International Contact Dance Film Festival
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

What is The International Contact Dance Film Festival?
The International Contact Dance Film Festival is produced by REAson d’etre dance productions. The festivals mandate is to provide a venue for contact dance films. The Inaugural International Contact Dance Film Festival will premiere in the Spring of 2013 in Toronto.

FILM SUBMISSIONS
Submission deadline:
Must be post marked by July 31, 2012. Submissions in advance of the deadline are welcome.

Submission requirements:
We are looking for dance films that include momentum-based and dance/partnering techniques. Momentum based dance/partnering methods include contact dance and affiliated methods such as Axis Syllabus or the Kaeja approach. Choreography in the dance film can be set or created in the moment (i.e. improvised). Dance films can be in the genre of narrative story, theme oriented, abstract or documentary and must be sixty minutes or less. There are no limitations on productions date. All rights to the films must be held by the person or organization. submitting.

Film submission details:
Download at www.reasondetre.com

In these classes I would like to use the diversity of the body as field of research and inspiration. My focus lies in different aspects, but Iam also open for wishes: BMC as entry and Inspiration for the contact-impro, technical skills, performativity versus/=wellbeing

single class: 11 €

Start 13.1.2011 Friday 18h30- 20 Uhr Phynix tanzt

This class is for people, who want to deepen their knowledge in Contact Improvisation and who have an interest to explore their dance abilities and their own dance.

I like to work with bodywork and movement explorations of our human anatomy. A body offers an interesting field of research. We don´t just find interesting impulses for our dance, but widen our dance technicals skills. I learned this approach from Body-Mind Centering, an experimentals method to bring body and mind into relationship and into dialog. I am interested in connecting this approach with Contact Skills and dancetechnique.

I invite you in this course to work on your dance expression, your dance abilities, your contact skills and group improvisation.

This course is before the Südstern Jam, so that you have the possibility to try out the experienced things and develop them further.

The class starts on the 13.1 until 30.3.2012 I would like to work with a fixed core, so that we can grow together, but also to be open to visitors.

Ort: PHYNIXtanzt Hasenhe ide 54 – 10967 Berlin | Südsternhöfe | 2-3 Hof – 3. Etage | U7 Südstern

The warm water invites you to let go and to experiment an organic and fluid way of moving. You learn how to play with its resistance and dynamic, how to transition between following the waves and making soft and clear propositions. You go into aquatic and subaquatic explorations, experience effortless breathing and play with the balance between weight and weightlessness. On land you also learn how to let yourself fall, how to stay in graceful flow or dynamic stillness, falling into motion.

The transition on the floor will let you experience the fluidity connected to gravity and gives you the chance to deal with the natural force of water and earth.

200 / 220 Frs.
see www.earthandwaterdance.com/earth-and-waterdance-ci-in-water.html for the english description and http://www.earthandwaterdance.com/contatto-improvvisazione-in-acqua.html for details about the workshop in Italy
Teaching Manou Blanchard (CI, WATSU, waterdance)
In Torino (Italy) & Bern (Switzerland)
Organizer: Vietti Andrea, Torino
mail: andreavietti@libero.it,
phone: (+39)3398045174

ContacTango
with Leilani Weis

Tango and Contact Improvisation are two forms of improvisation that have many points in common, but also different points of views. The one supports the other in a creative and technical process.

Technically we will work on the musicality, the axes and the walking as fundamentals for recognizing the Tango. The structure of the body as support, the relationship with the gravity and the awareness of the own center and the others, opening the spherical possibilities of movement as fundamentals from Contact Improvisation.

The creative process will look for its source in the highly sensual and poetic images from Tango and the less commons, but not less poetical images from Contac.
Thru the lessening we will create this dialog fully of play, music and images.

Leilani Weis. Chile/Italy. Teaches Contact Improvisation and Tango and researches and creates movement performance pieces. She is devoloping and researching Contactango Technical fundaments. Weis organizes LunatiContact events and is co-founder and art director of Central de Movimiento Company. She has taught and performed in Latin America, USA and across Europe. She is engaged in an ongoing learning experience through the fundamentals of Contact Improvisation.

