Improvisation Lab

This grant provided support for Improvisation Lab, a project that included working with choreographer Miguel Gutierrez and Dan Rothenberg, co-artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, rehearsal time with company members, three public showings, and a workshop series for Philadelphia dancers. Rather than relying on a single dance style or technique, Headlong Dance Theater develops a unique movement vocabulary for each new piece drawing on the co-directors' eclectic movement backgrounds. As a founding member and co-artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, Rothenberg has studied theater and mask at Ecole Jacques Lecoq and Shakespeare & Company and has led workshops for actors and dancers with a focus on ensemble playmaking and Lecoq's techniques. Gutierrez, a former dancer with John Jasperse, challenges and complicates conventional notions of communication, improvisation, listening, and development by delving into the primary, movement, energetic, and creative senses.