Opening the Machine: Master Class with Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener

Workshops, Intensives, and Master Classes

Walker Art Center is thrilled to present a master class with commissioned choreographers Rashaun Mitchell (Director and Trustee of the Merce Cunningham Trust and a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow) and Silas Riener (2026 Guggenheim Fellow).

In this movement class, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener will share practices from their new work, Open Machine. Examining the relationship between human and machine intelligence, the experimental dance work blurs the lines between brain, body, and machine. As artists, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener’s work involves the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction. Their partnership intentionally blurs authorship and maintains a deep commitment to collaboration. They met as dancers in the Merce Cunningham Dance company and since 2010 have created over 25 multidisciplinary dance works including site-responsive installations, concert dances, gallery performances and dances for film in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Centre, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, and MoMA/PS1.

This class is for all interested people, no previous movement experience or training necessary. It will be held Saturday, May 30 from 2:00-3:30pm in the Walker Art Center’s McGuire Theater. Cost is $15.