Upcoming Seattle Contact Improv Events | July/August 2016

Photo by Jim Coleman

Contact improv and related events in and near Seattle. Follow the links for more info. I add events as I find out about them, so check back. 

Sundays 
Weekly contact improvisation and open movement jam

Special July Jam Location and Time:
1-3pm every Sunday in July at 7 Star Women's Kung Fu. (525 21st Ave in Central District.)
 
August jam (after SFDI) returns to
2-4:30 pm in the Founders Studio at Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

Third Tuesdays
Inclusion Jam 7:45-10pm at Balance Studio. Information: noamgaster@gmail.com.

July 9
Underscore
3-6pm at V2 (1525 11th Ave). No talk through in July. Dancing starts at 3. Plan to arrive on time and stay until the end. For more information, contact Katherine Cook at cook.katherine@gmail.com.

Underscore will be second Saturday for the rest of 2016. Talk through some months and not other months. Check the Facebook group or email Katherine.

July 23
Frameworks for Connection Workshop: Playing with Space and Touch in Improvisation
With Kurt Koegel
Saturday 2 - 6 pm
Seven Star Women’s Kung Fu
525 21st Ave; Capital Hill, Seattle
$30 - $50 Sliding Scale

The theme of this workshop is nurturing a greater sense of personal choice and fulfillment in improvisational dance.

We will focus on three skills useful for contact jams, ecstatic dance, fusion, or other improvisation events. We will finish with our own jam full of yummy dancing!

• Working solo and connecting to the dance through Spatial Choices.
• Using Light Touch as a way of Listening and Building Trust. Specific ways to communicate and feel comfortable with Light Touch.
• Signaling Invitation and Boundary: Specific tools and strategies for conveying consent, one’s “ok-ness with what is - and wishing more”, or conversely, “this is too much, too fast - I’m just not comfortable.” 

More information at http://www.kurtkoegel.org.

July 28
OM Culture Movement Jam and Synthesis dance
6:45pm - 2am

July 31 - August 7 
Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation at Velocity Dance Center. Lots of classes, jams, and performances, including a contact improv intensive with Stephanie Nugent.

August 7 - 27
Dance Camp Northwest

Summer 2016
Leviathan Studio on Lasqueti Island, Canada, is offering a series of contact improv workshops.

Olympia Contact Improvisation Workshop With Martin Keogh

From Martin's Seattle Workshop April 2014.
Photo by Carol Wiley

Saturday and Sunday
January 10 and 11, 2015
From 1 to 5 PM each day
Sliding scale: $95 - $185

Martin Keogh (from whom I have take multiple workshops and who I highly recommend) will teach an all-level workshop that starts with the fundamentals of Contact Improvisation: 

• the contact point, 
• weight sharing, 
• pathways into the floor and into the air, and 
• finding the root of levity. 

There will be special emphasis on releasing the neck and pelvis and surprising yourself in flight and extended follow-through.

Complete information on the Facebook page or email Rudra at ranvari0 (at) gmail.com.

For more about Martin, visit his website. 
 

Registration Open for 18th Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation
18th annual SFDI! July 31-August 7, 2011

CLASSES . PERFORMANCES . JAMS . DISCUSSIONS

Intensives with Barbara Dilley (CO), DD Dorvillier (NY),
Benno Voorham (Sweden)
Somatic Intensive with Susan Bauer (CA)

Classes with Corrie Befort/Beth Graczyk (WA), Sheri Brown (WA), Scott Davis (WA), Vanessa DeWolf (WA), John Dixon (NC), Cyrus Khambatta (WA),
Jody Kuehner/Ricki Mason (WA), Tonya Lockyer (WA), Amy O'Neal (WA),
Lionel Popkin (CA), Stephanie Skura (WA), Eric Spivack (WA), Carolyn Stuart (OR), Tamin Totzke (MN), Nala Walla (WA) & Andrew Wass (CA/Berlin).

Get all the details and register at Dance Art Group

THE SOMATICS OF CONNECTION: Fundamentals of Contact Improvisation

A Weekend PLAYshop with Nala Walla
so•ma•tic (soh•mah•tick) adj. Of or pertaining to the psycho-biological system [from Greek SOMA: "the living body in its wholeness."]

As the pace of techno-industrial society races ever faster, the needs our bodies are often overlooked, creating disconnection from our own flesh and from our communities. This class reaffirms both our basic rights and our innate capacities to feel our bodies deeply. Through a series of simple exercises and games, we will focus on the sensations of healing connection offered by partnering with breath, with gravity, with earth, and with others.

A deep exploration of fundamentals makes this class suitable for both first-timers seeking basic skills in contact dance, and experienced practitioners seeking to deepen their practice, as well as anyone seeking to feel more "in their body."

