Characters in Motion is a BIPOC centered & COVID cautious 7 week movement-theater workshop for fools, dancers, clowns, writers, shapeshifters, late bloomers, all! No previous dance or theater experience required.
This workshop is an introduction to improvisational + kinesthetic structures. We will collaborate with the unconscious, the unknown, as well as with other participants and live musical accompanists. As improvisers, we will practice noticing and absorbing the material available to us in the present moment. As storytellers, we will allow movement, stillness, and vocalization to emerge organically and guide our play. This practice won’t involve scripts or choreography, but will instead use simple scores as a constraint, through which participants will risk spontaneous transformations and discover their own source of deep invention.
SCHEDULE
Fall 2026 workshop dates forthcoming
@ Satsang Yoga (Hope Artiste Village)
999 Main Street, Unit 105, Pawtucket, RI
WHAT IS MOVEMENT-THEATER?
Movement-theater is hard to define! My points of reference are artists like Blondell Cummings (“Chicken Soup”) and Okwui Okpokwasili, although neither describe themselves as movement-theater artists, per se. In my experience, movement-theater is a mix of dance, theater, and mime. The mime aspect is largely influenced by Jacques Lecoq and isn’t my focus in this workshop. I learned movement-theater from a matrilineage of artists, primarily Lanny Harrison, who conceived of Characters in Motion and from whom I’m gratefully inheriting this material. I learned from Lanny that movement-theater can be a method of channeling archetypal figures and forging connections with dream figures from within my own personal mythologies. My approach to the voice and musical element of the workshop is particularly indebted to Meredith Monk, with whom I rehearsed and toured from 2017-2019. Lastly, it’s important to note that this is not contact-improv; there will be no weight exchange or touching your fellow participants without their explicit permission.
NOTES ON ACCESSIBILITY
“Whether it’s a cold or COVID, let the chain of transmission end with you. Refusing to participate in viral spread is a decolonial act.” — The People’s CDC
This workshop requires participants wear a kn95 mask or better. I will provide masks in class for anyone who needs one.
We will have a HEPA air purifier running in the studio for the entire class time.
We will discuss options for temporarily performing without a mask in class and come to a group agreement about best practices.
Class will be held on the first floor of the Hope Artiste Village. See map for accessible entrances on the first floor. Ramps are marked in purple-blue. All other entrances are marked in red. Satsang Yoga is circled in pink.
The accessible entrance on Main street is nearest to the studio. The outer double doors are 66 inches wide. There is no hands free door device with push button or sensor. Once inside, there are two additional doorframes in the hallway to pass through on the way to the studio, neither have doors, the first is 47 inches wide and the second is 35 inches wide. The doorframes should be wide enough to accommodate transport wheelchairs, standard manual wheelchairs, and power chair users.
There are 5 parking areas available in addition to Main street. There is a small lot directly across from the entrance at 999 Main street. Parking is available between the 2 sides of the building (1005 & 999), parking lots on each side street of the building, and a large parking lot in the back of the building. View building map.
PRICING AND SLIDING SCALE
The sliding scale prices reflect my fee for the entire 7-week class series. I’m not accepting drop-ins at this time. Please use this scale in good faith. If more than two or three descriptors in the middle or high income sections apply to you, please pay higher on the scale. The same fee applies whether or not you attend all 7 classes.
Lower income
Family has little or no assets, receive public assistance, unemployed or earn less than $40k, no or little expendable income, are unable to access healthcare, are an elder with limited financial support, do illegal work for survival, have a chronic illness or disability that impacts your ability to earn money.
BIPOC only: $84
Everyone else: $105
Middle income
Family has a paid-off house, parents have retirement accounts, most people in family have higher education, can cover basic needs and have some expendable income, can ask people in community or family for money, travel recreationally, access to healthcare, few or no dependents, earn $40-60k.
BIPOC only: $140
Everyone else: $175
Higher income
Family has many assets or investments, can live partially off unearned income, own the home you live in or rent by choice, comfortably able to meet basic needs with ample expendable income, earn a high income relative to home's average income.
