From The Earth Dance Project

From The Earth Dance Project is the main focus of my creative work right now, and we have a new website!!!

Please go to www.fromtheearthdanceproject.com for current, updated information about my work. 

Thank you for your interest!

Jenny

Fall Gaia Movement Workshop - Oct. 10 & 11, 2015

Photo: From our Spring Gaia Movement Workshop

It's Fall! The perfect time to announce From The Earth's first annual....

Fall Gaia Movement Workshop:
Our Sensory Playground

Date: October 10 & 11
Time: 1-5pm both days
Location: Wissahickon Woods (Valley Green Entrance)
Investment: $85 full-workshop
To Sign-up: Click HERE

It's really Fall! Can you feel it? Just last week it still felt like summer, but now the night's are getting cooler and the sunlight is turning golden and slanting through the trees. Fall is my favorite season because it is literally a SENSORY PLAYGROUND. It is full of auditory delights like the crunching, swishing, and scrunching of leaves and it offers the stunning visual beauty of red, orange, yellow, green and golden leaf rainbows covering every block, park and mountain side. The lingering smells of summer give way to the musty, damp scents of decaying leaves and the fresh, clean smell of crisp fall air. There is a constant shifting of warm and cool air dancing on our skin as we move between light and shadow. This makes Fall an ideal, luscious and rewarding time to get out and get connected to nature. However, with schools, programs, activities, and commitments starting up again and many holidays looming on the horizon, Fall can feel like an overwhelming, hectic, crazy-making flurry of activity. Sometimes in the Fall it feels like we as a society are doing everything we can think of as quickly as possible to get ready for winter. This can be exhausting and cause us to accidentally miss out on truly connecting with this beautiful season. Don’t let that happen!!

The Fall Gaia Movement Workshop offers you a place to slow down, ground your energy in the earth, reconnect with your body, and rejuvenate your spirit by intentionally deepening your connection to the natural world.

• Are you looking for a place to playfully explore your physical relationship to nature through dance and movement?
• Are you curious about how the systems in our bodies are similar to the larger systems of the earth?
• Are you looking for a place to turn OFF your mind and turn ON your senses? Where the only thing on your to-do list is the amazing exploration of simply being?

This workshop will invite you to connect intimately with nature, to listen deeply to the sounds and the movements of the earth in the Autumn, to invite these into your own physical & sensory awareness and allow them to affect your body, to move in response to them, and to create your own spontaneous dances with the earth!

We will meet in a secluded spot in nature and we will cultivate a relationship with that place. We will witness it and move with it and it will move with us and witness us. It will provide a secure space for you to dive deeply into your sensory awareness and explore your movement responses to the landscape. On the first day of the workshop we will focus on cultivating our own individual impulses for connection and movement in relationship to the natural elements of the landscape. On the second day we will deepen our individual tools and investigate what happens to our awareness and our relationship with nature when we introduce duet/group scores and experience increased human interaction.
 
This workshop offers you three things:
1) A deep physical connection to nature
2) A heightened ability to connect to the present moment
3) A profound sense of belonging to the natural world

AND… You will learn tools you can use to connect meaningfully with nature anywhere!


SIGN UP NOW!
Click HERE to go the registration page.


Not sure if this workshop is for you?
This workshop is geared toward both dancers and non-dancers. It is for anyone who enjoys moving their body and feels comfortable (or at least interested in) exploring movement in an open-ended, improvisatory way. You will be generating your own movement based on your own feelings, desires, perceptions, energetic shifts, observations, etc. There will be many guided, structured movement scores and explorations, but I will not be giving you specific movements to do with your body. Please contact me with further questions: Jenny 215-840-5710, jroesawyer@gmail.com.

UPSTREAM goes on tour to State College, PA

This weekend my beloved, creek dance UPSTREAM is going on tour to perform four shows in the waters of Spring Creek, in Spring Creek Park, in State College, PA as part of this year's Central Pennsylvania's Festival of the Arts!!

Growing up in State College, Arts Fest (as the locals call it) was always my favorite thing about summer. As a young child, I made crafts to sell on children's day, as a teen I danced the days away to amazing live music. However, as a budding dancer I was always a bit sad that dance as a performing art never had much of a place at Arts Fest. So it is truly a dream come true to be performing UPSTREAM this year, in my hometown, to my hometown crowd, in Arts Fest 2015.

