Photo By Mary Lois Hare


Action Theater Teaching Schedule for 2008
January 9 - February 13:
 Wednesday evening – Brooklyn, NY
7pm-9pm, Series of 6 sessions, 111 Conselyea
$150
March 5 - April 16: Wednesday evening – Brooklyn, NY
7pm-9pm, Series of 6 sessions, 111 Conselyea
$150
Nov 15-16:
 Butoh/Action Theater Workshop
Two-day workshop, Sat-Sun, 10am - 3pm
Taught by Cassie Terman and Shinichi Iova-Koga
Tuition: one day $60, both days $120
Pay by Nov. 1 and get $10 off
Location: Soho Dance, 598 Broadway, 6th FL
(between Houston and Prince)
To register, call 212-677-8621 or info@crsny.org

The goal of this workshop is to heighten participants' sensitivity to the potential of each moment and the power of "listening" action. We have found that Butoh and Action Theater Improvisation compliment one another in deep and unexpected ways to profoundly expand the artists' toolbox. This workshop and the residency provide a full-physical dialogue in which the two traditions directly speak to each other and invigorate the creative process. Terman and Iova-Koga will guide workshop participants through improvisational exercises designed to open the energetic, experiential, imaginative, and physical "conduit" that we are as humans. Fundamental to this work are all our acts of listening, and how to be with the energy of the body as a conduit to previously unknown states.

This workshop will be given at the half-way point of a two-week residency, in which movement artists Shinichi Momo Iova-Koga and Cassie Terman explore the intertwine and collision of Butoh and Action Theatre methodologies. The workshop will grow out of and feed the investigation. While the two traditions produce performances that look very different from one another, they share many of the same philosophical and experiential underpinnings.


These workshops build on the awakened physical body as a vehicle to express experience, including the experience of the imagination, with depth, precision, and delight. Awareness and play are fundamental revealers of spontaneity and we play extravagantly and subtly with how we occupy our own presence. We explore both solo and ensemble scores through exercises that are simple, playful and challenging. Each exercise expresses the relationship between awareness and action, between form and feeling. Throughout each training greater clarity and artfulness in physical communication is achieved as well as how to fully play with sound and language that originates from the body. Depending on the length and emphasis of a particular workshop, different issues may arise: the balance between discipline and freedom, how to be in relationship with a partner and still stay rooted in one's experience, how to cultivate a fearless relationship with the unknown, issues of content, of breath and the mind, etc. We improvise our way forward supported by a rigorous and intelligent curiosity in an encouraging atmosphere. Workshops are open to all, those with theater/movement training and those without.


"Cassie is a dedicated and skilled performer and teacher who is unafraid to experiment in the service of her craft. As an improvisor her work as a performer has a great impact on all who witness her growing mastery. She commands the audience through her charismatic and unique ability to connect and communicate on a transformative level. As a teacher she is generous, challenging and truly committed to her students. When a student comes to me after studying with Cassie, their imaginations have been touched and they have a greater skill in risk-taking, in articulating their experiences, and in composing work that is meaningful, intelligent, and heartfelt. It is with great confidence in her teaching abilities and her exceptional skill in communication and the arts that I recommend her to you."
- Ruth Zaporah