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Beach Sessions 2020

  • On TikTok NY, 11693 United States (map)

Learn and re-post!

As a response to the isolating pandemic and inspired by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s instructional project “Do It (Home),” Beach Sessions has invited choreographers to create original movement scores to be learned and replicated on a social media platform made popular by viral dance challenges. While we all can’t get to a beach and experience public live performance, this summer’s program encourages the viewer to get outside where they can, learn a phrase, and repost on their personal TikTok profile, performing virtually on a stage in front of millions.

Pam Tanowitz @pamtanowitzdanceofficial
A Dance for Anybody Anywhere

Created to be interpreted by non-dancers and dancers alike and glittered with quirks, A Dance for Anybody Anywhere is a series of layered scores that were originally built out of virtual quarantine rehearsals. The movement was built in collaboration with the dancers (even more than usual) as I had them navigate not only physical tasks but emotional responses to our new daily lives. We created this work in the spirit of the Judson Church Movement, community, and inclusion; a dance that can truly be interpreted by anyone, anywhere.

Moriah Evans @mosnave
Dance Hard to Propose Bodies that Function as Direct Threats to the Social Drama of Comprehensibility!

Fourteen directional steps move through space with a basic step together action.

The sequence happens repeatedly in four quadrants: front right; front left; back right; back left.

Learn the sequence alone or do it with a partner.

Mirror or oppose the quadrants into various combinations.

Do it and Undo it!

Feet: Moriah Evans and Maggie Cloud

Text & Voice: Moriah Evans

Kayla Farrish @kayladecentstructures
Let it Out
This phrase carries the space, weight, memory, sensation, and bursts I feel, and is felt as we're fighting for social justice and humanity. #BlackLivesMatter.

Jack Ferver @jackferver
beach, 2020

Gerard & Kelly @gerardandkelly
Clock Score

This practice requires a bit of space. Create twelve movements, each movement corresponding to the number and the position on the face of a clock: 12 is directly in front of you, 6 is behind you, etc. The movement for each of the twelve numbers should respond to what that number feels like to you. What does 12 feel like to you? How can you embody that sensation?

Use an oscillating movement somewhere in your body to establish a consistent rhythm, like a metronome. The time measure for your clock might be a 4-count that oscillates in the hips. Each clock has its own measure, or time signature.

Of the twelve movements, include at least one movement that interacts with the floor, and one that is in the air. One movement should take two measures (8 counts if your measure is a 4-count). At least one movement should use your body like a percussive instrument (snaps, slaps, taps, etc.) to further articulate the rhythm. Do not include more than one movement that you can name (for example, within the lexicon of ballet). Include one movement that is not a dance.

Now take ten minutes to build your clock, using your body to research and repeat the gestures that correspond to each hour of the day. Remember there is no right or wrong with your clock movements. Trust your feelings. It is not necessary to build your clock in chronological order; if you have trouble finding a gesture for a number, skip it and come back to it later. You might not get to all twelve movements in the first ten minutes. That’s fine, set another timer and continue.

The Clock is a way to keep time using your entire body, all of your senses, and your memory.

Loni Landon @lonifaye
(IBFS) INTERNET BEST FRIENDS

This phrase is performed with my niece Juliet and nephew Remy, and inspired by their obsession and speed of learning the intricate choreography of KPOP and TikTok gestures. I spent the last two days learning the vocabulary of Gen Z, while they picked up this phrase in only 7 minutes.

Katrina Reid @kattyrealness
A Full Moon Release Score

Created by @kattyrealness

Filmed by @paul.notice at Coney Island

Song: Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison

Gillian Walsh @ishellreal
LONELINESS

Learn any 10-15 seconds of this Britney video slowed down to 1 minute (or more.) Take a moment to slow your breath before you begin. Close your eyes and feel your interior processes as you move slowly. If you’re at the beach, your feet should be in the wet sand or shallow water. Feel the largeness of the sky, the largeness of the ocean, the ground beneath you. Feel your heart, and start to feel the relationship between your interior world and the outside world, the natural world. Expand into the cosmic holding field. Take your time. Feel the temperature and texture of the air on your skin, feel your eyeballs heavy, brain heavy, pelvis heavy, your feet are open portals. There can potentially be a sense of stillness here. Dance from the stillness if you feel it ; )

Britney is under a legal conservatorship and has no rights. She often appears on social media dancing and modeling from home with the disturbing appearance of complete incoherence. Many say she is heavily medicated against her will, so that her handlers can control her more easily. She cannot do anything without written permission including driving, shopping, dating, or anything concerning her daily life, children or career. She is exploited and her money is not her own. She does not have custody of her children. Britney has always loved to dance. She’s one of the most iconic dancers of her generation. #freebritney #dancetorture

Earlier Event: August 19
BEACH SESSIONS DANCE CLASSES