Pepe Hevia Master Class, Barcelona, Spain

I just attended the Pepe Hevia Master Class at the Byron Carlyle Theater in North Miami Beach. It was graciously hosted by CCEMiami (ccemiami.org) who made it possible for artists to attend the workshop AND performance for FREE. I cannot say how wonderful and important it is to have quality (and international!) experiences like this at such a *reasonable* price! I was elated.

Company Website:
www.pepeheviadanza.com

Choreographic Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apia89kQdSU

Deciding to try Pepe:
My midwestern, somatic and contact improvisational dance self has been beaten down by the ballet-based "modern" dance classes of South Florida and I was positively ITCHING for something more my style. I clicked on a You Tube video of the group and it took all of 10 seconds to realize they were just what I wanted. Floor work. Enough said. This was a company that knew how to use their WHOLE body, had a relationship between extend and release, and weren't afraid to get down. No pretty, pretty dancy dance here. Don't get me wrong - they were lithe and dream-like, gorgeous and free, but you're not going to see sequins or saccharine duets here. HOORAY.

Arriving at the class:
I flew down the highway from Sunrise to North Miami Beach and managed to make it into the building at exactly 7:00pm having squeezed the hour and a half trip into an hour and ten minutes. Whew. The company regretfully informed us that Pepe was still in Mexico (their tour had stopped there and was going back for the next leg) and that they were to teach the class. "No sweat" I thought - after all, the company members often have the most articulate way of describing the movement because they've already translated it into their own bodies. They graciously spoke in English even though I was the only one who might not have understood Spanish and away we went.

About the class the Short Version: The class went easily from the floor warm-up to mobilizing the whole body within spiraling floor-work to flying across the floor diving in and out of it using the hands, feet, legs and torso to skim across the floor. lots of spinal articulation finding the difference between concave, neutral and convex as well as inverted floor work. If you don't know how to use your core or are afraid to put your head down below your pelvis, you might've walked away with self-inflicted bruising, but for those longing to swim on land, it was heaven.

About the class in Long Hand (SKIP DOWN TO "Afterthoughts" IF YOU DON"T CARE): We started on the floor using a (Laban/Bartenieff lingo) Core-Distal movements focusing on ease in the joints. The thing I picked up on and am going to use is that they took plenty of time to warm up the distal joints (hands and feet) through improvised articulation. I often if not always neglect this (especially in the hands) within my classes and/or only concentrated on set, muscular articulations instead of released articulations.

We then mobilized the floor work through various Cross-Lateral patterns both released and extended. Lots of Head-Tail in the form of spiraling, leading with the head to transition from the floor to sitting and back to the floor. We also transitioned from the floor to sitting and even to a mid-level jump back to sitting by both Body-Half mobilization and by a Cross-Lateral impetus.

The standing exercise took all of the aforementioned and moved it on the feet. The main focus was Sagittal versus Horizontal planes of movement. Just a smidgen of Vertical plane movement. The combo as a whole moved very logically between shifting weight forward, backward and side to side with one foot to another or both. Then initiating a turn or change of direction using the arms or body half to open or close. There was a focus on creating a distinction between rounding concave to neutral extension to convex hyper-extension articulations of the spine in preparations for the lyrical jumps and floor work the group uses so fluidly. It was all on the feet, but the weight was grounded and released through the easy and frequent exchanges of weight and wide seconds and extended first positions. The speed of the movement required an easy, weighted release of the hip-joints.

The final combination was a full conversation between standing, turning, and three different inversions (hands on the floor, feet or hips flying through the air). I'm late for a date walking my dog, otherwise I'd elaborate...

Afterthoughts:
To sum it up, I was glad to let go of my turn-out for a day (I have none to speak of, but I work tirelessly for the benefit of my Ballet-based company... yawn) and trust the basic organization of my WHOLE body to create beautiful, fluid movement. I may not make it to their free performance tomorrow night if my rehearsal goes long, but I hope to. I'm sure it'll be lovely and that I'll want to move to Spain...