November 7, 14, 21, 11AM - 1PM Neil Greenberg
Each class/workshop will draw from three possible arenas:
* Working with information from some of the somatic approaches I’ve studied, considering body systems in addition to, and in conjunction with, the prevalent skeletal/muscular model. Could be called a bodywork approach to movement training. Warming up will be one goal, here. Call this the “technique” focus.
* Directed improvisation, using some of the ideas from my recent “Really Queer Dance With Harps” as a springboard, and also working with ideas from my current project: I’ve been questioning the notion that speech metaphors—for example, “what is this dance saying?”—can accurately describe dance experiences. I’m instead interested in exploring the “isness” of the performance moment.
* Working with set material drawn from my choreography, learning and playing with “phrase-work.” Sort of a mini repertory focus. (This probably a lower priority for me at present.)
I still feel quite new to L.A., and hope to continue making work here. I see these workshops as an opportunity to continue to meet and get to know artists from the L.A. dance community, and to bring to the table some of the ideas with which I’ve been working.
Feel free to email me with any questions: neilg@ucr.edu

Neil Greenberg moved to L.A. from N.Y.C. in fall 2007 to join the dance faculty of UC Riverside. He has been making dances since 1979, and is known especially for his 1994 work, Not-About-AIDS-Dance, which employs his signature use of projected supertitles as an alternative text to the onstage dance action, and a door into the “meanings” of viewing dance. His work also reflects the influence of innovative somatic approaches to movement, such as Klein Technique, which he’s studied extensively with Barbara Mahler and Susan Klein, and Body-Mind Centering, which he’s studied with RoseAnne Spradlin. His most recent work, Really Queer Dance With Harps, continues his investigation into the nature of meaning-making. RQDWH premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in NY in June 2008, and was presented at REDCAT in LA in April 2009. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA NYFA & the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, two “Bessies,” a Time Out Audience Award, and grants from the National Dance Project, the Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production Fund and NYSCA. He has created two commissions for Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. A former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1979-1986), he has been on the dance faculty of Purchase College and Sarah Lawrence College, and served as dance curator at The Kitchen from 1995-1999. For more information: http://www.neilgreenberg.org/