If you are in town for the Fest, come check us out!

UPSTREAM

FREE Outdoor Dance Performance IN Spring Creek

Sat. July 11th & Sun. July 12th

Shows at 12pm & 1:30pm (both days)
Spring Creek Park, Pavilion #2

901 Houserville Rd. State College, PA 16801

Suggested Donation $10-20 per person

this dance is about humans

this dance is about nature
no music. no lights. no stage. no social accoutrements.
just two beings. stripped down to the bare essentials of their human-ness.
muscles. bodies. water. breath. air. rock. and bone.
existing as one. together. in joy and sorrow. 
in search of a place, of a world, where they can continue their deeply vital and connected existence.

This stunning and powerful dance is a call for you to remember your own intrinsic connection with nature. Created by Philadelphia based choreographer Jenny Roe Sawyer and performed by From The Earth dance company, this evocative duet is taking the traditional, sanitized dance performance and literally putting it into the river. This will be unlike anything you have seen before.

UPSTREAM is a radical plea for us to heal our ailing world by fully acknowledging that humans are part of nature and not separate from it.... a plea for a paradigm shift of cultural proportions.

This performance is FREE and no reservation is necessary. Mark your calendars now to make sure you don't miss this beautiful and remarkable dance!

If you have questions about the performance please email local contact Jerry Sawyer at jvs3@psu.edu.

------

Location & Show Information

Spring Creek Park is located at 901 Houserville Road, State College, PA 16801 

Google maps will take you there.

The show runs approx. 40min.

It will happen rain or shine (barring thunderstorms).

The audience will be sitting on rocks or standing during the show. Bring a cushion if you want. There are no chairs. If you want to come and need a chair, please contact Jerry at jvs3@psu.edu to work out details. You can bring your own or we can provide one for you, but chair seating will be limited at each show due to site constraints.

There are public bathrooms, drinking fountains, and plenty of parking on the premises.

Announcing our first Gaia Movement Workshop!

SPRING Gaia Movement Workshop:
Awakening Connection to the Earth

May 23 & 24
Time: 1-5pm both days
Location: Wissahickon Woods (Entrance TBA)
Investment: $85 Regular, $65 Early-bird (until May 15^th)

It’s Spring! An amazing season of MOVEMENT. The earth is waking up out of her deep freeze! We can see, hear and feel it all around us. And we can feel it inside of us. We are waking up too. Just like the fluids in the earth, the fluids in our bodies are warming up, thawing out, and beginning to move and flow again with greater ease and possibility. There is movement, growth and change afoot! But sometimes the process of waking up from the winter can be uncomfortable. You may still be feeling a bit stiff and cold, like your body hasn’t completely warmed up yet, or you may be feeling a bit disconnected from the outside world, like you haven’t quite made it completely out of your winter hibernation.

This workshop will help you to reconnect with yourself, rejuvenate your body and invigorate your life by intentionally deepening your connection to the natural world.

• Are you looking for a place to playfully explore your physical relationship to nature through dance and movement?
• Are you curious about how the systems in our bodies are similar to the larger systems of the earth?
• Are you looking for a supportive, energizing way to reconnect with your body after spending so much time cooped up inside this winter?

 
This workshop will invite you to connect intimately with nature, to listen deeply to the sounds and the movements of the earth in the springtime, to invite these into your own physical & sensory awareness and allow them to affect your body, to move in response to them, and create your own spontaneous dances with the earth!

We will meet in a secluded spot in nature and during our time together you will choose a place to be your outdoor home. Over the course of the workshop you will cultivate a relationship with that space. You will know it, feel it, observe it and it will know, feel and observe you, holding space for your experiences. You will create a sense of safety, familiarity and belonging that will help you feel secure to dive deeply into your sensory awareness and exploring your movement responses to the landscape.
 
We will investigate the fluid systems of the body as a way of warming up the body and connecting deeply into the very core of our own being. Exploring our fluid systems will enable us to create varied energetic states in the body that can lead us to discover new and interesting dance and movement experiences and possibilities. These investigations will offer us a way of finding commonality, affinity and responsiveness between our own selves and the complex natural elements around us.

