MOVING, SOUNDING, and ACTING with Janis Brenner
Company:
United Solo
United Solo will host Janis Brenner, known worldwide as a “quadruple threat” — a dancer, choreographer, vocalist, and teacher — who has toured in 36 countries, teaches at The Juilliard School, and is the winner of the award for Best Choreography at the 2017 United Solo Festival for Eva Pertic’s “Eden, transplanted.” Open to all participants regardless of experience, this Master Class will explore the process of integrating movement, voice, breath, and character into the full range of expressiveness using structured improvisation. We will increase our range and means of expression, take risks as performers, and discover our unique, holistic performing sense. The class incorporates brief physical and vocal warm-ups to create a sense of community and shared purpose, from which we will proceed to movement, voice and text explorations together and individually. We will be immersed in “Serious Play!” Please wear comfortable clothes.
“As a longtime multidisciplinary artist, I believe it is crucial for actors, dancers, singers, musicians to be deeply and wisely connected to their body as an instrument of expression, imagination, empathy and meaning. It is through improvisation — playful, spontaneous, concentrated exploration — that we may come to discover our vast potential as performers and meaning-makers”
— Janis Brenner
Janis Brenner is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in NYC. Known for her “meticulous artistry” (The Village Voice), she has toured in 36 countries and is recognized as a “singular performer” with a multifaceted artistic range. Honors/grants include the NY Dance & Performance Award (“Bessie”) for her performance in Meredith Monk’s The Politics of Quiet; the Lester Horton Award for Choreography in LA; the NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; the Fund for US Artists at International Festivals; the U.S. State Department; Asian Cultural Council; the Trust for Mutual Understanding; UNESCO; US Embassies in Bosnia, Moscow, Jakarta and Dakar; and a commission for the interdisciplinary work The Memory Project from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work has been commissioned/restaged by more than 50 companies and colleges worldwide and she performed with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble from 1990 – 2005, 2014, recording on ECM Records. Ms. Brenner was a soloist with the Murray Louis Dance Company from 1977-84, working with Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp, Bat Sheva Dance Company in Israel, and Alwin Nikolais. Janis Brenner & Dancers has performed throughout the U.S., Asia, Russia and Europe since 1989 and has been presented by leading NY organizations. The company is known for the caliber of its dancers, its wide-ranging and encompassing national and international guest residencies as well as its “emotionally authentic” and musically diverse work. Brenner has been on faculty at The Juilliard School since 2009. More at: www.janisbrenner.com. Janis will perform her one-woman show “Inheritance: A Litany” at this year’s United Solo Theatre Festival. The October 11th performance is SOLD OUT, but tickets are still available for the performance on October 4th, 2018.
MOVING, SOUNDING, and ACTING with Janis Brenner will take place on Monday, September 17, 2018 from 6PM-8PM at Theatre Row, New York City. All ages and levels of theatrical experience encouraged. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Pre-registration is required at www.unitedsolo.org/us/uedu — here you will find more details available as well. Sign up now!
