Patricia Valian Reser Artist-in-Residence 2024-25:
esperanza spalding
esperanza spalding │ Engagements & Performances
PRAx is proud to present our 2024-25 artist-in-residence esperanza spalding in a series of intimate workshops exploring the thought-provoking depths of collaborative artmaking. Based on participant engagement, esperanza and dance collaborators in Off Brand gOdds, will lead masterclasses and workshops for shared vocabulary development and improvised co-creating between music and dance. These guided exploratory workshops will be followed by group discussion.
The workshops will focus on a variety of topics, including the profound potential for humans to connect and learn through creating and experiencing art together. Participants will be challenged to tap into their own creativity, learning to dialogue and express through movement and music.
Much less concerned with a front-facing performance, these workshops are all about creating the structures in which musicians and dancers can deeply meet and co-compose from their own authentic selves. esperanza and Off Brand gOdds dance collaborators will incorporate some of the ideas and structures shared throughout these sessions into their public performances in Detrick Concert Hall on April 17 and 18.
Most sessions are open to all creative backgrounds and bodies — no music or dance experience will be necessary to participate in these personal and collaborative workshops with this Grammy-award winning artist. There are also two masterclasses available for dancers. All events are free and will take place in the Ray Theater at PRAx.
Improv Movement Masterclass with Off Brand gOdds Dance Residency
We invite dance students and professionals in any dance genre to learn and move with Off Brand gOdds. The dance company will lead a workshop sharing their practices and methods for enhancing improvisational dialogue between dancers and musicians.
Participants will learn by moving and applying Off Brand gOdds' practice of exploring the interplay between instrumental improvisation and dance improvisation.
Two sessions are available:
Tuesday, April 8, 5:30-7 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, 10-11:30 a.m.
Ray Theater
While there will be some overlap, each session will be unique, and you are welcome to sign up for more than one. Wear comfortable clothes and plan to move, create and be inspired.
Co-Movement Session + Q&A with Off Brand gOdds
Open to all bodies and dance abilities, join esperanza spalding and her dance ensemble Off Brand gOdds as they explore the integration of improvised dance and music. All participants will be invited to join in the creative process and unspoken language of improvised art.
Performers and participants will work together to create a dance piece that showcases the collaborative dialogue between dance and music. Facilitators will offer cultural context relating to how we engage and reciprocate against the practice’s historical backdrop. These co-movement sessions are informed by extensive research, and the facilitators from Off Brand gOdds will share that research and their exploration of social dance for therapeutic benefit. Two sessions are available:
Wednesday, April 9, 5:30-7 p.m.
Thursday, April 10, 5:30-7 p.m.
Ray Theater
Each session will be unique, although similar material may be exposed as a starting point. A participant is welcome to attend one session or both as they are based on each group’s specific experience of the creative process. We invite you to wear comfortable clothes suitable for movement.
Dance Shareback and Q&A session with esperanza spalding + Off Brand gOdds
esperanza spalding and her dance ensemble, Off Brand gOdds, invite you to join them for a unique chance to see the dance+music creative process in action, as members actively rehearse and develop new performance material. Participants will get a chance to ask questions while dancers and musicians share, explain, and demonstrate how they explore and create at the intersections of instrumental and dance improvisations.
Friday, April 11, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Ray Theater
We call this session a “shareback” as the process of participants and performers sharing back and forth is essential to the group’s creative process. Everyone is welcome — no music or dance experience required.
Songwrights Apothecary Lab (SAL) Shareback Sessions + Q&A
Join esperanza spalding as she collaborates with a “council” of musicians, students and arts-based therapeutic practitioners in her Songwrights Apothecary Lab (SAL). Based on esperanza’s album and ongoing project of the same name, these workshops will explore the deeply healing elements of music. Two sessions are available:
Sunday, April 13, 5-6 p.m.
Tuesday, April 15, 7-8 p.m.
Ray Theater
The SAL will creatively integrate the council’s collective research, intuition, artistry, aesthetics, inspiration and professional expertise. The end result will be a musical work based on the council’s perspectives, designed to offer enhanced therapeutic benefit to listeners and participants alike.
Audience members will be invited to watch their creative process and engage in a Q&A afterward.
esperanza spalding
April 17 - April 18, 7 p.m.
Emphasizing simplicity and intimacy of her voice, bass, and songs, in this special configuration of three musicians and four dancers, esperanza performs songs from all eight of her previous albums, songs from current releases, plus a special preview of her forthcoming project.