This workshop offers you three things:
1) A deep physical connection to nature
2) Increased warmth, energy, & fluidity in your body
3) A profound sense of belonging to the natural world

AND… You will learn tools you can use to connect with nature anywhere!


SIGN UP NOW!
If you sign-up by May 15^th you get $20 off the full price!!

Click HERE to register.

Not sure if this workshop is for you?
This workshop is geared toward both dancers and non-dancers. It is for anyone who enjoys moving their body and feels comfortable (or at least interested in) exploring movement in an open-ended, improvisatory way. You will be generating your own movement based on your own feelings, desires, perceptions, energetic shifts, observations, etc. There will be many guided, structured movement scores and explorations, but I will not be giving you specific movements to do with your body. Please contact me with further questions: Jenny 215-840-5710, jroesawyer@gmail.com.

From The Earth is officially launching!!

 

I am BEYOND excited to announce...
The Official 2015 Launch of  From The Earth!!
An outdoor experiential dance company 

The Beginning:
In 2012, many of you came to watch as my first outdoor piece UPSTREAM took flight. From that first performance in front of four sold out audiences in the Wissahickon Creek, I knew that I had stumbled onto something special, something unique, something awesome, something that changes you.

In 2013, when UPSTREAM was presented by The Morris Arboretum, it struck me again: the way people respond to witnessing the wildness of this piece is different. They are full of awe, they are struck by beauty, they feel inspired, and it feels like something inside of them has changed. It is thrilling to witness, for it is the dream of every choreographer!

It has become clear to me that human bodies moving expressively in nature activate our profound natural connection to the earth. And in our increasingly disconnected society, this connection is something that deep down we are all craving.

So I have created a dance company... just for this! 

The Big Idea:
I believe, we as a society are living within a lie that humans are separate from nature. In reality, nature is our very source and living in disconnection from our source is hurting each and every one of us every day and it is destroying our planet.

From The Earth's mission is to connect humans deeply and intimately with nature through dance, movement, performance and somatic (body-based) experiences.

By offering you deep connection to your body and your relationship to the natural world, From The Earth can help you recover a deep lost part of yourself. And together, just maybe, we can cultivate a deeper sense of connectedness that will enrich our lives and spread across our world.

Currently offering:

• Outdoor site-specific performance & choreography.
• Nature-based movement classes & workshops.

We have a NEW SERIES of seasonal  Gaia Movement Workshops!
Check back soon for details.
They will be happening in the SPRING, SUMMER & FALL of 2015!!

Sensing the Living is BACK!

Sensing the Living: 

Finding Connection in Nature

An Outdoor Movement Workshop in the Wissahickon Woods

with Jenny Roe Sawyer
 
Two Dates:

Sunday November 2^nd, 2014 from 1-4:30pm &

Sunday November 9^th, 2014 from 1-4:30pm

You may sign up for one or both workshops!

Price for one workshop: $27.50 if you pre-register, $35 at the door

Price for both workshops: $52 if you pre-register, $60 at the door

Description
Sensing the Living is an outdoor movement workshop focused on exploration, that is specially designed to offer you an afternoon of experiencing DEEP CONNECTION to yourself as part of the natural world!

We will connect to ourselves, following our own deep internal impulses, and feeling our bodies come alive with breath and blood as we move our muscles, bones and hearts in new and inspired ways.

We will connect to the natural world, opening our senses to experience and respond to nature’s vast array of sounds, colors, smells, temperatures and textures.

Through curiosity and openess will create new relationships with ourselves, our bodies and the natural world.

And we will connect with each other in joy, fun, compassion, curiosity and playfulness!

The fall is an amazing season, offering us beautiful weather and gorgeous scenery. This season is an opportunity to connect with the splendor of nature that is not-to-be-missed!!

So come out to the woods and spend an afternoon following your own body’s wisdom, soaking in the beautiful fall colors and feeling deeply connected. Take an afternoon out of your busy schedule and make the time to feed yourself!

To Participate
Plan to meet at the Valley Green entrance to the Wissahickon woods at 12:45pm, so we can find each other and get started by 1pm. Wear sturdy footwear, clothes you won’t mind getting dirty and plenty of layers! Also bring water and a snack,
ALL levels and abilities of movers thoroughly welcomed and encouraged to attend!
Please contact me if you need directions, need help finding a ride or have any other questions.

