Labs | CAPSA

Visual Art

This summer we will be exploring a patchwork of different artforms and thinking about how art and community can be overlapping and interwoven webs that connect us together. Students will explore different ways to express their creativity through individual and collaborative projects. Each week will feature a new theme where students will participate in projects, workshops, and critiques that sharpen conceptual, technical, and communicational skills surrounding art. Students will experiment with a wide range of mediums such as drawing, fiber, installation, cyanotype, block printing, and more, expanding their artistic skills and horizons along the way. This lab is all about having fun and learning about art, no former art knowledge is required!

Animation

In this Summer Animation Lab, students will learn the foundational animation skills needed to create unique & engaging animated films. In addition, students will also have opportunities to experiment with a wide variety of mediums to help formulate their own artistic voice. All in all, this course will provide students with the knowledge and guidance necessary to become confident and independent animators. No former drawing or animation skills needed!!

Film

PERSONAL — COLLECTIVE — COMMUNAL FILMS

In this lab, we will attempt to redefine our understanding of filmmaking, and its process to develop a more community oriented film practice. We will explore how the personal falls into the collective and the communal forms of making. We will move from community making into collective making to eventually culminate in a personal project - showing along the way how all three of these worlds of storytelling are not so different from one another.

Over the course of four weeks, we will play games from our communities, tell stories that have been passed down familial generations, watch a wide array of films, build our own archives, learn to work with cinematic tools and create more of our own using DIY techniques. Our aim is to break away from the western structures of filmmaking and bring cinema closer to home.

Each participant will work towards creating an introspective personal project that is reflective of themselves and their community. In doing so, all these projects will together become an anthology that represents the new space that we aim to build.

Creative Writing

In the creative writing lab, student artists will develop their writing voices, styles, and interests by exploring various forms, texts, and generative techniques. They will be encouraged to engage with writers of color as a means of discovering new, unique ways of building their individual practices. Students will have opportunities to collaborate with each other and with other students in other disciplines through playwriting, songwriting etc. Over the course of the lab, each student will create a longer piece or collection of pieces to contribute to a class collection / book / zine.

Music

With a special interest in the students’ personal experiences with sound in the world, this music lab will give students the opportunity to create and find sounds in order to express themselves through music, as well as the technical understanding to compose, record, and arrange work in a Digital Audio Workstations (or DAW). The first week will focus on the impulse to create and a rudimentary foundation in technique. Students will learn how to count and subdivide as well as implement basic harmonies and chord progressions. Week two will focus on a crash course in music production through a DAW and fundamentals of musicianship. This week will culminate in a short composition to accompany a film from our fellow students in the film lab. This will offer a more nuanced understanding of composition, pacing and dynamics. Week three will be focused on instrumentation and sound design for film, as well as more advanced music theory and techniques. With these new tools at their disposal, students will collaborate on their final project: a group-based composition (cover or original) that will tie together all of the lessons learned over the month. The class will culminate with a live performance and finalized recording of each groups’ composition.

Theater

In the CAPSA Theater Lab, students will embark on an incredible journey of creativity and self-discovery. Through a three-week-long workshop of activities covering a wide variety of theater skills, students will co-create their own magical worlds, stretching their imaginations to new heights. From writing and design to acting on stage and screen, students will explore a range of topics and learn how to bring their ideas to life with the guidance of expert instructors. Collaborating with one another, students will have the opportunity to showcase their incredible work at the end of the Theater Lab. Together with their fellow students and instructors, they will choose which elements of their performance or presentation they would like to focus on and share with the world. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to develop your own creative voice! Reserve your spot in the CAPSA Theater Lab today and unleash your full potential!

Dance

Fundamentals:

Fundamentals will be a 45 minute block where students will learn correct alignment, positions, and basic technique to aid the rest of the course that are a part of our program. This will give students the ability to feel confident in learning each style and creating dance in a way that will help them from getting hurt.

Improv:

Capoeira:

Using dance styles from Africans of West Africa and through the diaspora to enrich and inspire our dance practices and deepening our connection to grounded technique. Maintaining the connection of mind, body and spirit through yoga. Strengthening confidence in ability to defend oneself and protect those around us through the martial arts of capoeira.

Jazz Funk:

A technical class focused on performance, musicality, style, and personality. Jazz Funk is a combination of traditional jazz styles and various hip-hop styles danced to popular music. This class is to encourage the students to activate their confidence and power. Overall, the goal is to have fun. Class will include across the floor tasks, center work, and combinations.

Dance for Camera:

Dance for a different eye. As technology is at the forefront of our industry; Dance for Camera introduces the students to a broader relationship to dance. With leading media forms such as Youtube and TikTok, we will utilize these lessons to further develop their skills in filming, editing, and voice. With the intention of creating a final film, our lessons will include a history of dance on film, various shot styles, popular music videos, and location studying.