Participants in ARCOS’ intensive summer workshop share their creative practices in the form of in-progress or completed dance works, and program facilitators engage the audience in rigorous, constructive dialogue about the artists’ processes, intentions, and presentations. Presentations are often a combination of live performances, video documentation or dance film, and artist talks.

The event has two main purposes: first, for presenting artists, who hail from Austin, throughout Texas, and out of the state, to better understand how they can best achieve their creative intentions by eliciting the audience’s responses to their work; second, for attending audience members to interact with and come to appreciate more deeply the art of dance. The vibrancy of performance relies on artists and audiences to connect through the work and widen our field of context, articulate all our impressions, and offer essential feedback that is honest and respectful of the creator’s process. It can be intimidating for artists to make themselves vulnerable by sharing their work, and dance can also be confusing for audiences, and through this event, ARCOS seeks to help demystify it by experimenting together in a supportive, rigorous environment.