Fascination

How do we invite more fascination in our dancing? Let's make an experiential dive into expanding improvisational possibilities by deepening into all that's here now - and exploring curious scores inspired by embodied improv theater, relational movement, contemporary dance, and more.

This moment, any moment, can be a creative wellspring for improvisation! A world emerges from our movement in relationship, our being in relationship. And, each moment can be a source of surprise, delight, discovery, and aliveness for our dancing human being.

We'll dive into a range of explorations, from nourishing slowness to fast-paced games, from somatic and meditative to colorful and imaginal! We welcome co-creating from a felt sense of gravity and physical listening, and expand into additional embodied possibilities.

We’ll start exactly where we are, pausing, noticing, exploring different ‘ways in’ to being captivated by what’s already here. We'll deepen into the essence of what is. We'll soften into moving at the pace of feeling. From the rich specificity of this moment, creativity emerges!

We’ll play with a variety of curious scores involving the breath, space, eyes, face, & imagination. We’ll get simple (as well as strange) to discover new possibilities and pathways! There is so much more here - and available - than I initially recognized.

I'll be drawing on inspiration from… Nita Little (Contact Improvisation, Relational Intelligence), Vangelis Legakis (Contact Beyond Contact, Integrative Somatic Arts), Ruth Zapora (Action Theater), Julyen Hamilton (Theatre Works, The Supported Body), Annamari Keskinen & Ryan Mason (Thar Be Dragons), Julian Barnett (Personal Poetics), Amy Rogg (Underbelly), and Tina Afiya-Breiova (Axis of Action). I will reference these incredible people in the moments I share learnings related to their practices!

Participants describe my facilitation style as… immersive, action-packed yet surprisingly spacious in feeling, oriented towards embodied practice and self-discovery, clear brief and inspiring in demonstrations, imaginative or inspired by metaphor and imagery, enlivened and grounded, high-permission and welcoming of being as we are now. If there's anything you'd like to share or ask, please contact me below!

CI experience: this workshop is for dancers of CI - and all movers comfortable with physical listening and moving in contact at the speed of their partner's attention! This workshop is focused on improvised movement in relationship, and designed so that all exercises are accessible with mild to no weight-sharing. Those who want to include more weight-sharing will be welcomed to partner together. *the phrase "at the speed of you partner's attention" is one of many I adopted from Nita Little.

Activities: We’ll dance in solo, duet, trio, group, and with the whole room, attuning in the space in between, with options for physical contact and weight-sharing. We’ll dance nearly the whole time, with space to integrate and share discoveries. Fully facilitated, all improvised movement & spacious for personal choice.

Venue floors: as a heads up, the studio floors are squishy, which is great for knees and rolling and resting, and not great for sliding. Preferred ways of dancing together with these floors will be part of our discovery!

Poster photo: Thank you to Carlos Collado for this photo of me at b12 dance research festival in Berlin.

Thank you to brightswitch for the momentum to facilitate at this particular time and place :) Calendar for CI events in LA: bit.ly/la-ci