(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Boston-based contemporary dance theater company Danza Orgánica, directed by choreographer and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Creative Development Residency Artist Marsha Parrilla, will host a free Dance for Social Justice Movement Workshop followed by a lecture/demonstration performance of Parrilla’s work “Running in Stillness,” at the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires in Pittsfield on Friday, February 24, as part of the 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival. The workshop is at 4pm and the lecture/demonstration is at 6pm.

The free Dance for Social Justice Workshop explores the universal language of movement to generate relevant conversations around social justice issues in our communities. Participants will work in groups, exchange ideas, and engage in productive discussions to address major issues in their community, their individual impacts, and create plans of action.

Through a guided dance composition process, participants will learn basic elements of dance composition to create short dance pieces within their groups. The workshop concludes with an informal and brief showing, and Q&A with the company.

This workshop is open to youth, teens, and adults of all experience levels. Workshop space is limited and pre-registration is required; call 413.243.9919 x161 or visit jacobspillow.org to reserve space.

Running in Stillness is a dance-theater project based on the impact of mass incarceration on a community. Through a close collaboration with formerly incarcerated women and daughters of incarcerated mothers and fathers, Danza Orgánica created this project that sheds light on this often-ignored topic.

Award-winning choreographer Marsha Parrilla is the founding artistic director of Danza Orgánica. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she moved to New York City in 1998.

Parrilla holds a master’s degree in Dance Education from New York University and is a Massachusetts Certified Dance Teacher.

Marsha Parrilla is a Luminary Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a recipient of the Creative City Grant, and the New England Dance Fund awarded by the New England Foundation for the Arts, and a Festivals Grant awarded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council towards her annual production: We Create! Celebrating Women in the Arts.

Most recently, Parrilla was awarded a Creative Development Residency at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow. Parrilla has taught Dance in NYC and Boston Public Schools, Boston University, the State University of New York in Stony Brook, the Roxbury Community College, and Green Street Studios.

Parrilla is the founder of the Dance Research Online Forum, a site dedicated to free and progressive dance education, and is an active member of the Boston Dance Alliance Board of Directors, and the National Dance Education Association.

 

Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires

16 Melville Street

Pittsfield, MA 01201