VietNamNet Bridge – After the success of last year’s Shhhh, Just Dance!, U.S. choreographer and solo dancer Emily Navarra will continue instructing dance enthusiasts to experience themselves via choreographic movements in the Movement Kitchen workshop which will take place at ZeroStation art studio on July 26.

U.S. choreographer and solo dancer Emily Navarra – Photo: My Tran

The workshop will feature two parts. The first one called “Release, Reaction and Response” from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in which the improvisation-based class will focus on each dancer’s physical responses to various stimuli of their body. The class aims to give beginners techniques to flow freely and investigate themselves deeply from basic moves.

They can practice with partners or in groups to inspire a keen sense of awareness through their physicality, energy, rhythm, personal choice, risk taking and acceptation of limitations.

Then all the learners will have lunch together with the choreographer to discuss more about their passion. From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., dance learners will be invited to the second part “Choreographic Devices and Environmental Movement Exploration.” In this part, the class will focus on compositional structure fused with environmental surroundings. Dancers will use their feelings and improvisational ideas to expand and invent their own moves.

In groups, dancers are encouraged to listen, question and communicate to challenge themselves through movements and moments of stillness. Different emotional tones, changes of the surroundings and ideas of many people will create different works in the class.

Navarra earned a B.A. Dance Studies degree at the University of South Florida. She toured her solo work throughout Tunisia in 2010-2011 as well as Malaysia and Thailand in 2012. She performed in Tunisia, Africa with USF Dance Faculty Jeanne Travers during the summer of 2009. She then went on to participate in the Tanzwerkstatt Europa Dance Festival in Munich, Germany. In 2010-2011 she performed in projects as a freelance artist in Germany, Spain, Denmark, the U.K., France and Sweden.

Navarra currently resides in HCMC as a freelance performer and choreographer. She is also the organizer of the Melting Pot Art Festival and Standpoint Theories art show, which is aimed at bringing together the scattered scenes of music, dance and visual arts in the city and building a bridge between the arts scenes in the country’s two biggest cities – HCMC and Hanoi.

ZeroStation is located at 12 Road No.43, Lam Van Ben in HCMC’s District 7 and the program costs VND550,000 per person.