Masterclass with Kirstie Simson

🔹 Saturday and Sunday Schedule 🔹
Check-in: 9:30 a.m.
Morning: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
2-hour lunch break
Afternoon: 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

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Workshop Focus

The morning sessions will be devoted to developing the qualities of presence necessary for improvisation: preparing, sensitizing, and attuning the body to the experience of the moment.

The afternoon sessions will focus on improvisation, spontaneous composition, and creative work.

Open to improvisers and Contact Improvisation practitioners of all levels.

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Workshop Content

There is profound inspiration and great discipline in a practice of improvisation that places vulnerability at the heart of its process. Developing the ability to nurture this state of openness—to inhabit it, respect it, and respond to it—within ourselves, in others, and in our environment—gives rise to powerful and deeply transformative creative work.

Learning from a place of interconnectedness builds the resilience and clarity needed to navigate life’s challenges and complexities.

During this workshop, Kirstie will share the movement practices and the philosophies that underpin them, developed over more than forty years of commitment to improvisation as a true way of life. This approach has guided her through the ups and downs of her life.

Alongside the physical work, she will explore how embodied practices can strengthen the resilience essential for responding to the demanding realities of our time.

Having recently gone through a life-threatening illness herself, Kirstie draws on this personal experience to share how a deeply rooted dance practice can guide, support, and sustain us in the face of life’s greatest challenges, while nurturing our health and vitality.

Her teaching draws on her extensive experience in Contact Improvisation, dance techniques, the Alexander Technique, Aikido, and meditation, as well as her in-depth knowledge of improvisation in performance. She will share her work through guided exercises, open periods of play and exploration, movement scores, observations, moments of self-reflection, deep listening, discussion, and humor.

This workshop offers a rare opportunity to delve into the heart of the wisdom revealed through embodied practices in the studio, through the exploration of movement scores.

Kirstie will guide this exploration, drawing on the depth of her body-mind knowledge, cultivated over forty-five years of sustained practice in deep listening and inquiry. Her approach is rooted in the essential importance of embodied knowledge that nourishes, supports, and affirms life.

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Film screening followed by a conversation with Kirstie about the history of Contact Improvisation and the evolution of her approach, particularly how her recent health challenges have influenced and deepened her work.

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🔹 Tuesday through Friday 🔹
Schedule
Arrival: 9:15 a.m.
Start: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
This intensive training and research program offers a deep dive into the art of dance, led by Kirstie Simson. Renowned for the exceptional quality of her presence, her sensitive approach, and her extensive experience in improvised dance, Kirstie guides us to the very heart of the creative process.

Regarding her teaching, Kirstie writes:
“As a dance improvisation teacher, my goal is to engage each person in the living experience of spontaneous creation and instant improvisation.

What fuels my work is the constant rediscovery of how this exploration can become a catalyst for learning and offer lasting benefits throughout one’s life.

I view learning as a transformation that emerges from self-discovery, through a continuous process of exploration and revelation. I deeply believe that every person carries within them an exceptional potential for creativity.

Our bodies are designed for movement, and it is in our nature to fully engage with this embodied intelligence. Through the study of simple movement practices, we can cultivate a mind-body state conducive to our overall well-being—a state capable of enriching, even transforming, our relationship with life.”

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Workshop Content

“It’s very exciting to embark on this next adventure.”

Creating an Improvised Performance

I am grateful for the opportunity to share my extensive experience working with improvised performances over the years. Exploring what an improvised performance is has always been something I am deeply committed to.

Having initially grown up in the tradition of Western classical dance, I came to realize that improvisation and improvised performance exist within a completely different paradigm—one that requires careful attention and thorough examination.

I realized that there is often confusion and a number of assumptions surrounding improvisation, given that these two artistic disciplines are grouped under the same umbrella and loosely defined as “dance.” Particularly when it comes to performance, the fundamental principles that govern dance in the traditional sense and those of improvisation are radically different.

What does it feel like to watch and be watched? The vulnerability of sharing the body in motion and the beauty that lies within that vulnerability—which forms the foundation of the self-transparency inherent in a sincere practice of improvisation. Seeing how the material and the choices made in the moment—in response to what emerges—allow for such a profound sharing of who we are. These are some of the elements that make this practice so intimate and unique. A practice that is enriching, radical, and life-affirming.

The spirit of the improviser is a bold one. To go on stage with nothing prepared and remain open to whatever comes, open to what emerges in each moment. Through our responses, we practice transforming the negative into the positive. We question the source of our “fear of failure.” Thanks to collective support, we allow this practice to strengthen us and prepare us to face life’s challenges. Life is the ultimate improvisation, calling us to be continually present, with care and boldness.

At its core, it is a deeply spiritual practice that reveals our deep-rooted humanity to ourselves and to others. That is what I experienced—and what moved me deeply—when I first saw Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson perform their duet *Private Parts* more than 45 years ago. It was the first improvised dance performance I had ever seen. The impact of that single performance inspired and nourished my passion for this art form, to which I continue to devote myself entirely, in the spirit of generosity and love that it fosters.

Facing everything and avoiding nothing. Facing my shortcomings as well as my abundance. This is the opportunity that stepping into the spotlight offers us. It allows for a very profound process of learning and transformation, for which I am eternally grateful.

During this week, I look forward to sharing the principles and practices I have developed through my research on improvised performance—and, in particular, the relevance of this work in the context of the profoundly difficult times we are facing, where uncertainty is our lived reality.

We’ll have the opportunity to create and practice performance—to be both witnesses and participants in moments of improvised “sharing,” among peers and in front of a wider audience. There will be many in-depth discussions as well as opportunities to share our diverse experiences with performance.

We will have the opportunity to share what we’ve learned, ask for support, engage in thoughtful reflection, and take pleasure in creating together and being shaped by this process.”

Kirstie

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The intensive week will conclude with an evening of public performances offering a glimpse into the research and creative work developed throughout the week.

The evening will include:
• A twenty-minute solo by Kirstie Simson, offering an immersion into her research
• A 20-minute presentation by the research group, bringing together the participants of the intensive workshop in a collective creation emerging from the process explored throughout the week
• Followed by a jam as part of the annual Montreal Jam

Biography of Kirstie Simson

Kirstie (United Kingdom) has been a leading figure in the contemporary dance scene for several decades. Through her virtuosic improvisations, she invites the audience to connect with the vitality of pure creation, moment by moment.
Described as “a force of nature” by The New York Times, she is an award-winning performer and educator who, according to Time Out Magazine (London), has “immensely enriched and pushed the boundaries of contemporary dance.”

Now internationally recognized, Kirstie is appreciated as much for the excellence of her teaching as for the power of her performances. She is one of the leading figures in dance improvisation, with a career spanning more than forty years. From 2008 to 2020, she held a tenured faculty position in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois.

In August 2020, Kirstie returned to Wales, where she continues to deepen her research while sharing her findings with people around the world. In light of the uncertainties of our times, she now presents her work as a set of practices that foster resilience in the face of life’s challenges. Drawing on her own experience with a serious, life-threatening health condition, she continues to explore the wisdom and healing capacities that emerge when we learn to listen deeply to our embodied intelligence.

kirstiesimson.com