Questions? festival@contactimpro.org
A weekend to dive into four foundational structures that have shaped the history of Contact Improvisation and related practices:
– Tuning Scores
– Underscore
– Contemplative Dance
– Round Robin
Facilitated by Andrew Harwood, Valérie Sabbah et Stéphanie Gaudreau
Through these four structures, we will explore how these practices can serve as preparation for the Annual Jam and for our dancing spaces: refining our listening, playing with our perceptions, tasting the role of passive/active witness, and discovering how the smallest gestures can become shared compositions.
The exploration also includes time for self-inquiry, reflection, writing, and sharing—a precious opportunity to question how these legacies nourish our lives, our teaching, and our creations.
Participants will develop their ability to be simultaneously dancer, witness, and composer, cultivating clarity, responsiveness, and the joy of improvising together.
We invite you to take part in the full weekend in order to fully experience the process and to broaden our collective reflections.
All are welcome—dancers and acoustic musicians.
Group limited to 20 participants.
🔹 Please note:
• To participate in the Underscore, you must be familiar with its content. An introduction will take place on Saturday, October 4th at 1 p.m. at Studio Proto, followed by a practice session from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• Otherwise, a talk-through is planned for Friday, October 31st at 6 p.m.
PRICES AND REGISTRATION (before October 26)
🔸 $65 for the full weekend.
Registration on the Zeffy website: (HERE)
PLACES
🔸 Friday and Saturday: Proto Studio – 5333 Casgrain (Studio 1107 – 11th floor), Laurier metro station
🔸 Sunday: Studio 303 – 372 Ste-Catherine Ouest, #303, Montréal, Place-des-Arts metro station
PROGRAMMING
FRIDAY, October 31, 2025
At Proto Studio
🔸 6–7 PM: Underscore Teaching (for new students or review)
🔸 7–8 PM: Opening and Weekend Presentation
SATURDAY, November 1, 2025
At Studio Proto
🔸 9:30–12:30 PM: Tuning Scores (Valérie)
🔸 2–5 PM: Underscore (Stéphanie)
SUNDAY, November 2, 2025
At Studio 303
🔸 9:30 AM: Arrival
🔸 10 AM–12 PM: Contemplative Dance (Andrew)
🔸 12–1 PM: Harvests & Round Robin to the Sunday Jam
🔸 11 PM–4 PM: Sunday Jam
GAME CONTENT
✨ TUNING SCORE
facilitated by Valérie Sabbah (details Bio)
It is a structure developed by Lisa Nelson, are an improvisation practice that invites dancers and observers to compose together in real time through two simple but precise tools: movement and vocal calls such as Pause, End, Reverse, or Replace. These calls are not commands but propositions: desires that reconfigure attention, open new perspectives, and sharpen collective perception.
✨ UNDERSCORE
facilitated by Stéphanie Gaudreau (détails Bio)
This offers a deep exploration of the phases that unfold during a Contact Improvisation jam.
The practice, lasting three hours, is unguided and self-directed: each participant is responsible for their own experience at the moment.
It is an immersive journey where kinesthetic improvisation and spontaneous composition can flourish within a structured frame. We begin together and end together, closing with a moment of reflection and somatization (poetry, drawing, writing through the body).
Important Note: The content of the practice is taught in advance. It is therefore necessary to:
• have participated in the one-hour talk-through about the phases & the hieroglyphs;
• and have previous experience in Contact Improvisation. The talk-through offers an introduction to the clear framework in which we will engage: an exploration of the Underscore’s structure, which serves as a guiding thread for an extended session of improvised dance and Contact Improvisation.
Excerpt from Caught Falling – Nancy Stark Smith
The Underscore is a score that guides dancers through a series of "changing states":
• warming up on the floor (releasing, attending to gravity and support);
• moving through space and interacting with the group;
• opening to possibilities of partnering;
• entering group improvisation with an awareness of composition;
• returning to rest and reflection.
✨ CONTEMPLATIVE DANCE PRACTICE IS A KINESTHETIC DELIGHT
Andrew de L. Harwood (details Bio)
CDP blends together meditation, personal awareness, improvisational solo dancing & relational movement with others into a tasty potage of insight and delight to cultivate attention, connection, self-discovery and community.
Listening to your body move your body, paying attention to the bodies around you, moving with and being moved by this environment in this present moment, and nurturing the power of a gathering of like-minded explorers is our practice of depth and connection. This practice integrates tools for safety, clear consent and boundary-setting and is open to all curious bodies.
✨ ROUND ROBIN
facilitated by Valérie, Andrew et Stéphanie
It refers to a practice structure in which dancers regularly change partners according to a set rhythm or order. The idea is to encourage a variety of encounters, explore different qualities of contact, and increase bodily and relational awareness through multiple interactions.