My dear dancing friends,
It is with a heavy heart that I am reaching out to inform you, that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, VIM VIGOR has been forced to cancel our August 2020 programming. For the safety of all involved and in accordance with what New York City is forecasting with regards to social distancing - it was impossible for us to host this incredible platform in 2020.
As VIM reflects on what this means for the company's livelihood and for the Arts at large - I can only offer that I am certain we WILL meet again. Sharing our work and pushing the limits of what dance theater can be has always been a communal effort of VIM - an ethos that guides us through absolutely fantastic times and the worst. I'm gutted to miss out on the sweat, the freakishly challenging physicality, the wild headspaces, the NEW ideas, and the far-flung community that make our programming so enriching. I / WE treasure all of this - AND we treasure what it means to experience HEALTH.
Winter and Summer 2021 are already in the works. I am setting my sights on January 4-8, 2021 (tentative Winter dates) and plan to guide myself and the company towards those opportunities for connection.
In the meantime, VIM thanks you for your interest and support and we very much hope to work with you in the future.
And on a personal note I ask that you please provide the best example you can in your communities: with appropriate social distancing - with advocacy for the arts - with service - and with your votes in November.
So much love and gratitude,
Shannon Gillen / Artistic Director
​
AUGUST 2020
SUMMER TRAINING
///
floorwork, improvisation, partnering, acting and 2 creative processes
VIM VIGOR / week one COMPOSITION RESEARCH
VICTORIA P MIRANDA / week two CREATIVE PROCESS
VIM VIGOR's SUMMER PROGRAM is in response to the need for contemporary dance-theater based education in the greater NYC area. The PROGRAM is anchored in the company's commitment to activating the whole of the performer, from the extremes of virtuosic dance to the fluid awareness of emotion and experience.
VIM's program is focused on professional development with daily contemporary floorwork classes that improve dancers' ability to access their natural stealth with power into and out of the floor, their athleticism to move with efficiency and healthy alignment, and their artistry to work with context, emotional impulse and the ensemble. Afternoons are dedicated to workshops focused on improvisation, contact partnering and momentum based mechanics, VIM VIGOR repertory, dance theater exploration, creative exchange with the company, and roundtable community discussions. Our training also prioritizes acting classes prior to the physical aspects of the day, to provide each dancer with in-depth theatrical training.
​
In addition to VIM's incredible artists teaching classes and workshops, we are delighted to have several special guests join us from around the world including Victoria P. Miranda from Spain and Ben Mehl (USA). Both weeks will dive into days that combine hard-core training with research and communal exploration. Other guest teachers to be announced shortly!
​
​
GIBNEY DANCE CENTER
280 BROADWAY / entrance on Chambers Street
August 3-14, 2020
TWO WEEKS
MONDAY-FRIDAY 10am-6pm
FULL TWO WEEKS - $1500
ONE FULL WEEK - $800
EARLY BIRD (applications received before Feb 1, 2020) - $1450
​
To Apply:
Send a short letter of interest along with these supporting materials: Summer Program Form, resume, headshot, and video links. Video links should include two consecutive minutes of your dancing (choreographed phrasework and improvisation are both acceptable, but no editing please). There is no in-person audition for this program, so please share footage that best represents you. Please note, that dancers must be at least 18 years old, but there is no age limit. All participants should be advised that this is advanced professional training, and while we accept and value a range of experience, expect to the challenged every day. It's the best way to grow!
Please note that the program now runs 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday.
All materials should be emailed to: info@vimvigordance.com, with SUMMER 2019 APPLICANT in the subject line.
​
Security Deposits / Tuition (to hold your spot with partial payment):
Two week tuition is $1500 / One week is $800
Once you have been accepted, you will receive a personal invoice sent to your email from PayPal. This invoice is personal to you and will hold all payments received and balances due. There is a one time $25 processing fee included in this deposit. All participants are required to submit a non-refundable security deposit in order to hold their place.
Once your deposit is processed, you will be issued a balance for the remaining tuition only - due by July 1st.
*By holding your spot, we must turn others away. Because of this, please be sure that you can join us as no refunds are possible for our educational platforms.
Please feel free to email us directly if you have any questions: info@vimvigordance.com
​
Location:
VIM VIGOR is thrilled to bring the fourth year of our summer program to the heart of NYC! We are holding our intensive at Gibney Dance Downtown / 280 Broadway. This incredible facility provides world-class studios, dressing rooms, lounges, and has direct access to many of New York's subway lines. This prime location also means dancers will be able to easily grab food at nearby coffee shops, delis, or restaurants.
​
QUESTIONS CAN BE DIRECTED TO info@vimvigordance.com
No meals, housing, or transportation are included in tuition. Housing arrangements and travel arrangements are at the discretion of each student. We do however happily connect accepted participants looking for housing, so that they might find accommodations together. We generally advocate for Airbnb listings, as they are reliable and affordable in Brooklyn and Queens.
​
SPECIAL GUESTS:
​
VICTORIA P. MIRANDA (SPAIN)
FLOORWORK
CREATION PROCESS
​
VICTORIA's BIO
​Victoria P. Miranda is Graduated in Dance Pedagogy and she has a Master in Scenic Arts. She created Choreography’s for the National Company in Costa Rica, National Conservatory in Montevideo, Dantzaz Company, Conservatory in Burgos, CSDMA in Madrid, Jalapa University (Mexico).
