Antumbra Schedule

Thursday, September 5^th

• 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM ~ Blues Union at 16 Bow st
  • 7 – 8pm Beyond-beginner Blues lesson
    8 – 9pm: Blues Community Studio
    9 – 11 pm: Social Dancing to DJ’d Blues music
  • Mask and Vaccination required

Friday, September 6^th

• 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM ~ Wandering Fusion Festival at Torbert MacDonald Park in Medford
  • Come join the Wandering Fusion Festival as we wander outside and celebrate coming together for another Boston fusion weekend! 
• 9:00 PM – 3:00 AM ~ Medford House Party
  • Join us for a night under the stars! We’ve got a microfusion dance room! We’ve got snacks for late night munchies! We’ve pitched a tent in the backyard for a chill space! We’ve got a fire for toasting marshmallows and sharing ghost stories! All we need is you! Costumes are encouraged: think cozy PJs or what you might camp in..
  • RSVPs through Partiful are required for entry. Please take a covid test before arriving.

Saturday, September 7^th

• 12:00 PM – 4:30 PM ~ Workshops with Ren Enby
  • 12–1:30pm: Biomechanics
    1:30–2pm: Break
    2–3:30pm: Leading from the Follow
    3:30–4:30pm: History and Culture of Fusion
  • Read a full description below and register via Luma
• 6:30 PM – 10:30 PM ~ Eclipse Fusion at Beacon Hill Friends House
  • 6:30-7:30pm: Ren Enby: Yes AND Fusion Dancing
  • 7:30-10:30pm with DJ’d music by Ren and Nell & Kelly
• 11:00 PM ~ Afters at Parish Café

Sunday, September 8^th

• 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM ~ Workshops with Ren Enby
  • 12–1:30pm: Musical Phrasing
    1:30–2pm: Break
    2pm–3:30pm: Polyrhythmic Fusion Dance
    3:30–5pm: Practica.
• 5:00 PM – 6:45 PM ~ Picnic & Games at Danehy Park
• 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM ~ Second Sun Rising at Q Ballroom
  • Lesson followed by DJed social dancing.

Stay tuned for further Antumbra updates! We will be adding a housing coordination form soon.

Housing

Workshop Descriptions

Saturday:

12–1:30pm: Biomechanics

My first movement practice and teaching experience was in martial arts. I trained for 15 years in various styles such as Muay Thai (Thailand kickboxing) and mixed weapons combat (swords, staff, nunchucks). I designed this class around the overlap I’ve found in the biochemical hacks that martial artists use to create pain and dancers use to create pleasure. In this class we are looking at movement from a very pragmatic anatomical perspective. We will explore concepts like connecting with different types of joints in the body, fundamentals of the human walking gait, how our bodies use proprioception to understand balance, and how we biomechanically move energy  through our body to communicate with our partner. The goal of this class is to successfully have students look at dance from the perspective of literally feeling their bones and muscles moving in their own bodies and their partners. In this way we can physiologically relate to movement and dance.

2–3:30pm: Leading from the Follow

This class will cover Follow techniques that will allow you to contribute to a shared idea while maintaining connection and informing the next movement. 

For leads, this class will introduce techniques you can use to request that communication from your Follow. These are “yes and” dance strategies that teach Follows how to express ideas, and Leads how to create exciting opportunities for Follows to do so. 

We will cover topics like:

• The lines between embellishments, highjacking, and switching. 
• How to change a lead’s idea by making it better. 
• Manipulating timing, tone and space as a Follow while receiving it as a Lead.
• Creating shared opportunities as a Lead and Follow
• Using the music to communicate a natural change in mood and movement.

3:30–4:30pm: History and Culture of Fusion

I’d like you to imagine that any given dance can be separated into three branches. It’s movement, its music, and its people. From that perspective we will ask questions like what exactly is Fusion dance, where did it come from, who “invented it”?

Fusion AC (After Covid) has seen an epic comeback, and with it has come a whole new generation of dancers completely unaware of Fusion’s history as a dance. This Workshop will dive into some of that history and explore emerging ideas around where we might see it going in the years to come. I’ll also be sharing with you the array of resources I have collected in my travels so that you can begin or continue your own Fusion dance journey.

Expect a less traditional instructor-led classroom setting with some video content, music listening, story sharing (from all of us), and of course dancing! Fusion dance as we know it is less than 20 years old, so If you want to have a deeper understanding of what it means to quite literally be a part of one of the first generations creating a completely new dance culture come join.

6:30-7:30pm(pre-social all levels lesson): Yes AND Fusion Dancing

​This class explores a pragmatic application of having a “yes and” attitude in Fusion Dance. Because Fusion Dance involves dancing with people from all kinds of different dance backgrounds and experience levels it’s easy to get caught up noticing all the ways we dance differently instead of the ways we dance the same. This class will change the narrative of judging each other as good/ or bad dancers and focus on asking what kind of “AND” do they have to my ideas, and how do I yes AND in return.

Sunday:

12–1:30pm: Musical Phrasing 

When I first started dancing there was no way I could hear the music and pay attention to my partner at the same time. My brain would simply break, but most of us have an intuitive understanding of music when we listen to it. We all feel when the drop is coming in a song. In this class we will aim to hone that intuitive skill and talk about musical phrasing and how to understand it as dancers. We’ll spend a lot of time talking about “hitting the one”, musical texture, timing, and how to identify these elements in the different phrases of a song, e.g the bridge, chorus, verse etc. The goal of this class is that students will develop a better understanding of how to use music to inform their movements in complete phrases (8 counts) rather than one beat at a time, and further bridge the gap between our technique and the music.

2pm–3:30pm: Polyrhythmic Fusion Dance 

This workshop will go over identifying the overlapping rhythms in music and noticing the rhythms you’re the most drawn to. We will  learn to identify multiple layers of rhythm in different musical genres, and notice the difference between what one person is hearing and another person. The goal of this class is that students will practice refining their listening skills when dancing to different musical genres, and fine-tune their connection so that they can better distinguish between their own musical timing and their partners.

3:30–5pm: Practica

Practice what you learned this weekend with other workshop attendees. With a practica guided by Ren. This is your chance to ask questions and get focused feedback.

Private Lessons

Ren is also available for private lessons during her stay in Boston. Reach out to them via email attrigunjbfz@gmail.com for more information