Levitation, Labyrinths, The Sacred, Communication, Elevation, Dissolution, Crashing Waves, Trance, Ecstasy, Convulsions, Dis/Continuity, Catastrophe, Contrast, The Outside, Horizontality + Verticality...

Spinal Vocabulary, Squat Development, Level Change, Inversions, Shifting Weight to Hands, Sequencing, Falling, Rolling, Elasticity + Plasticity, Spiraling, Animality, Gestural Research, Body Isolation & Control, Tempo...

VERTIGINOUS is intended to operate simultaneously as art practice, teaching pedagogy, and research hub. After growing dissatisfied with the distance between a textual exploration of a Bataillean "impossible" and the corporeality of the body, M Kitchell began to explore various physical practices with the idea of bringing himself as close as possible to a state of levitation. Finding a further necessary impetus in his encounter with Jerzy Grotowski, and especially in Grotowski's idea of "[t]raining to immediately access one's own psychic impulses," Kitchell takes a research- & practice-based approach to closing the gap between physical existence and conceptual/narrative explorations of the "outside". The results of what he encounters are delivered primarily in three different modes: first, through the written word, either via documentary essays, fictional parables, or imagistic promptings to fully explore an idea. Second, through performance and visual work somewhere between (or outside of) theater and circus, portraiture and narrative. Finally, Kitchell is explicitly concerned with the idea of communication, of seeking to further understand what he's encountered by aiding others in encountering this information. This communication is offered via in-person group classes, one on one private sessions, and follow-along videos & tutorials. [Read more...]