Six Viewpoints workshops
Led by Isabel Shaida
Led by Isabel Shaida, the Six Viewpoints Workshops at Tinworks Art are free, public programs inspired by Montana-based artist Mary Overlie (1946-2020) and her creation of Six Viewpoints for understanding body and relationship to space. Six Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation and observation between the participant and the outside world that deconstructs performance into six studies: space, shape, time, emotion, movement and story. The participant becomes the artist.
The language of Six Viewpoints offers the artist a way to practice observing the present moment with increasing sensitivity and response with greater range—developing flexibility, articulation, and strength in movement. Practicing within each study and among the artworks of The Lay of the Land exhibition empowers the individual in their own creativity while also teaching a group to function together spontaneously and intuitively.
Shaida asks of us, how do we respond to our sense of place through movement? We cannot divorce ourselves, as bodies, from the ever-present elements of landscape that surround us. The material of the world is always informing our movements, emotions, and stories. As with daily life, the art of performance is made up of many elements which are assumed to exist in a hierarchy. Using the Six Viewpoints as a filter, tool, and philosophy, we can practice relating to our surroundings on a horizontal plane of importance. With increased sensitivity to the life of a place, a group becomes conscious together. A group becomes flexible. A group composes.
A library of material on Mary Overlie will be available for check-out by participants at Tinworks Art. These take-home resources will give participants the opportunity to reflect, share, and synthesize this artist practice over time.
Six Viewpoints theory and practice is welcome to all bodies and personal histories. Participants are encouraged to follow their own line of inquiry while being guided in observation of the raw materials allowing a myriad of access points. No prior Viewpoints or movement experience is necessary. Please wear comfortable clothes and footwear you can move in.
WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE DATES
There are three opportunities for the public to participate in Six Viewpoints Workshops: a six-week curriculum for adults, a condensed morning workshop for adults, and two condensed workshops for kids aged 12 and under. The workshops will culminate in public performances on September 7 and 14.
Workshops and performances are free and open to the public.
Adult Viewpoints Workshop (two hours once per week ): Six weeks of Sunday workshops from 4-6pm on July 14, 21, 28, and August 4, 18, 25, including a rehearsal on September 4 and public performances on September 7 and 14. The practice deconstructs the primary materials of performance into six studies: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story. Each week will locate focus on one material and experience being in relationship with to be in relationship with themselves, The Lay of the Land exhibition, and fellow participants. Teens are also welcome.
Kids Viewpoint Workshops (one hour) – Two one-hour Viewpoints workshops for youth (12 and under): Saturday, July 13 and Saturday, August 10 from 11am-12pm, with an opportunity to participate in the public performances on September 7 and 14. Families welcome.
Condensed Adult Viewpoints Workshop (three hours)– One condensed workshop to combine all Viewpoints into one session for teens and adults: Saturday, September 14 from 9am-12pm. This is offered to deepen learning for 6-week participants, or as an opportunity to explore the Viewpoints on a shorter timeline.
Public Performances – September 7 and 14, 7-9pm. At the end of the six-week workshop, there will public performances for all Viewpoints participants located in Chris Fraser’s Asterisms installation space on the Tinworks Art site. The second public performance on September 14 will include participants of the same day’s condensed workshop for adults, and all Viewpoints participants. Performances are under 30 minutes followed by a brief artist talk by Shaida who will introduce Six Viewpoints theory, perform with the workshop participants, and invite interested audience members to participate in a short Six Viewpoints practice as well.
ABOUT SIX VIEWPOINTS
The Six Viewpoints technique was formulated by Mary Overlie and grew out of the landscape of her home, Montana. As Mary put it, “In this environment distance has a physical impact on the body. The combination of high prairie and mountains inundate you with a sense of space and perspective…The voice of this land counsels you to learn to use perspective as a tool and to cut deeply into what concerns you. This is the point of view of The Viewpoints.”
Surrounded by painters and visual artists in Bozeman, including Gennie and Bob DeWeese, Mary learned to investigate her surroundings, shift her perspective and articulate her observations. In other words, Mary became fascinated by the practice of deconstructing her experience and being flexible in her view.
These early influences led Mary to question the traditional definition of the artist as a creator/ or originator. Instead, Mary had experienced the materials as independent, that they are already happening and the artist's role is to observe and participate. She developed (found) a structure for artists to practice entering into dialogue with their environment. The Six Viewpoints is a non-hierarchical language through which to view, create, and communicate work.
The Viewpoints break down the dominant components of performance into six materials – Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement, Story. The Viewpoints offer the artist a way to practice observing the present moment with increasing sensitivity, and to respond with greater range – developing flexibility, articulation, and strength in movement for both the individual and the group.
For more information and history visit sixviewpoints.com, as well as learn about the upcoming documentary about Mary Overlie overliefilm.com.
ABOUT ISABEL SHAIDA
Isabel Shaida is a movement artist and climate organizer living in Bozeman, MT. She credits her theater work with teaching her how to experience and process the world in an embodied way. She was an artist in the 2018/19 SITI Conservatory program where she trained in The Suzuki Method of Actor Training and Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints. She has continued her study of Viewpoints under Barney O’Hanlon, Wendell Beavers, and Deborah Black. She experiences the materials of the Viewpoints as a living practice and a lattice work that underlies everything.
Shaida has also studied developmental movement, somatic practice, Grotowski style training, and Laban movement as well and grounds her theater and her political work in the physical. She believes that through bringing more awareness to our bodies and to our body experience, we can learn to care for ourselves and each other, live in interdependence, and create true structural change. She is a company member of Nervous Theatre (Chalk Circle, A Marvelous Party) and teaches at Verge Theater where she has served as assistant director for Songs for a New World and My Barking Dog. She performed with Monica Bill Barnes & Co. (Days Go By, It’s 3:07 Again) and Double Edge Theatre (The Odyssey).
ABOUT LILA LIVINGSTON
Accompanying Shaida for part of these workshops will be Lila Livingston, a chaplain and artist originally from Bozeman, Montana. Livingston is an M.Div. candidate at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she studies Buddhism and interreligious engagement. She studies movement with Jane Alexandre, Deborah Black, and Sophia Treanor. Lila recently performed in the original cast of When Wajcha Meets Pachamama, a play by theologian Claudio Carvalhaes, which premiered at the New York Theatre Festival and was awarded Most Creative Production. Lila also performed in the Particalist Ensemble in Sophia Treanor and Deborah Black’s collaborative/commemorative work with Mary Overly titled Ephemera.