Mixed Movement Arts with Dae Gallina

SEPTEMBER

Saturday, September 5 · SHIFT Studio, Wallingford

• Big Picture & Practical Practices Workshop (4:30–7:30pm) — $75 sliding scale $55–95. Register at https://mixedmovementarts.thrivecart.com/mmabigpicture/
  
  
• Enstatic Dance (7:45–9:30pm) — included free with workshop registration. Separate registration at https://mixedmovementarts.thrivecart.com/enstatic-sept-5/

Saturday, September 19 · SHIFT Studio, Wallingford

• Partnering Practice Workshop (4:30–7:30pm) — $75 sliding scale $55–95
  
  
• Contact Jam (7:30–10pm) — free for workshop attendees, $10–20 at door for others
  
  REGISTRATION

 

OCTOBER 

Weekly + Monthly Workshops

 

Wednesdays · 6:30–9:30pm · SHIFT Studio, Wallingford

• Dance Lab (6:30–7:30pm) — partnering practice, movement games, contact improv
• Enstatic Dance (7:45–9:30pm) — $20 sliding scale $13–27

Saturdays · Monthly Workshop Series · 4:30–7:30pm · SHIFT Studio, Wallingford

• October 3: NEUROFASCIAL RESET — $75 sliding scale $55–95
• October 10: MOBILITY PROJECT — $75 sliding scale $55–95
• October 17: SHAPESHIFTER — $75 sliding scale $55–95

REGISTRATION 

 

ONLINE

Check out Mixed Movement Arts Skool — all in-person workshops mirrored as recorded sessions, plus ongoing practice containers.

Everything I'm doing in person will have an online mirror, so whether you're local or anywhere else, there's a way in. 

Fall 2026 Classes with Karen Nelson

Improvisation Movement/Dance + Somatic Study with Karen Nelson

https://explomov.weebly.com/

Kerry Hall, Room 301, 710 E. Roy Street

(former site of Cornish College, lovely dance studio)

Correct DATES here

Sept.14, 21, 28*, Oct 5, focus CI + MFS

Oct 26, Nov 2, 9, Dec 14, 21, Tuning Scores

Jan 4,11, 25, Feb 1,8 Sensation + Design

*[note: Sept 28th space TBD]

2024 Contact Improv Workshops with Nita Little

Emergent Practices in Contact Improvisation 2024       

for Intermediate to Advanced CI dancers

with Nita Little

14 weeks/2 sessions         

Session 1: Jan 13 - Feb 24  

Session 2: Mar 2 - Apr 13 

SATURDAYS  10-12:30 at Open Flight Studio

For more information and registration:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyVICOa6Tg_jbJbRTnKvQUSDji0F_db-N654LlA_aNHRynhg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2g10QJjes29faZaS-ynOSbvu0u1fBZd1vbBEtlHug061tJy_F-9BBt9uk&pli=1

Winter/Spring 2017 Upcoming Seattle Contact Improvisation

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.
2-4:30 pm in the Founders Studio at Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue on Seattle's Capitol Hill. 

January 14 
Underscore 
Velocity Dance Center
3-3:30 talk-through of the Underscore for those who have never attended a talk-through or just like it a lot.
3:30-6 dance. Please plan to arrive a few minutes early and stay until the end. For more information, contact Katherine Cook at cook.katherine@gmail.com.

February 15–19
Tuning Scores Observatories/ Seattle
With Karen Nelson and others

April 8–9
Seattle Contact Improv Regional Jam

Join us for two full days of Contact Improv in Seattle!
Classes, jams, and plenty of opportunity for exploration.

Tickets available at:
http://scirj.brownpapertickets.com/

Facilitators Include:
Katherine Cook, Karen Nelson, Stu Phillips, and Tamin Totzke

Saturday - April 8
09 — 10 Facilitated Warm-Up -- Katherine Cook
10 — 12 Class -- Karen Nelson
12 — 1:45 Lunch Break/One-On-Ones
1:45 — 3:45 Class -- Stu Philips
04 — 06 Class -- Tamin Totzke
06 — 08 Dinner & Underscore Talk-Through
08 — Midnight - Open Jam

Sunday - April 9
09 — 10 Facilitated Warm-Up -- Katherine Cook
10 — 12 Underscore
12 — 01 Lunch
01 — 03 Class -- Karen Nelson
03 — 05 Open Jam
05 — 06 Closing Circle

Ticket Details - http://scirj.brownpapertickets.com/
Whole Event $100
Single day Saturday $65
Single day Sunday $55
Underscore $20

Dependent On Space Availability
Single Class Drop In $20
Saturday Night Jam Drop In $20
Sunday Jam Drop In $5-$10 

More:

Velocity Dance Center Schedule

Om Culture Dance Schedule

Butopia: Pacific Northwest Center for the Embodied Arts in Nature on Whidbey Island

Performance Improvisation Dance Class With Noelle Chun

Velocity Dance Center
1621 12th Ave / Capital Hill
Tuesdays from 4:30-6pm
January 6 - June 30, 2015

This class offers an approach to group improvisation with the studio as a site for the collaborative exchange of physical ideas. First, we encourage the expansion of individual movement vocabularies and their conscious arrangement.

