Daily Class

Daily morning classes according to Weld Company:
Spend the first half hour on your own, do what you need to do. Then, and together with your company, work ten minutes with each proposal, giving you a one hour collective class, based on the themes
• Instant desires
• Celebrate the past
• In the future I hope that a repertory dance company will spend ten minutes every day doing…
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Instant desires and celebrate the past
1.1)
• feel the weight of your arms
• explore the connection hand – foot
• celebrate what release-technique has provided to you, to us, to the community
• airplane, in 2s: one lying on floor with legs up, the other balancing perpendicularly, with his/her hips on the feet of the lying one. Change roles
• collective karaoke from laptop screen (Frost is nice but complicated, Stevie Wonders
I just called is easier)

1.2)
• all stand in circle, one or more persons step in and dance to snippets of music of various style & length, changing persons when music changes (music score prepared in advance)
• shake all you can shake together with Nina Simone singing Sinnerman
• dance from the point just behind the tip of your nose
• in 3s: move towards the touch, two people touching one, take turns

In the future I hope that a repertory dance company will spend ten minutes every day
2.1)
• dancing in the dark to two pop songs
• All company members lift one member up in the air on their hands. Take the flying person for a ride in the space. Take turns.
• singing, for instance learn an alternative melody of Twinkle twinkle little star
• do 10 burpees and then 10 squats (MovNat style, or not)
• rainbow meditation. Practice your own choice of meditation technique, become a rainbow.

2.2)
• Why do I (still) dance? Why am I here?
think about it, then dance the answer
• those who want to continue dancing do so, others follow their movements as a partner with hands-on
• two people dance synchronized with eyes closed while two are watching
• move around in the space with eyes closed until you are lost, then reorient yourself (while eyes are still closed)
• whispers game: holding hands standing in circle, whisper sentence to your neighbour, let the whispering go full circle until the first person gets the message back and tells it out loud.

2.3)
• move from gravitational waves
• warm up joints of your body together standing in circle starting down moving up
• drumming on each other
• run – then run like someone else

2.4)
• compressing – expanding, all body at once
• dance the dances that are already there, around us, everywhere
• compression in couples: one lying on floor on stomach, the other roll on top (perpendicular, from knees to head/arms)
• in 2s: one eyes closed, the other touching. Closed eye person saying words at each touch, then after some minutes dance from the memory of the accumulated information

2.5)
• walk. Then walk like yourself, but exaggerated. Then walk backwards or like your mother or on all fours, anyone can propose at any time
• sound – using same score as above. Also: make sounds from a specific cinema genre.
• stand on your head. Stand on your head in small circle so that you can touch the feet of your colleague, in the air
• celebrate dementia – dance, and constantly forget what you just did
• dance from the sensing of the heartbeat of the other

2.6)
• shake with Nina, again
• clothes-swop: take off your clothes (don’t get naked) throw them in a pile, get dressed in someone elses stuff. Take a look at your new colleagues and dance.
• hands-on, in 2s: to land in someone else’s clothes
• drag someone across the floor to melancholic music (like Joan Baez’ Diamonds & Rust, or Prince’s Purple Rain)

17/10 -2016

A mixture of Instant desires, Celebrate the past & In the future I hope that a repertory dance company will spend ten minutes every day doing…

• Two on one. One person is lying on the floor two are holding up/supporting body parts and being attentive for reactions.

• Trying to gleek with the help of a Youtube tutorial. Talking about the anatomy of the tongue.

• Holding hand/lower arm and moving around in space. The middle person is leading one person with one hand and following another person with the other hand.

• (Talking about the presentation on the DC-Intro.)

25/10  – 2016

• Begin by putting each other in to “slack” (open up the neck for free flow of cranial fluids).
  Continue by moving from the experience of “slack”.
• Moving from the experience of touch, thinking mostly on the texture-like-touch and the feeling of heat and cold.
• Thinking as a continuation from the movement that appeared from the “slacking” exercise. Continue in the same manner but using vocal sounds instead of movement.