Jenny Sawyer, 215-840-5710, jroesawyer@gmail.com

Bio
Jenny Roe Sawyer is a choreographer, improviser, teacher and dance artist who has been practicing dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She first fell in love with improvisation 15 years ago while a student at Oberlin College and has since studied with many great teachers like Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, KJ Holmes, Kirstie Simpson and the Architects. Recently, she has become enthralled with outdoor site-specific improvisation, choreography and performance. Her latest work UPSTREAM premiered in the water of the Wissahickon Creek in 2012 and was presented at the Morris Arboretum in 2013. Jenny recently had the amazing opportunity to take a Body & Earth workshop with Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose and this newly inspired her to share the joy she finds in outdoor movement practices through her teaching. This year Jenny is excited to be launching all her outdoor movement and dance endeavors under one name, From The Earth. When in the woods she can often be found improvising with trees.

Awakening the Seeds of Your Practice: A 6-week Contact Improv Fundamentals Intensive!

 

It's Spring!!!   Come out of your cave!    Wake up your body!  Connect to others!!!  Play in the meadows! ...  We mean in the studio, of course!!

Come join us for the second annual...
Awakening the Seeds of Your Practice:
A Contact Improv Fundamentals Intensive

For All Levels

Newly Expanded!

A 6-week workshop led by Lee Nussbaum Fogel & Jenny Roe Sawyer

Tuesdays 7-9pm
April 16, 23, 30 & May 7, 14, 21  (Must pre-register for whole series)
@ Mascher Space Cooperative
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
+ The opportunity to attend a Community Contact Jam with Lee & Jenny!

Somatic Movement Educator Lee Nussbaum Fogel and Interdisciplinary Dance Artist Jenny Roe Sawyer are joining together to offer YOU a playful and invigorating class series that builds confidence in basic Contact skills, expands your range of dancing possibilities, and approaches dancing with a sense of joy and discovery!

~Have you been dancing for a while and wanting to get back to the basics of Contact so you can create a strong and responsive connection to your dancing partner?

~Are you new to Contact, and wanting a safe and supportive group of people with whom to build on skills, such as sharing weight, following points of contact, and riding waves of momentum through space??

~Are you wanting to access a greater range of energetic states and movement qualities in your dancing?

~ Do you love contact but feel intimidated by going to a jam?

....then this is the class for YOU!!!

We are very excited to offer you this unique opportunity to explore and learn with a committed group of dancers, have direct attention for YOUR specific needs and interests, AND have the extra special experience of trying out a jam, supported by your teachers & fellow students!

***Register by Friday April 5th for our Special Early Bird Discount!!!*** 

Info:

Tuesdays 7-9pm

April 16, 23, 30 & May 7, 14, 21

Mascher Space Cooperative

155 Cecil.B Moore Ave., Philadelphia

+ The opportunity to attend a Community Contact Jam with Lee & Jenny!

 

Price:

$185 for the full series

$165 *Early Bird Discount* - register by Friday April 5th!

Click here to Register Online!

Contact:  leefogel@visioningbody.com 

*Contact Improvisation is a revolutionary movement form developed through the investigation of touch, weight, sensation, and momentum in relation to another moving body.  

Lee Nussbaum Fogel, MA, RSME is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator, Reiki Practitioner, and Artist who guides people in living creative, empowered lives according to their body's wisdom.  Her practice draws on extensive experience in process-oriented art, movement, and somatic practice, including graduate degree studies in Dance and Somatic Well-being through the University of Central Lancashire.  Lee began teaching Contact Improvisation and somatic movement as a student at Oberlin College, and has since studied Contact, Somatics, and Improvisation with Kirstie Simson, Andrea Olsen, Simone Forti, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Andre Gribou and Mary Abrams, among fabulous others.  She co-founded, taught and performed with the Philly Contact Collective, and has movement and somatics in a variety of settings throughout and beyond Philadelphia.

