Workshops

We are very excited to announce a workshop we’ll be co-facilitating at Kinergie Studio in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Check out the details below to find the information on how to sign up and what we’ll be exploring in the workshop.

• Time: 8:00 – 10:00 pm, on Friday 22nd November 2019
• Venue: Kinergie Studio, Level 7, 101A Nguyen Khuyen Street, Dong Da, Hanoi
• Participants: Dancers, dance practitioners of Intermediate+ // Advanced level
• Fee: VND300,000 (VND250,000 for current students of Kinergie)
• Language: English – Vietnamese

In the workshop, you will be introduced to the unique movement style by the founders of the collective, dancers, and choreographers: Liam O’Callaghan & Loura Sita van Krimpen.

The 120-minute workshop will consist of a thorough warming-up, some technique exercises, and company repertoire.

MDC’s home-style has a strong relationship to the floor and requires besides explosiveness also an eye for detail and softness. Throughout the workshop, they will challenge you to ”Meraki” the material. Or in other words, to put yourself into the work they present.

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REGISTER: https://tinyurl.com/Kinergie-Meraki-WS
*Hotline: 84-912081950
*Email: kinergie.studio@gmail.com

ABOUT KINERGIE STUDIO

Kinergie Studio is a dance studio founded by dancer-choreographer Do Hoang Thi Ngoc and Tran Hoang Long with the aim to bring contemporary dance and ballet closer to the community through classes, workshops, performances and collaboration programs with Vietnamese and international dancers and artists. Being not only an address for the community to learn and exchange passion of performing arts, but Kinergie Studio is also a nurturing space for young artists with creative and daring projects and artistic vision.
www.kinergiestudio.com

April 2019 Loura was once again invited to fly over to Zhengzhou from Nanning for dance workshops. Yet this time with a more classical and technical twist… ballet!

Read here more about her first trip to Zhengzhou

Even though Loura specializes in contemporary dance and dance improvisation, she has an immense love and respect for not only her roots but what is also regarded as the basis of many dance techniques, classical ballet.

Before specializing in Modern Dance at Dance Academy Codarts in Rotterdam the Netherlands, Loura had an extensive ballet education at a high-quality ballet school in a small city in the Netherlands, named de Dansacker. Here is where her seed and love for dance was planted!

Furthermore, Loura has very fond memories of her experience dancing amongst talented and versatile ballet professionals at Dutch Dance Company, the Dutch Don’t Dance Division in repertoires such as the ‘Nutcracker’ and ‘Abdallah and the Gazelle of Basra’, both performed in the Hague.

However, teaching these workshops was more than a trip down memory lane… The workshops in Zhengzhou were structured as follows:

• Adults (4 hours): content was a balance of technique class, experiencing the joy of dance/elegance of ballet, and repertoire. For repertoire, Loura worked on a specifically for this level and target group choreographed version of the Odette Act 2 variation of Swan Lake which the participants were able to perform at the end of the day.

• Children (1 hour) creative dance with basic ballet exercises implemented.

Meraki Dance Collective is grateful for it’s relationships such as these with DX Dance Company in Zhengzhou. It’s always so special to get the opportunity to exchange and share dance. Dance is truly, universal!

Are you interested in inviting Meraki Dance Collective to perform, teach or choreograph at your next festival or intensive? Then get in touch with us today! We can’t wait!

It’s Thursday morning and we receive a message from Scott inviting us to teach a dance demo at the next corner this weekend. We’re excited and honored… Our mind races to all different kind of corners, what to do? Who will attend? Will they like our (somewhat different than traditional designed) dance class? How will they feel about dance improvisation? You know what… let’s do this!

