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I’ve always been a fan of Robbie Sweeny. For years I’ve admired his photographer choreography, his hurried movement and cadence during performances. It takes considerable method and skill to shoot the perfect angle, and to capture the compelling photos that highlight CountrePulse’s Instagram feed. My colleagues and I admire his stylistic editing; together we scroll Flickr as a pastime. It’proves difficult to select a photo for a project—they’re all so striking. Although Robbie works behind the scenes, the dance community

How can collaboration serve sustainability as makers/dancers?   What makes dance inclusive?   How can dance create meaningful connections between performers, and between performers and the audience?   How can dance be used to build relationships with change?   Rachael Dichter & Dia Dear are Edge Residency 2020 artists-in-residence. Their new work, WITH, opens at CounterPulse Apr 2-4 & 9-11. Get tickets at counterpulse.org/edge2020. Photos by Robbie Sweeny

We are artists. In some ways, we are sacrificial lambs. We bleed publicly. We can be found dancing naked and crying the necessary tear. We do this so they can name what they have sacrificed. To those without words, we give poetry; those without melody, a song. And to him, that guy, that just can’t catch a beat, we give contact improv. Our experimentations become jazz, rap, rock n roll. We say things like “let those girls dance on a

Deep fake dancing and breaking technology I’ve been talking with the StratoFyzika team about how identity resides in the body for their residency in CounterPulse’s Combustible program. We’re researching surveillance technology, machine learning, and dance for a performance in spring 2020. The research is conceptual as well as practical, and the following comprises my notes in building a first prototype of an AI for the performance. A common conception of identity might include one’s values, likes, dislikes, various personality traits. “The things that make

“Primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se” (At first it’s strange, then it gets into your veins) - Fernando Pessoa I am part of the Human/ID team, a collaboration with StratoFyzika and Ian Heisters that probes how identity is rendered legible (or illegible) through movement and technology.  Tagging onto the notion of digital flaws and their rich potential (which my colleague Ian wrote about in his last post), and coming from a movement/choreographic lens, here are my queries for the moment: What happens

Leaked Email Thread:Justin Ebrahemi <justin@counterpulse.org>Mon, Mar 15, 3:07 PMto Mica Sigourney, Silk Worm Hi Mica and Silk, I loved the Insta takeover on Sat! I just wanted to follow up in hopes you could provide more info on Colossus and I will draft a work description and press release. Can’t believe we’re a month away! CounterPulse will go quietly public about the work being at ██████ ████ ████(on ticketing pages and the PR). This is so we don’t draw too

While at CounterPulse I first felt out the space and listened to mentor Joanna Haigood and used the first moments to get into my body and meditate on how I wanted to utilize it as a tool to begin telling these stories which I am still learning but that also live within me. I did some preliminary choreography, shot some b-roll footage for the short film that would be used in the piece and somewhat sussed out the music that

At the CounterPulse Festival this September, The Performance Primers will be hosting a virtual panel discussion and mixer titled "Queeratorial Collectives Do It Themselves". This conversation will explore how working on a grassroots level outside conventional venues and capitalist values opens up new possibilities and invites deeper engagement among audiences and artists. Ahead of this discussion, Hannah Ayasse, CounterPulse's Program Manager and co-founder of the Performance Primers, reflected on the role of permission in creating artistic works. RSVP Here for

Amara Tabor-Smith (she/her/we) is a choreographer/performance maker and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater.  On Tuesday September 14th as part of the CounterPulse Festival 2021, we will be hosting Embodied Divination, a movement-based workshop where participants are invited to “contemplate their body as oracle, as compass, and a site for social repair”. Limited tickets are now available! CounterPulse’s Communications and Engagement Manager, Grey Tartaglione (they/them), sat down with Amara to talk more about the workshop and the intersection

The SEED residency was a blessing of space and time to create. My artistic partner Jakob and I spent as much time as we could at CounterPulse, long hours in the space, not just for creation and play, but to live and be in the space, to be part of the environment that is CounterPulse and the Tenderloin and allow it to inform and interweave into our process. It was an exercise in persistence, focus, and play, stretching me and