Garcia’s workshop will focus on integrating storytelling into movement practice. A full warm up concentrates breath and presence in the body, awakening the senses through improvisation that initiates from the spine. Dancers will play with partnering and group work, composing phrases that interact and incorporate sound and speaking. The purpose of this workshop is to explore the interplay of movement and storytelling, and to enliven conscious artistic practice.

Garcia is a Cuban-American director and choreographer based in Harlem, NYC. Currently devising a Storytelling Production with Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, Garcia developed Heather Henson’s puppet play Crane, directed Salsa, Mambo Cha Cha Cha in Havana, Cuba, and FELA! The Concert in Australia and New Zealand.

Each Modern Lab session features a different guest artist teaching a master class and sections from their repertory. This panorama of the contemporary dance field is presented to broaden the students’ awareness of potential career possibilities.

Each guest artist conducts a 30-minute technique class/warm-up and then teaches repertory that is performed by the class. In the final 15 minutes, faculty coordinator Bill De Young conducts a Q & A with each artist, discussing their career; their recommendations for transitioning from student to professional, and what they look for when they audition dancers for their projects.

This event supported in part by the EXCEL Lab.