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ABOUT JFDC & DanceAbility
Joint Forces Dance Company's main programming areas are DanceAbility
(dance for people both with and without disabilities) workshops, performances,
and choreography; and Contact Improvisation events like the annual Breitenbush
Hot Springs JAM.
Joint Forces' mission is to encourage the evolution & performance
of dance & to cultivate a "common ground" that allows
all individuals to develop creatively, regardless of abilities or disabilities.
Joint Forces helps eliminate the prejudice that inhibits artistic &
cultural diversity, through performance, communication & education.
Joint Forces performs internationally, for both children and adults.
More than 40,000 people have enjoyed performances and workshops.
Artistic Director Alito Alessi's recent commissions include Transitions
in Bern, Switzerland (1 hour); Laune der Natur (Moods of Nature) with
Theatre M.A.R.I.A. of Switzerland (1 hour); the Milan (Italy) Street
Performance Parade, and Weaving Ways in Trier, Germany.
Artistic Director: Alito Alessi
jointforcesdance@yahoo.com
Joint Forces Dance Co.
P.O. Box 3686,
Eugene, OR 97403
USA
Phone: (541) 342-3273
DanceAbility
Workshops
DanceAbility is a dance method accessible to all people. Over 40,000
people of all ages have attended DanceAbility workshops, performances, &
Teacher Certification courses. Workshops vary in length, & use improvised
dance to promote equality, respect, & artistic exploration between
people with & without disabilities. Through experiencing movement
together, misconceptions or prejudices that people with and without disabilities
might have about themselves & each other are uprooted. Workshops
provide a supportive atmosphere for attitudes to change and dance
horizons to expand.
"When the workshop was over, I felt such a vitality & energy
- physical as well as psychological. I managed to get rid of some fears
& complexes, & I had a strong sense of inner security, which enhanced
my belief that we are all equal, disabled & non-disabled people." (workshop
participant)
"I wouldn't normally think that able-bodied people would accept
me with my physical limitations, so this really boosts my confidence."(Roger,
workshop participant)
"I believe that DanceAbility goes beyond movement exploration, &
is for many people their first opportunity to define themselves in their
own terms & see that this dance form, like their lives, has many options
& possibilities."(Susan Sygall, Executive Director, Mobility
International U.S.A.)
Performance
/ Choreography
Artistic Director Alessi has won choreographer's awards from the American National Endowment for the Arts, and Oregon Arts Commission. He is currently a Guggenheim Fellow and choreographs both for mixed-abilities groups and traditional (non-integrated) groups. He was one of the first choreographers to integrate Contact Improvisation vocabulary into dance pieces.
Joint Forces performs internationally, for both children and adults. For children,
Wheels of Fortune is an educational, entertaining and humourous show & discussion
with able-bodied & disabled dancers (about 45 minutes). For Northwest U.S.
school shows, see the Young Audiences Inc. website: www.ya-or.org,
especially Arts Programs/artist pages.
Alessi's recent commissions include Transitions in Bern, Switzerland (1 hour);
Laune der Natur (Moods of Nature) with Theatre M.A.R.I.A. of Switzerland (1 hour);
the Milan (Italy) Street Performance Parade, and Weaving Ways in Trier, Germany.
DanceAbility
Teacher Certification
DanceAbility
Teacher Certification is 4 weeks of intensive full-time study, learning
the philosophy and techniques of DanceAbility. More than 200 people have
completed this training, furthering their professional skills. Participants
learn to design creative movement practices that allow anybody & everybody's
movement to emerge, facilitating individual & group expression.
The DanceAbility Teacher Certification course includes:
* identifying & working with common denominators
* integrating Contact Improvisation
* how to facilitate workshops inclusive of ALL abilities, from A-Z
* how to facilitate artistic collaboration, performances, site specific Performance
Parades, &KidsCan children's DanceAbility
The tips of our fingers begin the dance, yet I dare not meet his
eyes...The man in the wheelchair smiles as he weeps. Beauty meets beauty
My blind soul grows vision..." (workshop participant)
The next training is July 15-Aug.11, 2007 in Vienna Austria as part of the ImpulsTanz Festival. The link is: http:/www.impulstanz.com/gallery/videos/workshops/ http://www.impulstanz.com/0festival06/extras/danceability.php?l=en
Breitenbush JAM & Contact Improvisation
2008 Breitenbush Contact Jam will be March 6-14, 2008. Conference topic to be announced.
Meet the Director
Alito Alessi is Artistic Director and founder of Joint Forces Dance Company, and is based in Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.
Alessi has earned a 2005 U.S. and Canadian Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Alessi, one of only four choreographers awarded this Fellowship and belongs to a select group of 186 artists, scholars, and scientists selected for the award.
