Work
INHABIT
"Lingo director KT Niehoff is throwing a party, disguised as a performance event. Or perhaps it's the other way around. In either case, INHABIT is a social and theatrical experiment, with audience and dancers chatting, sipping, mingling, and nibbling, checking each other out in a mix of living theater and living room." -Seattle Weekly Spring Arts Preview
INHABIT is a choreographed party, where the conversation is as good as the wine, anticipation is built and fulfilled, and every guest is there to celebrate a moment, the very moment you are in. Four performers challenge preconceived ideas of dance and provide a space for the community to engage with art and each other, to affect and be affected by the world around them.
THE LIFT
In juxtaposition to the high traffic and visibility of Seattle's Pike Place Market, The Lift is a one on one dance experience. The Lift mingles components of fear, risk, gift, touch, humor, language and dance. Performed in one of the cities strongest cultural landmarks, The Lift engages and assists people from all walks of life as they venture up one of the steepest blocks in Seattle.
Through the simple act of functionally pushing an individual up a hill, we touch. Through a conversation about what they like in art and beauty, we engage the artistic mind. Through the gift of a dance at the end, we share the abstract art form of dance. And through talking, laughing, and making an intimate connection that extends beyond the pleasantries of a hand shake on the way up the hill, we plant the seed for meaningful interactions between strangers in the world.
TIPPING POINT
Tipping Point is a cumulative installation experience comprised of cinematic images, sound, architecture and "live, kinetic sculpture", set in a visual art context. Tipping Point propels us into the immediate and the essential, where function collides with beauty, and where movement and architecture reflect and refract each other.
By creating a platform to engage with dance as a piece of art, the elements of form, function, time and space become accentuated and overshadow the immediate representational associations of body, breath, sensuality, humanity, sex, voyeurism and all things that happen to the imagination in a theatrical setting.
Classes
Dancy Dance Class
2-hour Master Class
KT Niehoff teaches a juicy technique class where students can expect a deep, fluid warm-up, utilizing the concept of creating three-dimensional space in the joints to internally open and release muscles while maintaining an extended, external awareness. Full body phrase material includes floor work, inversion techniques and theatricality. This class also includes time for discussion and partnering techniques. (SIGN UP)
Re-invent Your Eye: Tools for Abstract Composition
5-to-10 day workshop / 3-5 hours per day
Highly structured improvisational scores examine the tools and conceptual premises for creating non-linear, non-narrative art works. Structures are designed to dissect the elements used in art making, such as, but not limited to, personal movement vocabulary, space / architecture, theatrical elements, time / timing, identification of an idea and development, counterpoint and theme. Participants are initially asked to focus exclusively on one artistic component, defining its parameters and universal properties, as well as individual likes / dislikes and aesthetics. By exploring the elements individually, we pluck each tool of the craft apart from the other, creating the opportunity to see the work exclusively in relationship to one attribute. This process is useful for enhancing critical thinking techniques used to assess material.
As the workshop continues, the defined elements are combined in a multitude of configurations, still using improvisational scores as the exploration device. Through this interplay the work develops in complexity and possibility.
Because this class uses improvisational, interactive scores to examine the principals of creating works of art, the group also gets to focus on how to work effectively inside an ensemble dynamic. This practice maximizes the performers opportunities for intelligent, in the moment decision-making.
Each day consists of interactive scores, watching of improvised material and time for evaluation and assessing the work amongst one another. (SIGN UP)
Ride the Fall: A partnering workshop with Lingo
2-hour Master Class
The work of Lingo is rigorous, physical and athletic. Both the men and women of the company are well versed in solo dancing skills as well as a contact based form of contemporary dance partnering. Sharing weight and controlling momentum when dancing with another person creates opportunities for "rides", "falls", and "flight". This workshop teaches students some basic skills and patterns of contemporary partner dancing in a safe and thrilling environment. (SIGN UP)