[ITA]

ContacTango Workshop
con Leilani Weis

Il Tango e la Contact Improvisation sono due forme di improvvisazione che hanno tanti punti in comune, ma anche tante differenze; l’una può quindi nutrire l’altra in un processo tecnico e creativo.
Lavorando su entrambi costruiremo un linguaggio libero, chiaro e poetico nella sua espressione.

La parte tecnica lavorerà sulla musicalità e la camminata come parti fondamentali per riconoscere il Tango. La struttura come sostegno, la relazione con la gravità, tanto nella verticalità come fuori da questa, nell’inerzia, nella consapevoleza del propio centro e dell’altro, aprendo la possibilità sferica del movimento cosi fondamentale nella Contact.

La parte creativa si nutrirà delle immagini comuni risvegliate dal Tango e le comuni proposte dalla Contact Improvisation.
Particolarmente importante sarà l’ascolto, come parte fondamentale per un dialogo che in questa forma è insantaneo e fortemente poetico.

Leilani Weis(Cile/Italia)

Insegna, sperimenta e danza performance di Contact Improvisation e Tango. Si dedica allo sviluppo e alla ricerca dei fondamenti della tecnica ContacTango. Weis organizza gli eventi di LunatiContact ed è la co- fondatrice e direttrice artistica della compagnia Central de Movimiento. Ha insegnato e partecipato a progetti coreografici in America Latina, Usa e attraverso l’Europa. E’ tutt’oggi ancora impegnata nella crescente esperienza di apprendimento attraverso i fondamenti del Contact Improvisation.

Contact Improv Dance Workshops:Sunday Workshops from 2-6pm

*Intermediate/Advanced
Feb 12, 2012 – Timing for flight
April 15, 2012 – Trios in Motion

All Levels
April 1, 2012 – Duets within Ensemble
June 10, 2012 – Momentum and Direction

We will research how directing our movement and thoughts can guide us towards greater ease and options in partnering. The Contact Improv skills taught in the workshops will include both softer rolling points and dynamic lifts. Exercises will guide you to access your core-support, spiral, and multi-dimensionality. We will learn to listen and respond in the moment to ourselves, partner/s and the space around us. The exercises taught are informed by the Alexander Technique principles of whole body integration and freeing patterns of tension to find more effortless and efficient partnering.

The workshops will be taught using a student-centered research approach, where you will have opportunities to direct the learning and sometimes will be called on to take roles of leadership and facilitation.
-————————————————————————————-

Spontaneous Composition: Improv Ensemble Dance Workshops

Sunday Workshops from 2-6pm
April 1 – Duets within Ensemble
May 13 – Habits & Choices
June 17 – “Ready for anything, prepared for nothing” (F.M. Alexander)

We will draw from insights of the natural world to deepen our research in group improvisation. Drawing from nature we will uncover our instincts to respond to others, to our own emotions and body, and to the environment around us. Scores will be taught to develop awareness of the choices available to us on how, when, and in what way to respond with our whole self. How our choices affect others, ourselves and the environment will be explored. Be ready for anything!

We will create movement as a group in the moment, exploring physical, spatial, emotional, rhythmical, and vocal scores. Solos, duets, and trios will be framed within the ensemble. Movement exercises will be taught to engage your imagination and will draw upon your body and mind as inspiration to dance. The exercises will awaken your spatial perception while deepening your connection with yourself in relation to others.

The workshops will be taught using a student-centered research approach, where you will have opportunities to direct the learning and sometimes will be called on to take roles of leadership and facilitation.

The last half hour of each workshop will be open for the public to witness and view our process.

*Int/Adv: Intermediate to advanced level (min. one year of regular CI practice or equivalent).

No-drop ins. Pre-registration required.