Alessi has also received choreographer's fellowships from the American National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1992-1993 and 1995-1996, and from the Oregon Arts Commission in 1992. Under his leadership, Joint Forces was also awarded an NEA Exemplary Grant in 1991 for the DanceAbility Project, a pioneering method for integrating people with and without disabilities in contemporary dance.
Also see www.breitenbush.com to find
out more about the facilities at Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference
Center.
Alito says his vision as a choreographer has always been to support contemporary
dance to evolve in an inclusive manner. 'My work arises from the study
of improvisation, and from finding modes that are inclusive of all people
who should choose to dance. My interest as a choreographer has always
been to encounter the unexpected and keep pushing my own boundaries.'
Alessi and Joint Forces have been invited to perform and teach at dance
festivals around the world, including International Tanzwochen in Vienna,
Tanz Tage Dance Festival in Germany, Dance Umbrella in Boston, InternationalVSA
Arts Festival (Washington, D.C.), Contact Arte in Italy, the National
Review of Live Art in Scotland, and Danse-Habile in Geneva. Recent works
have been commissioned by Theatre M.A.R.I.A. of Switzerland, "Festival
of Freaks" in Bregenz, Austria, and Salems DanceAbility group. Joint
Forces has been in residence at the University of Oregon Dance Department
since 1992.
He has taught and performed Contact Improvisation internationally for
more than 20 years and produces the Breitenbush Contact Improvisation
Jam and Conference, every year since 1981. As one of the pioneers of bringing
Contact Improvisation into choreography, he has collaborated with Steve
Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, Karen Nelson, and many other
major developers of the form. While remaining true to its roots, he has
taken Contact Improvisation into contemporary developments including choreography,
danced theater, and mixed-abilities dance with his DanceAbility methods,
which partly draw on Contact Improvisation.
He also teaches bodywork internationally. He has been a licenced massage
therapist for 20 years. He had a successful full-time private practice
for 10 years before devoting the majority of his time to dance. His bodywork
workshops begin with breath and movement as a physical awareness preparation
for hands-on partnerwork. Then he focusses on structural alignment techniques
for the shoulders, neck, spine and pelvis. He teaches how to balance
strength, stretch, & release through listening to the body's intuition.
Alito is currently authoring a book about his DanceAbility methods.
International Network
Joint Forces has assisted in generating several ongoing dance groups
that include people with & without disabilities. These groups are active
in Holland; Milan, Italy; Trier and Erlangen, Germany; throughout Cyprus;
Buenos Aires, Argentina; Salem & Portland, Oregon; & Bregenz,
Austria.
Contacting DanceAbility-Influenced Groups:
Eugene, Oregon (USA): Alito Alessi/Joint
Forces, jointforcesdance@yahoo.com, www.danceability.com
Salem, Oregon (USA): Maxine Kahn/Chemeketa
DanceAbility, kahm@exchange.chemeketa.edu
Portland, Oregon (USA):
Erik Ferguson, erikferret@yahoo.com
HOLLAND: Petra Zingel / FIDODA,
p.zingel@tip.nl, and Kolja Seifert, koljaseifert@hotmail.com, www.i-dans.nl
Erlangen, GERMANY: Anke Hirschberg, Kiwi.Anke@t-online.de
Trier, GERMANY: Maja Hehlen / Beweggrund, Majahehlen@beweggrund-online.de
Milan, ITALY: Laura Banfi / Contact Arte
Associazione il Cortile, laura.b@tiscalinet.it,
or cortile@ilcortile.net, www.ilcortile.net
Padova, ITALY: Marina Giacometti / Associazione
Ottavo Giorno, ass.ottavogiorno@libero.it
CYPRUS: Marlen Karletidou / Cyprus DanceAbility
Project, egonwitte@daybyday.de
Metz, FRANCE: Marilyne Webert / Petit théâtre
d'Ernest,
apf-iem.ado@wanadoo.fr
Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA: Gabi Guebel/ Danza
Sin Limites,
danzasinlimites@arnet.com.ar, www.danzasinlimites.9k.com.ar
Cyprus Project Description
The Cyprus DanceAbility Project began in 1998, with the Cyprus Youth
Board (a semi-governmental organization). Workshops & performances were
held in 3 special education schools. The success with the children involved
led the Youth Board & the Cyprus Ministry of Education & Culture
to expand the project.
Now, DanceAbility workshops are offered montly in all special education
schools throughout Cyprus. In 1999 Alito Alessi visited and coached the
Cyprus DanceAbility Team. Many people collaborate together in this project
- facilitators, children, teachers, headmasters, parents, and government
officials - empowering new horizons for the Cyprus community