Jenny Roe Sawyer is a choreographer, improviser, teacher and dance artist who has been practicing dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She first fell in love with Contact improvisation 13 years ago while a student at Oberlin College and has since studied with Contact greats like Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, KJ Holmes, and Kirstie Simson. In Philadelphia, Jenny co-founded, taught and performed with the Philly Contact Collective; she was a founding member of Amnesiac Music and Dance, an experimental improv company; she co-directed the modern dance company Lo Roe Productions; and was a founding member of Mascher Space Cooperative. Her work has been presented by the Philly Fringe, GLUE Performance Series, Mascher Space Co-op, the Studio Series at SJtudio 34, and the Falls Bridge Improvisation Festival, among others. She is currently excited about expanding her improvisational teaching practice and touring her newest site-specific work, UPSTREAM.

Basking in the Glory of a Dream Come True

It is with great joy, gratitude, excitement, and pride, that I announce... our recent performances of UPSTREAM were a HUGE success!!

We had over 100 total audience members. We had amazing, picturesque weather for all 4 shows. Each audience was filled with appreciative, grateful, adoring, enthusiastic, and encouraging fans, many people who I already adore and some of whom I barely know. Each performance was beautiful and powerful in its own way with its own emotional journey. Really, things could not have gone better!! One of my mentors came. Two potential outdoor dance presenters attended (though ironically both watched from the "wrong" side of the creek). We even made MONEY! I asked for what I felt the show was really worth and for the first time ever, I got to pay myself and my dancers!!

YEE-HAW!!!

It is amazing when one can envision and imagine something grand and then will and work and coax and love it into being! I marvel that I imagined this beautiful project, brought it to life through love, sweat and tears, and it turned out just as beautifully as in my wildest dreams! (At least the wildest ones I dared to hope could come true...)

Now perhaps I will dare to dream of even wilder successes! Thus, I hope that soon there will be more wild dreams to report coming true. For now, please bask in the glory of this success with me..... with these lovely photos!

Dancers: Jenny Sawyer & Sinead O'Neill
Photos: Krista McKinnon

Live Outdoor Performances this Sept 15/16 & 22/23

Announcing a truly unique, evocative and strikingly beautiful site-specific duet IN the Wissahickon Creek. Please come to witness and be a part of this one-of-a-kind dance experience, surrounded and enveloped by the beauty of nature.

UPSTREAM

September 15th & 16th and September 22nd & 23rd @ 2pm
Outdoors IN the Wissahickon Creek (near Valley Green Inn)

Suggested Donation $15

Choreographed by Jenny Sawyer

Featuring Sinead O'Neill, Marina Libel and Jenny Sawyer

 

this dance is about humans

this dance is about nature
no music. no lights. no stage. no social accoutrements.
just two beings. stripped down to the bare essentials of their human-ness.
muscles. bodies. water. breath. air. rock. and bone.
existing as one. together. in joy and sorrow. 
in search of a place, of a world, where they can continue their deeply vital and connected existence.

This stunning and powerful dance piece by Philadelphia based choreographer Jenny Sawyer is a call for you to remember your own intrinsic connection with nature. This evocative duet is taking the traditional, sanitized dance performance and literally putting it into the river. This will be unlike anything you have seen before.

UPSTREAM is a radical plea for us to heal our ailing world by fully acknowledging that humans are part of nature and not separate from it.... a plea for a paradigm shift of cultural proportions.

Make your reservations now for this beautiful and remarkable dance!

To make your reservation please email jroesawyer@gmail.com and you will receive a confirmation email containing all the audience information you will need. Audience seating is somewhat limited, so reserve your spot now!

Watch UPSTREAM on YouTube

Now you can watch the first version of my outdoor dance project UPSTREAM on YouTube!!
This is an unfinished, yet strikingly beautiful and evocative piece which I am currently gearing up to keep working on this summer.

UPSTREAM - first version October 2011 - 20 min
http://youtu.be/roWXVjRsIKM

"An outdoor dance work-in-progress, exploring the human relationship to nature and the constant, eternal and ever-changing processes of life."

Comments and observations welcome.

UPSTREAM - Call for Dancers!

I am looking for dancers to join me in my river dance project "Upstream" this summer!  Would YOU like to be part of this beautiful outdoor investigation?

Last summer, I had a vision:

"A beautiful, haunting, meditative, and meaningful dance staged in the Wissahickon Creek, with the dancers continuously moving upstream over the course of the piece."

Last fall, two dancers joined me to create Upstream, a strangely beautiful and evocative duet in the Creek. In 6 to 8 rehearsals, we created an amazing rough draft.