Suzanne Liska is a dance artist and teacher and Co-Artistic Director of Flightworks with Diana Groenendijk. She is also the co-founder of the aLOFT Project, a Toronto Improv performance ensemble with guest dancers from Canada, USA, and Europe. As a company dancer for Kathleen Rea’s REAson d’etre Dance Productions, Suzanne danced in the three times Dora Award nominated “Long Live” and most recently in June 2011, for “Vivid 4”. Suzanne has danced in film for Karen Kaeja’s “Mika’s Alley” which screened at the American Dance Festival. She has also danced for choreographers Sue Lee and Pam Johnson and has performed at Dusk Dances, Dance Matters, Art Whispers, DARK, and Harbourfront Centre, as well as many other venues and festivals. Suzanne teaches professional dancers, actors, high school and elementary school students, and community dancers. Her teaching is informed by studies with Pam Johnson, Nina Martin, “Viewpoints” approaches, and the Alexander Technique. Suzanne is currently a faculty teacher at the Randolph Academy for Performing Arts.

Andrew Harwood will conduct a full-weekend CI workshop in the Washington, DC area on the weekend of February 18 and 19, 2012. Join us for two full days of concentrated CI study with a master!

The workshop is designed for more advanced contact improvisers.

INTERNATIONAL CONTACT IMPROVISATION TEACHERS MEETING IN LATIN AMERICA, addressed to Contact Improvisation teachers and experienced practitioners committed in the practice of transmission.

The Axis Syllabus is a bridge discipline that amalgamates up-to-date, pertinent information from a host of sciences and proposes a teaching and studying methodology for the transmission of this information. Detailed anatomical and bio-mechanical information can serve to create a sophisticated and respectful link between our fantasy and the quantum reality experienced by our cells. However, because information transmission has high priority, the AS also draws from sciences such as sociology, psychology, and pedagogy, which together inform an effective and ethical mode for teaching and learning. The Axis Syllabus provides a technical framework for the artistic exploration and expression of feelings, including our senses and perceptions.

Contact Improvisation – Prediction and Response
Techniques for safe, enjoyable and creative partnering. Understanding what might happen through what happened, we might better be able to adapt and benefit from arising opportunities in an improvisation. In this class we will work on strategies and tactics that establish safe boundaries for self-expression in an improvised dance for two or more.

saturday 25th
h 14 – 17 AXIS SYLLABUS
h 18 – 20 CONTACT IMPROVVISATION

sunday 26th
h 10 – 13 AXIS SYLLABUS
h 14 – 16 CONTACT IMPROVVISATION

nearby STUDIODANZA Via Jesi 65 – ANCONA – italy

Times: Friday 2nd 7-10pm, Saturday 3rd 11am-5pm then 7-10pm, Sunday 4th 11am-6pm

Teachers: Janis Claxton (Sunday), Malaika Sarco-Thomas (Saturday), Jamus Wood (Friday night)

A weekend dedicated to contact improvisation. The afternoon and evenings will include a warm up into jamming. Live musicians will be playing at some of the jams.

Janis Claxton
No Mystery, Just Dancing – push pull pleasure and play

Janis’ class will be aimed at warming us up for a day of fun and juicy dancing. We will explore simple and clearly defined skills that bring us in and out of contact. Be prepared to sweat, explore and expand your dancing through grounded and practical skills that entice play, pleasure and the presence of being in contact with ourselves, others and the space.

Janis Claxton (UK/Aus) is a choreographer, teacher and performer based in Edinburgh. Artistic Director of the award winning company Janis Claxton Dance, she is an internationally renowned and prolific teacher with over 30 years of experience in professional, educational and community settings. As well as Contact Improvisation Janis’ influences include the Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique, Martial Arts and Alexander Technique. An avid movement researcher, she has practiced Contact Improvisation for over 20 years having studied, taught and performed the form in numerous settings and all of her teaching and choreographic works have been informed by this experience. Janis has choreographed for companies and independent dance artists in the UK and China where she has worked extensively on numerous projects including introducing Contact Improvisation to Chinese professional and community dancers. Janis Claxton Dance make work for theatre spaces as well as unique site-specific settings such as the Edinburgh Zoo which housed the Herald Angel Award winning Enclosure 44 – Humans a two week improvised performance. Janis is currently undertaking part-time studies towards a Masters in Philosophy (Choreography) at the Edinburgh University. www.janisclaxton.com

Malaika Sarco-Thomas
Up, Down, Up!

