of(f) rhythm - Workshop / Master Class / Research Project of n ï m company

by Naïma Mazic & Haggai Cohen-Milo

In 2014, Naïma started her choreographic and movement research on the notion of polyrhythms and polymeters. She has been investigating how rhythm manifests itself in dance and how rhythmic independence of dancers can allow various dance forms and jazz music to communicate through a shared language. She continued with the question of "What is jazz's apprehension of time- How can the heartbeat of jazz music function in dance?" and has since then been investigating the contemporary relation between dance and jazz music; in how the tools and processes of the music, as well as its socio-political relevance, can work with - and within - Performance.

Beats, Offbeats, Triplets, Polyrhythms– dancer and choreographer Naïma Mazic has been working intensively for years on the exchange between dancers and musicians. Together with composer and musician Haggai Cohen-Milo they have been researching how jazz musicians and dancers can communicate through rhythm and developed a workshop together.
The research-week will allow the participants to discover the possible versatility of rhythm, how it can function in dance as it does in music, and in what ways it can allow for independent musical choices and rhythmic control for a dancer. 

Naïma Mazic developed of(f) rhythm from her research over the last years in collaboration with the jazz musician Haggai Cohen-Milo. Together they have been teaching in various cities and are constantly refining their teaching methods.
The Workshop is open for dancers (and musicians) and focuses on the transdisciplinary work between dance and music, between tools of contemporary dance and those of jazz music. Haggai and Naïma are observing what makes movement groove, shuffle and swing, and how dance by itself can be infectious.
The next step was to figure out how multiple dancers and musicians can communicate through rhythm (polyrhythms and polymeters): How can dance and music leak into each other and correlate through a common language within multiplicity?The next step was to figure out how multiple dancers and musicians can communicate through rhythm (polyrhythms and polymeters): How can dance and music leak into each other and correlate through a common language within multiplicity?