Once dancers boost their own possibilities for movement invention with specificity, clarity, and craft, we move that attitude into group explorations, which amplify attention and awareness, illuminate the perception of composition, and then look at interaction as an opportunity to exponentially increase the inventiveness of the group compositional form as something that is simultaneously perceived and generated internally.

Choreographers, performers, and those with interests in emerging art forms are welcome!

Contact: noelle.k.chun (at) gmail.com

About Noelle

Noelle Chun is a choreographer, improviser, and teacher interested in dance as forms of embodied knowledge and ethnography. Her choreographic and improvisational work has been presented at Capitol Theater and Cleveland Public Theater (Ohio), Southern Theater (Minneapolis, MN), Green Street Studios (Boston, MA), Mead Theater (Washington, DC), Epiphany Episcopal Church (Chicago, IL), and most recently at Velocity Dance Center (Seattle, WA).

Previously residing in Columbus, Ohio, she was on the faculty at The Ohio State University teaching improvisation-based repertory and other technique classes. In the community, she was resident artist at the dance/arts space called FEVERHEAD, producing dances, events, and classes. She has an MFA in Dance from the Ohio State University and a BA in Anthropology from Beloit College.

Upcoming and Ongoing Seattle Contact Improv | April 2014

Here's a current listing of contact improvisation events in and around Seattle.

Upcoming 2014 Events

Martin Keogh Contact Improv Workshop
in Seattle 4/2014. Photo: Carol Wiley

May 9-10: 
Ease, Flight & Falls: Contact improv workshop with Michal Lahav and Katherine Cook.

May 23-26:

Dance Retreat led by Karen Nelson on Vashon Island at Hanna Barn Studio.

July 5-11:

Dance Camp Northwest at Fort Flagler, WA.

July 16-20:
Orcas Island Contact Improvisation Jam

July 27-August 3:

21st annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI) includes Kirstie Simson teaching a contact improvisation intensive.

Ongoing Jams and Classes

Sunday Jam at Velocity Dance Center, 2:00-4:30 pm, Located at 1621 12th Ave. on Capitol Hill.

3rd Saturday Jam each month, 4-6 pm. Grass Roots Studio in West Seattle. Call 206-935-0459 or contact Cyrus Khambatta for address and directions.

Thursday night contact classes at Om Culture, 6:30-7:45 pm, with Liam Bowler. Located at 2210 North Pacific St.

Monthly Underscore on second Thursday of the month, 7-10 pm at Washington Hall. Located at 153 14th Ave. Monthly reminder posted on the Contact Improvisation Seattle Facebook page. For information, contact cook.katherine (at) gmail.com.

Resources

The Seattle Contact Improv Facebook page.

Yahoo! Seattle Contact Improvisation Group.

Want your event listed? Contact Carol.

Sort of Close to Seattle

April 26-27: 

Sophisticated Kinetics and Physical Poetics: Advanced CI workshop with Karl Frost in Vancouver, BC. Information at Body Research.

June 20–22:

Scott Wells teaches contact improv in Vancouver, BC. For information, contact scottwellsworkshopvancouver@gmail.com.

March Seattle Laban Movement Classes

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; $56/4-class series; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group

March 3-31: TARA STEPENBERG / MOVING INTO & OUT OF FORM: LABAN IN THE RAW

Laban Movement Analysis (including Bartenieff Fundamentals) is an elegant comprehensive pathway for experiencing, describing and observing body, and self, in motion and stillness. The "system" identifies FOUR areas: body (what is moving); space (where is movement happening); dynamics/effort (the quality of the movement), shape (how is body relating to itself), and their phrasing relationships. This clear comprehensive movement language can be applied to a multitude of disciplines.

Gifts this material can give your during this series of classes are:

• discovering your movement preferences: their limits and strengths;
• broadening your range of expression, communication, performance;
• sharpening your observation skills;
• increasing enjoyment of yourself in motion -- alone and with others.