This class will focus on finding direction, weightlessness, power and a touch of cheekiness when improvising in contact. Using listening and good-natured resistance as well as principles from Ki Aikido practice we will play with the complementary forces of up and down to wrestle, bowl, and fly each other through the space. This is a class suitable to all levels of experience.
Malaika Sarco-Thomas is a performer, researcher and teacher of improvisation. Originally from the USA, her practice is informed by teachers such as Kirstie Simson, Charlie Morrissey, David Zambrano and an ongoing study of Ki Aikido. After training at PARTS in Brussels and recently completing her PhD thesis Dance Improvisation Performance as a Practice of Ecology she became Award Leader for Dance at University College Falmouth incorporating Dartington College of Arts. With Richard Sarco-Thomas she co-organizes weekly contact jams at Tremough Campus and the annual Contact Festival Dartington.

Welcome to the first Contact Improvisation and CI-in-Water Festival on Koh Chang island in Thailand!
Welcome to a deep dive into your body experience!
http://ci-thai.com/en

3-11 March 2012
In the program:
Contact Improvisation in water – intensive workshop with Manuela Blanchard Russi (Swizterland),
Contact Improvisation on the land – intensive with Sasha Bezrodnova, Masha Grudskaya and Nastya Saevich (Russia),
Jams every day,
Authentic movement, art- and performance jams…
And also… swimming in the cleanest sea, kayak trips, elephant rides, traveling to beautiful islands of the area, and much more!

Warm water allows to find full relaxation and flowing quality in the body. We will practice easy, light, fluid, natural movement in our dance. Yielding and letting go gives chance to connect with inner depth, to live, breathe and manifest oneself naturally. This is an invitation to travel inside and outside at the same time, developing contact with oneself and with the world.

REGISTRATION is opened!
Register on the website http://ci-thai.com/en !!!

You can contact us at ci.tailand@gmail.com
or personally:
Masha mariagruds@gmail.com
Sasha sashaffect@gmail.com

Workshop with Danya Elraz
 This workshop touches upon a wide range of materials- from the technical to the emotional work of Contact Improvisation. Moving between dancing in solo and duet, we will experience various states of mind in the dance. When is our focus on ourselves? when is it on the other? What is a duet? Do we really dance together?
We will try and find our internal motivation for movement, our solo within a duet, our duet in a solo, sometimes using technique oriented exercises, and sometimes more theatrical emotional work. We will try to experience how the principles of CI can be used in solo dancing, and how our solo quality can smoothly change into a duet. Suitable for experienced dancers as well.

Weekend Contact Jam in Burlington Vermont

Friday: 7 – 11 pm
Saturday: 9:30 am – Midnight
Sunday: 9:30 am – 2:30 pm

Housing by local dancers.

Food and Snacks Included.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Light falls
As easily as the Light falls into your eyes,
Weight falls through you.
Weight is not a thing, it’s a force with the direction. 
We can guide that direction. 
We move inside of network of forces and direction. 
We are a force, direction to be determined. 
To follow or to lead? What do you follow? Where do you lead?
What if I just let things happen? 
To let is not to be mindless.
To let is not to be passive.
How can I let this moment happen as it is?

Contact improvisation.
If I would say that this is not a basic course, I would lie.
Everything is always basic. It’s the depth of sensation that takes you further.
If I would say this is a basic course, I would lie as well.
We are going to do some really simple contact improvisation.
Moving alone and together, concentrating how do I sense the the forces around me. And I’m talking about physics.

May 17th – 20th, 2012
One of the most beautiful summer resorts on the Adriatic Sea is waiting for you! Sea, sun, nature, poetry and a lot of dance are the ingredients that make up this fantastic Jam at its 8^ edition! Forget stress and traffic: here you will ride a bicycle or walk to get to the different sites!! Children are welcome!
Location: Lignano Sabbiadoro – www.lignano.it

Nearest areoport: Venezia Marco Polo or Treviso if you travel Ryanair. Nearest train station Latisana (on the Venice-Trieste line).

