André Zachery || The Playground NYC
Company:
The Playground NYC
André Zachery
Tuesday, 08/09 || 10:00-11:45am, $6
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway, NYC
Entrance 53A Chambers Street
The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movements with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.
Class Description:
Physical Propulsion is a training method of engaging the body through space using floor, standing and aerial techniques rooted in sacral-cranial alignment and awareness. Movement will be generated from the in-between of physicality and acoustic resonance where people of various genders, physical abilities and artistic lineages are encouraged to activate the space through improvisation, call and response, cyphering and play. The class works from the ground-up to align the body to connect phrases with energy that coils and recoils akin to the spring. Movement variations will be stylistically grounded in Hip hop, breaking and house sensibilities while also incorporating modalities from Flying Low, Laban, Límon and Capoeira techniques. The growth and development of the Physical Propulsion is facilitated dually by personal inquiry as well as the exchange and input of movement practitioners from around the globe. The goal of each class is to gain more comfort and courage using the body into and out of the floor with dynamic range of motion, a sense of togetherness with class takers and musicality throughout the space.
Bio:
André M. Zachery is an interdisciplinary artist and the Brooklyn-based artistic director of Renegade Performance Group. He holds a BFA from Ailey/Fordham University and MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from CUNY/Brooklyn College and his practice, research and community engagement artistically focuses on merging choreography, technology and Black cultural practices through multimedia work. André is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography and 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Choreography.
His works through RPG have been presented domestically and internationally, receiving support through several residencies, awards, commissions. These have included the LMCC Arts Center on Governors Island, Dance/NYC Coronavirus Relief Fund, CUNY Dance Initiative, Performance Project Residency at University Settlement, ChoreoQuest Residency at Restoration Arts Brooklyn, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HarvestWorks and a Jerome supported Movement Research AIR. Awarded grants have been from the Brooklyn Arts Council, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work and a Slate Property SPACE Award. Commissions have come from the Brooklyn Museum, Five Myles/BRIC Biennial and Danspace Project.
André is currently a faculty member of the NYU Tisch Dance Department and as a scholar he has been a member of panels, led group talks, facilitated discussions and presented research on a myriad of topics including Afrofuturism, African Diaspora practices and philosophies, Black cultural aesthetics, technology in art and performance and on expanding the boundaries of art making within the community. He has been a panelist and presented his research at institutions such as Duke University, Brooklyn College, University of Virginia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. André has taught at Brooklyn College and been a guest faculty member at the dance programs of Florida State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, The Ohio State University, University of California Los Angeles and University of California Riverside.
PC: Tara Pixley
