TEACHERS

It is with great enthusiasm that we introduce you to this great team of international teachers.

>>> INTENSIVES.

There will be two intensives happening simultaneously with a duration of 3 hours 30 minutes for five days.

K.J. HOLMES.

K.J. Holmes has been practicing Contact Improvisation as process and performance since 1981, studying with the early developers of the form including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Daniel Lepkoff. CI has deeply informed her journey as a dance artist as well as an actor, vocalist, writer and teacher.

An avid improviser and creator of solo/duo and ensemble work, she has also been very influenced by the Tuning Score of Lisa Nelson, Body Mind Centering ® and the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Ideokinesis with Andre Bernard, Meisner acting work with Terry Knickerbocker, voice and singing with Richard Armstrong, Barbara Maier Gustern and Samita Singha, among others. 

K.J. is a certified Yoga teacher through her studies with Sondra Loring as well as a certified Ayurvedic Holistic Health Counselor through her studies with Dr. Naina Marballi.

She teaches at NYU/Experimental Theatre Wing and Movement Research in NYC, as well as traveling nationally and internationally teaching, performing and creating. K.J. has performed most recently in the work of filmmaker/artist Matthew Barney, dancer/writer Karinne Keithley Seyers, music video of Mitski, as well as her own solo work 900 Bees are Humming. She is currently conducting  a new ensemble piece, blue print, with the mentorship of composer Henry Threadgill.
kjholmes.info

CONTACT R/EVOLUTION.
FACILITATED BY K.J. HOMES.

"Contact Improvisation, begun in 1972 by dancer Steve Paxton, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022.  In the spirit of celebration, this workshop intensive will go deep into the basic principles of the form, offering students the opportunity to enter the basic study of the physics and ecological forces two dancers experience as they move in relationship with each other through touch.  We will engage with the body as landscape and as a direct link to the environment. As we resume proximity once again, and continue to  release restrictions on intimacy and closeness, we will also continue to evolve this form into current renderings of trust and balance bringing forth qualities of mind/body/emotion to an individual yet shared dance of multidimensional truths. We will amplify the musicality of momentum and tones of listening to our, as Nancy Stark Smith has said, our “weight songs”.

This will be a very physical workshop and will challenge assumptions about the form itself to rediscover the improvising within the contact of now."

RAY CHUNG.

Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, engineer who has a passion for dancing which he likes to share with other people. His main focus is improvisation and he has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979 as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement. Ray has worked with the leading proponents of Contact Improvisation and regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists. Ray has also been certified as an instructor of shiatsu by the Shiatsu Education of America in 1982.  His work has been featured at numerous national and international festivals and venues.

RIDING THE CURVES OF SPACETIME: FALLING AND FLYING.
FACILITATED BY RAY CHUNG.

In physics, gravity can be seen as the curvature of space around massive objects, such as the earth. We evoke the image of riding these curves as a way of moving in the field of gravity, and playing in this field as a way to develop proficiency with the skills and approaches necessary for leaving the ground, moving through the air, and landing safely, in the context of Contact Improvisation (CI).
Focusing on essentials of grounding, centering, intention, and moving support, we'll move onto weight modulation, creating levity, precision in locating centers, developing the optimum tonus and alignment for sudden weight shifts, and more. The emphasis will be on creating pathways and opportunities to move out of the floor and into the air, or onto your partner, instead of lifting and carrying. Catching and jumping as a way to initiate contact, and creating continuity through supporting the movement rather than the weight of one’s partner, will be one of the practices. Playing on the edge of what is possible for each participant, we will challenge one's self to really "go for it" in aerial movement and landing/catching strategies and techniques. How do I use someone’s weight and movement in a way that creates more choices for both of us? We’ll practice integrating our centers with another’s seamlessly as well as awkwardly. Crashing and bumping safely will also be part of the vocabulary we will develop. Integration of these practices into dancing will also be included.  For all levels of experienced participants.

>>> CLASSES.

There will be two simultaneous classes with a duration of 2 hours 30 minutes for 4 days with four international teachers.

CONSUELO PACHECO.

Educator, Dancer, Somatic Researcher.

I am interested in the biological and cultural dimension that is intertwined within dance practice, and in the possibility of creating new perceptions and questions about ways of feeling and thinking about corporality. My experience in Dance begins in early childhood and has been cultivated over the last fifteen years through Improvisation, Instant Composition and Somatic Practices: Alexander Technique, Body Mind Centering, Contact Improvisation, Axis Syllabus.