You can view the full 20min piece here on YouTube: http://youtu.be/roWXVjRsIKM

This summer I want to expand the piece and perform a more finished version during the Philly Fringe Festival in September.

Would YOU like to join me?

More details about the piece:
Most of the river is very shallow so much of the dance will entail mostly wading and moving over rocks. Some sections will involve moving in pools or areas of deeper water, up to the knees, thighs, and possibly up to the waist. The dance may involve climbing over a small wall with a waterfall. You don't have to be a champion swimmer (you will never be in water over your head) but you need to feel comfortable floating, diving, splashing and submerging your whole body for a few moments.

In rehearsals we do a lot of experimenting with improvisational movement structures as research for the piece. In the end some sections of the piece will remain structured improvisational scores and some sections will be more highly structured or choreographed for effect.

What I am looking for in my dancers:I am looking for dancers who are very comfortable and creative within improvisation, in rehearsal and performance, and enjoy creating their own movements, who are interested in water, dirt, being outside, connecting to nature, getting wet, etc., and who are willing to experiment with using their voices, as I intend to use vocalized sound in the piece (no text). You don't have to have a good singing voice, just a willingness to explore using your voice loudly outdoors.

Intentions for the piece:

I intend to hold rehearsals regularly over the course of the summer, beginning the 2nd week of June until the performances at the end of September. I am looking for people who are free to rehearse during the day on a weekday preferably, but the exact rehearsal schedule is yet to be determined.  Each rehearsal block will take 4 to 5 hours since the site itself is about 40min away. For example: Leave the city at 12noon. Get to site and  rehearse from 1-4pm with a snack break. Leave and get home at 5pm.

I intend to perform it for a live audience on Saturday and Sunday Sept 15th/16th and/or Sept 22nd/23rd in the late morning or early afternoon.

I would like to hold an initial meeting/rehearsal with dancers who are interested in joining the project during the week of June 10-16th.
Please let me know If you are interested in joining me for this project or learning more information.

Thank you for your time and interest!

I am REALLY excited about this project and I hope it excites you too.

Please forward this to other dancers you know (who are not on this email) who you think would fit & enjoy the project.

Sincerely,
Jenny

DATE CHANGE - New Workshop Offering - March 19th

Finding the Well: Accessing Your Power Through Sound and Movement

An Improvisational Workshop with Jenny Sawyer

Sat. March 19th from 1pm-3pm
Studio 34
$20 for one person
$15 if you pre-register by March 13th or come with a friend 
$15 for dancepass holders

Come explore and expand your own personal sense of power through sound and movement.

In this workshop we will use vocalization, guided movement exploration, partnering and witnessing to connect to emotional centers of our bodies, access deep internal sources of strength and vulnerability, and cultivate new powerful ways of moving and being.


This is exciting, fun, challenging and vulnerable work. As a group we will create a supportive and safe space for both individual and group exploration.

All levels of movement experience are welcome. Willingness to experiment with making sound is required.

To pre-register or get more information, please contact Jenny Sawyer at jroesawyer@gmail.com

Studio 34
4522 Baltimore Avenue in West Philly
(215) 387-3434
info@studio34yoga.com


Bio
Jenny Sawyer has studied dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She is a co-founder and current member of the Philly Contact Collective, a performance and contact improvisation collective. She was a founding member of Amnesiac Music and Dance, a touring performance improv company directed by Nicole Bindler. Jenny has studied improv and contact improv from Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Nicole Bindler, David Brick, KJ Holmes, and Kirstie Simpson, among others. She is currently developing a new solo improvisation and performance practice that inspires the basis of her teaching.

Jenny's Fun-A-Day Project 2011

"A Dance A Day"

This year I finally did a Fun-A-Day Project! 

(To do Fun-A-Day you do/make/find something everyday for the month of January)

I did "A Dance A Day!"

(Almost) every day I improvised a dance on video, as a way to practice improvising daily and learn how to use my new snazzy albiet handmedown video camera.

Most of the dances ended up being filmed at the end of the day, before bed, in my bedroom, in limited space, and thus have an intimate, diary-like quality to them. I do things that I would not do onstage, that I do only for myself, and yet many of them, in the footage, are fascinating to watch.

I am quite curious about this..... how to show intimacy/vulnerability onstage... how to do things onstage you think you shouldn't... how to tell which ones are actually touching to watch and which ones really are "too much." Does "too much" really exist?

