Classes 2008

This is the list of classes, labs and discussions for 2008.

Finding The Far Side (Extreme Physicality) Advanced
Quinton Bennett

Find your partners center and position yourself on to it by finding the far side of both centers. Detailed body positions and movement sequences will facilite integrating and practicing center to center techniques. This is not a high flying class, but we may get there...

Time Travel (Performance) Intermediate, Mixed Ability Welcome
Brenton Cheng

When we dance, we are honing our ability to ever more clearly walk the knife edge between what has happened and what is about to happen. At the same time, embedded in this rarified instant are worlds -- each one the result of our choice-making. In this class, we will play both sides of the moving present, and develop our abilities to compose in 4D for performance.

The Illuminating Experience of Eyes-Closed (Somatics) Intermediate, Mixed Ability Welcome
Stefanie Cohen

The class investigates the opportunities created by intentionally exploring Contact dances blindfolded, or with eyes-closed, as well as the multi-faceted dimensions of the physical contact that may arise during the contemplative practice of Authentic Movement. Invariably, we find that our relationship to physical risk, sensation, intimacy, image, and personal narrative becomes heightened or altered in the muting of our deeply powerful sense of sight. As dancers we may thus uncover new movement vocabulary and pathways and an ability to identify and strengthen our own solos within the duet.

Free Mind, Free Body, Free Heart (Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance) Advanced
John Dowell

The intention of this class is bring as much of ourselves as possible into the dance. What we see, hear, feel and think will be translated into movement, creating a dance that expresses the fullness of our being. We will explore from both physical/technique and psychological/emotional perspectives letting our movement be inspired from sensation, vision, hearing and a multitude of games and tricks. We will find surprises through immersion in sensation and chaos and stay safe and responsive through expanded awareness, subtlety of release and adjustment of muscle tone. We will we work with awakening primitive reflexes, seeing and sensing in 3D, softly connecting in flight, and smoothing out the transition from support to weight giving roles. This will include exploration both in duet and ensemble.

The Vertiginous Thrill of Momentum (Extreme Physicality) Advanced
Ralf Jaroschinski

At first, the class focuses on centering and awareness: We will look for the true internal source and support, and then for the authentic external expression and spatiality of our solo. Next, we will investigate attentively the texture of our tactile and kinetic communication with our partner(s) through listening to their and again our actions and reactions during our dance. Secondly, we’ll enjoy experiencing and playing with “momentum” without compromising our connectedness to the inner and the outer. We will create, extend, redirect, diminish, enhance, prohibit, and vary momentum in many ways, and finally, we can’t help being thrilled by the constantly surging new and surprising dynamics of our ongoing dance and its infinitely inspiring reservoir of possibilities.

Flight School (Extreme Physicality) Intermediate
Aaron Jessup

Starting from a firm foundation of contact experience, this class will explore the dynamics, principles and techniques of safe, unforced lifting and flying.

Contact Cement (Extreme Physicality) Beginner, Mixed Ability Welcome
Mark Koenig

Have you ever asked yourself, "What is the GLUE that keeps those dancers stuck together?" What's the stuff that makes solid dancers really fun to dance with? How are they able to take care of themselves so well, and still be so responsive to their partner(s)? How can I be responsible for my safety and for the safety of my dances even if I don't know what the heck I'm dong?

Contact Fundamentals (Somatics) Beginner, Mixed Ability Welcome
Vitali Kononov

We will explore and deepen our fundamental skills by practicing effortless movement pathways, polishing weight sharing techniques, playing with different roles and integrating what we learned into an open dance. We will revisit natural patterns of rolling, sliding, surfing, walking, falling up and down. We will use experiential anatomy to help us understand principles of strength and ease in movement. Discovering how to support and be supported in dance, we will learn to open up possibilities of our dance and fly.

Contact Unlimited (Somatics) Advanced, Mixed Ability Welcome
Kerstin Kussmaul

What is the essence of your dancing right now? When is the last time you were breathless becoming aware of all the options you have? In this class you dance with a beginner's mind but using all the knowledge stored in your body and mind. You might put on somebody elses clothes (really). You might become aware of some of your preconceptions about contact. You might have some serious fun. In this class you set the frame for what you do or don’t. This is your process and it’s up to you. There is only one life.