Tara Stepenberg, Juilliard graduate, founded the dance department at Hampshire College in 1971. In addition to her dance studies she is a long-time practitioner of Authentic Movement and has studied extensively with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. She has been passionately involved with the Laban perspective since 1972, directing the Certificate Programs at LIMS for several years. She has taught at many universities including The Naropa Institute and choreographed and performed extensive in the Northeast. She is on the Conditioning Staff of Pacific Northwest Ballet, has a private practice in Somatic Resonance, and is completing her studies in BodyMind Psychotherapy with Susan Aposhyan. She thoroughly enjoys being a co-journeyer with others.

Coming in April: Amy O'Neal!

:: :: ::

February Class with Karen Nelson - Seattle

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research (DAG/MAR) is a weekly dance class series featuring a different local teacher/topic each month. It's a great way to dip your feet into the joys/mysteries of dance improvisation and related dance forms. Come try a class!

:: :: ::

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; $56/4-class series; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group

February 3-24: KAREN NELSON / CONTACT 'N COMPOSITION
We'll touch-in each class with "essential images" of Contact Improvisation including skeletal balance, muscular release, and momentum of rising and falling, in solo, duet and larger group modes. We'll fine tune: the effort/ease of giving/receiving into one's own/another's center and periphery/space. Then we'll compose improvisations using Contact Improvisation as the basis, and see what we learn about freedom/fortune in improvisation. All levels OK; great for all of us if you can do whole series, but drop-ins acceptable.

Karen Nelson's first Contact Improvisation class came in the form of a letter with stick figure drawings from a friend in 1976. Later that year she'd worked with Nancy Stark Smith, Curt Sidall, Steve Paxton, Danny Lepkoff and Andrew Harwood (who finally helped her to see she wasn't actually giving her center to her partners -- yes, the earth moved). In the mid-1980s, after years of practice, teaching and performing, questions regarding "what is contact improvisation vs. other improvisation" drove her to detailed study of Steve's original proposition. Videos such at "Chute," "Soft Pallet," and "Peripheral Vision" as well as writings published in Contact Quarterly were very supportive. Composition is a natural interest due to a long-time performance practice; collaboration with Lisa Nelson since the mid-1980s has encouraged invention of "senses-based" scores/games for dance-making.

Coming in March: TARA STEPENBERG / MOVING INTO & OUT OF FORM

:: :: ::

Dance Art Group (DAG) fosters and promotes the study, practice, and appreciation of improvisational dance in Seattle. DAG produces the annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI) and other events that encourage and support innovative research and education in dance. DAG is supported by 4Culture, the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and generous individual donors. Click here to help support DAG with your tax-deductible donation.

Seattle Contact Improvisation Workshop with Karen Nelson

Dancing the In Between: CONTACT IMPROVISATION
with Karen Nelson

Sat. Jan. 22 (10am-4pm)
Sun. Jan. 23 (9am-1pm)
Grassroots Studio

The Workshop aims to take the idea of “skill levels” out of the dancing—even if only for this one weekend. What if we approached each partner and improvisation as a completely open, unwritten story? Are we prepared to care for ourselves on such an adventure? How can we learn from everyone we encounter? Drawing from classic principals and skills of contact improvisation, we will explore how we influence each other in the dancing. The workshop is appropriate for both beginning and experienced contact improvisers

Cost: $100-$125 before Jan 10th,
$125-$150 after.
Please write checks to Phffft! Company, Inc.
Mail to 5609 34th Ave. SW, Seattle WA 98126.
Phone: 206.935.0459 - Email: info (at) PHFFFT.org

KAREN NELSON’s 33-year dance and performance practice has been directly influenced by Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson and their respective work in Contact Improvisation, Material for the Spine and Tuning Scores, and through collaboration with many others in venues around the world. She co-founded Joint Forces Dance Co, Breitenbush Jam, Dance Ability, Diverse Dance Research Retreat, and the performance group Image Lab among other projects.

January Class: Louis Gervais / Dancing Energy Systems

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research (DAG/MAR) is a weekly dance class series featuring a different local teacher/topic each month. It's a great way to dip your feet into the joys/mysteries of dance improvisation and related dance forms. Come try a class!

:: :: ::

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; series discounts; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group

January 6-27: LOUIS GERVAIS / DANCING ENERGY SYSTEMS

When we look beyond our visible, physical bodies, we can see ourselves as intersections of energy and information. From this alternate standpoint, we resemble a chain of interconnected centers or chakras that are in constant motion as our life force energy flows in, out and throughout our bodies.

