Dance Lab // Human Instruments // May 6th & 8th
Fri, 6 May 2022, 7:30 PM - Sat, 7 May 2022, 6:00 PM EDT
Share
Refund Policy: No refunds
"You sing the song in your heart and the people it resonates with are going to dance to it." ~ Steve Maraboli
Before there were clubs. Before there were DJ's. Before there were headphones.
Before festivals. Before instruments. Even before language, we gathered around fires to create with our voices and bodies. We sang and danced from mountain peaks to ocean side, to move and express the ineffable.
Singing and dancing have never been apart. Like bee and flower, they are born from one another: a co-emergent language that is inseparable. Only in modern times, where marketing departments drive cultural cues, can we separate what is singing and what is dancing.
We are honored and so stoked to have the very gifted Nick Demeris return to the Dance Lab space to bring his magic with group singing practices.
Together, with Omar Aena, they will offer two days of movement + singing; first at Dance Lab on Friday night 5/6 at the Green Gym, and then a day-long deep dive outdoors in Williamsburg on Sunday 5/8.
We will open our voices and bodies, harmonizing them into one full, whole expression, bringing release and liberation to that which has been stuck and stagnant within us.
You can come for either one, but we suggest diving into both together!
✦ Friday Night:
7:30-10:30PM
$25
The Green Gym in Brooklyn
- We'll begin with an opening class exploring our human instruments, which will flow into a DJ set with Omar + live percussion with AJ Nocito & Cole Blumstein
✦ Sunday:
12-6PM
$50
Williamsburg
We will explore:
- Opening our channels through voice
- Discovering the body as a drum
- Improvising with our human instruments over music
- Connecting through harmony
- Weaving a co-created song altogether
✦ Weekend package: $65
✦ Bring:
1. Loose-fitting clothes that let you move your body and free yourself
2. Water and a water bottle.
3. Your own lunch if you plan to join on Sunday..
4. Your curiosity!
Before there were clubs. Before there were DJ's. Before there were headphones.
Before festivals. Before instruments. Even before language, we gathered around fires to create with our voices and bodies. We sang and danced from mountain peaks to ocean side, to move and express the ineffable.
Singing and dancing have never been apart. Like bee and flower, they are born from one another: a co-emergent language that is inseparable. Only in modern times, where marketing departments drive cultural cues, can we separate what is singing and what is dancing.
We are honored and so stoked to have the very gifted Nick Demeris return to the Dance Lab space to bring his magic with group singing practices.
Together, with Omar Aena, they will offer two days of movement + singing; first at Dance Lab on Friday night 5/6 at the Green Gym, and then a day-long deep dive outdoors in Williamsburg on Sunday 5/8.
We will open our voices and bodies, harmonizing them into one full, whole expression, bringing release and liberation to that which has been stuck and stagnant within us.
You can come for either one, but we suggest diving into both together!
✦ Friday Night:
7:30-10:30PM
$25
The Green Gym in Brooklyn
- We'll begin with an opening class exploring our human instruments, which will flow into a DJ set with Omar + live percussion with AJ Nocito & Cole Blumstein
✦ Sunday:
12-6PM
$50
Williamsburg
We will explore:
- Opening our channels through voice
- Discovering the body as a drum
- Improvising with our human instruments over music
- Connecting through harmony
- Weaving a co-created song altogether
✦ Weekend package: $65
✦ Bring:
1. Loose-fitting clothes that let you move your body and free yourself
2. Water and a water bottle.
3. Your own lunch if you plan to join on Sunday..
4. Your curiosity!
◀︎ GUIDELINES ▶︎
1. Respect yourself and one another
2. Dance barefoot
3. Conversation & cellphone use outside the dance space
2. Dance barefoot
3. Conversation & cellphone use outside the dance space
About the Facilitators:
Nick Demeris is a two-time TEDx participant (speaker and host), actor, singer, and facilitator of community building through music, turning audiences into orchestras around the globe. In his fourth year as a singer, creator, and teaching artist at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Nick works with master musicians, Public School teachers, aspiring artists, and young people in the juvenile justice system, to improvise, write, produce, and record original music. Nick performs original music and teaching #humaninstruments workshops at retreats and conferences internationally. Nick holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre from Illinois State University. He studied clown with Paola Coletto (Jacques Lecoq alumni teacher) for two years and has completed All the Way In, the yearlong training in jazz and vocal improvisation, with master singer Rhiannon (a member of Bobby McFerrin’s Gimme 5) and is a three-time participant in Bobby McFerrin’s weeklong Circle Songs training where he also has led workshops.
Omar Aena is a world music DJ, community organizer and event producer based in NYC. He is the founder of Dance Lab, a Brooklyn-based collective that explores dance as a form of somatic therapy. He has hosted many events around the world, including retreats and group trips exploring the origins of ecstatic music and dance. His mission is to create transformational experiences through the arts that invites self-expression, connection and healing. As a DJ he mixes together traditional music of the past with electronic music of the present, with a particular focus on songs from his middle-eastern heritage.
You can listen to his DJ mixes here: soundcloud.com/omaraena