DanceAction Summer 2025 Workshop: Contemporary Pathways & Architecture

August 4th to August 8th, 2025, from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

The Center at West Park - 165 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024

Workshop Presentation: Friday, August 8th, from 8 to 9 pm @ DA Garden Series

 

DanceAction’s Summer Workshop for dancers, performers, or movers of any kind offers an integrated experience that includes dance training, improvisation, and composition. This comprehensive dance experience will enable participants to access a unique combination of dance techniques, discovering DanceAction’s “Pathways & Architecture” style, playful improvisation approaches, and dance-making tools and strategies that will ignite their creativity and broaden their physical ability and versatility as movement artists.

REGISTER HERE

Suggested Donation: $20/Workshop Day - $80/Full Workshop*

*You may also register by completing THIS FORM and making a contribution through

Venmo: @mcarmencaceres | Paypal: paypal.me/carmencaceresdance 

DanceAction’s Summer Workshop will explore three key components of a comprehensive dance experience: technical training, improvisation, and dance-making. 

The Contemporary dance training segment offers a unique blend of dance techniques and styles (Flying Low, Cunningham, Release, Argentinian Tango & Folk Dance, Salsa, and Partnering Techniques), designed to build strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination, and movement mechanics. Through a series of exercises that study the shape and pathways of energy in space, dancers will discover innovative strategies for exploring the swift changes in levels and navigating the space between vertical and horizontal planes. Each training segment concludes with an exploration of DanceAction’s repertory through accessible phrase work, providing an opportunity to implement these training strategies. This practice will enable participants to explore a diverse range of movement languages and styles, thereby expanding their overall physical abilities and enhancing their performative interpretation.

An Improvisation segment will follow, inviting participants to immerse themselves in a playful experience. This will include theater and movement games, movement explorations, structured dance improvisations, score-building exercises, partnering approaches, and open dance. By navigating these activities progressively, participants will gain awareness of the people they are moving with; they will experience clarity and ease in decision-making scenarios and will develop a sense of alertness and strong presence in spontaneous situations. They will also integrate the concept of “Yes and!” within the group practice of dance improvisation and enhance their listening skills in dance. 

Lastly, a portion of the class will be focused on Dance-making exercises that will serve as a laboratory for developing the participants’ choreographic ideas and also contribute to DanceAction’s latest project in development, Pathways and Architecture. Participants will be able to discover these composition tools and their practicality by learning excerpts from the DA repertoire. These choreographic tools, along with the improvisation strategies, will be applied in the creation of short dances that participants will perform at the Workshop's Culminating Performance on Friday, August 8th.

Culminating Performance

The Workshop will conclude with an informal presentation of short performance works created by the participants at the DanceAction Garden Series on Friday, August 8th, at 8 pm*. The event will also feature excerpts from DanceAction’s repertory, including its latest work, "The Price is Right (De-Valued)," and its current development project, "Pathways and Architecture." All workshop participants who attend the entire week of classes will be eligible to perform in the culminating performance event. 

*In the event of inclement weather, the showing will be rescheduled to take place at the Center at West Park, 3rd floor studio, on Friday, August 8th, 2025, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.

 

About Carmen Caceres

Carmen Caceres is a dance artist originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has been creating dance works in Argentina and New York since 2009. Her work has been presented in several venues, including Dixon Place, Green Space, Triskelion Arts Center, Teatro Sea, The Mark Morris Dance Center, The Center at West Park, and the Center for Performance Research. In 2013, she founded DanceAction, a dance company that serves as a creative platform for producing performing arts works in collaboration with musicians, dramaturges, and visual artists. She worked with artists such as Lisa Parra, Sarah Berges, Elia Mrak, and Jody Oberfelder as a performer and collaborator. Carmen is pursuing an MA in Dance Education at Hunter College. She received a BA in Dance and Education at SUNY Empire and deepened her studies in dance at the former Merce Cunningham Studio. She has also studied with renowned artists like David Zambrano, Shelley Senter, Robert Swinston, and Ashley Tuttle. In her native city, she graduated from the National School of Dance and studied Dance Composition at UNA. Carmen also works as a dance educator and consultant for various organizations in New York City, including 92Y and Dance Education Laboratory (DEL).

About DanceAction 

DanceAction is a contemporary dance company based in New York, led by Argentinian dance artist and educator Carmen Caceres. With a culturally diverse team of artists, we create educational opportunities and artistic experiences that foster collaboration, inclusion, and critical thinking. Together, we develop performing arts works that reflect social realities that concern people, relationships, and social justice. Our primary purpose is to interpret these issues and use our work to propel change. DA participated in numerous festivals and performance series in New York and abroad, including Take Root at Green Space, Under Exposed at Dixon Place, Women Center Stage Festival at Teatro SEA, Festival FIDCDMX in Mexico City, and Ticino in Danza in Switzerland. DA has self-produced and presented several full-length works, such as BLINDSPOT at the Mark Morris Dance Center and Game Night at the Center for Performance Research. DA's awards include the City Artist Corps and LMCC Creative Engagement Grants. Most recently, DA developed and presented their latest work, Welcome to Imagi*Nation, as a Resident Artist at the Center at West Park.