Invited to MUDANZAS , Festival in Costa Rica to be part of the Jury in a Choreography Context.
She collaborates with Los INnato, in Costa Rica. Her work “AND THAT´S WHY I´M HERE TODAY“ won the prize Solodos en Danza.
Involved in the theater-dance-video project Memoryhouseproduction, Bruxelles- Slovakia. Part since 2013 in a project in Brazil called Connection Samabaia. An exchange with artists from different disciplines.
She worked as an interpreter and Choreographer assistant with Carmen Werner (National Prize), Provisional Danza, for 7 years. She has worked as choreographer assistant, and dancer in St.Gallen Theater, for guest choreographers Josef Frucek and Linda Kapetanea (RootlessRoot).
As interpreter, Johannes Wieland, Toula Limnaios, Rafaele Giovanola, Linga Company, Eric Trotier, Phillip Tallard, Ruses Project, Arrieritos, Maura Morales, Co Erasga
She is working intermittently as a teacher in various schools and institutions in Spain and abroad since 2003, including: SEAD, The Place, Marameo, Henny Jurriens Foundation, CSDMA, Nunart, Staatstheater Kassel, Toula Limnaios, Cocoon Dance Company, Linga dance company, Theater St. Gallen, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Japan, Russia, Canada, Costa Rica
VICTORIA'S
WORKSHOP
SPECIAL GUEST /// VICTORIA P MIRANDA from Spain
international artist / teacher / choreographer
The class is highly physical with a lot of traveling and sequences that require a sense of power, music and energy.
By exploring different ways of merging into and out of the floor and using the speed and acrobatics sequence, we will investigate different dynamics and qualities of movement, and participants will learn how to accumulate more energy.
​
My main point of departure is the “ recycling materials “ and making long sequence to work out the stamina. Also the isolation of individual body parts and use the centre as a departure point to movement.
Trying to avoid the same patterns of moving and finding new skills which can help us to feel maybe a “new you moving”. Surprising ourselves.
We will work about our individual strong presence.
Let us fly with our imagination………..
​
BEN MEHL (USA)
​
ACTING / PHYSICAL THEATER
BEN's BIO
BEN'S
WORKSHOP
BEN MEHL / SPECIAL GUEST / ACTING
Mehl has served as an adjunct teacher at the NYU Graduate Acting Program, where he received his MFA in acting. He currently teaches in the Hagen Core Training program at HB Studio and at the New York Film Academy. He has also taught at The Public Theater, Red Bull Theater, The Refugee Youth Summer Academy, the New School and as a private coach. He is a member of the Actor's Center and a volunteer at the 52nd Street Project. Acting credits include: Off-Broadway: The Government Inspector, School for Scandal; (Red Bull Theater); Pericles, Comedy of Errors (Public Theater). Regional: The Crucible, Yentl (Cleveland Playhouse); Troublemaker (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Six Degrees of Separation (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Henry V (Two River Theater); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Chautauqua Theater Company). Other New York: dannykrisdonnaveronica, Julius Caesar (Wheelhouse Theater); At the Table (Fault Line Theatre); Habit (P.S. 122); The Law of Return (4th Street Theatre). TV: "The Good Wife", "Supernatural Investigator". Film: Viral Beauty, The Fly Room.
When you can surprise yourself, you can surprise an audience. Through games and physical/vocal play, participants will work on following impulses, listening, befriending failure, stepping out into the unknown and assuming their own brilliance. We will play games as a group that demand a high level of focus and listening, we will also work in smaller groups and in partners, acting and reacting and honing in on a moment-to-moment sense of play. We will also explore how true desire and need can force us to get out of our own heads and place the focus on our scene partner.
​
VIM VIGOR SPECIAL WORKSHOPS
PARNTER PLAY
IMPETUS
Starting with the basics of a rolling point of contact through which both dancers give and share weight - participants will ride the wave together without judgement, prediction or independent control. Through a guided set of exercises and propositions, dancers will become mind reading daredevils that fall, fly, slide, pivot and support a shared practice. Culminating in a circle of support, dancers will join one another to explore and share; in the moment creative choices will form new pathways and raw material for future creative development.
A study of the body as a vehicle for storytelling. This workshop aims to source the impulses that create movement. In order to connect to our experiences and our ability to emote. Viewing movement as the epicenter for communication; we will train our sensitivity to the group mind. In an effort to create context for improvised scores. Working towards efficiency in our actions to create clarity in our narratives.
VIVID STATES / ALTER EGO
VIM VIGOR COMPOSITION
RESEARCH
I’m interested in raising the stakes and in doing so by thrusting performers into surreal and heightened spaces. I’m interested in physical and psychological triggers and portals. I’m interested in bringing characters to life that begin at our true natures and then breaking through into new and forbidden places. Working with improvisational and theatrical propositions we will look at: what happens when the floodgates of your inner world are opened? Who do you become when you believe in a fantasy? How do we move seamlessly between the surreal and the simple? The balance of listening and reacting will offer unprecedented access into the unknown territories of other people and ourselves. Meisner based acting exercises have been coupled with Gillen’s unique theatrical approach to assist dancers in accessing their ability to live truthfully. Monologue and scene study will also be explored.
Bring it all together inside composition research with VIM VIGOR.
We are excited to explore collaborative research methods that expand our toolkit for creative thinking and problem solving. We will dig into challenging prompts, generate many sketches, perform known and improvised scenes, and generally upend the creative practice together. Mind, body and inner life are going to get a work out.