Graham100 Programming

Dialogue and Movement
Benjamin Cheney, Founder and Artistic Director of Croft Residency

In his Coffee @ 10 talk Ben will share through dialogue and movement about the emotional and visceral weight of embodied expression. He will speak about his experience exploring the Graham technique. How it can be a tool for opening the expression of emotional pathways through embodiment. How the technique provides a structure that highlights and empowers vulnerability and passion. He will open dialogue on the power of witness, and what it means to be seen. We will seed the connection between witness, vulnerability, and developmental movement patterns/pathways.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom
View on Facebook

Days: Friday, July 24, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Instructor: Patrick Wise
Skill Level: All

Materials: Some materials provided, see note below.

Join us for a free, drop-in figure drawing session set amid the striking photography of Barbara Morgan. Artists of all levels are welcome to draw from live models while surrounded by her dynamic, inspiring work. Bring your own materials and enjoy a relaxed, creative space to practice, experiment, and refine your skills.

CTAC will have drawing horses, newsprint, and charcoal available. Please feel free to bring other preferred materials.

This is a free, drop in event. Registration is appreciated but not required.

Days: Friday, July 24, 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Instructor: Benjamin Cheney - Performer, Founder and Artistic Director of the Croft Residency
Skill Level: Beginnger

Materials: Provided

Ben will lead a body-awareness and movement workshop that explores how we physically express emotions, vulnerability, guardedness, and connection using dance and movement practices. Participants will look at how many human movements are spiral-based: twisting through the torso, rotating joints, spreading outward versus curving inward, spiraling through the spine, shifting weight. Through group dynamics and observation, participants will practice bearing “witness” rather than judging or analyzing, learning how supportive observation can create trust and awareness.

Benjamin Cheney is a performer and designer from Northern Michigan. He is the founder and Artistic Director of The Croft Residency and is a frequent contributor to the Crooked Tree Arts Center School of Ballet. His personal dance practice centers on moving meditation, with a focus on somatic, intentional, and metaphoric improvisational movement. He uses the tools of Body Mind Centering (BMC) and the Tamalpa Life Art Process (TLAP) as lenses and languages to engage in his explorations and facilitations. He is a level 2 Graduate from Tamalpa and has completed the BMC SME (Somatic Movement Educator) courses. His performance experience includes the New York premier of Bienvenue, with Company SBB in New York in May 2017, The Nutcracker with Crooked Tree School of Ballet in 2018, and a performance at Mass MoCA with Dance The Yard on Valentine’s Day 2019. He worked at The Yard as the Production associate, in 2016, facilitating the onsite needs of incoming artists in residence for performance. He was also an artist educator while at the yard, facilitating classes in schools, senior homes, and at community venues.

Days: Thursday - noon - 1:00pm, July 30
Instructor: Catie Newell - Architect and Proferssor at the University of Michigan A. Alfred Tuabman College of Architecture and Urban Design
Skill Level: Beginner

Materials: Provided

This workshop guides participants in designing, creating, or selecting meaningful touchstones—including objects, photographs, writings, recordings, or other personal materials—they want in their lives during their most difficult times.Together, we’ll reflect on death and dying with care and openness, making space for personal, cultural, and spiritual difference. Participants will also be invited to imagine and create personalized ceremonies for major life transitions, honoring diverse human needs and values while building respect for the art we make and the spaces we shape to support us. No prior design or art experience is needed.

Photography & Motion
John Fergus-Jean, Emeritus Professor of Photography Columbus College of Art and Design & CTAC Board Chair

Join us for a Coffee @ 10 lecture featuring Emeritus Professor of Photography and CTAC Board Chair, John Fergus-Jean.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom
View on Facebook

Days: Friday, August 7, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Instructor: Patrick Wise
Skill Level: All

Materials: Some materials provided, see note below.

Join us for a free, drop-in figure drawing session set amid the striking photography of Barbara Morgan. Artists of all levels are welcome to draw from live models while surrounded by her dynamic, inspiring work. Bring your own materials and enjoy a relaxed, creative space to practice, experiment, and refine your skills.

CTAC will have drawing horses, newsprint, and charcoal available. Please feel free to bring other preferred materials.

This is a free, drop in event. Registration is appreciated but not required.

Small Sets, Big Stories: Stop-Motion and the Art of Personal Narrative
Tamara Finlay (GHAR artist)

In this artist talk, I’ll share my process as a stop-motion animator exploring memory, cultural identity, and neurodivergence through handcrafted puppets and miniature sets. I’ll show clips from my films and discuss how personal stories can be translated into animated performance using simple materials and expressive visual language. Followed by a short Q&A.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom
View on Facebook

Days: Thursday - 1:00pm - 5:00pm, August 13
Instructor: Tamara Finley, Good Hart Residency Artist
Skill Level: Beginner

Ages: Teen & Adult (14+)

Materials: Provided

This hands-on workshop introduces participants to the basics of stop-motion animation using simple materials and accessible tools. Participants will work in approximately three small groups to create short animated sequences together, exploring character, movement, and collaborative storytelling.

Participants will work in small groups using shared animation stations.

After the workshop, the instructor will edit the groups’ animations into a short compilation video that will be shared with participants at a later date, follow the completion of the artist's residency.

The Elusive Practice of Framing Motion
Peter Sparling, Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Dance at University of Michigan.

As a dancer/choreographer, video artist, painter and CTAC guest curator, I attempt to locate the intersection of my many roles as a still point of suspended animation, one that I can circle around and bring to a halt long enough to talk about. The vibrating juxtaposition of dance, music, and the visual arts featured in Dance Legends: Little Traverse Bay Celebrates Graham100 takes us on a wild ride while hovering between stillness and motion, the art gallery and the stage, the “pose” and the “move”. What does the gallery visitor or audience member bring to these acts of kinetic engagement in order to meet the artist halfway? Who’s zooming who? My informal talk proposes ways of looking at the legendary dance photography of Barabara Morgan, the contemporary visual art of In Motion in the adjoining gallery, and how they invariably awaken the same kinesthetic empathy that moves us while watching or performing dance.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom
View on Facebook

Presented by the CTAC School of Ballet

This event is part of a global celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company, the country’s oldest dance company.

This performance features two of Graham's iconic works, Appalachian Spring Suite (1944), starring CTAC School of Ballet dancers and alums, and Lamentation (1930), starring Marie Millard as the dancer and Thomas Nickell on piano. This performance also includes Our Own American Document, an original work of Peter Sparling 's modeled after Graham's 1938 masterwork, American Document. Our Own American Document features the oral histories of local citizens.