In my constant curiosity about the living, I decided to delve into the somatic universe of the Alexander Technique and was funded by Fondart Nacional 2019 to study at the Certified School of Alexander Technique in Buenos Aires, with the aim of researching in more depth the phenomenology of contact. , movement and the body in Contemporary Dance and Improvisation.

I have taught at festivals and conducted laboratories in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Italy, Portugal, Moldova. In recent years I have learned from wonderful dance and improvisation teachers: Karen Nelson, Ray Chung, Kirstie Simson, KJ Holmes, Nora Hajos, Kira Kirsch, Alito Alessi, Frey Faust, Paula Zacharias, Carmen Beuchat, Lucia Walker, Daniel Lepkoff.

Since 2020 I have been living in Italy and coordinate, together with Leonardo Lambruschini, the Dance area at Spazio Seme - International Cultural Arts Center in Arezzo. In addition, I organize C.I. in Nature residencies/laboratories and co-direct the International Dance, Somatics and Performance Program “Moving Environment” in collaboration with Western Washington University (USA) and I am coordinator of the “Moving Presence” study program Practica e Body Mind Centering research with Nina Wehnert.

UNDERGROUND CONVERGENCE / SOMATIC APPROACHES TOWARDS IMPROVISATION CONTACT.
FACILITATES CONSUELO PACHECO.

Como la improvisación nos permite desarrollar la presencia de un paisaje interior, para dejarse aparecer donde convergen diferentes cuerpos?

¿Qué nos sucede y cómo se transforma nuestra danza en contacto con otros cuerpos?

En esta práctica, pondremos especial enfoque en la curiosidad, generosidad y escucha con la cual nos permitimos vivir la experiencia inmersiva de movimiento. Tendremos un espacio donde enseñarnos a nosotros mismos como expandirnos y dejarnos caer al espacio en plena confianza de ser sostenidos por un vacío fértil.  Tendremos tiempo para adentrarnos en los pequeños instantes que componen nuestra danza. A través del material sensible que propone el Contacto Improvisación y las prácticas somáticas, permitiremos ampliar la observación y contemplación de nuestro organismo en movimiento y en convergencia subterránea con otros cuerpos.

Bailar, es practicar la conciencia de tocar y ser tocados al mismo tiempo. De crear con nuestro movimiento, una realidad tangible y sensible.

El tacto como punto de origen de nuestra experiencia vital.
El tacto como ventana para el encuentro con otros cuerpos.
El tacto como RAIZ de la presencia.

ELENA LÓPEZ DE HARO.

Badajoz, 1970.

From a very young age I was involved in the sport world (high level competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics) and later, in Madrid, I combined my degree in Physical Education with my long standing interest in Contemporary Dance, by studying with Carmen Werner and other teachers, and working with the Madrid company “Aracaladanza”.

From there, my training was expanded through working with other professionals in various places on the peninsula, and in 2003, through participating in the Freiburg International CI Festival (Germany). This is when my interest in Contact Improvisation and Dance Improvisation germinated and I started to attend different courses and festivals in Europe and other countries. This meant I was able to learn from teachers like Jess Curtis, Kisrtie Simson, KJ Holmes, Gwen Welliver, Lisa Nelson, Nancy Stark, Jöerg Hassman, Deborah Hay, Julyen Hamilton, Eckard Müller, Daniela Schwartz, Mirva Mäkinem, Lucia Walker, Charlie Morrisey, Gustavo Lecce , Andrea Fernández, Ray Chung, Maya Carrol, Martin Keogh, among others. In recent times I have had the pleasure of studying Body Mind Centering with Patricia Gracia.

For more than 20 years, I have combined being a dancer and teacher at the Dance Experience Association in Badajoz, of which I am a co-founder. Some of my recent collaborative projects include a dance video with the visual artist Susan Pérez, research on the “body-movement-nature relationship” with the teacher and creator Paz Brozas, and a short documentary “The Rule of Three” directed by Carla Alonso.

http://experienciadanza.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/experiencia.danza/  
https://instantemovimiento.blogspot.com/ 

INSTANT MOVEMENT.
FACILITATED BY ELENA LÓPEZ DE HARO.

Several questions arise when I go to lead a CI session, or even when I join a jam: What can I, and do I want to share? What is the space and who are the people I am offering to? What do I know and can I share? Share? What do I not know and dare to share? Do I have pause/calm/patience when I move, am moved, or when I develop a proposal? Do I have movement in my thoughts when I am in a physical pause? And, most importantly, will I feel comfortable here? safe? lost at times? happy for what may arise, and surprised by opportunities to learn? I could continue with more questions because, in reality, they are the tools, the ledges I grasp to continue my exploration, my proposal, or my improvisation.

