Stephanie Maher, endlessly improvisational, endlessly edgy, recently sponsored a new kind of movement exercise at her widely-regarded Stolzenhagen dance retreat: deconstructing and reconstructing books, especially books on contact, dance, and choreography.
Her own contribution to the output - Sorry, Bill... - tore apart her own correspondence around dance theory and (lovingly) one of the fundamentals of her choreographic education, only to reconstruct it all into a work of edgy improvisational collage. Stephanie's subtitle tells it all: - a project demanding practice and action over dead objects and ideas...
Maher's fans and students will love the abandon, the reckless ride through ideas, sexuality, art, dance, and movement. Newcomers will be fascinated by her madcap sense of play. Dance libraries everywhere will have to create a new call number to contain the stream of forthcoming books on contact and movement-inspired art.
Mead-Hill website: www.mead-hill.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Maher, known primarily as a dancer, choreographer, and improvisational teacher, is also highly regarded for her metaphysical contributions to movement-based eco-art and education.
Originally based in New York and San Francisco, at a critical time in her own development Maher relocated to Berlin, where she continues to perform, organize and teach. Known for her breathtaking physicality and creation of original works which express her unique blend of intimacy, sensitivity and wild sense of play, Maher continues to be sought after for performance-making, release-based technique and contact improvisation.
Moving from the community-based setting of K77 Studios in Berlin, Stephanie founded the Ponderosa Festival in Stolzenhagen, Germany. There, Maher continues to improvisationally structure a creative dance which engages the physical, the spiritual, and the land.
In this way, Maher constantly challenges the boundaries of international networking and integrative dance, all the while creating multiple avenues of support for self-actualizing, grassroots, non-profit organizations. Collectively, their products include a variety of spontaneous, curious, and outspoken performance installations which create frames for unique collaborative happenings that blend the physical, political, educative, and international frontiers of contemporary dance education.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Chris Blecher is a highly-regarded photographer whose home town is Hanover, Germany. After formal education in computer science and marketing communications, Chris added carpentry and photographic skills to his basic tool kit. Variously engaging the mix, he has lived in an enviable list of exotic world locations.
Most widely known for his sports photography, Chris takes frequent time-outs to disappear into the countryside where he sometimes can be found turning barns into villas. Most recently he has been sizing up stone ruins in Stolzenhagen, on the German side of the Polish border.
