Partnering Possibilities

photo by Ian Douglas

A feast of possibilities for imaginative, articulate partnering. Task-oriented guided improvisations exploring weight sharing, body-part manipulations, and ways of harnessing forces of momentum help develop the trust and the responsibility that is essential when moving in close proximity and in contact with other bodies. In duets-trios-groups, collaborative dances are created quickly so at to block out debilitating editing tendencies. Progressions of reconstructed steps work to organically and inorganically push the evolving compositions into new worlds of detail and timing. There is always a showing in the last part of class, with time to reconfigure and experiment based on outside eye observations.

Paul Matteson recently completed his fourth year as a member of the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company. He is originally from Cumberland, Maine and as a beginning dancer attended the Bates Dance Festival, which inspired him to make dance his life. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Middlebury and Bennington Colleges, respectively. From 2000-2005, he was a member of David Dorfman Dance and Race Dance, receiving a BESSIE for performance in 2002. He has also performed with Jennifer Nugent, Terry Creach, Peter Schmitz, Kota Yamazaki, Chamecki/Lerner, Jamie Cunningham, Neta Pulvermacher, Susan Sgorbati, Helena Franzen and Keith Johnson. In addition to Bates, he teaches at The American Dance Festival and The Florida Dance Festival. He has choreographed and performed his own work in New York City since 1997 and has been a guest artist at numerous universities nationally and abroad.