And I respond to all of this with: relax, begin to detach yourself from “yourself,” from your personal attributes. Begin to have the experience of a physical, sensitive body, sink into this experimentation and each of the interesting aspects that the game offers you. The contact, the communication with the other through sensory pathways, gravity and weight, impulse, imbalance and fall, flow and circularity, moving and being moved... these enquiries might lead to energetic dances, or subtly delicate dances, but always with presence and honesty.

Listening, desire, and also inhibition, will help me reach states of attention and alertness that allow my body to observe and resolve sometimes extreme situations. Instant decision-making emerges with great relevance and speed when I improvise, without judgement. Sensitive skin, alert and attentive mind, perceptions are expanded. The great dance begins, perception is already the dance.

JORDI RAMÓN.

Dancer and teacher with more than 20 years of experience. Initially trained at the Col·legi del Teatre and at Jessica Walker's Dramatic Body Expression Laboratory, in combination with many workshops in contemporary dance, contact improvisation, butoh, tango, shiatsu, meditation and other artistic and holistic disciplines. Co-creator of Orekan Gorputz Eskola in Euskal Herria (school of the body from 2005 to 2008), which is where I began to walk the path of CI. Organiser of the Cardedeu Contact Festival for 6 editions, Catalunya Camp i Eix Festival. Member for 12 years of As d'Arts Cardedeu, an association of performing artists, which organises festivals and workshops related to dance and improvisation.
Member and manager in the free education project Xantala, located in Barcelona. I teach my contact workshops from a perspective that prioritises autonomy, authenticity and self-regulation. Father of two girls, lovely teachers.

RADIATING DELIVERY.
FACILITATED BY JORDI RAMÓN.

When immersed in my dance, I travel through landscapes, emotions and feelings. They open up infinite possibilities to me at every moment. In this state of awareness I can feel the beauty of emptiness, the surrender to the present moment, placing myself at the service of the dance, impregnating the path with a presence that floods everything. Giving yourself is an act of generosity that puts me at risk. I crack, I get lost, I decompose and the forms appear superfluous without meaning. Through the crack that runs through my body I am able to let go of everything that appears authentic, to let go of everything that I don't need. Using this search as a starting point, I propose working on taking the risk of freeing ourselves from the structures and forms that disconnect us from dance. I propose to reconnect with the subtlety of dance and with the deep and intimate connection that is revealed in the encounter with other beings in space. Dance as an infinite game that is revitalised every time I can breathe and look beyond my projections, desires and limits.

LEONARDO LAMBRUSCHINI.

Performance artist and CI and ContaKids teacher and Artistic Director of Spazio Seme International Artistic Center, a place where we create opportunities to research, design, teach and manage festivals, intensive workshops, shows, artistic productions and international residencies. Contact, trust and movement are the central fulcrum around which I develop pedagogy and research, both for adults and children. Above all, trust in the present moment as a source of inspiration and meaning. I am attracted to places and contexts where various art forms meet, communicate and create something new, which transcends languages and differences. I teach CI for adults and university students, in Italy and abroad. I feel very attracted to nature and the expansive dimension of travel. I taught at festivals and carried out intensive workshops in India, France, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. I have been one of the organisers of ItalyContactFest for 12 years. Artistic Director of the International Dance and Music “Moving Environment” in collaboration with Southern Utah University (USA). Over the past 15 years I've participated in numerous performances with other artists, continuing my research on improvisation and instant composition, and produced theatre/dance shows/performances.

TO BE TRIO.
FACILITATED BY LEONARDO LAMBRUSCHINI.

We will set out an investigation on solo, duo, trio and group playing.  

We will explore different subjects in CI related to trio work.

We will learn how to play, land and fly with a partner and then how to do it with a trio and other group formations.

How are trios born? –  investigating creation of trios in the space- coming into and out of them, practicing readiness for engagement.

How we can constantly modulate tone, weight and volume, in a continuous alternation of states and relationships; how can we always be available to dance and what dance asks for moment to moment.

We will cultivate moments of uncertainty as a resource that will allow us to continue our journey, venturing between the "known" and the "unknown" through dance, in that zone where creativity resides. 

Determination and letting go, holding on and going with the flow, fullness and emptiness, proximity and distance, we will try to awaken to and integrate that into dance.

Through a conscious contact with the earth, we will bring our attention to a multidimensional space. 

How do I discover more courage and trust in the multidimensional space of the trio? And of the group?

Be prepared to pause, to get lost, to leave, to start something new.