MOVEMENT INTENSIVE IN COMPOSITIONAL IMPROVISATION WITH THE ARCHITECTS / JUne 2025
D A T E S
Thurs. June 5 (arrive: 4-6pm) - Sun. June 8 (depart: 6:30pm) or optional departure Mon. June 9 (depart: 9am-noon)
Arrival on Thursday the 5th anytime between 4-6pm. When you arrive, we’ll do orientation at 6:30pm, and the first dinner and meet & greet session is from 7:30pm-9:30pm. Departure is Sunday 6:30pm-8pm (or folks can request to depart Monday morning for a $25-50 additional fee). There will be 2 movements sessions on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday (see sched below). The full and updated schedule will be sent to participants prior to arrival.
D A I L Y S C H E D U L E
BREAKFAST @ATLAND (8AM-9AM) chef-prepared and communal style at the Atland main house. Our dance deck is open for self-led morning practice/yoga/warm-ups.
MORNING IMPROVISATION SESSIONS W/ THE ARCHITECTS (10AM-1PM) The studio where we will gather for Friday’s movement sessions will be at the gorgeous and spacious Thayer Hill studio, just a few minutes up the road from Atland. The Saturday/Sunday sessions will take place at the beautiful renovated art center, 33 Hawley, in downtown Northampton, MA.
LUNCH (1:30PM-2:30PM) chef-prepared and communal style at the Atland main house, or brown bag option to take it on the go to the river. Sat/Sun’s lunch will be provided at the Workroom studio instead of Atland.
OPTIONAL SWIM BREAK @THE BEND we’ll make lunch portable if you want to spend the afternoon break in the water. There is 1 swimming hole a short walk away which is perfect for post-class dips, another larger one with a community beach a bike ride away, and the lake for those who want to explore farther away.
AFTERNOON IMPROVISATION SESSIONS W/ THE ARCHITECTS (3:30PM-6:30PM) The studio where we will gather for movement sessions will be at the gorgeous and spacious Thayer Hill studio, just a few minutes up the road from Atland. The Sat/Sun sessions will take place at the beautiful renovated art center, 33 Hawley, in downtown Northampton, MA.
DINNER @ATLAND (7:30PM) chef-prepared and communal style at the Atland main house. Saturday dinner is on your own in downtown Northampton, MA.
EVENING SESSIONS Evenings are left open for rest, socializing, hot tub soaks, and exploring rural western Massachusetts’ hiking trails and beautiful swimming holes. Participants may choose to socialize at the local Sena Farm Brewery or Liston’s Bar & Restaurant. Personal time for rest and integration may be taken whenever needed. SPECIAL NOTE: Friday night there will be live music and Two-Step dancing at our local Chesterfield Town Hall (optional!). Thursday and Saturday night we’ll heat up our wood-fired hot tub.
Atland is hosting a summer improvisation workshop facilitated by The Architects: Kathy Couch, Katherine Ferrier, Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Kayle, and Pamela Vail, with guest musician Jason Palamara. Meals and lodging options available (see below). During the intensive, there will be time to enjoy hiking our trails, swimming in the river, sharing communal meals around the fire, hot tub hangs, and even the chance to Two-Step with a live cajun band at our local town hall on Friday evening!
The renowned Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation (MICI for short) is now here in Western Massachusetts, after its 14-year-run at Franklin and Marshall College. The intensive balances in-depth individual exploration with rigorous practice in spontaneous ensemble dance-making. Fresh perceptions and new choices are set in motion daily through provoking, open-ended questions.
Each kinesthetic/conceptual proposition acts as an entrance point for the mover and composer, a window into authenticity, connection, depth, and range. Of particular interest here is the emerging: compositional languages and modes of perceiving and engaging that are in-progress, unfolding, as-yet-unseen. Over the course of the weekend, the artistic integrity of one’s voice is sharpened in conversation with the whole and a dialogue emerges as individual aesthetics meet, interact, and expand.
Friday’s sessions will be held at Thayer Hill Studio, just down the road from Atland Residency. The Architects are members of the Workroom Cooperative, so Saturday/Sunday’s movement sessions will be held at A.P.E's beautiful (and massive!) Workroom at 33 Hawley in downtown Northampton.
T U I T I O N + M E A L S + H O U S I N G
Tuition: $400-$450 sliding scale / half tuition due upon registration and remaining half due May 1.
Meals: $150 / includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all workshop days (except Saturday dinner since that workshop will take place in downtown Northampton). Meals are required for those who lodge at Atland/Thayer Hill, and recommended (but not required) for those who find their own housing.
Housing options @Atland and @Thayer Hill: $125-$300 (tiered options include: private indoor bedrooms, shared indoor bedrooms, cabins, dorm-style, glamping, and camping on tent platforms with an outdoor heated shower… we have camp gear for rent if needed). Participants are welcome to find their own housing and only pay the tuition/meals fee, especially those who live nearby.
Note: If you’re staying with us Thayer Hill or Atland, you’ll be assigned a chore when you check-in before orientation. Chores include sweeping the dance studio, helping with meal prep/cleanup, and tidying the living spaces. This is part of our ethos of communal living and sharing space with one another.
A P P L I C A T I O N
UPDATE: We are now sold out for this workshop. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please email us: info@torilawrence.org. Last year, many folks from the waiting list were able to attend the workshop since spots opened up.
Open to the first 30 participants who register online and pay a deposit (deposit is half of tuition and non-refundable). Prior experience with dance improvisation is necessary. Everyone is welcome to register, but advanced improvisers will be given priority if we over-enroll. If you have questions about if this workshop is the right level/fit for you.
the ARCHITECTS
Kathy Couch, Katherine Ferrier, Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Kayle, and Pamela Vail
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The Architects were born out of collaborations between Katherine Ferrier, Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Kayle, and Pamela Vail in the late 1980s, later joined by Kathy Couch. For over 20 years, the quintet has been engaged in celebrating composition through their commitment to collaborative movement research. The Architects have presented their work and taught master classes in such venues as the Never Before Never Again Improvisation Festival, NYC; Bodies in Motion Festival, MA; “Slice and Dice” performance series, NYC; Texas Dance Improvisation Festival; Chicago Dance Improvisation Fest; Improvisation Festival/N.Y.; Epiphany Dance Experiment, Chicago; Jazz Fest, Burlington, VT (in collaboration with Ensemble V, directed by Arthur Brooks); Improvised and Otherwise Festival of Sound and Movement, NYC; Big Range Dance Festival, Houston, TX; The Fringe Festival, Minneapolis, MN; The Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT; Movement Arts Thorne’s in Northampton, MA; the University of Iowa; and Franklin & Marshall, Middlebury, Muhlenberg, Keene State, and Austin Community Colleges. They were the company in residence at Work in the Performance of Improvisation from 2001-2005 at Bennington College; in 2007 they toured to Helsinki, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia to teach and perform. For 13 years, 2006-2018, they held their weeklong workshop Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation (MICI) at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. They also offered “wiMICI” (winter Movement Intensive in Compositional Improvisation) each January from 2011-2013 in Tucson, AZ. In 2021, the Architects ventured into digital collaboration and created “Still Life With”, a video screened at the Poetics of Aging Festival presented by Freeskewl, and at the 2022 Atland Cinedance Fest. In their professional and life-long devotion to choreography, improvisation, and teaching, the Architects bring a holistic and ferocious intelligence to the dialogue of dance-making and teaching, process and product, individual voice and ensemble composition, crafting, and opening to the unknown.
