Joy Davis is a dance-artist and certified Countertechnique Teacher. Originally from Nashville, she has spent the last ten years between Knoxville, Chicago, and Amsterdam creating, performing, and studying contemporary dance and improvisation. Joy has performed the repertory of Martha Graham and Bob Fosse; and she has the privilege of working with choreographers such as Mark Lamb, Erica Mott, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Chris Aiken, Shaina Cantino, and Delfos Danza. She is the recipient of a Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF) grant for emerging choreographers. Her work has been performed all over Tennessee, as well as Chicago, Amsterdam, San Diego, and 
Philadelphia. She continues to train and study the Countertechnique with Anouk van Dijk, Artistic Director for Australian dance company Chunky Move. After completing the 2012 Countertechnique Teacher Training, she is only one four American instructors and teaches classes and workshops all over the United States. Joy is currently an MFA candidate and Teaching Fellow at Smith College in the Department of Dance in Northampton, MA.
Class description: Countertechnique was developed by Anouk van Dijk throughout her twenty-five year career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. It is a movement system to help the dancer think about the dancing body, focusing on the process of incorporating information into action. By continuously and sequentially directing and counter directing parts of the body through space, Countertechnique allows the moving dancer to work with an ever changing dynamic balance. The consistent use of the counter direction in all movements is key to the technique; both the awareness and application of this principle is trained throughout the Countertechnique class. Dancers are introduced step-by-step to the various tools through a clear structure of exercises – making sure, however, that the priority always lies with experiencing and enjoying the difference in moving, rather than first having to understand the tools intellectually.
Links:
www.facebook.com/Countertechnique
Past teaching:
Velocity Dance Center, Seattle, WA; Smith College, Northampton, MA; ACDA Festival, Boston, MA; Conduit Dance, Portland, OR; Fact/SF dance company, San Francisco, CA; San Diego Dance Theater’s Live Arts Festival, San Diego, CA; Hampshire College, Amherst, MA; Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT; New Dialect dance company, Nashville, TN; Tennessee Association of Dance Festival, Chattanooga, TN; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; Outer Space, Chicago, IL
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