This is a digital archive of a number of my choreographies, created as fine-tuning and conditioning warm-up dances.  I created these over many years of working with dancers and dance teachers in my own studio as well as at Canada’s National Ballet School and the Program in Dance at the Juilliard School.  Performed by graduates of the program in dance at the Juilliard School, these dances were recorded in May 2015.

I sought to make these dances aesthetically intriguing, to encourage the desire to involve every part of oneself, at every moment.  Engaging fully is essential to being ready to dance and to being an artist.

The body’s anatomical potential for movement is enormous – far more expansive than the movement vocabulary one is habitually using. The person who practices this material might go beyond the familiar and enrich their choreographic resources by considering this full anatomical potential.  All movements are good movements.

These sequences have changed through time as a result of my engagement with all the people I have worked with. They will continue to evolve.  If you choose to practice them, you yourself will also change them to suit your own needs and desires as well as those of everyone you engage with.

Remember that dances can only live by being danced, which is why I offer them to you.

Introduction by Irene
Spirals
Floor Dynamic Trunk Stabilization
Ellipse
Standing Trunk Dance
Volutes
Floor Foot Dance
Standing Foot Dance
Orbits
Turnout Dance
Helix
Flower Seed Dance
Extravagant Hand Dance
Horizons

Director: Rafe Scobey-Thal
Producer, Artistic Director and Choreographer: Irene Dowd
Producer: Zack Winokur
Recording Engineer: Greg Gibaldi

Dances performed by:
Jason Collins
Daphne Fernberger
Robbie Moore
Reed Tankersley
Zack Winokur

This project was made possible with the generous support of The Juilliard School, including
funding from the Juilliard John Erskine Faculty Prize and Joan Steinberg Faculty Project Award.

Special thanks to Lawrence Rhodes, Artistic Director of the Dance Division
of The Juilliard School.