PRIVATE COACHING

Michael Cavadias in The Mystery of Claywoman coached by Vangeline- photography by Tony Tenenbaum

 Vangeline offers private coaching to actors, dancers, singers, performers, and artists on their projects. Rate is $100/hour.

Here is what people say about Vangeline's coaching:

Michael Cavadias, actor

"My name is Michael Cavadias. I am an actor, singer and writer. I've worked in television, film (Wonder Boys) and on stage (The Citizens Band). I studied at NYU's experimental theatre wing. I've had the chance, over the years to work with some amazing directors and teachers such as Curtis Hanson and Andre Gregory. On my most recent project, “The Mystery of Claywoman” at The New Museum I had the opportunity to work with Vangeline. I have to say she rivals any teacher or director I have had in her ability to completely and quickly transform my work and my relationship to it. I had been working on this piece for over a year. Vangeline came in a few days before the performance and worked with me on my physicality. That first encounter with her so fundamentally deepened my understanding of a character I had written that I went home and rewrote part of the show. I can honestly say I don't know what I would have done without her.
I hope more performers have the opportunity to work with her as she is truly among the great teachers of our time."

Raquel Almazan writer/performer, winner of Arthur J. Harris Memorial Prize for development of La Paloma Prisoner and programming with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, Residency with the Eugene O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference, MAP Fund, Recipient of The Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship in Playwriting for the Columbia University Masters Program, Recipient of the Deans Fellowship M.F.A. Playwriting Columbia University.

"Having trained with Vangeline for eight years and working with her on my own solo work has been a catalyst for my growth as an artist and in the butoh form. Her technique is so inviting to artist of all levels of butoh exposure. In her sessions there is a true space of limitless possibilites. Going to the deep places that my work required to explore. Most importantly Vangeline offers what most instructors take a lifetime to develop, the ability to take you on a massive journey. A journey that moves you through space, emotional dimensions and your unlocked truths. "

www.raquelalmazan.com

Anna-Mari Laulumaa

Actor, Finland

"More and more I am aware of the meaning of the right teachers. And once you find the right teacher the work starts.

I stayed in NY for 12 months studying as Vangeline’s private student and creating my solo performance, "God Is in My Typewriter". She taught me Butoh and body work, but we also found ways to use Butoh as a tool for creating the performance. She was my Butoh-teacher, personal trainer, co-director, choreographer and supporter. In her guidance the body work, the spiritual work, the creative work and the artistic work go hand in hand.

Vangeline has very strong ethics. One of the most important thing for me is that I am not afraid in her guidance. Never. She is demanding but there is always the supportive, loving energy that helps to tackle the obstacles and to learn the most difficult exercises.

Her presence is magic. She really is there for you and is willing to find the way that is right for you. It is funny to say, but when I stretch by myself, my body doesn’t work as well as it does when she is around. In some way she makes me believe in me and to learn more than i could ever have imagined just by being there.

I’m so proud that I can say this:

Vangeline is my Teacher."

Ieva Miseviciute

"Working with Vangeline helped me so much to deepen my artistic skills, my thinking patterns, it opened a vast space of possibilities of what can be done within and through the body… In my work I am interested in digging for odd movement vocabularies that are outside of an ordinary behavior. Vangeline showed me how to find depth in those movements, character, mental state and even a spirit. My artistic work, which I often saw as a physical theater and comedy, now started gaining much deeper purpose.

One could slide through life easily making many cute and funny art pieces without grabbing onto anything darker, deeper, more essential, something closer to your gut. It is invaluable to find a person, who can guide you into your own darkness, who can teach you to use and control your own fire, who shows you that there is much more to being a human then you ever thought.  

I cannot express fully in words the complexity of this training. It is as if I am training to be feral again and these are changes that happen on a cellular level. However, done with a great set of techniques, skills and a lot of work! Vangeline is an absolutely unique coach in that way -- having an incredible set of knowledge raging from Eastern theater and dance, mainly Butoh, to Western traditions of stage arts. This paired with very high ethics in pedagogy and remarkable psychology skills.

In my last production Tongue PhD Vangeline helped me to bring together many different aspects of my work – acting, spoken word, sculpture and dance – into one theatrical solo production. Advising on movement and the stage work, physical development of each segment of the piece, helping with dramaturgical choices and overall arch of the show. This kind of work is hard to describe as it takes place on so many levels, but that’s is how artistic work should be – engaging as many sides of our brain as possible. Not a coincidence that in addition to her vast skills Vangeline is working with neuroscientist studying brain activity of Butoh practitioners!"