History & Collaborative Mission Statement

Artistic directors, Stephanie Maher of Ponderosa (Stolzenhagen, Germany) & Kathleen Hermesdorf of La Alternativa (San Francisco, USA),  after 15 years of artistic collaboration, would like to strengthen our ties, our connection between city and land and across continents and, with reference to our collaborative history, will provide a modular and mobile training and research system that offers potential to experience different locations, cultures and styles in the field of dance related forms. We have a sense of widening our homes: a wide dream - linking San Francisco to Stolzenhagen, and much wider, through all our journeys, meetings and sharings. We already have established connections with other international centres of creativity, research and training, such as Poznan (Poland), Israel, Copenhagen (Denmark), Budapest (Hungary), Panama and Mazatlan (Mexico).

Starting in 2010, La Alternativa launches a project, The Alternative Conservatory, taking place in San Francisco throughout the winter and spring months, offering ongoing weekend workshops and intensives. Ponderosa presents P.O.R.C.H. (Ponderosa. ongoing. research. collaborative. happenings) in the form of a summer of high level training, research and creation in Stolzenhagen, comprising 3 intensive modules of 3 to 4 weeks in, firstly, training, then performance and, in the final module, improvisational choreography.

We are searching in this process to develop the international thruways to connect our work and develop this transnational training ground. Our eventual goal is to have participants receive all three modules P.O.R.C.H. offers and to travel internationally via The Alternative Conservatory and other future collaborators. We want to stay connected via real work, real art-making together.

The Alternative Conservatory

These city and land collaborations are embedded in and inspired by the landscapes they occupy and are intensive in their nature. We want to collectively serve the field and harvest the fruits by collecting unique bodies of knowledge as well as witnessing bodies in motion that are taking part in the shaping of art in contemporary culture. This project is offered for professional-level engagement. We are defining our work now in the present, in action, in the field of dance & related forms. We want to encourage an improvised experience and an international cross-pollination of environments, both cultural and geographical and to be aware of our motivation for moving through the world.

P.O.R.C.H. is committed to a mutual exchange between creative professionals and an ongoing dialogue in the field of dance and related forms. We aim to facilitate an artistic international exchange by creating an ongoing network for our future projects.