Perhaps I will use the footage as a jumping off place for a piece someday.

On Friday Feb 11th I showed my "A Dance A Day" video footage at The Seventh Annual Fun-A-Day Art Show at Studio 34 in West Philly. 

It was pretty great. The art and projects people make every year for this astound me. And the community comes out. It wasn't the best venue for showing off my project (I have too much footage to know what to do with it) but it was fun to be a part of the showing and connect with artists,  friends and neighbors.

The Seventh Annual Fun-A-Day Art Show
Your friends and neighbors have made an eclectic array of art every day for the month of January. Come celebrate their marvelous displays of creativity!
Two big days!
Friday & Saturday, February 11 & 12, 2011
7-11 pm
Free! All Ages!
Featuring Food, Refreshments, Performances, and Fun!
More info at http://www.artclash.com

Sensing the Living Workshop Pictures (September)

These pics don't really do the dancing justice, but you can witness a few of the more contemplative moments and witness the beauty of the day. We had a meaningful and fun time following our impulses in connecting with the natural world, ourselves and each other.

Sensing the Living - Outdoor Movement Workshop - Happening Again on Oct. 16!

Sensing the Living: 
Exploring Movement in Nature
An Outdoor Workshop in the Wissahickon Woods
Lead by Jenny Sawyer


Saturday October 16, 2010  (weather permitting)
11:30am – 1:45pm   
Price $15
Valley Green Entrance to the Wissahickon


Description
Come experience a deep internal connection to yourself and your body as an innate part of the natural world. We will deepen our sensory awareness by engaging the complexity and beauty of nature through touch, sound, sight, and smell. We will develop our ability to follow internal impulses, and we will enjoy moving our physical bodies in new and inspired ways.  Soak in this beautiful fall weather by moving and sensing joyfully with others!


To Participate
Meet at the Valley Green entrance to the Wissahickon woods at 11:30am.
Wear sturdy footwear and clothes you won’t mind getting dirty.
Please RSVP if you plan to attend, so I know to look for you at the park entrance. Also please contact me if you need directions, need help finding a ride or have any other questions. Jenny Sawyer, 215-840-5710, jroesawyer@gmail.com


Bio
Jenny Sawyer has studied dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She is a co-founder  and current member of the Philly Contact Collective, a performance and contact improvisation collective. She was a founding member of Amnesiac Music and Dance, a touring performance improv company directed by Nicole Bindler. Jenny has studied improv and contact improv from Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Nicole Bindler, David Brick, Kirstie Simpson, among others. She is currently developing a new solo performance practice that inspires the basis of her teaching. When in the woods she can often be found improvising with trees.

Sensing the Living - Outdoor Workshop Sept. 25

Sensing the Living: 
Exploring Movement in Nature
An Outdoor Workshop in the Wissahickon Woods
Lead by Jenny Sawyer


Saturday Sept. 25, 2010 
11:30am – 1:30pm   
Price $15
Valley Green Entrance to the Wissahickon


Description
Come experience a deep internal connection to yourself and your body as an innate part of the natural world. We will deepen our sensory awareness by engaging the complexity and beauty of nature through touch, sound, sight, and smell. We will develop our ability to follow internal impulses, and we will enjoy moving our physical bodies in new and inspired ways.  Soak in this beautiful fall weather by moving and sensing joyfully with others!


To Participate
Meet at the Valley Green entrance to the Wissahickon woods at 11:30am.
Wear sturdy footwear and clothes you won’t mind getting dirty.
Please RSVP if you plan to attend, so I know to look for you at the park entrance. Also please contact me if you need directions, need help finding a ride or have any other questions.
Jenny Sawyer, 215-840-5710, jroesawyer@gmail.com


Bio
Jenny Sawyer has studied dance and improvisational movement for over 20 years. She is a co-founder  and current member of the Philly Contact Collective, a performance and contact improvisation collective. She was a founding member of Amnesiac Music and Dance, a touring performance improv company directed by Nicole Bindler. Jenny has studied improv and contact improv from Angie Hauser, Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Nicole Bindler, David Brick, Kirstie Simpson, among others. She is currently developing a new solo performance practice that inspires the basis of her teaching. When in the woods she can often be found improvising with trees.