Discovering/ Recovering Sensation, Space and Time as Source Material

Sophia Treanor

April 27, 2023, 7:00-9:00pm
Géza, 306 Maujer
In this learnshop developed by Sophia Treanor, artists, choreographers, dancers, and creative practitioners are invited to explore improvisation through individual and collective memories hidden within the body.

Sophia will begin by guiding participants through movement-based practices that link physical activity with reading and writing to directly engage participants’ internal and external realities. This method awakens the mind to the world of sensation to explore the richness of the present moment and reveal memories held in the body. After these practices, the group will investigate their shared reality within the framework of The Six Viewpoints, a method developed by dancer-choreographer Mary Overlie (1946-2020) to establish and expand performance by inquiring into the vocabulary of basic materials (space, shape, time, emotion, movement, story). In this learnshop, the group will focus on movement, space and time.

Discovering/Recovering Sensation, Space and Time as Source Material is organized within the framework of En Parábola, a film and theatre commission by artist Natalia Lassalle-Morillo that is part of the film-led series Rituals of Speaking. En Parábola reimagines the tragedy of Antigone with a cast of non-professional performers residing in Puerto Rico and within its diaspora in the United States, creating a meeting place to uncover the collective consciousness that emerges from decades of environmental, economic, political, and spiritual struggles.

Participants will be joining the ensemble of En Parábola as they engage with a series of training learnshops during the development process for the project, taking place at Amant between April 2023-April 2024.

This event is free and open to all with any level of movement experience, we especially welcome folks with no experience. There is a maximum capacity of 15 people, and if you would like to attend, email curatorial@amant.org briefly explaining why you would like to participate, please use “Discovering/Recovering Sensation” as email subject.

Sophia Treanor taken by Maryam Zaringhalam

Sophia Treanor is a theater director, performer, and educator based in New York City. Sophia’s original work has been seen in private and public spaces, theaters, and galleries across New York City, including the Gene Frankel Theater (2021), Secret Theater (2020), Danspace Project (2019), Triskelion Arts (2019), Dixon Place (2017), CAVE (2013-14), the Living Theater (2012), the Center for Performance Research (2012), and Theater for a New City (2011).  Sophia was the founder of Our Ladies of South 4th Street, an arts organization producing the work of over fifty artists (2011-2013) and has received fellowships at CAVE, home of Leimay from 2013-2018. 

Most recently, Sophia assistant directed and performed in Brain to Brain: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Mary Overlie presented by Movement Research and Danspace Project at Saint Mark’s Church (2019), and she directed A Connected Place at the Gene Frankel Theater (2021). Sophia co-directs a documentary in post-production about Mary Overlie (www.overliefilm.com) and is the co-founder of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project (https://sixviewpoints.com). Sophia also teaches at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and co-curates the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance Theater. Since 2014, Sophia has been teaching Mary Overlie’s The Six Viewpoints internationally as a guest artist at Vienna’s ImpulsTanz, Switzerland’s Scuola Teatro Dimitri, Rose Bruford College, Teatro Vertico in Spain, Toneelacadamie Maastricht, Shanghai Theatre Academy,  and Earthdance.  

In her directorial and performance work, Sophia aims to illuminate the exchange between environment, perception, and consciousness. Sophia is working to articulate the bridge between performance and practices of transformative justice that re-indigenize ourselves to our bodies and the land in service of greater liberation towards our many possible futures.