoy the outdoors, contemplate, improvise and connect with others in a beautiful studio that borders Algonquin Park. Workshops throughout the weekend include contact dance and improvisation, Vinyasa Yoga, Axis Syllabus™ and improvisational writing & movement.

Workshop Descriptions

Friday, September 12

7 - 8:30 pm
BEGINNING IN CONTACT
Taught by Ruth Douthwright and Sally Morgan

An exploration of fundamental principles of Contact Improv, improvisation, and improvisational scores. We move towards opening and sharpening the senses, deepening our awareness of our own bodies and those we dance with. Using the foundation of contact improvisation we will explore falling, rolling, giving and taking weight, leading, following, softening, toning and listening.


8:30 - 10 pm
CONTACT JAM
Facilitated by Ruth Douthwright and Sally Morgan

A contact jam is an open time for improvising movement in contact with others. Participants may wish to dance alone, in duets or within a group interacting with and the environment.


Saturday, September 13

10 - 11:30 am
VINYASA YOGA
Taught by Sally Morgan

These vinyasa-style classes expand, integrate and juxtapose postures through sun salutations and take influence from Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vini Yoga. Integrating asana, pranayama and meditation we will use music as a guide, flowing smoothly through challenging and inspiring sequences. Paying close attention to alignment, we work to develop balance, strength, and flexibility - opening the door to a grounded body and mind. Classes will be moderate to vigorous in pace, creating heat through flexion, extension, balance and rotation. Although we will practice as a group, emphasis is placed on the individual and modifications are encouraged.


1 - 2:30 pm
C-Star Axis Syllabus™
Taught by Ruth Douthwright

The C-Star is the most basic falling study in the Axis Syllabus vocabulary. Through the study the student will be able to transform the floor from a dangerous obstacle to a trampoline, allowing for less inhibition when learning more demanding or risky movements. The C-Star develops all-round support, stretches and strengthens the rotators of the hip and stabilizers of the knees. The Axis Syllabus ™ is an inertia and weight-distribution analysis system that can be applied to any human body in any situation.

3 - 5 pm
IMPROVISATIONAL WRITING & MOVEMENT
Taught by Ruth Douthwright and Sally Morgan

This workshop investigates and integrates improvisational movement and writing practice. The work is autobiographical in nature and will include timed writing exercises, listening practices, speaking and moving, telling and listening to stories. Please bring pen, paper and/or notebook.


Sunday, September 14


10 - 11:30 am
VINYASA YOGA
Taught by Sally Morgan


1 - 2:30 pm
Walking….flying   Axis Syllabus™ 
Taught by Ruth Douthwright

Walking well is a preparation for life, for everything we do with our bodies. Our walking patterns form the base of unconscious reflexes that serve as a starting point for learning other coordination’s, such as sport and dance or any kind of active work.  Learn to harness gravity and inertia to fly.


3 - 5 pm
IMPROVISATIONAL WRITING & MOVEMENT
Taught by Ruth Douthwright and Sally Morgan

Definitions of Workshop Terms

The Axis Syllabus™ is a movement training and weight distribution analysis system that takes physiodynamics and anatomical parameters into account. Classes are structured using repetitive motives that represent illustrations of different falling studies focusing on alignment and channeling kinetic energy.  www.axissyllabus.com

Contact Improvisation is a movement form, improvisational by nature. Contact Improv is often referred to as an "art sport" and was invented by Steve Paxton in the early 1970's. The form was greatly influenced by Paxton's training in the Martial Arts and his background in dance and movement. 

It is an evolving system based on the communication between two moving bodies and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion. A shared centre of gravity is established and around this centre partners ride weight along common paths of momentum. It is a free play with balance, trust, surrender, sensation, abandon, support and instinct.

The skills and simple exercises learned in a contact class lead towards experimenting in free duet dancing. The body, in order to open to the sensations of momentum, weight and balance, must learn to release excess tension and abandon a certain amount of willful volition to the natural flow of movement at hand, ultimately learning to trust one's basic survival instincts. It is an exciting way for people to come together, interact on a physical level, learn how to speak through the body and find their own dance.

Teachers Biographies

Sally Morgan

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
 -- Leonardo da Vinci

I am true to my heart and strive to move from that place. I am inspired by process and deeply drawn to and guided by the ocean, the land, the air, the sun, the moon and the sky.

Based in Nova Scotia from1999-2006 and now back in Toronto, Sally Morgan works independently and through her company Eastward Moving, as a choreographer, director, performer, teacher and producer. Her choreography has been performed across Canada. She began training professionally in Toronto in 1994 and has traveled internationally with studies and work in dance, contact improvisation and film/video. A founding member of Halifax collective The North End Dance Co-op, she continues to explore improvisation and the connections between landscape and the body through performance, research and teaching. The late Diane Moore and noted teachers, including Nancy Stark Smith and Simone Forti, have influenced Sally's artistic approach. Current projects include the solos Visual Intersections and The Far Field and the dance film and accompanying documentary (decoding the) Undertow. Recently, she has performed with Barbara Lindenberg, Holly Treddenick, Jessica Runge, Circus Orange, Jacinte Armstrong and Catherine Crocker.

Sally is a certified Pilates and Yoga Instructor. She holds an Honours BFA from York University (Dance) and trained through The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program.

Ruth Douthwright

Ruth is a certified teacher of the Axis Syllabus™ and graduate of Les Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montreal.  She has studied and performed in many different countries, which has given her an understanding and appreciation for dance culture from around the world.

Her keen interest in world dance and music led her to further her study with world dance groups, specifically West African, Cuban and Japanese. She spent two years in Japan studying Noh at the Kyoto Arts Center, Taiko drumming with Takatora Daiko and Butoh with Min Tanaka at The Body Weather Farm. Ruth studied in the UK at The Laban Centre and co-founded the ALL DANCE PROJECT performing and teaching dance in diverse community settings and schools in the UK, France, Belgium and Canada. From 2003, Ruth has focused her study on the Axis Syllabus™ under Frey Faust and performing with Ardent Body Communications Dance Collective.

She has worked for Canadian choreographers: Sara Bild, Florence Figols, Dave St. Pierre, Mariko Tanabe…  Since 2005 she has been a member of the Belgian dance and voice company, L’Inattendue Compagnie and is performing in the upcoming production, “L’art de la fougue”. Ruth is a regular teacher at Morningstar Center for Healing and the Arts.

Tuition

Accommodation