Ani Javian & Josh Manculich | Photo by Lily Kane

“Bebe and the Company cultivated a relationship to trust – trust in process.

The week’s work served as a reminder that creating something involves not knowing.  We put our bodies, as particularized ‘cultures’ unto themselves, inside of the ideas.  We practiced seeing in questions.”-Shaina Cantino

The Bebe Miller Company Dance Making Intensive took place this summer in the Dapartment of Dance at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, August 2-8th.

In the weeklong workshop, the Company focused on the shared process of making dances, guided by the collaborative team of Bebe Miller, Angie Hauser, Darrell Jones and Talvin Wilks. Over the past fifteen years, working together as choreographer, dancers and dramaturg, the team has honed a rigorous collaborative process while premiering new works that have been performed in major venues across the country. The workshop drew on the company’s creative strategies including movement training, improvisation, dramaturgical frameworks and choreographic scores, attending to the catalytic potential of a shared, directed, creative focus.

The week was a great chance to operate with participants’ own collaborative team as well as an opportunity to investigate a new approach totheir work. The structure made space for artists to participate as individuals or as a team (two or more), working on new choreographic questions or continuing with existing work.

Participants Lily Kane and Shaina Cantino share their reflections of the experience:

“The Bebe Miller Company Summer Intensive taught me so much about what it means to research through movement, and how to track my choices and tendencies in order to discover more about the work that I make.  The company’s unique approach and emphasis on process allowed me to reconsider how improvisation, dramaturgy, task, surprise, intention, and spontaneity can feed and foster the act of composition.  I learned to trust choices, but also to not be afraid of risk and the unknown.”- Lily Kane

“In their 2015 Dance Making Intensive, Bebe and Company offered meticulous and imaginative facilitation, scores, feedback and questions, which have fueled my months following. The workshop stayed true to its structure as a laboratory, responsive to the diverse questions of professional makers with interest in the nuance of collaboration and dramaturgy.  From the seduction of dramaturgical questioning, we would always return to  – “What is happening in the body?” I arrived with a desire to examine ‘exquisite specificity and imperfection’ in my dance making.  The workshop far exceeded my expectations.  It was priceless to receive skillful, direct feedback on scores that I created during the week and then to hone these scores in my body, as an actor might a script.  My body and making-mind were cultivated, saturated and stretched by the end of each day.” – Shaina Cantino

Ani Javian & Hoshua Manculich | Photo by Lily Kane