Relationship: more than the sum of their parts.

A Master Class with K.J. Holmes

This Master class, by luminary facilitator, improviser, and teacher K.J. Holmes, tackles the idea of relationship through both body awareness, and environment. Etymology, Physiology, Improvisation are all essential components to K.J.’s approach to relationship in this hour-long movement and improvisation class.

This class plays with the language of somatic studies to create an embodied experience of the mind of physical systems and thinking through image and sensation.

How to make visible the musicality of connection within the body and listen to the confluence with landscape and location.

Here’s how this workshop works...

This is a one-hour online class that you will have access to in your own time and space, and will be able to access again and again, as you wish, though an internet connection. We ask that you not share this as a teaching tool, or send to others, on an honor system.

What will you experience?

This class looks at the relationship between the different parts of the body (bones, muscles, organs) and uses these parts to stimulate and initiate movement. Throughout the class, participants are led through a movement exploration that invites awareness to specific areas of the body starting in a proximal/internal place and moving to the distal ends. At the end of class, participants are asked to continue to look at relationships (with nature, with the space they are in, etc.) and reflect on the class through writing, drawing and applying this practice to other practices.

An important takeaway from this session is understanding the relationship of the parts to the whole. KJ leads a series of roll-downs leading with the brain while naming each organ that follows and leading with the skull and naming each part of the skeletal system that follows. This brings awareness to these landmarks in the body while bringing attention to how they function in a specific motion.

You will leave this class having a deeper understanding of the relationships in the physical body between bones, muscles, organs, joints, etc while also bringing this awareness of relationships to individual practices.

About K.J.

K.J. Holmes, a Brooklyn based dance artist/actor/singer/writer, travels nationally and internationally teaching/performing/creating. K.J. has been exploring improvisation as process and performance since 1981. She has collaborated extensively with Julie Carr, Simone Fort, Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson and Image Lab, Steve Paxton; has performed in the work of Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Xavier Le Roy, Lance Gries, Mark Dendy, Melinda Ring, Karinne Keithley Syers, among many others; performs in Matthew Barney’s new film Redoubt; collaborates with drummer Jeremy Carlstedt in L.I.P. (Love Is Power, MLKjr.); teaches at NYU/ETW, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College and Movement Research; completed the School for Body Mind Centering(r), William Esper Studio (Meisner acting with master teacher Terry Knickerbocker),Satya Yoga (with Sondra Loring) and is currently becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner (Ayurveda’s World). K.J. is devising a new piece titled 900 Bees Are Humming, a multi disciplinary work exploring death, life and transformation. Her work has been presented by many venues including The Chocolate Factory, PS122, Danspace Project, Mana Contemporary Chicago, The Belfry, Chashama, Dixon Place.

FAQs

Q: How do I access the class?

A: You will be sent a PDF with a password to view the class on Vimeo.

Q: Can I download this content?

A: The class is not for download, but the link to access it through Vimeo will remain valid in the future in case you wish to revisit the class.

Q: Can I share this class with others or use it for teaching?

A: We kindly request that this single purchase class is for your use only. If you wish to license it for academic purposes or group sharing, please reach out and we can arrange an agreement to allow you to use it for large audiences, with the permission of the teacher.