Ballet for contemporary dancers
Kevin Fay is a contemporary dance artist who’s studied classical ballet for 20 years. With his diligent, ongoing practice as a guide, he proposes this class in an effort to explore queer, feminist pedagogy in ballet. In class, we’ll use classical forms and steps to investigate how ballet can be used on our own terms, towards our own ends. Inspired by the masterful philosophy and teaching of Janet Panetta, Kevin will focus the class on placement, efficiency, function, and pleasure. Respecting bodies and addressing their abilities, needs, and desires, we’ll go from the bottom up, and we’ll work from the inside out – feeling for the placement of bones that facilitates specific function. Navigating strength and release, effort and flow, we’ll orient our time together towards dynamic range and possibility. In short, with an open, abiding awareness of how we use and practice ballet’s forms, we will create, explore, and enjoy technical physicality with practice and care. Or, to share wisdom gleaned from Janet: We will dance and appreciate function as a form of beauty.
(he/him/his or they/them) holds a B.A. in Dance & Communication Studies from Northwestern University and is a freelance dance artist based in Brussels, Belgium. Since arriving in Belgium, he has collaborated on projects with Veli Lehtovaara, Éric Minh Cuong Castaing, Eleanor Bauer, Marc Vanrunxt, Fabrice Samyn, and Olga de Soto. Also, since 2018, he has contributed to grassroots activist work with State of the Arts. Now, with residency support in Belgium and a research scholarship from The Flemish Authorities (2020–2021), Kevin interrogates masculinity from a queer, feminist perspective as he organises open, performative reading circles called conversing with masculinity. Kevin danced professionally with Dayton Ballet and worked professionally as a ballet teacher in New York City, Chicago, and Brussels. His teaching is influenced most strongly by Janet Panetta and Zvi Gotheiner.
free admission for refugees
In English