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David Marchant is a Senior Lecturer, on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis since 1994, specializing in aesthetic theory, technique, composition and improvisation in the concert art of contemporary dance. He was a company member with the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre from 1989 to 1991.  David was a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship for excellence in choreography from 1991 to 1993, while earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Iowa.

David is the coordinator of the University College Somatic  Studies Certificate Program at Washington University, offering students a curriculum in experiential movement, complimented by theoretical knowledge from a wide variety of fields investigating the art, spirit, and science of human movement.

David is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and member of the
American Society of Alexander Teachers (AmSAT).   He maintains a professional private teaching practice, teaching individuals the methods of F. M. Alexander for re-patterning fundamental movement coordination and natural breathing.

David is Co-Artistic Director of Zo Motion Arts with partner Holly Seitz-Marchant, developing site-specific installations in natural environments, including tree-climbing as a dance form. In addition to his work as a choreographic artist, David is a recognized professional improvisational composer and performer, including contact improvisation.

Research Interests
David has developed a dance training method called “Quadruped,” which applies principles of the Alexander Technique and Dart Procedures to refine coordination, strength, flexibility, balance, and breath control in the dancer.

Additionally, Mr. Marchant investigates the relationship of visual and kinesthetic perception to the aesthetics of human motion, and is interested in perceptual psychology and phenomenology and their relevance to subjective experience and performance skill of dancing. 

recent choreography/performances/teaching

While in Beijing, I connected with Beijing Modern Dance Company and taught a half-day workshop, company class on Quadruped.  This was a new idea to them--that beautiful dancing could be initiated from mechanical principles (anatomy and physics), instead of from traditional aesthetic, design intentions.  One company member expressed appreciation that whereas many teacher/choreographers say that we should move differently than the traditional technique, this technique began from a completely different premise to begin with. 

In October 2007, I was at the University of Northern Colorado, restaging "Nos In Unum" and teaching master classes in Quadruped.  The students were very open and eager and I had a great time working with my cast and teaching.

In November I was invited to London for for the London Consortium conference, "Take a Deep Breath" at the Tate Modern where I performed the solo "December" and gave a talk titled:
Respiration: Visible/Invisible
A performance and discussion of the experience of audience participation & induced collective, sympathetic breathing during a theatrical artistic dance.
It was a really increadible conference, with many exciting and invigorating presentations on the topic of human breathing from a wide variety of disciplines.  For my part, I got really useful feedback on my work, and learned that audience participation/perception interactive experiences can be profound for viewers.  I find that this active, perceptual viewer participation produces a more immediate, personal, and visceral involvement.  I am intrigued to continue creating more of this kind of work, mediating experiences of active witnessing.

In December I premiered Acid Jazz, a new dance for students of Washington University for our annual concert in edison theatre.  It is an experiement I call "jazz minimalism" exploring the jazz dance vocabulary in a minimalist compositional form.

Saturday February 9th at 8pm Holly and I premiered a new duet for
"Duets for my Valentine" at the Roberts Orpheum Theatre in St. Louis.  Also at this event Missouri Contemporary Ballet Performed the St. Louis premier of Much That Will Be Remembered is Now Presently Forgotten, choroegraphed by Holly and I last year.

February 2008,  I was in residence at Scripps College and Pomona College in California, teaching Quadruped.  I also gave a Lecture/Demonstration entitled "Practicing Presence" and staged a structured improvisation on the students. 

February 2008, John Toenjes and I performed Leonardo's Chimes at the
SPARK Festival in Minneapolis.

March 2008, I was at American College Dance Conference in Kansas, where I led a discussion called "Speaking of Dance: the Language we Teach With" and also a Master Class of "Quadruped." 

March 19th I gave a Lecture to the Washigton University community called "Mind in the Matter: Movement as a Mode of Intelligent Thought."  In this presentation I spoke of  movement as a way of thinking, researching, learning and understanding.  In particular, I presented movement material from my research on Quadrupedal movement as a feedback for neuromuscular coordination.

March 29 was invited by Edison Theatre to give a pre-show talk for the Susan Marshall performance of "Cloudless," Susan's most recent collaborative-process art work.  Keith Sawyer, Author of "Group Genius", Jerry McAdam and I had a conversation about improvisation, and collaborative processes as an ideal means to creativity and problem solving, whether in art work, or business.

March 30, Washington University faculty Bill Whitaker invited me to participate in a one-day workshop at the Washington University Olin School of Business speaking and workshoping skills for public speaking.  Bill taught techniques from acting and I spoke and offered movement activities on the subject of "embodied communication" and the use of movement in good speaking.

April 19th, Holly and I as ZO /\/\otion /\rts gave a premier performance called
Moving Landscapes at our home in Innsbrook Missouri.  The event was comprised of a series of site specific installations of movement artwork sitated in natural landscapes.  The work included several dances in which we climb a tree, tracing the pathway of its growth.

In May and June 2008, I was on the faculty of the new Wash U study abroad program,
MADE in France, in Paris and Burgundy.  Holly came along with me, and it was an invigorating time for us, learning and deepening our processes of interacting with objects and environments in movement.

In July 2008, John Toenjes and I presented an evening length interactive music/dance performance at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, including Leonardo's Chimes and 2 new interactive works, "Songs of the Elastic Halloon," and "Soundwave Surfing."
All of these works use computers to turn space into an interactive sonic and visual landscape. Put simply, we make music and visual art through danced movement.  It is an exciting frontier for us, seemlessly integrating movement, visual art and music.

Coming up...

September 4-6, I will perform December, my audience participation breath solo at
Dance Close-up, Washington University dance faculty showcase concert.

In the fall, I will be coordinator of the new Somatic Studies Certificate Program in University College, Washington University's continuing education school.  It comprises coursework that is primarily experiential, movement oriented in nature. The program launches with a new course I will facilitate called Introduction to Somatic with 15 guest lecturers and teachers, covering topics related to the body, from Yoga and the Alexander technique, to Evolution, and anthropology.

And I will project manage the Liz Lerman residency, focussing efforts to use dance as a means to engage community on the subject of the immigrant experience, culminating in a performance opportunity, open to all people in st. louis, in Washington University Dance Theatre, December 5-7.

Here are some incredible photos of our earth's magnetic plasmatail