As part of the research and development of The Haunting of Alvin Cohan, UK based choreographer Briar Adams will be offering a series of open access workshops for experienced dance students, adult dancers, and vocational/professional physical theatre performers who are interested in creative participation in the making of a new opera and physical theatre based work.
Would you like the opportunity to perform as part of the inaugural cast of The Haunting of Alvin Cohan?
This work explores concepts including art, artificial intelligence and philosophy; social justice; and the experience of virtual reality and transmission of collective memory and “memes” through conscious and unconscious social processes.
Ideal for performers who enjoy dance, drama, and using their imagination to create characters and movement, these workshops will provide a chance to work with other artists outside of your usual syllabus/class group to explore and share new choreography.
During each workshop, we will listen to a short piece of music from the original score, and discuss the themes in the libretto. We will interpret our responses to these themes individually using solo exploration of movement and choreography, and as a group. We will create a variety of group dances, contact and duo movement, and featured solos that we will perform alongside other artists.
These workshops are for confident dance students who enjoy improvisation and creating dance choreography. There is no minimum/maximum age or level of experience but performers need to be able to:
- Concentrate for the whole 90 minute performance time
- Remember musical/visual cues
- Give respectful attention to other cast members during sections they are not performing themselves.
The performance space is “in the round” and the venue does not have a backstage, so performers will sit quietly at the side in between the times they are moving in the space. Performers may bring a yoga mat, cushion, drink of water or other items they need to take care of themselves and be comfortable while watching in between their own dance sections. Performers may wear a hoodie or dance warm clothes in between the sections they are performing.
Interested dancers who would like to attend the workshops but prefer not to perform are welcome to participate in all Creative sessions.
Workshop Fee: $40 per Workshop Creative Session
Performers may Self Select the Session times that suit them best.
Sessions will run based on interest (to be confirmed by close of business on Tuesday 2nd April). You will receive your booking confirmation and payment options by email so please ensure your EMAIL ADDRESS is correct below.
All Creative sessions will take place at the Box Hill Ballet STUDIO, Whitehorse Road Box Hill 3128
Schedule:
Week One
Creative Session 1: Wednesday 3rd April MORNING (11am – 2pm)
Creative Session 2: Friday 5th April MORNING (11am – 2pm)
Creative Session 3: Friday 5th April EVENING (6pm – 9pm)
Week Two
Creative Session 4: Monday 8th April EVENING (6pm – 9pm)
Creative Session 5: Wednesday 10th April MORNING (11am – 2pm)
Creative Session 6: Wednesday 10th April EVENING (6pm – 9pm)
Creative Session 7: Friday 12th April MORNING (11am – 2pm)
Creative Session 8: Friday 12th April EVENING (6pm – 9pm)
DRESS REHEARSAL: Saturday 20th April 3pm – 6pm
PERFORMANCE: Sunday 21st April: Arrive at 12.30pm, Doors Open 1.30pm, Performance at 2pm followed by refreshments and social
Choreographer Profile: Briar Adams
British/Australian choreographer Briar Adams (daughter of composer David Adams) graduated from the Australian National Theatre Ballet School in 2003 and relocated to the UK in 2005. Since then she has enjoyed an international career as a dancer, performer and creative artist.
Briar has appeared in large scale productions both in London and touring the UK with companies including the Royal Opera, English National Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and Mariinsky Ballet. She has created roles in original ballet and contemporary dance works with Crossword Ballet (Symeon Kyriakopolous), Combination Dance Company (Anne-marie Smalldon), Tees Valley Dance (Kristine Sommerlade), DansConnect (Merville Jones) and Ballet Soul (Ben Love) and collaborated with choreographers Catherine Bell, Tanya Sleeman, Katia Lom, Yuyu Rau, Elizabeth Peck and Arlene Phillips on site specific, theatrical and television productions.
Briar enjoys collaborating with musicians and has choreographed and performed in music videos for artists including Seasfire, MrFogg, Maitre Ballon and Hirola, and appeared as a featured ballet dancer in the films Dunes and White Oak. She recently collaborated with the team in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at Kings College London to deliver the Theatre of Discovery:Collective Memory Interdisciplinary Award in practice based research.
Adams has created original ballets for Lets All Dance, Hack Ballet, Murley Dance and the National Theatre Ballet and worked as a repetiteur for the Box Hill Ballet Association and Oxford Theatre Ballet, and has held positions on the Creative faculty at the Royal Academy of Dance. She joined the FreeSpace programme at Studio Wayne Mcgregor in 2018.
In recent years Briar has explored her interest in machine learning and AI. Find out more about her research for the digital art in The Haunting of Alvin Cohan.