Mission

We investigate the bodies' relationship to the physical, architectural, climatic, technological and social landscapes that we inhabit in urban/wilderness and private/public contexts is the material of our work.

We activate space and challenge social and perceptual limitations of physical freedom.

We engage and provoke audiences in diverse contexts through collaborative processes with independent artists, and national and international companies and communities. Our ventures include dance performances, installation works, film/video projects and educational workshops.

Artist Statement

The Project invites participants to enter their animal-like appetites and childlike curiosities for physical investigation through engagement of the sensorial body. Working on a visual, kinesthetic, tactile and aural level we aim to articulate the very process of perception and discover the innate composition of the spaces we research and perform in.

Motivated by ecological issues we place our bodies in direct relationship to the world highlighting our interdependence on its fragile ecosystems.

We are influenced by the performative, choreographic, filmic and conceptual practices that have emerged over the past century but in particular since the 1960's. This includes the specific movement practices of improvisational composition, Body-Mind Centering©, contact improvisation, Lisa Nelson's Tuning Score™, release technique, butoh, capoeira, authentic movement, skateboarding, snowboarding, and tai chi among others.

Documentation is a fundamental aspect of our work and creates an ongoing cartographic archive of photographs, video footage, drawings and writings, which are available for public viewing on our digital archive.

Workshops

Site-work for Performance
Engaging the senses, perceptions, and the cartography of our bodies, The BodyCartography workshop investigates the physiology of the world around us and uses place as a medium to make art. We will utilize skills and materials developed from Contact Improvisation, Body-Mind Centeringã and composition to explore, survey, and compose the social and physical landscapes outside of the context of the dance studio and theater. The workshop breaks assumptions and renews possibilities of why and where art happens expanding our sense of self responsibility and eco-consciousness.

Dance Video
Through the lens of the camera we will open the dancers eyes to the stage of the screen and lead filmmakers into the world of movement. Using the physical and social landscape we will generate video material from a visual, aural and kinesthetic perspective. The principle aim of this workshop is to give an overview of using digital video as a versatile medium within an intensive physical & participatory environment. While learning the practical essentials of camera techniques and non-linear editing this workshop will also encourage the realization of various approaches to the medium in a small project (dance film /moving image/durational video work). This workshop is intended for beginners to intermediate level users who wish to enhance their knowledge and interest in digital dance video production.

Body-Mind Centering©
Somatic movement education incorporating embodied anatomy and developmental movement through the systems of the body (e.g. bones, organs, ligaments, fluids, endocrine, nervous system, senses and perception, reflexes). This class holographically explores the human body through movement and hands on study to understand self and increase physical potential.

Contact Improvisation
This workshop focuses on how bodies move while in physical contact with each other while focusing on the physical laws that govern motion: mass, gravity, momentum and inertia. It trains the body in heightened sensory awareness, weight bearing partnering skills and improvisation. As a social dance it defines and asserts boundaries of intimacy, trust and self. It is a physical practice in democracy that can be profoundly meditative and acrobatic in the same moment.

Improvisational Composition
Cultivating a vitality of presence, decentralized intelligence, creativity and organization to create materials for choreography and for performing dances spontaneously. A somatic or released based warm up will be followed by composition practice utilizing material from the BodyCartography toolbox, the Tuning Score (developed by Lisa Nelson and Image Lab) and beyond. This Tuning Score investigates how we use our eyes, how we perceive, sense, make sense of movement, compose and build composition as groups, duets or solo.

Zen Imagery Exercises
A movement practice developed by Shizuto Masunaga based on releasing chi along the meridian pathways (Traditional Chinese Medicine) throughout the body through a series of gentle stretches and movement patterns.

Private Sessions
Otto and Olive are available as to work one on one with clients. Otto is a certified Body-Mind Centering Practitioner©. Olive is a certified Shiatsu practitioner and Somatic Movement Educator© from the School of Body-Mind Centering.

Please contact us for more details.

A Short History

In 1997 Olive Bieringa founded The BodyCartography Project in San Francisco.

The first large-scale BodyCartography intensive took place in Wellington in 1998 with twenty-three site-specific community events as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. The events became an open laboratory in which up to twenty performers (dancers, dancers/athletes with disabilities, musicians, visual artists, video artists, photographers, school children) participated. Annual projects continued in NZ.

The BodyCartography Project continued to work in San Francisco with Olive Bieringa, Tom Sepe, Samantha Beers and Tracy Vogel as facilitators. As artists in residence at CELL Space and 848 Community Space BodyCartography offered free weekly laboratories for improvisational practice that planted the seeds for ongoing outdoor performance events.

In 1999 Otto Ramstad became the Project's co-director alongside Olive Bieringa.

In 2000 Burning Man funded the project to create a seven day interactive performance event.

In 2001 the Project moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 2002 from a desire to explore isolated and wilderness locations we began to build video/film pieces.

In 2003 Lagoon won the prestigious Perlorus Trust Creativity award at the NZ Fringe Festival. Lagoon was seen by an audience of over two and half thousand people over three nights.

Our video works have won awards and been screened internationally. In 2004 ROOM was highly commended in the experimental category at the Kerry Film Festival in Ireland and in 2005 Seawall won a Certificate of Distinction from American Dance Festival Dancing for the Camera Festival.

We have created works for over one hundred and thirty performance events in the USA, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, Europe and Russia.

SCHEDULE

DANCE VIDEO/FILM WORKS

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

PRESS KIT

FUNDERS