This workshop focuses mainly on the dancer’s relationship with the floor. The class utilizes simple movement patterns that involve breathing, speed and the release of energy through out the body in order to activate the relationship between the center and the joints, moving in and out of the ground more efficiently by maintaining a centered state. There is a focus on the skeletal structure that will help improve the dancers physical perception and alertness. The class includes partnering work and movement phrases, which explore the primary laws of physics: cohesion and expansion.
The class begins in stillness and students are asked to read their body in a standing position. They are urged to connect their entire body with the environment: the air, floor, and the energy of others,forming an interconnection by just standing. When you are standing, the whole room is standing. This stillness jumps to running and passing through each other, running forward backward and around creating a dance web. The highways of the room are warming up. When you are moving, the whole room is moving.
The body is constantly spiraling, whether running or standing. These spirals help the dancers into the floor and out of the floor.These spirals already exist; this workshop focuses on finding them. The spirals help the dancer see themselves and the room from all sides. The dancer knows what is behind him/her as he/she goes forward. To activate these spirals,students locate their center and move all of their joints from this center.Arms, legs, hands, toes, elbows, feet become extensions of the center. The spirals propel the class all over the room, both on the ground and upright.This is the flying low technique.
When David Zambrano started dancing professionally at age 21, he threw himself into it fully. So fully, that he eventually damagedhis middle arches and could not stand up on his own for six months. Instead of letting this derail his very young dance career, he used it to develop a technique that he now teaches worldwide.
Hobbling around University on crutches, Zambrano never stopped moving. He would go to the gym and roll around the mats like a reptile everyday, gaining strength in his arches and examining his relationship to the ground, the earth. Next to him in the gym everyday were a Brazilian jump roper and an old Kung Fu master. By observing this stark contrast of fast and slow, Zambrano incorporated speed into the exercises that eventually got him back on his feet and healthy again.
As Zambrano traveled around the New York City to rehearsals and the like, he incorporated this newly developed exercise plan into a warm-up routine. On lookers noticed his unconventional style and asked to Zambrano to train them. The Flying Low technique was born. Through out years of teaching, Zambrano has learned to morph the technique to fit each class. By tapping into his improvisational expertise, Zambrano can adapt to suit any environment, language or need.