Dan Froot is available for a variety of master classes, workshops and residency activities. Institutions at which he's taught include: Virginia Commonwealth University, Arizona State University, Connecticut College, Philadelphia Dance Project, Temple University, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Colorado Dance Festival, Movement Research, Pentacle Danceworks, Colorado College, Lewis & Clark College, University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, UCLA, Rhode Island College, Sarah Lawrence College, The Performing Arts Academy of Bali, Center for Contemporary Art (Glasgow, Scotland), Lincoln Center Institute, Portland University, University of Alaska, South Florida Art Center, LaFayette College, College of Santa Fe. Here are a few samples of possible residency activities.
Dan creates interdisciplinary performance works specially tailored for individual dance companies, theater groups, musical ensembles, and student groups. References available.
Hosts from the local community invite as many guests as they like to attend an informal performance by Dan. Dan usually invites a couple of other artists from the community to present their work as well. Guests are asked to bring potluck, and after the performances take place, everyone fills their plates, and over the meal Dan facilitates a discussion about the work and the artistic process with the gathering. This has proven to be a popular event, and a wonderful tool for audience development when sponsored by local presenting organizations.
Collaborating successfully is more than a matter of give and take; it's about creating a third artistic entity between self and other. Through game structures, exercises and compositional assignments, we'll craft techniques for working with artists from other disciplines (dance/music, dance/text, music/text, etc.) or from our own. Work with new people or come with a partner with whom you want to work. Dancers, musicians, writers, visual artists are welcome.
In a culture such as the U.S., where Bigger is Better and the Media are Massive, CHOOSING to make art for small audiences can be a subversive act. In this workshop we will create dance and performance pieces for small spaces, focusing on the performers' presence, compositional detail, and especially the quality of contact with our audiences. Our theaters will be storefronts, living rooms, babbling brooks....where ever! We'll conclude with a Festival of Intimate Performance.
This class covers fundamental skills for contact improvisation work, including: approaches to improvisation, weight-bearing principles, flying lessons, injury prevention, as well as some history and esthetic background. Each class ends with a simple score for jamming.
Develop tools, techniques and strategies for realizing your vision, for designing and carrying out your own rehearsal process. This class investigates rehearsal practices, exercises, methods for generation and structuring of material, and overall procedures and philosophies of notable living choreographers/directors. We will model these artists' studio techniques, using them to develop our own choreographic studies and to evolve our individual artistic processes.
We will work to get at the truth and essence of a given moment. Watchwords: reduce and simplify. Exercises are designed to sensitize performers to inner and outer worlds. Music, movement and text are all considered equally.