Moab Workshop: May 23-24, 2012 — with Karen Nelson
Moab Jam: May 24-28, 2012

Website: www.MoabJam.com

Karen Nelson Workshop description: Contact Improvisation is a moving, “meditation in action” form of dance. Movers focus on direct experience of the physical forces we relate to as humans on earth: gravity, momentum, kinesthesia, the stuff of physics. In this workshop we will review some essential images of Contact, such as the small dance of skeletal balance as introduced by Steve Paxton. We will practice various rolls and puzzles and embody these navigation tools to enhance our solo and partner dancing. We will study some practical safety movements to help our muscle memory kick-in when we need it— during complex partnering that occurs in a freely improvised contact duet.

Jam description: The Moab Jam features rich dancing, creative friends, beautiful surroundings, and opportunities to explore both on and off the dance floor. Being under the wide-open desert sky surrounded by colorful landscape fills one with the spirit to move and create. We invite you to come join us and experience the magic of dancing in the desert. We create a friendly and supportive environment where you can enjoy the Jam that you want — whether it’s dancing non-stop, spending time with new and old friends, or taking lots of time to nourish yourself with the solitude of nature. Jam hosts lend their inspiring presence to the jam, and part of their role is to circulate and “juice-up” the dancing spaces. They lead warm-ups, facilitate mixers, guide afternoon classes or labs, provide feedback/coaching, and offer one-to-one sessions.

5 days workshop, 6 nights camping, gourmet meals included.

GoTo website for more details

Workshop and jam with Eryn Dace Trudell and Yves Candau. Go to website for more details

Come for 6 nights camping and 5 day workshop with evening jams, classes conducted by Stu Phillips, Aug12-18. This is the second annual event with Stu and presumably we will be doing this for years to come.

Workshop tuition, gourmet meals, camping, wood-fired sauna and transportation on Lasqueti, $375 work-study and scholarship available.

”What It Is”, an Exploration of Intense Improvisational Contact Dance, Disintegrating the gap between where one really is and where one wants to be, closing that relationship completely, Tuning Our Minds to our Physical and Emotional Bodies Completely, to where they are in each moment, and physically expressing from there in relationship. This workshop enables dancers to be and learn from where they are, with full acceptance, allowance and manifestation.

2 Daily classes consist of methods of being, particularly with self, and extending those out when “interacting” with others, by deconstructing, undermining and bypassing easily our usual or known mental and physical patterns, and allowing our true/real raw emotional energy to transform our dance movement, as well as ourselves, through behaviorally articulating who we are in aligning with how we are, perfectly.

Stu Phillips is a Professional Contact Improvisational Dance Performer and Teacher of 25 years, teaching and performing throughout the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, also teaching and performing Improvisational Dance and Theater for 30 years throughout US. The focus is full expression, tuning to emotional and energetic reality constantly in personal flows, portraying that onto students with gentle psychic sensitivity.

We invite you to develop and nourish your dance in a week long Intensive Workshop of Contact + Improvisation in the wonderful location of ARLEQUI, SP. A large farmhouse built in the 17 century situated between fields and forest.

ENTRSPACIOS
INTENSIVE WORKSHOP
CONTACT + IMPROVISATION

Eckhard Mueller (Germany/France) + Daniela Schwartz (Argentina/France)

This workshop of CONTACT + IMPROVISATION proposes a time of investigation and dance in the intimacy of a studio, as well as the exploration of the environment, outdoors. A proposal to deepen your experience of CI as you are confronted to the visual, sound, architectural and sensory impressions, to observe your ability to remain open for the richness of internal and external drives. The integration of both experiences will support you accessing a fully embodied dance.

All levels WS, address to: dancers, actors, artists, musicians, or any person with interest in the movement arts with some previous experience in dance, movement, martial arts, yoga, etc.