Imaginary Bodies with Muffy Koster (she/her)

Imaginary Bodies is a somatic movement workshop designed to give marginalized artists tools to explore gendered embodiment with a sense of play. Participants incorporate poetic images, gestures, even objects from nature or infrastructure into their body, and we learn to listen and respond to the body in turn.

WHO IS THIS GATHERING FOR: This workshop is intended to be an affinity space for queer folx.

workshop length: 120 minutes

workshop location: Balletcenter Studios

Muffy Koster is an experimental performer, acting teacher and intimacy choreographer living in Ramaytush Ohlone Land, San Francisco. Her work is interdisciplinary and process-oriented, aiming to break conventions in how live performance is developed and practiced in order to create new pathways in (or out) for trans and queer artists. Her writing and workshops use experimental acting as a template to explore how gendered bodies move through systems of power, and mimic the movements of bodies of power such as infrastructure, settler colonialism, and labor.

Pelvic Floor Awareness with Sam Arrow (they/them)

A gender inclusive, trauma-informed, movement based class where you can learn about pelvic floor anatomy, bring awareness to your pelvic floor with gentle stretching and activation of muscles in and around the pelvis. Yoga mat or towel recommended.

workshop length: 60 minutes

workshop location: Balletcenter Studios

Sam Arrow is a dance artist creating work that feels both personal and universal. Their art centers on family needs within ableist, heteronormative, oppressive structures. They are a micro activist who draws on their life as a parent and partner, and knowledge about the human body to empower those around them.  They trained in dance, including ballet, modern and jazz from the age of 8 and graduated with a BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona and then earned a Doctorate in Physical therapy from the AZ School of Health Sciences.  They are a Permanent Artist in Residence with [nueBOX] and business owner of Arrow Physical Therapy, which specializes in pelvic floor health.

IG @samand___ TikTok @arrowphysicaltherapy

NakeDance: Where Nudism Celebrates w/ Movement with Martin A. Dorado (he/him) & Nathan Serrato (he/they)

This clothing-optional all-levels class is open to anyone interested in exploring movement that celebrates the body/spirit at its purest. We’ll move w/ yoga movements, flow into guided improvisation and finish w/ free dance and meditation. Option to undress will be encouraged to enjoy a naked movement practice.

Ages 18+.

workshop length: 90 minutes

workshop location: Visionary Dance Theatre

Mr. Dorado graduated with a BA in Dance from New Mexico State University in 2011. His passion for dance took him to San Diego in 2012 where he has been performing, teaching, and choreographing for many local dance artists and companies. This includes Visionary Dance Theater (2012-2015), The PGK Dance Project (2014-2020) , Compulsion Dance and Theater (2014-2020), as a guest artist for San Diego Dance Theater (2019) and Continuum Dance Project (2019), and Malashock Dance (2014,2020). Since 2021 Mr. Dorado has been with one of San Diego’s newest dance companies Disco Riot as a company dancer, choreographer, instructor, and lead artist. Since 2015, he has developed a passion for a nudist lifestyle and explores ways to bring together dance and nudist communities through performance, yoga, and movement experiences. Marty is thrilled to be part of many vibrant and diverse communities here in Southern California.

Nathan is a Master Certified Trauma and Life Coach and a Yoga & Breathwork Instructor. Nathan helps queer leaders and visionaries in the journey towards, sexual, spiritual, and financial reclamation. Whether it’s to lead with more courage, to love with more vulnerability, or to have better sex, Nathan uses a holistic and integrative process to help guide people into their most unconscious blocks and move through them with grace so they can fully embody the confidence, joy, and power they are deserving of.

queerconscious.com

For Instagram: @madpassionz @queerconscious @sandiegonakedyoga #NakeDance #sandiegonakedyoga #NormalizeNudity #bodypositivity

giggles n wiggles with Derrick Paris (he/they/she)

LET’S MOVE. This class begins with an improvisation and somatic based warm-up followed by task-based across the floor explorations. Then, let’s round the class out with a fun, upbeat and exhilarating combination allowing us to live in the unknown, make the silliest mistakes and giggle at our ability to be everything that we are in that moment.

workshop length: 90 minutes

workshop location: Balletcenter Studios

Derrick Paris is an LA native and an ever evolving movement and music artist. They graduated from CSULB with a BFA in Dance and now is the Community Programming Director at Stomping Ground L.A. Derrick has recently been a Guest Artist with LACDC and has performed with Fitz & the Tantrums and G Flip.

derrickparis.com / IG: @derrbearr @parisounds

jazz disco with Gabriel Mata (he/him)

It is not just a jazz class to disco music but a complete restructuring of  experiencing “class” and “technique.” It attends more the communal and social aspect of jazz and honors its foundation as dance forms from the African American community while providing space for queerness. It is not product or shape bound but a movement form that offers the movers a range and agency in how much they choose to explore.

workshop length: 60 minutes

workshop location: Balletcenter Studios

Gabriel Mata (pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah) is a Mexican American dance choreographer, educator, arts advocate, and performer. He navigates the world as queer, Latinx, immigrant, and as of recently a permanent resident to the United States. He received his MFA in dance from the University of Maryland – CP.

Mata’s genre of dance is motion memoirs. Through his work, Mata accesses histories of the moving body living in colored skin. Mata taps into distant memory, and uses voice to work through intersectionality. While focused on movement, the work is about centering marginalized narratives and identities removed from expectation of concert dance and the white lens.

Mata’s dance works have been performed in Minnesota, California, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington DC, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, his work has been presented at Stanford University, San José State University, Georgian Court University, and American University.

@gabrielmatamovement

Contemporary Ballet w/ Joseph Lister (he/they)

A mix of technique and just letting go, we will spend time at the barre, floor and just grooving (open level).

workshop length: 60 minutes

workshop location: BalletCenter Studios

Joseph Lister began his dance training at California State University, Channel Islands at age 19. While there he became the founder and captain of CI’s first dance team, Breaking Pointe. He then transferred to University of California, Riverside where he received his Bachelors of Arts in Dance (2015). While at UCR Joseph received the GLUCK fellowship award and the Chancellor’s Performance Award. During his time there he was an apprentice for Lula Washington Dance Theatre (2013) while attending their Professional Development Program. Joseph also got the chance to assist in choreography in MSJC’s production of Pippin under the direction of Lori Torok. Post grad Joseph has the opportunity to dance with No) One Art House in a residency at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He also took a summer course at Voronezh Ballet School in Russia where he received a certificate on completing their character folk dance intensive. He has since danced with a variety of companies including: Avocado Dance Theatre, Donna Sternberg and Dancers, DagDag Dance, Fuse Dance, and Goblin Party. He currently dances for:  San Diego Ballet, Malashock Dance, Fresh Congress and is co-founder and Artistic Director of CalliOpus Contemporary Dance.

@brosephlister_