Performances:
September 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, and 16, 2018
Saturdays & Sundays 5-7pm
Where:
Beginning at Caracol Gathering Space (located south of McCormick Place Bird Sanctuary, by the lakefront at 2400 S. Lake Shore Dr.)
Ending at La Ronda Parakata Gathering Space (south of the 31st St. Harbor, around 3300 S. Lake Shore Dr.)
Open the visceral door of your body, move within a flock. Join award-winning choreographer and master teacher Nejla Yatkin to explore the interaction between people, their movement, and the natural environment through this series of unique movement workshops on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in August. Participants will be guided through a process harnessing multiple practices including; Reiki, Feldenkrais, physical theater exercises, and contemporary dance. The conference will transform the way we experience ourselves through movement.
Workshop participants will perform in Conference Of The Birds, a series of six site-specific, interactive performances presented on Saturdays and Sundays in September in the Burnham Wildlife Corridor on Chicago’s lakefront. During each performance, workshop participants will guide an audience in an interactive and participatory movement practice inspired by bird flocking behavior with the goal of transforming audience self perceptions, their views of one another, and to move through an environment in new and unexpected ways.
My inspiration: “Everything in life moves. The human body is designed to engage with the environment through movement. Throughout a lifetime of choreographing, teaching, and dancing around the globe, I have learned how beneficial dance is to human development. Dance sharpens the senses, enhances social intelligence, challenges the body and mind and consequently reinvigorates our cognitive, physical and social development. In this workshop we will explore what moves people and how the collective energy inspires people to move.” –Nejla Yatkin
See samples of other work by Nejla Yatkin created in more than 30 countries around the world by clicking here or visiting https://www.youtube.com/user/aljen07/videos
About: Nejla Yatkin Award-winning and critically acclaimed choreographer and dancer Nejla Yatkin is a recent Drama Desk Award Nominee, Chita Rivera Nominee for Outstanding Choreography, 3Arts Awardee, and Princess Grace Choreography award fellow. Nejla hails from Germany, bringing a luminous and transcultural perspective to her creations. Her focus is regularly drawn to the role that memory and history serve in constructing identity, causing and resolving conflict, and the possibility of transforming cultural tensions into deep, authentic moments of human connection.
For more information please visit www.ny2dance.com
Conference Of The Birds by Nejla Y. Yatkin is presented as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks series, supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Arts programming in neighborhoods across the city advances the goals of the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Cultural Plan. Now in its sixth year, the 2018 Night Out in the Parks series will host over 1,000 cultural events and programs at more than 250 neighborhood parks throughout the city, making community parks a safe haven and hubs of activity. Projects will vary from traditional performances and concerts, to movies, peace rallies, community workshops, nature based programs, dance pieces, festivals, and more. The Chicago Park District has partnered with more than 100 arts and community organizations to expand and produce this successful initiative. Conference of the Birds is also supported, in part, by Contratiempo, The Jay Pritzker Foundation, and the McClelland Foundation.
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