BIPOC only: $175
Everyone else: $224
*Sliding scale was modeled after awarela.org, accountability mapping, and ride free fearless money
LINEAGES AND TEACHERS WHO INFORM THIS WORK
PARTICIPANT TESTIMONY
“Characters in Motion was a joy to be in! Jo is a wonderful facilitator and the room always had just the right energy. The exercises were challenging but inviting in a way that really asks you to be in the moment and show up as yourself, the structure allowed for vulnerability and playfulness and the rotating musical accompanists were one of my favorite elements of the workshop. It was unlike any workshop I have taken and I’d love to do it again.”
– Maya
“I looked forward to every class! I struggle with chronic health and pain conditions so I was worried about whether I would be able to participate the way I wanted to but I was able to with how accessible Jo made the class and that felt so wonderful. I learned new ways of moving my body and moving through space and with other people; really observing how I can be authentic in spaces with other movers/in community. This class allowed me to expand, grow and deepen my felt sense of connection. This space felt deeply nourishing and honestly, really magical. I really appreciated how Jo held and curated the space and class. I felt really held and really honored and grateful for every practice/activity they offered. I hope they keep doing these classes because I got so much from it!”
–Ollie Martin
“Characters in Motion provided a space for respite, exhaling, curiosity, and fun for me. It was exciting to be able to enter the space and only focus on my body in relation to others in the space, and to explore and have fun with the character prompts given. I learned new improvisational dance techniques as well as meditation techniques that I will be using myself, and introducing to friends and future students in community spaces.”
–Nadia Nazar
“I haven’t been a regular church-goer since I turned 18, but these weekly sessions connected me to my body as a conduit for spirit. Stretching our physical and emotional capacities wrung out all of the *ick* from my week and left me feeling more attuned to my own aliveness. Getting to witness other community members doing the same brought an intimacy that continues to reverberate as we cross paths in everyday life. Huge shout out to the live musicians brilliantly creating improvised worlds for us to navigate. Jo has brought us all a tremendous gift in offering this course, and I would highly recommend it to anyone seeking to weather the storm of this time through the shelter of individual and collective embodied expression and exploration.”
–Linc Oliver-O'Neil
“I loved this class and how I felt expanded by it! I left each session feeling both stimulated and relaxed, connected to new people in my community, and like I had shaken the dust and pollen from my nervous system. The prompts were fun and surprising and got me to move my body in ways I didn't know I needed to. Jo’s adept facilitation paired with incredible live musical accompaniment brought forth bravery, deep listening and a generosity of spirit.”
–Eli Nixon
“Characters in Motion was a phenomenal course. Thanks to Jo’s beautifully structured classes, playful energy, and present, authentic approach to existing in a sense of now together, the atmosphere of the space was one of honesty, genuine support, and real creative willingness. I felt, through and through, that I was in safe and confident hands. Each class, often multiple times per class, Jo had all of us pull from a variety of decks, instructing us to use our cards as prompts for how we engaged with each exercise. This, coupled with the clear limitations and frames around all of our improvisations, opened up an incredible reserve of creativity for me, personally, resulting in work that surprised me even as I generated it in the moment. On one occasion, I pulled a card that initially felt so alien to me that I asked for another. When Jo encouraged me to work with what I pulled anyway, I wound up sourcing some of the most unexpected and memorable movement and vocalization choices that I still think back to. I actually found the card-pulling to be so generative that I'm looking forward to introducing it to other creative practices of mine. Finally, I can’t speak highly enough of the live musical accompaniment. The musicians Jo brought into the space were so tuned in and present to the exercises we participants were engaged in, and their improvisations filled out our sensational world profoundly.”
–Viva Wittman
CREDITS
Characters in Motion was created by my beloved teacher, Lanny Harrison, and this class is only possible because of her decades of teaching, improvising, and performing. You can find her book (by the same title!) here. Special thanks to Jules Kang Sharpe, who made the Characters in Motion PVD graphic, and Livia Foldes, who supported the design process and helped get this site live in my moment of need!
questions? joelizabethstewart@gmail.com