Photos curtesy of David Gonsier (1&2) and PILIPALA (3)
This Spring, from January through June, VDA is partnering with two Vermont dance studios: "Open Door Integrative Wellness" in White River Junction and "SoBo Studio" in Brattleboro to bring exciting weekend workshops to the Vermont dance community! We are calling the series "Exploring New Terrain..." happening once per month, introducing new ways of dancing, and unique styles of dance practices.
By studying a series of breath, somatic and movement practices inspired by butoh, the class will aim to liberate ourselves from pre-fixed images of our bodies and search for alternate and original ways of approaching them. This class is open to anyone who is interested in investigating the relationship between internal landscape and physical movement forms.
Mina Nishimura, from Tokyo, was introduced to butoh and improvisational dance through Kota Yamazaki. After graduating Ochanomizu University with BA in Performing Arts in Tokyo, Nishimura immigrated to NYC to study at Merce Cunningham Studio. Since then she has been working with groundbreaking dance artists as performer, in most years, such as John Jasperse, Dean Moss, Neil Greenburg, Vicky Shick and Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener. She has also collaborated with SIA on Saturday Night Live, and was featured in PRADA film/Women’s Tales directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall in recent years. Her own choreographic works have been commissioned by NYU Skirball Center, Danspace Project, Gibney Dance, Mount Tremper Arts Center, UC Davis among other dance organizations. She was the danceweb scholar at Impulse Tanz (Vienna), the research fellow at DunaPart (Budapest), and the Artist-in-Residence at Camargo Foundation (France), and Movement Research (NYC). She has been teaching as Faculty, at Sarah Lawrence College, UC Davis, Ferris University (Japan) and Movement Research, and is a current MFA Teaching Fellow at Bennington College. Nishimura is a recipient of Best Performance of 2018 in Dance Magazine, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award 2019 in United States.
Bringing Dance to Life!
VDA proudly serves its members, cheering on their art and creating opportunities to feature their forms. Vda sends a free weekly e-newsletter to announce events throughout the state of Vermont, as events are always open to the public. Sign up at the bottom of this page to be included, and look for our emails! Dance Alliance members are featured here on our website, with tabs to view their upcoming events and drop-in friendly classes and workshops.
More dance in more places, more of the time!
We hope you will join us!
SoBo is a community dance center committed to keeping dance accessible, non-competitive, and a vital part of our social fabric.
SoBo hosts daytime and evening classes focused mostly on adults, with some options for children. Participants of all levels, abilities, and ages are welcome! SoBo offers flexible payment options, scholarship and work study opportunities, and maintains a family friendly environment. Our playroom is always open for children to explore while parent’s dance, with free supervision provided during select classes.