June 26, 2022

winter guests masterclass

CANCELLED

Norway

Ana Maria Lucaciu

Photo courtesy of the artist

This event is a Nordic Spotlight, part of Nordic Bridges.

Overview

This class uses imagery, sensations, and various improvisation tasks, leading the participants to access their bodies’ fascinating articulation and imagination. The driving force behind the class is curiosity, wonder, active decision-making and listening, and the abandonment of judgment. There is no good, or bad, only the poetry of surprise and play concerning time, space, rhythm and the group dynamic. The class is open to movers of all levels. 

About Ana Maria Lucaciu

Ana Maria Lucaciu is a freelance choreographer and performing artist based in New York City and Europe.  

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Lucaciu graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada and immediately joined Canada’s National Ballet. She went on to dance with the Royal Danish Ballet, Augsburg Ballet (Germany), the Portuguese Contemporary Dance Company (Lisbon) and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York).   

Lucaciu assisted Crystal Pite on her Polaris project at New York City Center and regularly helped Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman with new creations and stages his work around the world.   

Lucaciu is a choreographer in her own right, and many organizations and companies have presented her work, like the Norwegian National Ballet, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, OZ Arts Nashville, the Terminus Modern Ballet Theater, Ballet Finland, the Battery Dance Company and the Philadelphia Ballet. In 2020 she was commissioned a short solo work by Swedish TV.   

In the spring of 2021, she joined London’s Rambert 2 company as a rehearsal director. She will be joining Alan Lucien Øyen’s winter guests as rehearsal director for their 2022 tour.   

Holder of a BFA in dance from Empire State College, Lucaciu teaches ballet, contemporary and improvisation workshops at professional programs and dance companies across the US, Europe and Asia. She is a 2018 TedX Bucharest speaker.

About winter guests

winter guests, based in Norway, is comprised of international performers in different constellations. winter guests uniquely creates a range of pure theatre works, dance and hybrid pieces mixing dance with text and movement with actors – all layered with a cinematic overtone enriched by stunning singular scenography.  

The works source material from interactions with strangers, personal anecdotes and pop culture references – always incorporating the performers and the rehearsal process in shaping the final narrative. With strong elements of meta theatre, winter guests overlay the company’s own reality into the subject matter to create rich and eccentric performances in a constantly shifting format.  

In 2014, their most renowned play Coelancanth won the HEDDA award: the most distinguished award for theatre in Norway, in the category Best-Written stage-play. At an epic 5½ hours in length, this piece also earned nominations for Best Play and Best Director.  

Presenting their avant-garde theatre and dance in both independent venues and opera houses, winter guests has toured in over 20 countries for performances and residencies at places such as The Watermill Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Banff Centre for the Arts, Shizuoka Performing Arts Center, The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Harbourfront Centre, among others.

Keywords Dance