OBOC Amsterdam 2024 - Countertechnique

APPLICATION DEADLINE 4 FEBRUARY

One Body, One Career (OBOC) Intensive Amsterdam 2024

27 July - 6 August - organised in collaboration with Henny Jurriëns Studio

We're very excited to once again host the OBOC in the spacious studios of our partner Henny Jurriëns Studio (HJS) in Amsterdam from 27 July - 6 August! Working for ten full days with Countertechnique Founder and Artistic Director Anouk van Dijk, Senior Countertechnique Teachers Niharika Senapati and Elita Cannata, Countertechnique Teachers James Vu Anh Pham and Eva Schaller, and Alexander Technique expert Tom Koch, the OBOC offers a wealth of information and lots of lush dancing, to both first time and returning participants.

Th OBOC Intensive is for professional dancers and advanced dance students interested in pursuing a long, healthy and successful career in dance. First time participants will gain a detailed introduction to the distinct elements and methodology that form Countertechnique, while returning participants will have the opportunity to deepen and expand their understanding. Through physical practice, theory, discourse and creative workshops, participants will gain a set of practical tools that they will be able to draw from and apply in their daily dance practice, other movement styles and through performance seasons.

The 2024 OBOC will run for ten full days in Amsterdam, and this year our program offers new pathways for introductory level Countertechnique, as well as for advanced Countertechnique practitioners and OBOC regulars. Daily Countertechnique classes and Practical Tools sessions will be run by Countertechnique Founder Anouk van Dijk and Senior Teachers Niharika Senapati and Elita Cannata, with assistance of Eva Schaller. In addition to this, Countertechnique Teacher James Vu Anh Pham and Eva Schaller will run additional Countertechnique activities in their own distinct styles, and Alexander Technique teacher Tom Koch will introduce his specific approach of Alexander Technique for dancers, in group and individual sessions. The afternoon program will include sessions on various aspects of Countertechnique, repertory studies and improvisation, and in the second week three creative elective workshops, where you can explore aspects of Anouk van Dijk’s artistic process, improvisation and creative tasking, develop more agency in performing and strategies for composition and creation. The OBOC will conclude with a sharing of the various workshops.

OBOC Amsterdam takes place at the spacious Chassé Dance Studios, and offers spots for maximum 90 dancers, working in three to four groups simultaneously in intimate settings. Previous editions have drawn a mix of participants from all around the world. The OBOC is the ultimate opportunity to immerse yourself in Countertechnique, and also an amazing event to meet other dance artists, teachers and dance makers who are interested in pursuing long, creative careers and who love dancing!

DATES

Sat 27 July – Tue 6 August 2024 (day off: Thu 1 Aug)
All days: 9:30 am - 6:00 pm
Applicants must be able to attend the entire period

PROGRAM FEES

The full cost for the intensive is 1.150 EUR. A one-time Application Fee of 25 EUR is required for all applicants.

Applications close on Sunday 4 February 2024 at midnight. Applicants will be notified by Monday 19 February 2024.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit a personal motivation statement and CV for consideration in PDF format, together not exceeding two pages. An additional online dancer's reel is required, which should include footage shot in a studio (improvisation or choreography). Applications are considered based on motivation and entrance level.

Applications are open from Monday January 15 - Sunday 4 February. Find the registration form here: Apply Now (PayPal) / Apply Now (credit card).
For any additional questions and all the conditions that apply to the program, please consult our FAQ page before applying.

LOCATION

The OBOC will be held at the Chassé Studios in Amsterdam, located in Amsterdam-East. We will be using several very spacious studios, measuring 24 m x 18 m, 27.5 m x 11 m, 27.5 m x 10 m, 12 x 11 m and 8 x 10 m (for Alexander Technique only). All participants are responsible for arranging their own housing, but options to explore will be provided by the organisation.

FURTHER QUESTIONS & CONDITIONS

The HJS and Countertechnique teams will do our best to answer your questions, but we encourage you to review our extensive FAQ page before reaching out or submitting your application. This page will also provide you with all relevant conditions applicable to the program. All participants are expected to have read the information on this page prior to applying. Find the FAQ page here.

OBOC AMSTERDAM 2024 FACULTY

Anouk van Dijk

Anouk van Dijk is a choreographer, artistic director and the creator of the movement system, Countertechnique. From 2012 - 2019, she was the Artistic Director of renowned contemporary dance company Chunky Move in Melbourne, Australia. Currently Anouk van Dijk works internationally as a freelance choreographer and is the Artistic Director of Countertechnique.

