Contact Improvisation with Gretchen Spiro and Steve Homsher - Jan. 31 - Feb. 1

CONTACT IMPROVISATION: Reaching into Flight
with Gretchen Spiro and Steve Homsher (CO)
Sat. Jan. 31/Sun. Feb. 1
1-5pm (both days)

Develop key principles of flight:
Extension
Timing
Leading/trailing
Dynamic support
Harnessing momentum

The two day workshop will explore the space where physical practice meets poetic states. Gretchen and Steve will focus on cultivating effortless flight and support while broadening the palette of creative expression grounded in the body.

Gretchen Spiro comes to Contact Improvisation with 25 years of experience. Her CI teaching is informed by 18 years of yoga teaching and practice, her training as a Dance/Movement therapist, and work as a Gyrotonic trainer. She is the founder of Tumblebones Contact Improvisation Collective, based in Boulder, CO. Her teaching is rich with metaphor, humor, and fiery enthusiasm.

Steve Homsher is an avid CI teacher and performer, and dances with Tumblebones CI Collective. Steve studied martial arts (Kendo) for 10 years, gymnastics, mime, ballet, and performed aerial dance for 6 years. In addition to a day job as a carpenter, Steve is a professional visual artist. Steve teaches with clarity, precision, and passion for cultivating efficient strength and effortless release.

Cost: $85-$120, sliding scale if paid by January 25, 2009; $95-$130 afterwards. Please write checks to Phffft! Company, Inc. and mail to 609 34th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126. To pay by credit card, email for directions

Question? E-mail contact Cyrus Khambatta or call 206.935.0459.

Feldenkrais Workshop with Sheri Cohen - Feb. 8

Sensation and Imagination with the Feldenkrais Method®
With Sheri Cohen, Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner
Sunday, February 8, 2009 1:00-4:00pm $60

At: Creative Dance Center
12577 Densmore Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98133
206 363-7281
Registration and info on all upcoming workshops at www.creativedance.org.

What makes us feel creative? How do we get into that "flow" we experience when we're feeling playful, productive, and free? In this workshop we'll develop tools for awakening and deepening our imaginative processes-tools that can be applied to any creative discipline. We'll wade into the sea of our bodily sensations through the Feldenkrais Method®, and observe as "images" come to the surface while we playfully cycle through moving, drawing, writing, and observing, and then moving again.

Sheri Cohen, GCFP, is an award-winning choreographer who has taught adults and children at Cornish College of the Arts, Oberlin College, Evergreen University, Rainier Valley Coop Preschool, Lotus Yoga, and in many grassroots-organized workshops in the US and Europe. Sheri is an inspiring and inclusive teacher; she is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, a hatha yoga teacher, and a mom.

Contact Improvisation Workshop with Ethan Hickman - Feb 7, 2009

Effortless Dancing
A Contact Improvisation Workshop with Ethan Hickman

Where: Grassroots Studio - 5609 34th Ave. SW (Please park on 35th Ave. Approach house from the front and follow path around to studio in the backyard.)

When: Saturday, February 7th, 10am - 4pm

Cost: $50

In this workshop we will cultivate our internal sensation, rhythm, and spatial awareness through a balance of solo, partnered, and group explorations. We will play with the speed and size of our dance, utilizing the principle of "go slow to go fast.

Come discover how reducing effort and focusing on precision can lead to more freedom, ease, and pleasure in your dancing.

Open to all levels.

Pre-registration suggested. Contact Ethan at 206.239.8403 or e-mail Ethan.

Ethan Hickman enjoys continuously playing with the possibilities of gravity. He approaches contact improvisation both as a means for self-discovery and as an art form with endless potential for refinement. Ethan's approach to learning is guided both by his recent work with the Wilderness Awareness School, and by his ongoing training in the Feldenkrais Method(cm) of Somatic Education.

Weekly FELDENKRAIS with Lila Hurwitz

Gain immediate improvement in posture, breathing, chronic pain, and flexibility; increase your self-awareness as you move throughout the world.

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD® of
NEUROMUSCULAR RE-EDUCATION
Weekly Class with Lila Hurwitz

Learn to move with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. Know yourself and be your best.

THURSDAYS, 6:00-7:00pm
Studio-Current, 1417 Tenth Ave #C (between Pike & Union on Capitol Hill; look for the Sweatbox Yoga signs)
$12; $110/10-class card
Begins February 5

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The Feldenkrais Method is a subtle and powerful system of neuromuscular re-patterning that evokes changes in muscular tone, range of motion, coordination, attention, and the comfort and efficiency of movement. These Awareness Through Movement® lessons will help you recognize habitual movement patterns and discover more comfortable ways to move.

Beyond its applications to physical improvement, Feldenkrais is a fascinating and sophisticated method of developing your skills of attention and self-awareness, directly affecting and benefiting your everyday sense of self in choice-making, interactions and potential.

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Open to all movement abilities and skill levels, from super-jocks to couch potatoes. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes.

Lila Hurwitz, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner(sm), has been studying movement and dance for over 38 years and teaching since 1987.

For more info:
206.650.3305 . E-mail Lila.
www.feldenkraisteachersinseattle.com

Seattle Contact Improv Workshop with Karl Frost

The Human Contact Project
with Karl Frost
director of Body Research

Seattle, WA
February 28 - March 1, weekend workshop
March 2-4, extended workshop moving into performance research

The Human Contact Project explores the improvisational play of human contact, developing deeper sensitivities to physical detail and a sense of the poetic play of human encounter.

We look afresh at the art of contact improvisation, asking what is happening in a moment, what are the physical possibilities open to us, and what is the feeling that drives us.

We increase moment-to-moment functional awareness through tuning into proprioception - our physical experience of the body - allowing for greater ease, speed, and power. Through releasing patterns of hyper-control, we find dense, rich awareness of and participation in human interaction.

We look at our sense of meaning in movement… a sense of the poetics of interaction, whether in kinesthetics and physics or in the poetry of sensation, emotion, and experienced image.

We explore these through exercises and through an approach to the contact jam that actively invites in the sense of the collaborative poetic as well as layered awareness of self/other/group.

Fees: $150 - $250 sliding scale for the weekend and $300 - $500 for the Full 5 day workshop. Early registration discount for registration received by February 14 -- $120 for the weekend and $240 for the week.

To register, send deposit ($50 for the weekend/$75 for the 5 days) to Karl Frost 6547 Whitney St, Oakland, CA 94609 or paypal to info@bodyresearch.org

For more details, www.bodyresearch.org/humancontact