Please bring comfortable clothing (no sharp buckles, clasps, zippers or spangles) and a willingness to play.

Somatics of Connection: Fundamentals of Contact Improvisation
Weekend PLAYshop
October 2-3, 2010
Saturday 12-3, Sunday 12-3
LOCATION: Madrona Mindbody Institute, Port Townsend, WA
COST: Sliding scale $85 - $65 for weekend--trades are available (arrange with Nala)
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: by September 20th at Madrona Mindbody Institute

Contact Improvisation Workshop - Nov 6-8

Contact Improvisation Workshop with
internationally-renowned teachers
Eckhard Müller & Daniela Schwartz

SETTLING INTO THE CONSTANT ACT OF CHANGE
a workshop for experienced Contact Improvisors

November 6-8, 2009
Friday 6-9pm :: Saturday & Sunday Noon-5pm
University of Washington Dance Program, Meany Hall Studio 267
Sliding scale $160–180 if paid in full by October 30, 2009. After 10/30/09, $185–205 if space is available.

Info/registration: Dance Art Group

::

Engaging us at a body/mind level, this workshop invites us to embrace the unexpected with comfort and acceptance in order to inhabit our body in the present moment, allowing the movement flow to emerge from the dance as we let it take us into the three-dimensionality of space. We will develop the relationship to the ground revealing the strength and possibilities of our structure as we increase a feeling of lightness and freedom and train our ability to modulate the tone of our body as a response to the momentary needs of the dance. For dancers with at least three years' CI experience.

::

Eckhard Müller fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 1988. He has collaborated with many improvisers in research and performance groups to develop his understanding of “instant composition” as an art form. He has been teaching CI since 1994 to theatres, dance companies, schools and dance centers worldwide. As a dancer he has worked for choreographers Mark Tompkins, David Zambrano and others. He is co-founder of the dance theatre company Dégadézo in Strasbourg, France, using improvisation to create set pieces. Eckhard has been active in building “contact communities” in Freiburg and Strasbourg, and supporting others all over the world. He is co-founder of the contactfestival freiburg, a major CI event. In 2006 he developed SKIN, an interdisciplinary and interactive performance project occurring in Germany, Argentina, France, Uruguay and Switzerland, in collaboration with Daniela Schwartz.

Daniela Schwartz (Argentina/France) has been a dancer, performer and teacher of Contact Improvisation and Instant Composition since 1998. She graduated in Fine Arts from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, and has taught with Eckhard Müller to diverse companies, festivals and institutions in South America and beyond. She has created several works as a member of the dance theater Cie Dégadézo, and has taught at Theater Pôle Sud, Ecole Municipale de Danse, Theatre National, and CIRA in Strasbourg. Years of fine art studies, video creation, installations, performances and the artistic aspects of the body inform her physical practice and intellectual research.

Contact FUNdamentals Workshop April 4-5

Contact FUNdamentals Workshop
Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask
Sat / Sun April 4th & 5th

Co-facilitated by Cyrus Khambatta and Michal Lahav


Cost: $80-$140 sliding scale if check received by March 25, $90-$150 afterwards.
Single day $50-$80 sliding scale.

Send check made out to The Phffft! Company
mail to 5609 34th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126.
For more info, email cyrus@PHFFFT.org

Deepen your understanding of essential movement principles —
weight sharing, rolling, falling, balancing, and spiraling. We
begin to engage, explore and integrate the world of contact dance
using fun, enriching and satisfying exercises that are simple and accessible
to beginner/intermediate students. Your questions will help
form the class so feel free to write them and email them to us
or bring them with you.

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.

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

December Contact Improvisation Workshop

SNOW CHANGE: Workshop rescheduled to January 10-11, 2009.

CONTACT IMPROVISATION Holiday Workshop

Back to basics: How soft and receptive can the body be and still maintain structure.

Taught by Cyrus Khambatta

Sat. & Sun. Dec. 20-21, 2008

Workshop 12 - 4pm (both days)

Jam afterwards 4pm on (both days)

at Grassroots Studio in West Seattle

Deepen understanding of where and how the body can soften. Play with the essentials: weight sharing, rolling, falling, balancing, and spiraling — engage your inner and outer world of contact. Ease into the holidays with better body awareness.

Cost: $80-$120 sliding scale if check received by Dec. 15th, $90-$130 afterwards. Single day $50-$70 sliding scale before Dec. 15, $55-$75 afterwards.

Make check out to The Phffft! Company and mail to 5609 34th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126 or call for credit card payment options.

Phone: 206.935.0459

Cyrus Khambatta
Artistic Director
The Phffft! Dance Theatre Company