30/10 – 2016

• Rainbow meditation – Turn yourself into a rainbow using whatever kind of meditation that you would like.
• Moving in/with eights. Thinking more of the shape of an eight (8) or thinking the infinity sign not counting eights.
• Lying down on the floor.
  With open eyes project a relation between your body parts and the ceiling thinking about the space in between.
  Close the eyes and percieve a relationship with your back and the floor.
  Continue by switching between closed and open eyes and projecting/perceiving front and back. Then try reversing the action of the eyes.
  Possible to rise and continue doing the exercise standing.
• Move by translating the room or the objects in the room into movement.
  It is ongoing so you don’t have to stay on one object but can constantly shift to another when it appears in front of you.
• Dancing from the sensation of the skin/touch. The feeling of your own clothes, the touching of the clothes on the skin or vice versa, and how the body moves inside the clothes.
• Exercise taken from “How music works” by David Byrne.
  – Improvise to the music that is playing.
  – Create from the movements appearing in your improvisation a short phrase of about eight counts/movements.
  – When you have your phrase continue to do it on repeat.
  – When you notice another phrase in the room that is stronger than the one you are dancing then start copying that one.
  – When everybody is doing the same phrase the exercise should end.
• Cellular Stretching™ – Two people on one person. One person lying down. The other two stretch the person lying down on a cellular level for 5 min.
  You can also stretch the smallest muscles you can think of on the person lying down. It can be muscles you know exist but could also be ones that think could exist independent of their actual existence.

1/11 – 2016

-Celebrate the butt. Talk about stomach muscles, mula bandha, Uddiyana Bandha, pelvic floor, “knipövningar”etc.
-Celebrate the weight of spaces you didn’t know exist.
-Three by three. One person closes her eyes, two people lift the first person’s body parts and listen to where they want to go.
-Lie on the floor side by side in a circle, heads towards the middle. Tell a story collectively in 5min. Say one or two words each, one after the other. Then dance the story in 5min.
-Make up a hit song through singing (improvisation) in unison for five minutes.

2/11 -2016 (DC-Intro)

-Dancing to a party music in the dark
-Celebrate the weight of spaces you didn’t know exist.
-Tell a story collectively in 5min. Say one or two words each, one after the other. Then dance the story in 5min.

13/12 – 2016

-Celebrating Trisha Brown’s dementia.
-Do/copy what you see in the room.
-Make an origami with your body. Focus on foldings of the joints and of smaller places.
-Make the music and the sound that already is or has been in the room.
-Loose your identity trough movement or stillness.
-Three groups, where one group dances the past, the second dances the present and the third dances future to the Rite of Spring of Stravinsky.
-Disco in the dark.

14/12-2016

– Celebrating the butt. Use your best butt exercises.
– Enjoy yourself through dancing, if you don’t feel enjoyment make sure you’re copying someone else.
– Wrestling in couples and groups interchanging.
– Kittenpile. Lying in a tight group. Move if you need to feel comfortable. Listen to cat sounds.
– Karaoke singing together. Runaway train and Sweet dreams (are made of this)
– Celebrate the diagonal
– Meditate yourself into a rainbow. Use whatever meditation you like.

15/12-2016

– Massage the whole body of another person. In couples and trios.  5 min each person.
– Cellular stretch™ Two people on one person. One person lying down. The other two stretch the person lying down on a cellular level for 5 min.
– Drag each other around the room to melancholic music (Diamonds And Rust by Joan Baez)
– Everybody lifting one person high in the air.

12/1 -2017

-Standing close to each other and letting the breath synchronize.
-Find a sensation and try to enhance the sensation until it becomes something else. Then either go with the new sensation or go with another.
-In couples. One activating and letting go of muscles. The other massages the relaxed body parts. 5 min each.
-Celebrate lacto-acid in the body.for 7min
-Shaking the body upwards and downwards, big and small muscles and body parts, changing the rhythm.
-Go around in the space in a group. One after the other pinpoint details in the room and speak around the detail. You can use your imagination to expand on.
-Get a light treatment with laps. Listen to Bruce SPRINGsteen.
-Two by two. One pets the other who is lying in a comfortable position. You can change position when needed. Listen to Patti Smith.