Anouk van Dijk spent the first ten years of her career as a lead soloist for Rotterdam Dance Company and Amanda Miller’s Pretty Ugly Dance Company. From early on, she was attracted to choreography and from the late nineties committed herself exclusively to the conception, creation and performance of her own work. In 1999, Van Dijk founded her own company, anoukvandijk dc, dedicated to creating work that sought to provide an insight into the many facets of the human experience through the lens of contemporary dance.

During her tenure of Artistic Director of Chunky Move in Melbourne, Australia, she created several large scale productions, amongst others An Act of Now (2012), Complexity of Belonging (2014, with Falk Richter), Depth of Field (2015), Rule of Thirds (2016), Common Ground (2018). In recent years, she created amongst other Distant Matter for Staatsballet Berlin, followed by the multi-disciplinairy show TOUCH with writer/director Falk Richter at the Münchner Kammerspiele in Germany, and Out of the Blue for Skånes Dansteater / Malmö Opera in Sweden, a large-scale work on music from Bach to Björk with the Malmö Opera Orchestra and Children's Choir.

In her career Anouk van Dijk has created more than thirty full-length works that toured to the world’s leading festivals and venues including Adelaide Festival, Sydney Opera House, Schaubuehne Berlin, Dance Triennale Tokyo, American Dance Festival, Theater der Welt (Hamburg), SPRING International Performing Arts Festival and Festival d'Avignon.

Niharika Senapati

Niharika Senapati graduated in 2011 from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth. Trained as a contemporary dancer, she describes her practice as floating between the different roles of dancer, performer, teacher, maker, sound designer and choreography assistant. Niharika has worked closely with Anouk van Dijk during her tenure as Artistic Director of Chunky Move from 2012-2019, appearing as a dancer in almost all of her choreographies, most notably An Act of Now (2012), 247 Days (2013), Depth of Field (2015), Rule of Thirds (2016), Anti—Gravity (2017) and Accumulation (2018). She was also Choreographic Assistant for two of Anouk van Dijk’s collaborations with theatre director Falk Richter, Complexity of Belonging (2014) and Safe Places (2016), as well as Van Dijk's work Distant Matter (2019) for Staatsballet Berlin. As a freelance performer, Niharika has had an extensive list of creative collaborations as a performer, composer and choreographer, such as for Trustees by the Belarus Free Theatre for Malthouse Theatre (2018), Replay by Eszter Salamon (2018), Daddy by Joel Bray (2019) and Mosquitoes by Jessica Arthur (Sydney Theatre Company, 2019). Niharika has been an ensemble member of company Dancenorth in Townsville (QLD, Australia), led by Artistic Director Kyle Page. Since 2022, she has an been dancing with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium.

Alongside performing, Niharika is a Senior Countertechnique teacher, contributing to the OBOC 2019 in both Montréal and Amsterdam and OBOC 2022 and 2023 in Amsterdam. She has taught all throughout Australia, as well as North-America, Europe and Asia.

Read more about Niharika in this interview.

Elita Cannata

Elita Cannata is a Senior Teacher Countertechnique and a rehearsal director. Born in Italy, Elita is currently based in Amsterdam. She has studied Countertechnique since 2005 and performed for anoukvandijk dc in 2007 and 2008. She attended her first Countertechnique Teacher Training (CTTT) program in 2014 and, with the support of the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, returned to the CTTT in 2018 and progressed to the level Senior Teacher. Since 2021 she is part of the Faculty of OBOC, as well as the CTTT, and is inspired to support the future generations of Countertechnique Teachers.

Elita has graduated with a Bachelor of Dance in 2007 at Rotterdam Dance Academy / Codarts in the Netherlands and in 2011 got her MA in Theories of Performing Arts at the Università degli Studi in Bologna. During and after her graduation she performed for anoukvandijk dc, Cathy Sharp Ensemble, Compagnia Tpo & Tom Dale, Tan Temel, Samuele Cardini, Itzik Galili, Lynsey Peisinger, David Middendorp, and Fabrizio Favale among others. Next to her dance and teaching career, she has worked as a rehearsal director with Project Sally and Another Kind of Blue. As a teacher she visits many Institutions of Higher Education and dance companies around Europe, such as Skanes Danstheater, Goteborgdanskompani, Nederland Dans Theater, Introdans, ECD Academie voor Theater en Dans, ArtEZ Arnhem and Henny Jurriens Studio among others.

