Solo Chicken Host Weekend Workshop

Fredericton’s Solo Chicken Productions continues its Groundwork workshop series this week with guest instructor Alanna Kraaijeveld.

Solo Chicken Productions will host its first workshop of 2018 this weekend welcoming Montréal-based dancer Alanna Kraaijeveld for Technique For Every Body, a three hour class happening Sunday from 7-10 p.m. at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre in Fredericton.

This will be Kraaijeveld’s first time working with Fredericton area dancers and physical theatre artists.

Kraaijeveld has worked with has worked with several acclaimed artists and organizations throughout her career including Louise Bédard Danse, Marie Claire Forté, Toronto Dance Community Love-In, Opéra Québec, Danse à la Carte, l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, and was a member of the now defunct Le Groupe Dance Lab under the direction of Peter Boneham for four seasons.

“I have been teaching more seriously the last five years, pretty physical task and partner based stuff,” said Kraaijeveld. “It’s all adaptable so I welcome a range of experience and disciplines in my classes.”

Solo Chicken’s Lesandra Dodson said the company had initially planned to host Kraaijeveld last summer while she was visiting the area but decided the class would be a better fit for the winter season.

“August is usually a little challenging to get workshops happening as most students are AWOL and everyone else is in vacation mode,” said Dodson. “We met up instead and had a great chat. It turns out we have lots of links and friends in common, and I was very interested in her teaching practice; finding out more about different training methods that are being utilized in places like Montreal, which in my opinion, is the one of the central cities cultivating groundbreaking contemporary dance and theatre.”

Now in its second season, Solo Chicken’s Groundwork workshop series is aimed towards offering new approaches to artistic practice for contemporary performing artists from around the region. The first workshop of the 2017-2018 season, An Introduction to Stage Combat with instructor Jean-Michel Cliche took place in December and future workshops are also planned for February and March.

January’s Technique for Every Body is open to artists of all levels interested in exploring new approaches to solo and group performance.

“The material looks largely at principles that nurture dynamic moving (coordination, anatomy, physiology), relationships (person to person, person to object, person to space), and provides plenty of room for participants to bring what experience they possess and use it to inform their approach, and inform their learning,” said Dodson.

“When developing the Groundwork series we like to offer workshops that have a broad range of different training methods, and points of view. It’s refreshing to see what other professional performing artists are practicing, what they are investigating, and how they are training,” she said. “We’re happy to offer that workshop experience to the community.”