25 June and 2, 9 July 2017 taught by Vincent-Nicolas Provencher
Partnering work
It’s not obligated to have partner to came to the class.
How someone 100 pound can lift an other of 200 pound without effort.
The objective of these three classes is to understand the body mechanism and to open ours sensitivity to the touch. How beeing in relation with an other mover and how to merge together. We will begin with simples exercices to learn about ours body and the other. After that, we will see about counterbalance and lift.
Biography of Vincent-Nicolas
CLASSES BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2017
8, 15 and 22 january 2017 taught by Bronwen Moen
Geodesic Animals
Within the rich language of Contact Improvisation we will explore both the anatomy and social engagement patterns of four animal forms : the horse, raven, wolf and monkey. Using these animals as both models and metaphors we will play with dynamic connection sequences and habits, exploring the wild and elastic power of our myofascial systems. We will open our attention and perception, while pouncing, attuning, prowling and finding flight, rough touch, and sweet melt !
Biography of Bronwen
29 january 2017 taught by Kelly Keenan
Sunday Classes
I am interested in the perceptive capacity of the body. I am interested in how we can catch and chase awareness as we move in relation to gravity and others. This class is a warm-up and partnering study.
Credit : Anne-Flore de Rochambeau
Anatomical imagery will be focussed on as a concept to move with through time and space as we dance. Using this as a thread to perpetually tune into our own bodies I will offer participants contexts to explore individually, with the assistance of a partner and in partnering dances.
Biography of Kelly
5, 12, 19, and 26 February 2017
taught by Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood
A soft touch
Making contact with another being implies forging a nurturing environment, which allows us to create greater intimacy, take risks, exchange, build trust, and communicate with others.
Photo : Patrick Beelaert
C.I. is a rather sophisticated idiom that requires that the body and mind meet without hesitation in the moment of the dance. In these sessions we will focus on the quality of our touch, which transmits our intention and our desires. A soft touch is smooth in texture, is pleasing and agreeable to the senses, and brings ease and comfort to the entire being. A soft and gentle body might likely be more rounded and pliable enabling one to give and take weight smoothly and land softly avoiding destructive impact. A soft attitude and open mind allows us to remain calm and experience serenity in our dances, while a soft gaze is expansive and transparent, like windows allowing the visceral internal sense stimulated from within the body (interoception) to interface with the kinesthetic sense by which one perceives the outer world (exteroception). A ‘soft touch’ is also a state of body and mind generating a relaxed alertness that is effortlessly filled with energy.
Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood’s present interests lie within the immediate and fullest use of all the senses, the subtle interplay between intuition and instinct, the dilation of the attention to it’s fullest, the finely tuned use of the perceptions in performance, and the unexpected interplay with an audience.
Photo : Patrick Beelaert
Biography of Andrew
5 March taught by Catherine Lessard
Space is a playground
During these classes, the environment will be our main partner (including others, floor, space and forces). We will practice navigating through the numerous stimulus, with mental and physical flexibility.
Our skin and our nervous system, as the core locations for the exchanges between our inner environment and our outer environment, will be encouraged to adapt and organize in facing the unpredictable and inevitable external reality. We will play, and stimulate our curiosity. Playing is a fundamental research and development tool, in the short term (our dances) and in the longer term (our relation to the world). Touch, breathing, approach-and-departure, fluidity, rhythm and weight transfers will be at the center of our explorations.
Biography of Catherine
12 March 2017, taught by Delphine Marot
PARENT-CHILD CLASSES IN CI
19 et 26 March and 2 april 2017, taught by Nina Galéa
TOUCH
During our 3 classes together we will explore and get comfortable with the many different ways we use touch in contact-improvisation. Throughout a variety of movement combinations we will become familiar and find ease with the nature of touch: how it moves us into deeper states of being and connects us to one another.
Touching lightly, touching firmly - with more or less pressure- augments the range of possibilities in our expression of contact-improvisation.
Touch also offers and invites a variety of textures, which in turn, enrich the language of contact-improvisation. Touch is one of the most, if not the most, basic drive in contact-improvisation - what brings people together.
We touch to be moved - and move to be touched…
Come and experience the power of touch…
Biography of Nina
9, 16, 23 and 30 April 2017 taught by Eryn D. Trudell
Credit : Sylviane Robini
Simplicity and Dynamic Range
Eryn will teach some basic principals of CI in a simple way. Her class will offer tools to develop dynamic range, movement quality and rhythm to add more breadth to your vocabulary. Humble, generous and playful is her motto. Bring your questions.
Biography of Eryn
7 ,14, 21 and 28 May 2017 taught by Nicoletta Dolce and Isaac Savoie
Bouncing / jumping … and partner work
The class will begin with body work elements as well as a dynamic warm-up: twists, jumps, crossing the space in movement in solo and in partner. The second part will be devoted to the study of different lifts; A question will accompany us: how can we engage ourselves in a lift, however easy or arduous, with the right amount of effort? And how would we be tonic and stable in our anchors while keeping the lightness and flexibility in our body?
Knee pads and long sleeves recommended. Please be on time, as we will start at 10:30 sharp! It will be great to dance with you!
Biography of Nicoletta
Biography of Isaac
4, 11 and 18 June 2017 taught by Danielle Beaudet
Falling upwards
The art of falling safely allows us to take calculated risk, it is one of the many essential tools that makes the practice of contact improvisation exciting yet safe.
This class will explore techniques of falling inspired from dance and martial arts. We will start with a short warmup to awake our attention to our body states and to our collaboration with our first partner the floor. We will investigate body tones (soft vs tonic) and muscles pathways useful when melting in and out of the floor.
The class will experiment with notions of moving downwards while growing upwards. Threw demonstration of specific exercises and games we will build trust and skills, such as falling into the point of contact with our partner to the floor and the uses of counterbalance when falling.
We will then use these tools to investigate the mechanics of falling solo using the floor as our partner and how that differs from the subtle conversation of falling within a duet. Personal and group scores will focus on the material previously discovered and explored.
Falling is at the heart of contact improvisation. It is moving in two direction at the same time while tracing pathways with our bodies threw space. Awareness and the floor are two of our best partners in assuring our safety. I will be sharing the tools that have keep me safe, come and improvise with me as we explore a safe place for our bodies to express its full potential.
Biography of Danielle