WC@DC February 6 2017

• standing up, bounce lightly (like small jumps but the tips of your toes don’t leave the ground) for ten minutes
• celebrate sweat
• Soul Train: split the group in two and stand in two lines facing each other, with some space between the lines, like making up the track of train rails, so that the first two people facing each other can meet and dance their way down the aisle and when they have made their way down, next first people can start their trip on the train of Soul, fuelled by nice energy music
• dance with one missing body part
• celebrate Swedish folk dance
• celebrate the possibilities of being many: copy the part in Alexander Ekman’s choreography “Midsommarnattsdröm” (Midsummer Night’s dream) where everyone standing in a very tight line move forwards with small steps like a myriapod (tusenfoting).
• God Walk: stand in a line side by side along one wall, walking slowly and together forwards across the floor. Acknowledging and projecting forwards your heart’s desire while maintaining the lateral sensing of the others, the togetherness.

WC@DC February 7 2017

• Give a treatment to the space we are in. It can be vocal, physical, a massage etc. Consider it a reciprocal action; it works both ways, the space treats you back
• Body surfing – in couples across the floor and in bigger groups
• Run around in the space, find someone to hug and together slowly go down to the floor. Has to be done to good Wagner music.
• Celebrate alternative facts and truths that you have come across in your earlier dance training.
• Instant desire (as a response to the previous proposal): Explore authenticity. Dance what is true for you right now in your practice.
• Celebrate Synesthesia. Choose a color, tell it loud and everyone dance that color. If you lack sense of synesthesia, find inspiration from the other movers in the space. Anyone can call out a new color when you think it’s time to move on. (possible soundtrack: True Colors sung by Ane Brun or Cyndi Lauper, Coat of many colors by Dolly Parton, Colors by Laleh)

WC@DC February 8 2017

• Hands-on work in 2s, one rubbing the other, the one receiving can be standing or lying.
5 min each
• Shaking. Small or big shakes all body at once or parts at a time
• In 2s: one places hands on each side of the upper ribcage of the other, manipulating/guiding this person into movement. After 5 min change roles
• Swop a piece of clothing with someone else, then let the clothes guide your dancing and look at the bodies moving around you as hangers of clothes.
(music proposal: Lucy/Rrose Chloroform)
• In small groups of 3 or 4, make a composition of sound and movement together. The movements and the sounds are linked and produced simultaneously
• Dance from pleasure or copy/mimic someone else

WC@DC February 9 2017

• Foot work. Work on your feet/make your feet work
• One brain many units. Dance using the image of us all sharing one brain, moving as limbs or units connected to this brain
• In 2s, hands on: one places hand on different places on the body of the other, who moves towards or away from the touch. 5  min, then switch roles
• Walk and talk about a place you know well, a very familiar place that you can describe in all details. Talk your native tongue and when you feel you can really see this place, dance in it.
• Lifting each other: everyone gets a one minute ride in the air supported by the rest

WC@DC March 19 2018
• Predicting. Watching someones movement, predicting where it is going/its continuation through ones one moving
• Moving as somebody else, in or outside the studio, to Carolas “Evighet”
• Voice + movement: in pairs, throw an imaginary ball of whatever size, weight or material, to your partner, with sounding. The receiver may also sound while remolding the ball with movement & sound, then throwing it back.
• Pas de Bourrée across the space to Michael Jacksons Beat It
• Game of tagging: one person is the tagger, everyone who gest tagged joins in the running & touching (accumulations of taggers) until everyone is tagged. Repeat moving on all fours and then repeat crawling, full body on floor (rolling and gliding allowed).
• Five people volunteer to be the leaders of the game, proposing by moving on a trip across space, ending in a station where something happens. The whole group follows, mimicking the leader in locomotion on the trip and whatever activity on the station, until next leader takes over and guides the group on a new trip.
• Hands-on: 3-4 people lying connected on the floor while 3-4 people give hands-on, focussing on what the lying body seems to need.