Through improvisation, visualization and somatic exploration, we can create powerful personal relationships with the invisible and ever-changing energetic self. Working with gesture and story, we describe shapes and pathways of these centers. Through rhythm and breath, we can sense the distinctly different qualities of energy throughout the body and beyond. Creative exploration and knowledge of the chakra system not only enhances self awareness & movement quality, it can also vitalize yoga and other somatic practices as well.

Louis Gervais (MFA) is a solo artist, dance educator and choreographer. He brings 40 years of dance experience and creativity to his teaching. Louis has performed with Compagnie Marie Chouinard and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company among many other professional dance companies. Louis' somatic work combines improvisation with transcendent dance practices and Eastern philosophy within a somatic framework. Louis teaches contact improvisation, yoga and somatics in his own private practice.

Coming in February: KAREN NELSON / CONTACT 'N COMPOSITION

November 4-18: JEAN HINDLE / SOMATIC RESOURCING

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; series discounts; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group.

DAG/MAR features weekly classes in improvisation, performance, creative process and composition, contact improvisation, somatic education, New Dance techniques and other dance realms, with a different local teacher/topic each month.

November 4-18: JEAN HINDLE / SOMATIC RESOURCING

Exploring the amazing capacity of our nervous system for somatic releasing, Resourcing and re-education through somatic movement meditations inspired by Hanna Somatics, BioSomatics, Somatic Unwinding, Feldenkrais and Skinner Releasing. Yum. Yum. Yum. Please bring two blankets and a yoga mat; I will provide you a mat if you don't have one.

Jean Hindle has been dancing and teaching Hatha Yoga and somatic education for over 17 years. She is the founder of Soma Yoga and Soma Yoga Studio in Seattle.

::

DAG/MAR will be taking December off. See you in January!

Karen Nelson Seattle Workshop Dec 10-12

DAG Winter Workshop:
Karen Nelson
SENSATION & DESIGN: DANCE MAKING FOR PERFORMANCE

December 10-12, 2010
Friday 3-6pm / Saturday & Sunday 11am-4pm
Century Ballroom's East Hall, 915 E Pine St, 2nd Floor, Seattle
Sliding scale $160–180 if paid in full by 11/15/10. After 11/15/10, $185–205 if space is available.

Info/registration at Dance Art Group

Using tools from Tuning Scores and improvisation to investigate "performance," we will create a check list of concerns and desires for experimentation. Tuning Scores, as introduced by Lisa Nelson, illuminate our individual perceptual experience, and use actions and verbal calls to communicate to others and the environment during the improvisation. Sessions will begin with training in sensational awareness and build towards compositional ensemble work. The final session will culminate with an "in-progress" public showing, including a follow-up feedback process for audience and performers.

Karen Nelson's 33-year dance and performance practice has been directly influenced by Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson and their respective work in Contact Improvisation, Material for the Spine and Tuning Scores, and through collaboration with many others in venues around the world. She co-founded Joint Forces Dance Co, Breitenbush Jam, Dance Ability, Diverse Dance Research Retreat, and the performance group Image Lab among other projects. Image Lab, including Scott Smith, K.J. Holmes, Lisa Nelson and Karen, intensively developed Tuning Scores for nearly a decade in the 1990s. They performed "observatories" in the US, Europe and Asia, spawning other Tuning projects that continue to this day.

TONYA LOCKYER / PROSPERITY FOR ALL

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; series discounts; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group

DAG/MAR features weekly classes in improvisation, performance, creative process and composition, contact improvisation, somatic education, New Dance techniques and other dance realms, with a different local teacher/topic each month.

October 7-28: TONYA LOCKYER / PROSPERITY FOR ALL

This workshop is about developing tools towards solo performance. Together we'll gather a set of questions, propositions and obstructions. (What if dance is simply being deeply physically engaged in the world? What if we can bring to our performance everything we are, do and know?) We'll improvise, write, experiment and develop strategies for organizing our materials. We'll look for the performance in life and the life in performance. By the time this workshop is over, you will have acquired new tools to engage deeply in your own questions and to observe the poetic systems at play in your work. Drop-ins possible but committing to the entire month is preferred.

Tonya Lockyer is a generator of performance -- solo, collaborative, improvised and otherwise -- a writer and dance artist who has worked around the world; a teacher committed to liberating students into their own direction. "I work interdisciplinarily but dance is always at stake in my work. I am committed to asking questions (personal, social, cultural...) about who we are and what it means to live in the world. I investigate how movement acts on us, and how we impact the world through our actions and presence." Tonya is on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts and holds an MFA with a focus on Live Art and Choreographic Culture since 1950.

