contemporaryTRAP Workshop with Jess Pretty

This class is highly physical and highly sensational. I approach this class the same way I approach my research: How can we locate pleasure and euphoria in the body as we dance and carry with us the real stakes involved with being a part of our culture? Through looking at the multiple ways in which the body can process and produce movement influenced by an Africanist vernacular aesthetic we will investigate the ways in which we use the strength and agility of the body to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and into a deep questioning of our physical practice. This includes but is not limited to; falling into different rhythms and directions by utilizing movement that invites us to be off balance, constantly shifting our weight, challenging our musicality and creating space that allows us to feel the volume of our kinesphere so that we may build trust within our moving selves.

Jess Pretty is a New York based dance artist, choreographer and teacher. She received her MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a Queer Studies minor. Pretty has performed in works by Will Rawls, Jennifer Monson, Niall Jones, Cynthia Oliver, Abby Zbikowski and more. She has presented work at panoply performance lab, the CURRENT SESSIONS, three ACDA conferences, the Emerging Artists Concert Series at Green Street Studios, and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

This residency is made possible through a Project Support Grant from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.