In this master class with Bessie Award–winning choreographer Abby Zbikowski, participants experiment with pushing their bodies past perceived limits while challenging their own views on conventions of established forms. Zbikowski uses an intercultural approach to identify the confluence of aesthetic worlds and cultural information embedded in the practice of contemporary dance. She places her methods in direct dialogue with African diasporic and African forms that have shaped her perspective.
Dancers should expect a full-bodied rhythmically driven class and should wear sneakers, pants, and knee pads (if you have them).
Presented in partnership with Hothouse Minneapolis.
Bio
Abby Zbikowski created her company Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012 with founding members Ohio State MFA Dance Alumnae Fiona Lundie (2012) and Jennifer Meckley (2013). She received the 2017 Juried Bessie Award for her “unique and utterly authentic movement vocabulary in complex and demanding structures to create works of great energy, intensity, surprise, and danger.” In 2018, Dance Umbrella UK awarded her a “Choreographer of the Future” commission. She was an inaugural Caroline Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at the Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University (2017–2019), artist in residence at New York Live Arts (2018–2020), and has also been in residence at Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, and the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics.
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