11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET Saturday, November 11, 2023
Interdisciplinary Improvisations: Movement and Text Workshop
In-person at AANM
Purchase Tickets
$5 Museum Members
$7 Students/Seniors
$10 General Public
The Interdisciplinary Improvisations workshop will guide participants through a series of interactive exercises and games involving physical movement. This will include dance, pedestrian movement, music, drawing, writing and conversation (often paired in brain-twisting ways) designed to awaken stream-of-consciousness generation for a final artistic jam. We’ll use multitasking and cognitive overload as a means of releasing judgment and inhibition in the creative process, offering less-filtered access to memory and desire. Participants are not required to have any artistic or dance backgrounds!
Doris Bittar’s interdisciplinary art maps and explores migratory patterns that overlap national boundaries. She names her historically derived and migration patterns a form of “cultural DNA” as an invitation for interactive participation. Originally from Lebanon, Bittar received a BFA at the State University of New York and an MFA from the University of California San Diego where she has lived for three decades. She taught at the University of California San Diego, California State University San Marcos, and the American University of Beirut over a 25-year period and is a published writer on art and politics. With over 20 solo exhibitions, Bittar’s art has been in several prominent group exhibits including biennales in Europe and the Arab world. Housed in several public collections in the United States and abroad, she received awards and residencies at the Sharjah Biennial, Alexandria Biennial of Mediterranean Countries, Berlin-Stuttgart ifa gallery, Ravenna, Venice Biennale, and New York’s Alternative Museum, among others. Bittar is a core member of Gulf Labor and founded several nonprofits to promote Arab American community aspirations in Southern California. Bittar maintains the House of Palestine display in Balboa Park, has aided Syrian refugees in learning English as a second language, and is the founder of Protea Gallery, a nonprofit to promote Arab American art. www.dorisbittar.com
Nadia Khayrallah is a Lebanese-American dance artist, writer, and (dis)content creator rooted equally in history and fantasy, form and groove, esoterica and common sense. A graduate of Columbia University with a B.A. in Dance and Psychology, Nadia currently performs with Jonah Bokaer Choreography and Gotham Dance Theater and serves as a teaching artist in public schools throughout NYC. Nadia has completed choreographic residencies at Chez Bushwick and Leimay Foundation and presented work through Dixon Place, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Queens College Arts Festival, Queensboro Dance Festival, Screendance Miami, YallaPunk, New York Arab Festival, and Little Island NYC, among other venues. They co-directed music videos for the artists Zahed Sultan and Alethea and movement-directed New York Fashion Week presentations for the designer Tara Babylon. Nadia is currently a staff writer for thINKingDANCE and has previously written for the Dance Enthusiast, Huffington Post, Reductress and Sukoon Magazine. www.NadiaKhayrallah.com
This project is made possible in part by a grant from Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
With support from
