WORKSHOPS & LAboratories

Workshops of movement research inspired by or supporting the practice of Contact Improvisation. Facilitated laboratories to continue to the research, group and individual investigation, and share a space for curiosity and development.

Additional formats include the Underscore jam, new comers support group, feed-backing sessions, and focused jamming.

2020 workshop descriptions below.

Zuzanna Bukowski (DE/PL)

Mini Intensive 3 classes/ Underscore

Contact Improvisation essentials

Each class begins with developing our solo dance. Discovering movement through the lense of bio mechanics; material inspired by Axis Syllabus. Supporting our practice later in contact when flying and falling, and giving inspiration inside the jam to play and explore in solo.

We will then expand our movement vocabulary of contact improvisation by focusing on essential techniques that can be applied in every dance. Exploring pathways of contact, sharing weight, practicing to listen and offer invitations, to understand and respond through the body.

Ending each class with space for integration through improvisation of the practices.

Tu Le (VN)

Class – Improvising paradoxes

Contact Improvisation is a dance between discipline and surrender, a dialogue between ourselves and the world around us and all the spaces in between. My invitation is to re-visit our physical sensations as the starting point of our movement and to enliven the dance with both awareness and playfulness. In 2 hours, we will explore paradoxes as possibilities in Contact Improvisation and also look at our physical and social habits from a different perspective.

Nitipat “Ong” Pholchai (TH)

Laboratory – Existence as Magic

In this lab, I’d like us to investigate the physical body as a site of ongoing existential questions. Our body parts and body systems exist as much as they co-exist based on both oneness and differentiation. We will play with the notion of sameness and difference, together and alone, self and others, conscious and unconscious. I propose that framing CI practice through these ideas, we may realise that our body and our community can operate as if in a magical realm; that we may just all be swimming in the liminal sea of relationships, where our existence (physical and temporal) become fractal and full of possibilities.

Kieran Mitchell (AU)

Class

We will begin by bringing our attention to our awareness. Using several exercises that encourage the cultivation of presence, in particular we will use the breath as a gateway to present moment awareness. We will then focus on some of the technique foundational to CI. This will include floor work, technical safety issues, basing and flying. After drilling some of these methods through exercises that reinforce the technical aspect, we will remind ourselves that these techniques are a guideline only and that we have permission to forget the ‘pathways’ and ask the body what it wants to do.

MALGO (PL)

CLASS – SOOTHING BODY MIND

During this short class, we are preparing our body and mind for the jam. We will focus on the correlation between muscle tension and the nervous system response. Our experience of external life is deeply encoded into our muscles and deep tissues. We will work with releasing fascia. In this space, you see the knowledge that is already inside you and learn to breathe with it, allowing you to release what you are holding. We will go through various fascia exercises, relaxing the body and the mind for the practice to engage into dance after it.

JULIE Rieffel (fr)

Morning class Yin Yoga / Water Dance

Julie Aloha is passionate with the body, mind, heart connection. She has been a massage therapist since 2008, travelling around Oceania and Asia for the past 7 years where she keeps learning and exploring the art of touch. Now she is based in Thailand on koh Phangan Island. She learnt a wide range of therapies to adapt the offering to the person she treats, Water therapies, Womb Healing, Chi Nei Tsang, PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation), holding, cupping massage and yin yoga.

Zinn Da Alive (IN)

Fire puja

Navgrah Shanti Yagna or The Fire Pooja for Peace and Prosperity: A Yagna or Havan is a traditional Indian Pooja ceremony that involves the recital of Vedic Chants and holy offerings(Samagri) made to the fire. The combined effect of these chants and the fire together cleanse and purify the air and aura. You are free to participate or observe during the ceremony. A brief explanation about the Havan, its scientific and spiritual benefits will also be discussed.

Ina Elanor (DE)

Class – Authentic Movement

In Authentic Movement, we tap into an infinity of possibilities, where the ‘unknown’ is a place to be discovered through the body. In this practice we witness and we move without seeing, giving sense and meaning in an empathic and non-judgmental way. Moving in couples of a blindfolded mover and an observer, we are creating a living experiment, that can show us new aspects about ourselves and how to embody the very present moment – however that may look like. As we trust and give in to the flow of motion, intuitive exploration and spontaneous action can then build a bridge to the subconscious and show us hidden aspects of our true body.

Authentic Movement was developed in the 1950’s by Dance Therapist Amy Starks Whitehouse as “movement in depth” and is widely practiced in modern dance and movement- environments.

Ulli Wittemann (DE)

CLASS – The art of flying

How can you be so light?”

Some years ago I started researching what I can do to make it easier for smaller and lighter people to

support me. When does my body feel soft and smooth and which helpful details make it easy, to

support a partner in an effortless way. In this workshop we will work on using our body structure in an

effective way, good listening for a connected movement flow and the high presence, which is just

required for the acrobatic part of CI. We will open our bodies to all directions on the floor and step by

step find our ways from the floor up into the air. An important part of this journey is opening the

backspace and being relaxed in upside down positions. There will be time for your questions and

moments of free dancing to integrate the new material. Let’s learn and explore, open our bodies to new

movement realms, fill the dance space with life and just have fun together!

All levels welcome!

Astrid VAN ZON (nl)

Blindfolder journey –

Dance like nobody is watching

This is an invitation to enter the unknown, the unseen. In this Blindfolded journey we will build the first connections and trust through gentle bodywork and solo exploration alternating between eyes open and closed before entering in a fully Blindfolded Jam. Using the fundamentals of CI like free movement, sharing body-weight, trust, listening and consensual touch.

There is this open invitation to DROP all expectations, entering the conversation from trust, intuition, sensitivity, curiosity, playfulness and fluidity. A sweet surrender can arise in WAITING, listening and merging when one is fluently present without (for)seeing, constantly tuning in to what is happening now, and now… and NOW! Eventually arriving beyond the senses into STILLNESS.

ISabelle Pyttel (DE)

Yoga

Isabelle’s Yoga style is inspired by Anusara Yoga, which is rooted in Hatha Yoga and Iyengar Yoga. It is based on a deep understanding and knowledge of the anatomy, biomechanics and biodynamics of our human body. It uses „Universal Principles of Alignment“ and a conscious way of guiding energy through our body, using our relation with the floor to raise up and expand. Throughout the practice we will focus on the respiration and synchronizing breath and movement, which helps us to dive deepinto the feeling of connectedness. Using all these aspects and connecting to the inherently good power of our heart, this Yoga form can improve our physical and spiritual well-being and connect us to our inner self. Isabelle‘s background as a Cranio Sacral therapist and her strong relation to nature are beautifully palpable in her Yoga sessions. It’s suitable for all people at any level of abilitiy or agility and can be a joyful self-discovery, comingalong with self-empowerment.