James Vu Anh Pham

James has been working extensively with Anouk van Dijk since 2012, with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui since 2016, and with Akram Khan since 2019. For Anouk van Dijk / Chunky Move, he performed in An Act of Now (2012), 247 Days (2013), Complexity of Belonging (2014), Depth of Field (2015) and Rule of Thirds (2016). For Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, he performed with Eastman (Babel Words), Royal Ballet of Flanders (Ravel), GöteborgsOperans Danskompani (Icon), Bayerische Staatsoper (Les Indes Galantes) and Theater Basel (Satyagraha). With Akram Khan Company, he premiered and toured Outwitting the Devil since July 2019. James received the ‘Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Work’ 2014 Helpmann Award, and the Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer 2014 Australian Dance Award. He has been studying Countertechnique intensively since 2012, and became a certified teacher in 2014. In 2021, he has started on a new engagement as a dancer with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium, performing in works by Alain Platel (Chœurs) and Jan Martens (Futur Proche). Currently James is performing in Madonna's Celebration Tour worldwide.

Eva Schaller

Eva Schaller works as a freelance dancer, teacher and choreographer based in Vienna, Austria. Her first encounter with Countertechnqiue took place during her studies at Codarts and subsequently as a dancer in Anouk van Dijk's company performing in Situations, SHOT, Am i out? and STAU throughout the Netherlands and abroad between 2007-2009. She participated in the One Body One Career Intensives in 2007, 2008 and 2016, and became a certified teacher in 2016; she returned for her second CTTT in 2022.

Eva has performed with choreographers Emio Greco|PC and Anouk van Dijk in the Netherlands; in Austria with choreographers Christine Gaigg, Georg Blaschke, Willi Dorner; in Germany she collaborated with Sabine Glenz and the Munich Philharmony. Her own choreographic work is based on thorough engagement in the field of Austrian modernist dance-heritage, archive, and transmission, female histories and embodied memory. Her solo Recalling Her Dance - a choreographic encounter with Hanna Berger (2021) was shown at Tanzquartier Vienna and Impulstanz Vienna International Dance Festival; as well as the group work Femenine (2022) which was performed in various public spaces in the city Vienna. Since 2016 she teaches Countertechnique in professional dance programmes across Europe, as a regular guest and choreographer at the MUK Music and Arts University Vienna.

Tom Koch

Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique

Tom Koch pursued his Bachelor of Arts in Theater, with a minor study in History of Science, at University of Missouri-Kansas City. After being certified to teach in 1987 by the American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York, he was a pioneer in integrating the Alexander Technique with ballet movement and education, particularly for resolving chronic pain and repetitive injuries. He was for years the Alexander Technique teacher for William Forsythe’s groundbreaking Ballet Frankfurt (later the Forsythe Company). He has also taught group and private lessons for Netherlands Dance Theater, Tanztheater Wuppertal (Pina Bausch), the Dutch National Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move, La Biennale di Venezia College Danza, Codarts University, L’Artère, Studio 303, Henny Jurriëns Studio in Amsterdam, and many others. For seventeen years, he has collaborated with his former student Anouk van Dijk to teach the annual One Body, One Career Intensive (OBOC) for dancers, in Amsterdam, Melbourne, Montréal, New York and Los Angeles. His work is not limited to dance, but includes a wide range of artists in all forms of dance, music and theater. He also has taught the technique to doctors, writers, scientists, secretaries, architects and police agents. Although now retired from private practice he still enjoys teaching his own workshops focusing mainly on helping those with chronic pain to find improved movement and living strategies.

TESTIMONIALS FROM PREVIOUS OBOCs

“I’ve gone beyond what I thought was possible for myself” – Erica Brandell

“Dance finally feels like I’m doing it for me again.” – Nicole Smith

“The program was so amazing. … I haven’t smiled whilst dancing in so long.” – Ashley Allen

“I feel like a completely different dancer” – Kristen Ahring

“It will have a tremendously positive impact on my dancing in all forms.” – Emily Hansel

“it has been lifechanging for me as a dancer” – Madeline Burr

“The [Countertechnique] toolbox will change how I approach all movement forms” – Sidney Ramsey

“Countertechnique’s way of communicating can aid the dancer to feel comfortable, safe, empowered in one’s body” – Jennifer Sydor

“These tools are a way for us to trust in ourselves, the process + the overall beauty of movement.” – Madison Elliott

“will help me stay healthy and happy for years to come” – Samuel Melecio-Zambrano

“these tools could allow for dancers to stay in it longer while embracing the process of the aging body” – Elise Jumes

“This program has helped me realize that I have more years of dance left in me than I thought.” – Travis Cooper

“new hope for the future of dance” – Shelley Cochrane