Steady State: A Workshop on Performance & Writing on Art as Art

Presented by artist, writer and critic Michael Workman, this selective 4-week informal workshop will offer a deep dive into the connections between dance, movement, performance art, social practice and participatory art and language, criticism and writing and inform participants as to current approaches for thinking about writing on art as art, as well as providing a practicum on publication. Tackling crucial issues of centeredness, difference, and the evolving public discourses around these specific art forms, we will assign readings, writing and discuss their outcomes, taking care to engage in dialogues about the pitfalls of centering on art-cultural gates in any of these disciplines or mere professional concerns, and how to excavate artistic values that remain in an identifiable steady state, regardless continuously fluctuating external concerns. Coursework will be tailored to reflect on the means by which language can be rallied not only to reproduce the living movements of modernity *as they are experienced* and the ways in which those moments can be recreated for the reader, but also methods for translating these into written choreographies for performance.

Workshop meeting will take place at the home of Michael Workman, each Sunday throughout the month of August. Those whom wish to participate must apply with a writing sample and resume or c.v. to michael.workman1@gmail.com.

Full 4-week workshop, prior to July 15-$150
Full 4-week workshop, after July 15-$175
Drop-in rate: $50

PLEASE NOTE: We don’t want to turn anyone away because of poverty or lack of means, so if the enrollment fees are an issue, reach out to us and we will work out what you can pay. But if it’s within your means, please pay the rates above.

Participants whop also enroll in the Social Movement workshop may deduct an additional $10 for both.

image: roman ondák, measuring the universe (detail of viewer-participatory installation), moma

Michael Workman is an artist, writer, dance, performance art and sociocultural critic, choreographer, and curator of numerous art, literary and theatrical productions. In addition to his work at The Chicago Tribune, Guardian US, Newcity, Sixty and elsewhere, Workman has also served as a reporter for WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, and as Chicago correspondent for Italian art magazine Flash Art. He is also Director of Bridge, a Chicago-based 501 c (3) publishing and programming organization.

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Tags: Chicago, michael workman, Movement Matters, Steady State A Workshop on Performance & Writing on Art as Art