Combining techniques and styles found inside of Company 605's movement vocabulary and working language, and improvisational prompts from current repertoire, exercises are aimed toward building strength and speed, wielding tension and release, and finding groove. Tasks are given to acknowledge the weight of the body, both resting and moving through space, to rediscover instinctual pathways, and to practice capturing and utilizing the natural momentum of body weight to develop connective flow through raw and powerful execution.
Participants explore relationship to the floor, articulation and isolation of body parts at changing levels, and inhabiting various physical states, with the class offering multiple techniques and approaches around warping interpretation of time and space within the body to unlock unexpected movement patterning.
Featured Artists
Josh Martin · Performer
Originally from Alberta, Canada, Josh Martin (he/him) is a maker, performer and producer who has been based in Vancouver, BC, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, for the past 20 years. He is co-founder and current Artistic Co-Director of Company 605, an arts organization producing and presenting various dance projects and films, and valuing collaboration as a critical path to new directions in dance. Additionally, he has maintained an ongoing career as an interpreter and collaborator, having worked with dozens of dance companies and independent choreographers across Canada including: Justine A. Chambers, Dana Gingras (Animals of Distinction), Wen Wei Wang (Wen Wei Dance), Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond (Out Innerspace Dance Theatre), Helen Walkley, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Amber Funk Barton (the response.), Rachel Meyer, Serge Bennathan (Les Productions Figlio), Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Karen Jamieson, and as a past company member of Ottawa’s Le Groupe Dance Lab under the direction of Peter Boneham / Tony Chong.
Through both Josh’s independent practice, and with Company 605, his choreographic work has been presented throughout Canada and internationally, touring to numerous festivals and venues in over 15 countries worldwide. He has created multiple commissioned works for other companies and artists, and within many post-secondary schools and universities. Off the stage, he has served as Vice-Chair of The Dance Centre’s Board of Directors, Past Chair of Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists and currently sits on the Vancouver Creative Space Society. Josh is a past recipient of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award and, alongside his partner Lisa Mariko Gelley, the 2024 Lola McLaughlin Legacy Award celebrating achievement in BC Dance.