Embodied Presence (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Jacqueline McCormick

This class starts from the structure of the body and encourages an embodied sense of presence. Grounding ourselves through an embodied encounter with our dance partners.

Holding the Magic Within All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Karin Moriarty

The class will begin with a full warm up of the hips and the base area. The exercises will touch on the center's idea to provide the students with the perfect tools to move in a safe and balanced way. Then, we will move into duets, where the roles of giving and receiving weight will be interchanged. It is the "Gift of Magic" that comes alive - a wealth of information. The students will be invited, not only to feel the physical weight exchange, but also how the energy moves from one body to the other. The "puzzle piece" idea will be introduced as the students are invited to sprinkle tenderness into how they move with their partners while magic is created together

The Whole Enchilada All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Julie Oak

You will be guided into speaking comfortably while dancing. Explore talking while moving, and vise versa-- weaving themes, emotional qualities and characters with the form of Contact. In the first of this two part class we will develop emotional qualities and character relationship in some juicy contact duets, discovering how this potentially can feed our physicality and enrich the dance. In the second class , we will focus on group improvisation, integrating contact with banter and stories. Julie will use the “pause button” to give suggestions during improvisations. Those interested but nervous when reading this description, please come! We will have fun and you will be supported wherever you are in your learning process.

The Great Intuition Work-Out (Somatics) All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Nicole Richter

You know those really great, one-in-a-million dances you find yourself having where you anticipate each other's every move, then surf effortlessly in deep playful/soulful communion for what seems like ages? (Perhaps to wonder afterwards: who *was* that??) Have more of those. This class posits 'intuition' not as a floaty esoteric concept but as one specific skill within the skill-set necessary for the successful practice of CI. Engage in simple, straightforward exercises to vivify your connection to your partner (even if it's the first time you've met). Explore concepts of radiation and reception, then peel them deeper and deeper into action. Skeptics and nay-sayers welcome.

2nd Choice Intermediate
Elio Scudieri

The dance becomes decided when we run it. But it is undetermined when we let it dance us. Surprises are found when we listen rather than control. Connecting with our partner, we will begin by rooting ourselves with off balance dancing—bringing in the unknown through a fun, unpredictable interplay based on momentum, velocity, and interdependence. The second part of class will be taking this relationship into 2nd choice dancing. You’re intermediate/advanced now, so you recognize many of your patterns—all exquisitely related to your dance—some helpful, some limiting. Through moment by moment observation of our movements, we see that we have infinite choices to pick from. Here we pick other than what our habits would have us do.

12 Limbs and the Floor Intermediate
Rajendra Serber

We'll start with practicing a conscious shift of weight with the floor. Finding the simplicity and subtly of shifting weight through our bodies. Then continue with using our partners limbs as an extension of our own. Explore the depth of weight sharing as we connect with our partners through sight, electricity, skin, muscles and bones.

Outside the Performance Box (Performance) All Levels
Lawrenzo Share

Prepare to roll in the grass and change your perspective on movement and performance. In a park that is walking distance from the festival, (bring sunscreen! and old dancewear) we will investigate options for site-specific performance. Starting with duets, we will explore natural objects such as a hill, tree, fence or park bench to discover dance relationships with these objects and our dance partners. We will address ways to involve the audience in the piece. These initial experiments will culminate in a group score. You will have the option to perform your discoveries for the greater festival audience.

What Is, Is Enough To Go Exploring. (Peer Sequence) All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Carolyn Stuart

Exploration is the foundation of the Contact Improvisation experience, where it began and what it decided to hold to. This track is a daily opportunity to meet and explore with peers, with whatever 'is' up. A place to own and play with your experience, to share and see what wants to develop.

Contact AND Improvisation And The Alexander Technique (Somatics) Intermediate
Carol Swann

Slowing down our nervous system, inhibiting unnecessary muscle contraction, moving from our joints in released and lengthening swings, reaches and suspensions and shift into light, easeful weight sharing we will lead and follow our partner on an improvisational journey. We will be present to the subtle touches and gestures that can lead us into the most beautiful or distorted of pathways into, near and far from our partners. Organizing ones body becomes a priority for sustainability whether focusing on simple movement tasks or complex movement challenges. Acceleration, articulation, stillness, up/down and multiple dynamics demand an astute attention from the inside out, and to the outside back in.

