DanceAbility-Day, 31 July, 2011

Hosted by ImPulsDanz at the Arsenal - Vienna Austria


DanceAbility-DAY

From Noon Till Midnight, 31 July, 2011
Hosted by ImPulsTanz at the Arsenal - Vienna, Austria
A Europe-wide gathering to experience DanceAbility—a dance method that connects people with and without disabilities through dance.
This day celebrates “inclusive art,” the kind of art that pulls down the glass ceilings and barriers existing between people with and without so-called disabilities.
Also visit us at www.danceability.eu
The program starts at 12:00 with the Gallery where you find dancers, artists, social organisations, and the Mix and Pose Photo Booth to have your picture taken -- come and explore.
In the ROOM OF SENSATIONS are open classes, lectures, concerts and jams (open dance time to go in and out as you please).

At 14:30 the studios open for Warm-Ups, with a DanceAbility Class with DanceAbility founder Alito Alessi and Emery Blackwell (USA) at 15:00. No experience necessary. You are also welcome to just come and observe.

Next: watch, vote, cheer -- the worldwide FIRST Mixed-Abilitie Battle (an improvisation sharing, if you will, or competition, if you will). Followed by comments on “Questioning Competition in the Arts” with Steve Paxton. Steve Paxton (USA) initiated and named the dance form, “Contact Improvisation” and all his dance involvements make him one of the most important innovators in post-modern and contemporary dance.

And continuing with interactive talk/demos and music, taking turns, until at 8:30 we open the dance floor for all comers.

In the ROOM OF TIME, especially decorated for you, find a place for your dreams to fly, a place to massage and be massaged, to warm-up…

DanceAbility-Day is intended to be a day of encounters, a day of dancing, a day of listening to our bodies and to each other.

Contact: office@danceability.eu
Facebook: DanceAbility Europe
Tickets online über https://www.culturall.com/ticket/impulstanz/work_details.mc?language=1&vorst_num=319 oder an den ImPulsTanz Tageskassen.


DanceAbility-Day Schedule

FROM NOON TILL MIDNIGHT
Arsenal /Burgtheater Probebühne
Vienna, Austria

GALLERY

12:00 Mix and Mingle

Mix and Pose: Photos by Lilli Strauss


ROOM OF TIME

14:30 Warm-Ups


ROOM OF SENSATION

15:00 DanceAbility Class: Alito Alessi & Emery Blackwell - U.S., with live music accompaniment

Around 17:00 Music Concert: Otto Lechner (accordion) & friends - Vienna

Around 17:45 Mixed-Abilities Battle Premiere: International Performing Improvisors. Judges: Ismael Ivo (Austria/Brazil), Gunilla Sjovall (Finland), Ernst Woller (Austria)

Comments: “Questioning Competition in the Arts:” Steve Paxton – U.S.

Around 19:00 Perspectives Around DanceAbility: Interactive Talk/Demos
Alito Alessi, Emery Blackwell, Maja Hehlen, Vera Rebl, with Moderator Malcolm Manning - U.S., Germany, Austria, Finland/UK
Beatboxing: Billyshes - Vienna

Around 20:30 Facilitated Jam into Open JAM

All day: Translations or summaries into German and English will be provided, as well as sign language interpreters. Narrators for people with visual impairments will be provided upon request.

Biographies
Alito Alessi (USA) is the founder of the DanceAbility method. Before that and continuing to today, he was and is active internationally as a choreographer and performer, contact improvisation teacher, and bodywork teacher.

Emery Blackwell (USA) is a principal dancer with DanceAbility International and Joint Forces Dance Company, and a certified DanceAbility teacher. He was President of Oregonians for Independent Living. (He has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.)

Otto Lechner is one of Austria’s most well-regarded accordionists. (He is blind.)

Ismael Ivo (Austria/ Brazil) is Artistic Advisor of ImPulsTanz Festival.

Gunilla Sjovall (Finland) is a co-director and co-founder of DanceAbility Finland.

Ernst Woller (Austria) is a Member of parliament and local council, and
Chairman of the Education Committee of the Vienna SPÖ (Social Democrats).

Steve Paxton (USA) is the initiator of contact improvisation, and one of the most important innovators in post-modern and contemporary dance. He co-founded Touchdown Dance in 1986 in the UK, using contact improvisation and dance with people with visual impairments or no sight. He has attended many DanceAbility workshops and gatherings.

Maja Hehlen (Germany) has been involved in mixed-abilities dance in Germany, Switzerland, and Luxembourg since 1996, and directs the dance company BewegGrund, in Trier.

Vera Rebl (Austria) is a co-director of DanceAbility Austria. She founded Dance-Gang and the dance company “A.D.A.M.”, dances in the company Danse Brut, and began teaching at ImPulsTanz Festival in 2010.

Malcolm Manning teaches contact improvisation, the Feldenkrais method, and improvisation, and other related modalities. He teaches part of the year at the Theatre Academy of Finland and also internationally. This is all despite being advised when young to lead a sedentary life because of serious back and health problems. He was a journalist before he turned to dance, theater and movement.


DanceAbility Europe Formational Convention

DanceAbility-Day is the public, kick-off event for the DanceAbility Europe Formational Convention, July 31st – August 6th, 2011, in Vienna, Austria.

The main topics of this convention are to build a European network to develop further education for already certified DanceAbility teachers, and to develop a plan to share the DanceAbility method with more professional and recreational dancers with mixed abilities in Europe.

Further information at www.danceability.eu

Paola Banone