Workshop November 13th with Heidi Rustgaard Sitting – Scores

This workshop starts from one of the simplest things we do: sitting. Through scores, listening and duration, we explore how bodies relate to time, space and each other when movement is reduced to a minimum, and how much happens in what seems to be stillness.

The workshop draws on sitting scores that Heidi Rustgaard has developed with the Trinity Laban Dance Collective, the artist cohort at Rose Choreographic School (Sadler’s Wells) and dancers in Oslo. The work grows out of her One-Note practice, in which she uses a single movement or musical note as choreographic material.
The material is minimal: the act of sitting itself, how we enter and leave it, and how we move through the space. We work with transitions, positions, and pauses; slowness, repetition, and subtle shifts; and sitting alone, together, side by side, and facing one another. What happens when many bodies sit together, and how do small movements affect the whole?

Drawing on the minimalist dance tradition, including Lucinda Childs and Yvonne Rainer, we challenge the neutrality it is often associated with. Posture, gaze, clothing and placement become carriers of meaning that can be read, understood and misunderstood. Stillness here is not absence but a physical listening practice and a shared pause. There will also be time for conversation and reflection along the way.

The workshop is for professional dancers, dance students and other movement artists interested in scores, minimalism and performance practice. It is open to all ages and bodies, and the score can be adapted to different needs. No particular technical background is required, only curiosity and a willingness to stay with sitting and slowness.