Janis Brenner and Claire Porter
Writing & Moving & Sounding
_JPG.jpg)
July 26-August 1, 2026
Plan for a creative week vocalizing, playing, writing, wondering, thinking, moving. Surprise yourself with new ways to generate movement, new ways to structure these ideas, plus a new understanding of your voice and body. Plan to play with ways to shape your discoveries into portable dances and/or vocal stories. Plan to take home these discoveries to share, perform, teach, and develop. For all levels.
Plan for a fun and expansive week working with two master performers – teachers – choreographers – coaches - interdisciplinary artists.
Enjoy each day an experience of a guided dance warm up, vocal warm up, and playful improvisations.
Enjoy exploring movement and vocal themes of phrasing, articulation, and expressive range.
Enjoy the calm and beauty of Bearnstow Camp and Parker Pond.
Expect to come away with a new piece, new ideas, new friends.
Expect to open doors to a renewed musicality within your explorations.
Expect to come away refreshed.
Claire Porter
Claire Porter of Claire Porter / PORTABLES www.cportables.com is a writer, dancer and choreographer who has performed in Scotland, Germany, Holland, Latvia, Korea and India and in the US at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Joyce Theater, Town Hall, The American Dance Festival, Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival, The American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, among others. Porter has performed in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s GALA and been in residence at his center in NYC.
Porter has received commissions from universities across the country and from The American Dance Festival. A Guggenheim Fellow, Porter has received National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowships and Mid-Atlantic Choreography Fellowships.
Porter teaches Movement Analysis, Choreography, and Improvisation at Montclair State University and Creativity as Practice at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She also choreographs for and teaches a vibrant Senior Dancing Workout at the Center for Modern Dance in Hackensack NJ. Porter has an MA in Dance from Ohio State, a BA in Mathematics, and is a Laban Movement Analyst.
Janis Brenner
Janis Brenner is an award-winning dancer/ choreographer/ singer/ teacher/collagist and Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in NYC. Known for her “meticulous artistry,” she has toured in 36 countries and is recognized as a “singular performer.” Awards include: 2018 “Best Production” Award and 2019 Critics’ Choice Award for Inheritance: A Litany at the United Solo Theatre Festival Off-Broadway, NY Dance & Performance Award (“Bessie”) for performance in Meredith Monk’s work, Lester Horton Award for Choreography in L.A., Copperfoot Award for Lost, Found, Lost at Wayne State, Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, Asian Cultural Council, Trust for Mutual Understanding, O’Donnell Green Music & Dance Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, US Embassies in Moscow, Bosnia, Jakarta and Dakar, and a commission for The Memory Project from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Work has been commissioned/restaged on more than 50 companies and colleges worldwide. Performed with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble from 1990 to 2005, 2014, recording on ECM Records. Soloist with Murray Louis Dance Company (1977–84), working with Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp, Bat Sheva Dance Company, and Alwin Nikolais. On faculty at The Juilliard School 2009-21, mentoring Choreographers and Composers Collaborations, and has taught her dance and interdisciplinary workshops throughout the world. Currently on faculty at Steps Conservatory and Marymount Manhattan College. Janis Brenner & Dancers performed throughout the US, Asia, Russia and Europe from 1989-2017. Janis has had three Visual Art exhibits in NYC since 2022. Her second one-woman show She Remembers her Amnesia has received critical acclaim and is continuing to tour, as is Inheritance: A Litany. www.janisbrenner.com