The Word in Motion: Practices for Action
with Maurya Kerr + Christian Burns
July 27-31, 2026 at City Dance
$580
Christian + Maurya are interested in investigating a grammar of both embodied and lingual language in an effort to help workshop participants gain clearer and more objective improvisatory and creation tools. That said, to reference the poet Denise Levertov, accuracy is the gateway to mystery; so while we seek clarity, it is in the service of both increasing our access to the depth and poetry of our creative expressions and becoming better and more empathic listeners (of ourselves and each other).
Each day will consist of a warm up + physical practice; skill + technique building; and assimilation, making, + sharing.
This workshop is part of THE HATCHERY by ttgsf.
To register, follow the link above. Create a StudioPro account, or log in if you already have one. Select “More,” then “Register for Classes,” then “The Hatchery,” and pick the Incubation workshop(s) you would like to attend. Please refer to these instructions for more details.
No refunds. The exception is if minimum enrollment is not reached and the incubation is canceled; all registered participants will be given a full refund.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Maurya Kerr is a Bay Area-based artist and educator. Much of her work, across disciplines, is focused on black and brown people reclaiming their birthright to both wonderment and the quotidian. Maurya was a member of Alonzo King LINES Ballet for twelve years, an ODC artist-in-residence from 2015 to 2018, and holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University; she has taught in the LINES education programs since their inception. After co-curating ODC Theater’s 2023/24 season, she was appointed as Resident Curator for their 2024/25 season. Her sophomore short film, Saint Leroi, was described in the Village Voice as “a surreal meditation on Black history, violence, and American decay and a powerful indictment of racism.” Maurya is a 2025 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, with her poetry nominated for two Pushcart prizes and appearing in multiple journals. Other recent honors include winning Rhino Poetry's 2024 Editor's Prize, second place in Palette Poetry's 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize, and first place in the 2022 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. She is author of the chapbooks MUTTOLOGY and tommy noun (winner of the 2022 C&R Press Winter Soup Bowl Chapbook Award).
Website: www.tinypistol.com
Instagram: @tinypistol
Photos of Maurya Kerr by alan kimara dixon.
Christian Burns has been choreographing, teaching, and performing in the Bay Area and beyond for over 30 years. He has been a member of James Sewell Ballet and Alonzo King LINES Ballet, a guest artist with The Forsythe Company, and has collaborated with some of the world’s leading dance improvisers. His ongoing pursuit of meaning and purpose through dance has yielded a dynamic range of interdisciplinary works for the stage, video, and visual art contexts. He currently resides on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, where he teaches for the Prince Dance Institute and Kona Dance and Performing Arts, and has been named a 2026 Artist in Residence at the Donkey Mill Art Center in Kailua-Kona.
Website: www.burnswork.org
Instagram: @burnswork