WC@DC March 20 2018
• Duo dancing, change partner when your eyes meet someone elses eyes. A continuous duet dance.
• Divide group in two, “Följa John” / “Simon Says” style of game. Everyone line up following one leaders movements, the leader moves to the back of the line when s/he wants then the new front person leads. Gradually there can be interaction between the two groups.
• Power Posing to “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child
• Dance however you feel like to one song (in this case: “Inspector Norse” by Todd Terje)
• Celebrating the past by doing Trisha Browns Set and Reset with Laurie Andersons music, comsidering these instructions: line-up, stay on the edge, play with proximity and distance, stay simple.
• An instant desire to move from one’s axis; in relation to ones own body, to the space, other people, the music…
• Hands-on in group: everyone working simultaneously on everyone, compressing, gently squeezing

WC@DC March 21 2018
• A five minute Energyboost: create rhythms with your feet, let the rhythm change, allow the movement to spread to long flowing arms.
• To dance in a bubble of hope. In the context of #metoo and the questions around how to keep working with these issues, dance to three songs by women artists, somgs that make you hopeful
• Looping. Referring to Weld Company’s work with Matthias Sperling, move from your body center in a looping way, gradually locomoting towards other people. When everyone is linked by physical contact, continue looping as a joint group.
• Composing dancing mind: dance and affirm by telling out loud “solo”, “duet”, “trio”, “quartet”, – above four is a “group”. Keep saying the word if you need affirmation. Leave whenever, by going “solo” or entering another constellation.
• Cart wheeling across the space. Do both sides (starting right & left hand) and then do it in couples, keeping eye contact throughout the wheel.
• Carwash of sounds. Line up in two rows facing each other, creating a corridor. One/two/three people wishes for an environment/situation, and pass through the corridor receiving a trip of sound and touch from the other people. When reaching the end, they join the line up and next person/group makes another wish

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WC@DC March 22 2018
• In 3s, drumming, tapping, patting 2on1
• In 2s, prepare the other body for something unknown for 5 minutes, the prepared body dances what s/he was prepared for, for 5 minutes
• Continuation – the person who was the preparing one in the previous thing, dances an answer/echo for 5 min.
• Cloud arms – Baroque Somatics. Dance with arms that acknowledge a pose and then let it go
• Impro, one body part at a time initiating (music proposal: Monument, Robyn/Röyksopp)
• Fascia fascination – if someone knows anything about the fascia, share the knowledge.
Then do a fascia exercise together
• Everyone together, lift one at a time for a quick walkaround air ride

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WC@DC Spring Fridays 2019
• Cake Body – from a Burlesque practice, move/dance in front of the mirror, feel your body being cake, being delicious
• move across the floor in a side-by-side line, staying in this line while exploring dynamic and tempo (like advancing slowly with fast mvt, advancing fast w slow mvt etc)
• in 2s, one person gives the other five specific touch information, then the receiver dances a dance from this material. swop roles after 5 minutes
• Jump constantly in a “Simon Says” style (“Följa John”), exchanging the leading role, to the Pointer Sisters song Jump (For my love)
• Contact Impro Blob (group stays in body contact) moves across the floor, taking 10 minutes for the crossing
• Stretch yourself across the floor, going from one stretch position to another
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• Warm up the space. Give the room what it needs to get warm
• in 2s: “I am the drum kit, you are the drummer”, 5 min each
• Tai Chi exercise, arm circles performed in a circle
• Move as if the body was filled with water/as if water moves around in all cavities of the body
• Play a game together: Using only your body, portray/beat/show a song and the rest of the group guessing what song it is
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• celebrate the past: Shake with Nina Simone’s Sinnerman
• Do what you already do, until you already do something else (the plural ‘you’)
• in 2s: receiver says ‘I want to be touched in this + this way, in order to feel like this’ (finding individually desired adverb+adverb+adjective) The giver is always right!
Exercise derives from Jennifer Lacey and/or DD Dorvillier
• Dance the outcome of the previous exercise
• Dance using the floor as your support, as receiver of your weight, let it welcome you.
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• Dance using staccato, dynamics, attraction and danger, to music – search: ‘jealousy’
• ‘Millibar’ – move across space using the full 10 minutes for the travel, while helping each other understand the effect of air pressure on our bodies, considering barometric pressure as a companion to gravity.
• ‘I dance to find out what I believe in’
• Reflect and give value to this time you have on your own for dancing.
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