Frey Faust
Class description
Ear to the Ground - taught by Frey Faust
Our mere existence creates the necessity to enter into a dialogue with
the forces that surround us, requiring us to take in information and
then act on it. The arcing, bowl-like shapes of the body establish
reception and processing stations where data is channeled and stored. If
we leave these "listening" areas open, the quality and rapidity of the
dialogue can be enhanced. Tensegrity, or "tension/integrity" is nature's
principle of balance between push and pull, evident in all organic
structures. R. Buckminster Fuller, the scientist and engineer, gave us
an essential key to understanding and working in harmony with our bodies
when he coined this term. These two forces collaborate to allow us to
suspend ourselves over the surface of the earth, and find structural
integrity while we are falling through space. The discipline is to
discover what movement is implicit in the shapes and position of the
limbs relative to the choices we have at any one moment.
The Axis Syllabus
The Axis Syllabus is a method for teaching people how to move safely
that refers to basic physics and applied anatomy. This method uses a
spiraling, circular vocabulary that proposes the use of built-in landing
pads in the body to harness the body‘s mass and momentum for moving
into and out of the floor and air. The Axis Syllabus aims to help you
harmonize your movements with universal physical principles and your own
skeletal architecture, reducing stress on the joints and organs by
offering logical transitions for the transfer of weight through muscles
and bones.
Biography
Frey Faust was given direction, discipline and the chance to develop a passion for his chosen muse by his mother, Shekhinah Mountainwater, a known author and leading figure in the women’s spiritual movement of America. He worked under her direction from age 8 to age 15, performing as a pantomime-dancer-actor in all manner of circumstances, from the street to the theater.
Nita Little, a participant in the initiation of CI, initiated him to its liberating concepts at the age of 14. At Marcel Marceau’s invitation he then went to Paris to study intensively at the former’s Ecole de Mimodrame for one year. Afterwards, he returned to California to pursue his personal education through the practice of Afro-Haitian dance, Aikido, Capoiera and Percussion. In 1980, he decided to try his luck in New York.
Ten years later, having worked with some of the best of the NY movers and shakers such as David Parsons, Donald Byrd, Randy Warshaw, Gina Buntz,Ohad Naharin, Meredith Monk, Merce Cunningham and Stephen Petronio, he was granted the opportunity to be the artist in residence at the Werkstatt, Düsseldorf, Germany for two years (now the Tanzhaus NRW). There he was able, with the generous support of the German government, to create six solos and three evening-length works and to begin the consolidation of his pedagogical ideas. He is the author of the book and the originator of the Axis Syllabus-universal motor principles; a method for teaching movement through which he aspires to assist his students to deepen their understanding and use of nature's gift to us.