The Vehicle of the Senses (Somatics) Intermediate, Mixed Ability Welcome
Ilka Szilagyi

We have a vocabulary to express what is happening in our body, mind and soul. But are we able to capture everything? Or are there other things to find beyond what’s familiar? In these two classes we will play with the development of the senses, explore our sensations and interpretations. Researching the physical, emotional and energetic self and connection with others, we will find and articulate our boundaries and permissions, embrace and transform our judgments into vehicles that help us to get and give what we need and clearly communicate through movement, touch, sounding and speaking.

CI and Feldenkrais/Anat Baniel Methods – A Potent Convergence. (Somatics) All Levels, Mixed Ability Welcome
Sharon Tomsky

Applying the potent learning opportunities from the Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel Methods of somatic movement education to deepen our practice of Contact Improvisation. We will learn specific movement sequences, and utilize principles of movement with attention, variations, perception of differences, and slowing down to improve our ability to move in new ways, and to discover new dancing possiblities. We will practice deep listening and refinement of how we touch and make contact to deeply connect with ourselves and our partners.

The Four Winds Of Nantucket (Performance) Intermediate
Andrew Wass

By deconstructing movement into four basic possibilities, we will examine the solo body and its dance within the contact duet. Investigation into the solo body will identify our habits and increase our movement palate. Once the range of the solo has been increased, we can discover more possibilities/pathways and increase our improvisation skills within contact improvisation.

Mixed Ability Facilitated Jam (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) All Levels, Mixed Ability Focus
Ali Woolwich

For Disabled and non-disabled dancers to build skill & practice dancing together.

Seven Sublime Habits for Advanced Contact (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) Advanced
Scott Wells

One at a time and all at once, instant availability. Feet = hands, 3 dimensional invisible radar...

Into the Back Body/Touching the Core (Extreme Physicality) All Levels
Sue Stuart

Through touch, weight, and awareness we will awaken the back body, entering the less inhabited parts of our structures. Through this integration we connect with our cores, enhance our listening, broaden our pathways, and expand our possibilities for of safe, raucous play. (Fundamentals of CI required)

Mixed Ability Facilitated Jam (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) All Levels, Mixed Ability Focus
Erik Ferguson

For Disabled and non-disabled dancers to build skill & practice dancing together.

Immersion Into The Body's Wisdom Intermediate
Daniela Schwartz

Co-taught by Daniela Schwartz (Arg./F) and Eckhard Mueller (Ger/F), this workshop is an invitation to dive deeply into the Contact Improvisation form trusting the body's intelligence. Guided by the sensation and perception into experiencial anatomy, we will approach some basic principles of the form creating a frame for observation and action. Stimulating the natural curiosity for the unknown, we will enter the exploration attentive to the body's responses in relationship to the physical forces and we will sink into the dynamics of weight exchange. The practice will deepen our state of consciousness, our availability and trust to develop, stretch, and transform the possibilities of the body in the dance.

Immersion Into The Body's Wisdom (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) Intermediate
Eckhard Mueller

Co-taught by Daniela Schwartz (Arg./F) and Eckhard Mueller (Ger/F), this workshop is an invitation to dive deeply into the Contact Improvisation form trusting the body's intelligence. Guided by the sensation and perception into experiencial anatomy, we will approach some basic principles of the form creating a frame for observation and action. Stimulating the natural curiosity for the unknown, we will enter the exploration attentive to the body's responses in relationship to the physical forces and we will sink into the dynamics of weight exchange. The practice will deepen our state of consciousness, our availability and trust to develop, stretch, and transform the possibilities of the body in the dance.

Boyz' Club LAB (Type: Extreme Physicality, Somatics, Performance Or New Track Title And 2 Tb Members Who Will Also Teach In This Track.) All Levels
Sean Seward

Men-only skills lab led by Sean Seward and Ralf Jaroschinski. Followed by Boyz' Club JAM on Jam Day (see schedule).

Teri Carter