Friday, August 19, 7:30 p.m. show followed by 9:30 p.m. Artist/Audience Linger + Mingle at Cold Mountain Cafe in downtown Bethlehem

Saturday, August 20, 7:30 p.m. performance, followed by 9:30 p.m. Artist/Audience Linger + Mingle at Terra on Main in downtown Bethlehem

Good for unlimited workshops, and tickets to both Friday and Saturday night performances.

The perfect way for local residents to experience all that Cultivate has to offer! Good for unlimited workshops, Friday and Saturday night performances, and the following meals: Friday lunch, Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, Saturday dinner, and Sunday brunch.

The most affordable way to experience all that Cultivate has to offer! Good for unlimited workshops, Friday and Saturday night performances, lodging Friday and Saturday night, and the following meals: Friday lunch, Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, Saturday dinner, and Sunday brunch.

Friday, August 19 / 10:00 a.m. - noon / Great Hall Using seriousness and awkwardness to our artistic advantage, we will take contact improvisation seriously by setting aside the sometimes recreational emphasis of contact in favor of technical, compositional, philosophical, and performative discourse, thereby framing contact first and foremost as a highly evolved art form.  Unlike many contact workshops that focus on increasing each dancer’s comfort level, we will cultivate the awkward.  The often unacknowledged stylistic emphasis on smooth, flowing contact dancing will be replaced by illogical, stilted, quirky, and surprising movement.  We will find a fuller palette of expression and artistry by diversifying our physical choices as well as our notions of what contact improvisation encompasses. We will draw from structures created and utilized by the Lower Left Performance Collective, including: The Fussy Dance, The Four Winds, and Event Dancing.  As an integral part of this workshop, we will watch each other to observe the results of exploration and to incite and inform our own dancing. 

Friday, August 19 / 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. / Great Hall This class will utilize ballet technique to find clarity, strength, efficiency, and yes, even release, in movement.  Instead of forcing your body into some unattainable balletic ideal, we’ll fit ballet to each of our bodies as appropriate, and be okay with that.  The class will be structured somewhat traditionally in that we’ll go from the barre to center, but with some useful and interesting tweaks along the way.  We’ll use some non-traditional music too. Some experience with ballet will be necessary—we’ll work at the intermediate level.  However, hair buns and pink tights are not required (although not unwelcome!).

Friday, August 19 / 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. / Creative Edge Dance Studios / This workshop will focus on inventive ways to integrate movement and dance structures into a classroom setting. From early morning stretch and breathing exercises (yoga, tai chi) to more formal choreographic ideas for teaching math and history, workshop participants will gain practical and creative advice on how to make the classroom a laboratory for learning, playing, and moving!!

Friday, August 19 / 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. / White Mountain School Black Box Theatre/ This is about seeing dance and understanding how it translates into still two dimensional images.  We won’t need or use a camera.  Instead, we’ll look together at several short dance pieces ­ deciding exactly which images might tell the story of that dance, seeing if there is one “iconic” image, etc.  The program would be useful not just for those who want to photograph dance, but also for dancers and choreographers to better understand how their pieces might best be photographed, or for anybody seriously interested in photography.  Its lesson is:  “Look before you photograph”.

Friday, August 19 / 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. / Great Hall Blending Kline Technique, Safety Release Technique, and release technique Katherine’s class is an energetic exploration of movement from the inside out.  Emphasis is placed on the initiation of the movement and the path the various body parts take in space to discover how one’s own body moves within the movement.  We embrace the space through phrases that move in and out of the floor and carry us in and out of balance. Class begins quietly and gradually builds in complexity, culminating in a dynamic phrase.  Sleeves and knee-pads or long pants are recommended.

Saturday, August 20 / 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. / Great Hall This class, ideal for people who are new to dance or who may never have tried dance before but have always wanted to, integrates yoga, dance, and improvisation. Beginning on the mat with yoga as a warm-up, moving to set dance patterns that travel across the floor, and culminating in fun and interactive improvisational games, Mindful Moving allows participants to experience mindfulness, creative exploration, and the joy of moving through space with others. Ideal for those with little to no dance experience, but also fun for those with more movement experience. Some movement background (yoga or dance) will be helpful. Please bring a mat.

Saturday, August 20, 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. / White Mountain School Black Box Theatre / A  workshop for experienced performers that explores the nature of the vulnerable, personal and revealing solo.  How can we as a solo moving artist represent ourselves honestly and move the audience with us through the course of a performance?  Can we speak to the spectator in ways that allow them to acknowledge their own self through our physicalized poetry?  In order to create and stay connected to our authenticity, we will utilize writing exercises, improvisation, and phrase making to build a toolkit for creation of our own solo work.

Saturday, August 20, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. / Great Hall Open Source Forms is a physical practice that intertwines the technical and creative. It is an expansion of its predecessor, Skinner Releasing Technique, and has been developed by Stephanie Skura based on her years as a teacher, improviser, choreographer, performer and SRT core faculty member. In this session, the instructor will guide movement studies, imagery-based experiences, and brief partner exchanges for conveying kinesthetic information. A supportive atmosphere encourages the participant to self-discover and determine ways to engage with the material that are appropriate and satisfying. Wherever the participant is in her or his own process, OSF facilitates softening and letting go of tensions, holdings and habitual patterns so that other possibilities can emerge.

Saturday, August 20, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. / Creative Edge Dance Studios / A fun and instructive workshop for dancers and non-dancers ages 8-12. The class will begin with a vigorous and easy-to-follow warm-up, and then move across the floor with a combination of tumbling, animal locomotion, and partnering. At the end of the class we will put on music and have a good old-fashioned dance party!! All are welcome- dancers, athletes, gymnasts, martial artists...anyone with a body!!

Saturday, August 20 / 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. / Great Hall This class combines modern techniques and contemporary styles with latin and afro/cuban music. This lively class filled with sensual Latin rhythms will allow you to play with your own style while discovering how technique can partner you in exploring different dynamics. If you want to loosen up your spine, hips and come out SWEATY, this is the class for you! Intermediate level and above. Be prepared to have some serious fun!

Sunday, August 21 / 10:00 a.m. - noon / Great Hall / The practice of Compositional Improvisation offers us profound tools for creating community. Cultivating an ongoing practice of paying attention, we hone the skills needed to co-inhabit the performative, daily, literal and figurative spaces we create together. This workshop begins with solo investigations grounded in turning one’s attention to the inner sensory and imaginal landscape and grows into deep research of whole-group awareness and composing. Exercises act as open doorways into fresh perceptions and unusual movement choices. Solo research supports our ability to make conscious choices in relationship to other, the environment and sound, and provides the foundation for the poetic refinement of one’s own compositional point-of-view. Together we create and embody a true, vibrant and living democracy as we commit to meeting the moment both consciously and collaboratively.