Process Immersion is a deep dive into the creative process.
Each immersion offers a new lens into how we might experience and participate as artists, collaborators, and generative beings in the creative process.
PROCESS IMMERSION with Marla Phelan
GALLIM is thrilled to bring you Process Immersion with renowned choreographer Marla Phelan. Over four days, dancers will step into Phelan's creation process, working as a temporary company to build, question, and reshape movement with Phelan in the studio.
Participants will:
Learn to build & experience choreography that holds several possibilities at once
Work through movement methodologies that ask for both precision and openness
Explore your own creative practices
Deepen & strengthen your individual voice within a collective
Join the creation, company, & community.
Dates: Thursday - Sunday | October 22-25
Location: New York Center for Creativity & Dance
Rate: Early Bird Tuition (by September 30th at 11:59pm) $350
Payment plans are available. See below for more details.
Sessions
GALLIM Methods is a movement technique training which practices Andrea Miller’s movement philosophy and creative methodology through a guided conversation between the body's network of systems and the imagination. Through a combination of guided improvisation and focused exercises, the class brings nuanced attention to regions of the body, its availability for movement, range, coordination, texture, and creative expression in relationship to the rest of the body and its experience within space, time, music, and art.
Class with Marla
Through guided improvisation dancers will strengthen their individual artistry while investigating their range with folds, elasticity, and healthy alignment.
Marla Phelan Process Immersion
Phelan's work often begins with writing and imagery, generating raw material that's then shaped by compositional devices drawing on ideas from her interest in astrophysics. Phelan’s methods search to cultivate sensitivity toward storytelling and asking how movement carries meaning through rhythm and physicality. In this session, participants will focus on the generative practices of building work.
schedule
Thur, Oct 22
5:00-6:00pm Warm-up class
6:00-8:30pm Repertory
8:30-9:00pm Final Notes/Cool Down
Friday, Oct 23rd
5:00-6:00pm GALLIM Methods
6:00-8:30pm Repertory
8:30-9:00pm Final Notes/Cool Down
Sat, Oct 24th
10:00-11:00am Warm-up class
11:00-1:00pm Repertory/Creation
1:00-2:00pm Lunch
2:00-4:00pm Repertory/Creation
4:00-5:00pm Composition workshop
Sun, Oct 25th
10:00-11:00am GALLIM Methods
11:00-1:00pm Repertory/Rehearsal/Creation
1:00-2:00pm Lunch
2:00-4:00pm Repertory/Rehearsal/Creation
4:00-5:00pm Closing remarks/Finals moments
Program Leader
Marla Phelan is a choreographer and performer whose work spans stage, film, and immersive installations. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Movement Museum, a multidisciplinary company fusing choreography, theater, science, film, and technology to craft visceral worlds of physical rigor and emotional depth.
Her choreography has been presented by La MaMa ETC, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Dixon Place, and Gibney Center, with features in V Magazine, Nowness, and New York Magazine. She has choreographed for Kinlaw, Fischerspooner, Michael C. Hall, Maison Margiela, Mugler, Mazda, Emursive llc, The Mckittrick Hotel (Creative Director), City Springs Theater, Theater Aspen, and Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof National Tour.
Phelan is a NYSCA FY26, Simons Foundation, LMCC, and AKC Fund awardee, NYFA/NYSCA Fellow Finalist in dance, and past Ailey NDCL, Gibney MTJ and Open Interval Fellow.
Phelan has danced with Gibney Company, Hofesh Shechter Company, Akram Khan (The Shed), and Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and The Drowned Man. A Juilliard graduate, she is on faculty at the Mark Morris Dance Center and has taught workshops for NYU Tisch, Bard College, Brigham Young University, and Washington University.
Phelan premiered her evening-length interdisciplinary dance theater work, Birth + Carnage, in December 2025 with a sold out run presented by La MaMa at the Ellen Stewart Theater.
GALLIM FACULTY
Photo by Dan Chen - Wardrobe Courtesy of Hermès
Donterreo Culp (he/him) is a New York City- based freelance dancer and choreographer with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from East Carolina University and a minor in Business Administration. In 2018, he received the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Award, which allowed him to create an eveninglength work and really hone his choreographic processes. Donterreo’s passion for dance has led him to perform with renowned choreographers such as Kyle Abraham, Alanna Morris, Richard Smith, Jennifer Archibald, and many more. He has attended prestigious programs such as Springboard Danse Montréal and the Trinity Laban London Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Donterreo has worked with Nimbus Dance, performing works by Sofia Nappi, Kristen Klein, Dawn Marie Bazemore, and Samuel Pott. Currently a company member with GALLIM Dance, Donterreo is always seeking opportunities to collaborate with artists who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in dance. He strives to create works that are true and authentic.
Photo by Dan Chen - Wardrobe Courtesy of Hermès
Vivian Pakkanen (she/her) is a Finnish dance artist who trained at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (BA) in Norway and the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance (MA) in England. She was an ensemble artist with Nagelhus Schia Productions during the 2020-2021 season and part of the 2019- 2020 cohort of Rambert2 where she participated in the creation of Andrea Miller’s SAMA. Vivian’s work extends to live concerts, television, and music videos, notably with recording artist AURORA. She has performed works of choreographers Jermaine Spivey, Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Liv Lockwood, Tormod Midtbø, Ludvig Daae, Ingri Fiksdal, Kristin Helgebostad, Yaniv Cohen, and Kyuja Bae among others, showcasing her artistry at venues such as Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, and Dansens Hus Oslo. In addition to performing with GALLIM, Vivian contributed to Miller’s Les Noces for the English National Ballet as a research and development artist.
REGISTRATION
TUITION + ELIGIBILITY
Participants 16+ are welcomed. Anyone below 16 will need special approval, please reach out.
Tuition: $395
Early Bird Rate (Ends Sept 30th at 11:59pm): $350 *Use Code MARLA to apply
Registration will be open until program capacity is reached.
Tuition is non-refundable except in the case of a medical necessity with a note from a medical provider.
Please see below for scholarship and aid offerings.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Emergent Artist Scholarship
The Emergent Artist Scholarship is a full merit based award given to artists of the global majority (including but not limited to Black and African American, Asian, Hispanic and Latino/a/x, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian, or Alaska Native, Middle Eastern or North African, and multiracial) to support their emerging or established dance training and/or career.
We will be awarding one for this program. All participants with scholarship applications under review will have a place held for them in the intensive until scholarships are awarded. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until October 10th.Work Study Scholarship
The Work-Study Scholarship is a full-ride scholarship in exchange for operational support and administrative assistance, before, during, and after the intensive. This opportunity is designed for students with an interest in social media, arts administration, and day-to-day operations. This scholarship will include on-site responsibilities.
We will be awarding one for this program. All participants with scholarship applications under review will have a place held for them in the intensive until scholarships are awarded. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until October 10th.