outreach programs

HLD programs increase self awareness, are team building and promote diversity and inclusion. Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) tailors each outreach situation to the specific venue and its needs. Examples include:

• Staff development in corporations, health care facilities, community centers.
• Group workshops in rehab centers, community centers.
• Performances and talkbacks in universities, conferences, conventions and K-12 schools.

In this age of photo-shopped beauty and distorted body image, HLD is providing people the opportunity to appreciate their uniqueness and be expressive and creative.  Although HLD's shows, GIMP and Heidi Latsky's new IF, involve performers with physical disabilities, the programs are beneficial and open to the general public.

MENU FOR HEIDI LATSKY DANCE

• CHOREO WORKSHOPS

• Heidi would come in for allotted time (no less than 3 days).
• Create a new work with participants designed to bring out each participant's unique abilities.
• Have a showing at the end of the workshop with what was created over the time period.
• Post performance discussion to follow about process and audience reaction.

•  REPERTORY

• Heidi has a full library of works that can be purchased.
• Heidi or company dancer will come as guest artist to set a work.
• Heidi's new work "IF" to be premiered in NYC December, 2010, is a structured improvisation for a large, multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-ability, diverse group that will be available in 2011. The work is about 40 minutes duration and is formula-driven for easy replication for a variety of populations.
• A disc will be sent with thorough direction for the piece of work chosen.

• LECTURE DEMONSTRATIONS

• Each lecture/demonstration comprises both performance and discussion.
• Informational sessions can also be included. The informational sessions are designed to shed light on: the nature of dance that is inclusive; the differences and the similarities between the dancers who are disabled and those who are not; disability etiquette-creating a better understanding of the appropriate language that will facilitate better and more open communication.

MODEL # 1:

We have witnessed that most people feel inept when they are confronted with GIMP. Our suggestion is to first educate our targeted audience about how to talk about the form, including the necessary process of discussing their fears and allowing them to say all the "wrong" things in a safe environment.

• STEP ONE:
  Creator Heidi Latsky (in the case of a dance audience) and Lawrence Carter-Long (in the case of a disability audience) show two short films, followed by a discussion with the group about what they saw and what their fears are in discussing it. Renowned dancer and filmmaker Richard Move has created a ten-minute informative and entertaining documentary on the process of making GIMP. The 5-minute excerpt tape of actual performance footage with full production values is effective in showing the end product of GIMP.
  
  
• STEP TWO:
  We introduce tools such as a glossary of politically correct terms and other written materials and oral instruction designed to increase their understanding of this specific art form with the objective of serving as a guide to open dialogue. These informative sessions are key to the development of audiences in both the disability and dance worlds and the general public. All these communities have a certain amount of discomfort around modern dance and disability because of lack of understanding.
  
  
• STEP THREE:
  After the informational sessions, we then perform GIMP or excerpts of it followed by a talkback.

MODEL #2:

This straightforward but effective model comprises of a short excerpt (live, film or both) and post-performance discussion with the performers

• MOVEMENT PORTRAITS IN ACTION

• Being part of a creative process where the standards are high and where there is a final performance not only increases the participant's sense of risk taking, but results in more self confidence and a strong sense of accomplishment and empowerment. Participants do not learn to "dance", but, learn to hone their individual expressive potential while producing and performing a work of artistic excellence.
• Heidi Latsky and company assistant create a work for a group using the methodology used in making GIMP. Each participant works with Heidi on an individual "portrait" which could focus either on a specific moment or a more generalized situation/circumstance. All the stories are housed within a dance improvisational structure determined by the group with the director. The culmination of the workshop is an informal performance. This workshop can be designed to accommodate the needs of a specific group. The duration of each workshop ranges from one two hour session to a year-long process and anything in between.
  
  
• Fees to be negotiated depending on duration and number of participants.

• PANEL DISCUSSIONS AND FORUMS  

• All performers are available for a variety of formats to share and discuss their work together, their process, and their experiences within the world of dance and disability.

• FULLY PRODUCED EVENING OF GIMP WITH A COMMUNITY PROLOGUE POSSIBILITY

• The company is available for booking. There is a core group of 6, with an additional two who perform a silk aerial work as a prologue, where it is possible. Two live musicians are available to play an original commissioned composition for this prologue.

• The score for the prologue is of an adjustable length and the company is offering each venue the opportunity to involve their community of dancers, former dancers, people with disabilities and any age group to participate in the creation of a dance to be performed with the company as part of the prologue to GIMP. To accomplish this, the company would require one week of rehearsals with participants.

• THE IF PROJECT RESIDENCY

• IF is a community-based dance performance that takes GIMP's portrayal of "the other" as extraordinary to a new level with a cast of 20 that is multi-generational, multiracial and of mixed ability. Whereas GIMP is about virtuosity and interwoven movement portraits, IF is more about community. The  evening length work premieres at the JCC in Manhattan December 9, 2010. 
  
  
• HLD will restage the work with local community members during a one to two week residency which will culminate in performances with a core group of HLD dancers.
  
  
• All outreach activities noted above with GIMP are also available for this residency.

HLD believes that dance is the ideal tool with which to address diversity and inclusion because of its visceral resonance and strong visual representation of these concepts. Exposing people to diversity through art and discourse creates greater understanding and acceptance between communities, and we are committed to using GIMP, IF and our outreach programs to this end.

We introduce people who are cut off from their bodies to the ways in which their bodies, if guided properly and with care, can be effectual in relieving stress, expressing themselves and gaining in self confidence. Through working with a yoga-based program that encourages postural changes, learning how to breathe more efficiently and deeply, and working on dances with a choreographer that values each body and its inherent beauty, participants begin to accept their bodies and learn how to work with them. They begin to see themselves as a whole and not just as a "head" on an ignored body. They begin to feel a real difference when they are not taking care of their bodies. This creates a change in life style and an enriched life experience.

In addition to bringing world-class contemporary dance to audiences of all ages, backgrounds and economic levels, our outreach programs challenge prejudices about disability and physical difference of all kinds.  Nothing is more emblematic of the prejudices disabled people experience than society's discomfort with their bodies. This prejudice, however, goes beyond disability.  It is an extreme form of the stigma we attach to any body that is either not "ideal" or "known".

So many people (and so many dancers) experience their bodies as deficient, whether it is because of their skin color or size or age or any of the qualities that make them unique. Nothing challenges intolerance of difference more directly than performers in a dance event who are physically different from what the audience expects to see. If disabled bodies are essentially "unable," dancers' bodies are thought of as limitless.  What happens when you put the two together?  How does this change both the participants' and audience's ideas about disability and about our own bodies, disabled or not? How does it change our perceptions of diversity in general? 

For more information or if you have any immediate questions please contact:

Katrin Hall, Managing Director
Heidi Latsky Dance
heidilatskymgmt@gmail.com
t: 518-567-3509