Ava Brennan
Shake Shook Shaken is a theater/movement workshop series produced by Julie Meckler. The series is designed for people to gently bring body awareness, allowing participants to open up, explore outside of their comfort zone, bond with each other, create and show. By playing with these concepts using our bodies, voices, words, and each other, we will explore our own awareness and sensitivity as artists and people.
Shake Shook Shaken is a dream of what a safe space could allow. A vision of a place for everybody to gather, look at each other, play and create in a non judgmental, trauma-informed way. It’s an invitation, a journey within and out, a surprise. Each workshop is unique. This month we’ll have Ava Brennan and Julie leading on the topic of RE-ORGAN-EYES.
How does resonance restructure our bodies? Resonance with other people, sounds, movements, ideas. The body is an instrument, filled with strings and synapses. Let’s weave together!
No prior dance or acting experience is necessary, just willingness to move and exhale. This workshop series is for anyone and everyone.
$15-$50 Sliding Scale / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Artist Bios
Ava Brennan is a musician, teacher, and movement artist born and raised in Chicago. She plays experimental folk-rock music, and dances every chance she gets. Her experience with chronic pain deepened her appreciation for mind-body practices including mediation, yoga, and contact improvisation. In 2026 she completed Yoga Teacher Training and Freedom From Chronic Pain Practitioner Training. She is overjoyed to explore the connection between mind, movement, and music with Julie through Re-Organ-Eyes. Her next performance is 11/8 at Constellation.
Julie Meckler has spent much of her working life keeping people company at moments when they're vulnerable. She began in France as a theater actor and director with Théâtre du Fil, a troupe that doubled as a space for youth rehabilitation. The troupe collaborated with places such as refugee centers, prisons, and youth detention centers, and with young people living with autism, Down syndrome, and psychosis. In 2008 she moved to the United States on her own to pursue her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter. In 2013 she released her debut album, Queenshead, and toured France with her music the following year. After the tour, in October 2014, she trained as a birth doula. She kept performing through her pregnancy, then stepped away from the stage and from music when her child was born. In 2017 she became a Social-Emotional Learning coach. In 2022 she created Shake Shook Shaken at Elastic Arts, a return to what she did with Théâtre du Fil: theater as a form of care, open to people with and without performing backgrounds. It was also a place of healing for her, and it carried her back to songwriting and singing. In 2026 she took the stage again as a singer.