The evening was filled with several workshops, our dance demo was one of them. We had an amazing group of enthusiasts, male and female, ready to rock them’ bodies and express themselves neither in Chinese or English but in dance! Our main emphasis of this demo class was for the participants to experience the joy of dancing, to introduce our ‘different’ approach to art education and enjoy being together in the moment. Our approach is different than the traditional (Chinese) dance teaching methods as we don’t only ask our students to follow us but also ask them to use what’s within as inspiration to move. This can be whatever emotion or feeling, abstract or very specific and very important: there’s no wrong or right. We all have mental critics and it can be extremely difficult to step out of your comfort zone, but we are proud as a teacher and as a human with what we have achieved. Because everyone gave it shot and that’s admirable. Within 45 minutes we did several exercises from the classic warm-up to a short modern dance choreography and even some dance improvisation. The energy and openness of the group was mind blowing and Liam and myself experienced the workshop as a gift to give, and as a gift to receive.

All different levels, ages, background and experience yet all together. Touching! The positive feedback on our workshop was humbling to the bone and any doubts that I had some days ago are flushed away with a tsunami of warmth and motivates to keep doing what we do.

Somewhere around July 2017, we met Louis, the head of the Modern Dance Department at Guangxi Arts University and founder of his own dance studio ‘Good Dance Studio’ in Nanning. Besides teaching, he’s an incredible dancer and choreographer, and such an open-minded and driven spirit. He is well known for his passion to create as many opportunities for his students to engage with modern dance and to learn from various artists around the world. Naturally, it was a true honor when he invited us to teach at the first European Trio Dance Festival of Nanning that was going to be held at his studio at the end of October 2017. Participants were students of the University with a major in dance and also other dance enthusiasts. It would be a 4-day intensive with everyday workshops and the last day would consist of a presentation.

The other teacher who was present was Jens Bjerregaard, a Danish choreographer with an elaborate and inspiring work experience yet a soft and friendly personality. It was a privilege to work with him and see him work with the students in a different way. The contrasting approach between us three teachers was very interesting to experience and the effect on the students even more. The presentation was a success and it’s always so rewarding to see the results in just 3 days work! We’re looking forward to working again soon with Louis and Good Dance Studio.

A special thanks to Amaznian, H.A.M. & Sunny photography for making such memorable pictures of this great project!

The first week of August was one not to forget. At the Sino-Dutch opening performance in May ‘17, Loura & Liam met and performed together with Zen, a passionate and beautiful dancer and teacher. He has danced a great repertoire at the Guangdong modern dance company and now free-lances throughout the whole country.

Each year he organizes a dance intensive in his hometown, Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, a province in the east-central part of China. Following the festival in Guangzhou, Zen invited Loura to teach at his annual modern dance intensive. It consisted of daily technique workshops in the morning from several teachers and a choreography workshop in the afternoon. At the end of the week was a presentation of both the classes and the choreography. It was an extremely hot week and with all the dancing happening, it got, let’s say, really sweaty! Forget the sweat, more important, we managed to create a very safe, inspiring and creative atmosphere during the entire week.

To break the week we also had an improvisation performance on one of the evenings. A few advanced students and the teachers performed whilst the other participants were the audience. Following the performance, everybody shared their views and there was some time to ask questions. It was really special to connect with the dancers, even though it’s tough to – in normal life – communicate with each other, the magic on stage just happened. We were able to connect on an artistic level and share a story together. A memory for the heart. The few outdoor classes were fun too, giving the students an opportunity to work site-specific and transform the environment as an element within their improvisation.

Apart from the work, the people were just fantastic. Igor, the other foreign dance teacher from Russia, Aee, beautiful contemporary dancer and my translator for the week and of course Zen went from strangers to friends within the week. We laughed, we danced and we enjoyed so many delicious dishes from Henan province!

But then, they surprised me in a way beyond words.., After the presentation, a day before my birthday they threw a mini-surprise party! They sang, we danced and I cried. What a love, such beautiful people and they made me feel at home in a place where I’d never been before. What a blessing! The cake, the flowers, the joy… Like I said, a week not to forget!

Thanks, Zhanghongru, Igor, Aee, and Zen!