Coming in November: Jean Hindle

Contact Improvisation & Meditation Workshop

with Alicia Grayson & Greg Burdulis

October 2 & 3, 2010, Seattle, WA

This workshop offers new ways to enhance and vitalize our dancing and
meditation practices. With meditation we strengthen our ability to care for
ourselves, open to greater levels of subtlety, and refine how we use our
mental and physical energy. Cultivating the classic mediation skills of
mindfulness, concentration, right effort and metta we create an optimal
environment for creativity and connection to self and others.

With mindfulness as our foundation we explore the principles of
CI by entering into states of deep listening that give rise to safe,
spherical, fluid and delightful movement. We also cover important CI skills,
such as following the point of contact, giving and receiving weight with
ease and using momentum.

We invite you to discover how these two mutually supportive
practices generate clarity, creativity and courage on the cushion, on the
dance floor and in your life.

All levels of experience with contact improvisation and meditation are
welcome.

Workshop Schedule:

Saturday Oct 2, 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday, Oct 3, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Fees for Workshop:

Register before Sep 16: $130 - $250
Register after Sep 16: $170 - $340
Registration: Checks Payable to Phffft

Contact: Cyrus Khambatta
Email: Cyrus (at) Phffft.org

Location:
Grassroots Studio 5609 34th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126
(please park on 35th Ave not 34th)

Alicia Grayson has had a love affair with CI for 22 years and has been
teaching for 16. Her long time practices of meditation, authentic movement,
yoga and Pilates significantly influence her dancing and teaching.
Meditation and movement practices are vital aspects of her daily life. She
teaches CI, yoga and Pilates in Boulder, CO and CI throughout the US and
Europe. She is a member of Tumblebones Contact Improvisation Collective.
www.tumblebones.com.

Greg Burdulis has taught Vipassana Meditation in Burma, Thailand and the US.
After seven years as an ordained monk in Burma he returned to lay life to
share his insights. He practices CI because of its emphasis on listening,
spontaneity, and light effort. He considers it his liveliest form of
meditation. Greg holds an MA in spirituality and has experience as a
chaplain, mountaineering instructor, storyteller and performer and
mindfulness facilitator in corporations. www.gregthemonk.net.

September Class with Nate Dryden

Dance Art Group / Movement Arts Research
Thursdays 6:15-8:15pm
Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Avenue, Kawasaki Studio
$15/class; series discounts; drop-ins and all experience levels welcome
Info at Dance Art Group

DAG/MAR features weekly classes in improvisation, performance, creative process and composition, contact improvisation, somatic education, New Dance techniques and other dance realms, with a different local teacher/topic each month.

September 9-23 (no class 9/30):
NATE DRYDEN / INNER STATES & OUTER BODIES

How does a dancer negotiate moving from an inner poetic state into physical and energetic partnering with other dancers negotiating the same? These classes will present participants with different releasing practices that may be taken into experimental partnering and/or contact improvisation. Image-guided floor work and hands-on partner studies assist in the easing of tension and energy blockages in the physical self while catalyzing creativity and spontaneous movement. Continuing to cultivate this releasing state, dancers are then guided to shift into forms of improvised partnering. Afterwards, we can open up discussion of the various successes and challenges within such practice. Classes will be facilitated to include varying levels of releasing and partnering experience.

Nathan Dryden is an independent choreographer, director, performer and teacher working in dance, theatre, aerial arts, improvisation and releasing. He is a certified Skinner Releasing Technique instructor and teaches at institutes and festivals in the USA and internationally.

Coming in October: Tonya Lockyer!

:: :: ::

Dance Art Group (DAG) fosters and promotes the study, practice, and appreciation of improvisational dance in Seattle. DAG produces the annual Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI) and other events that encourage and support innovative research and education in dance. DAG is supported by 4Culture, the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and generous individual donors. Click here to help support DAG with your tax-deductible donation. Find us on Facebook and Twitter!

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation
17th annual SFDI! August 1-8, 2010

CLASSES . PERFORMANCES . JAMS . DISCUSSIONS

Intensives with Martha Eddy, Miguel Gutierrez, K.J. Holmes, Susan Rethorst

Classes with Cathie Caraker, Karl Frost, Louis Gervais, Aiko Kinoshita, Vitali Kononov, Michal Lahav, Rachael Lincoln, Nina Martin, Bebe Miller, KT Niehoff, Haruko Nishimura, Aaron Swartzman, Christian Swenson and Alia Swersky.


Early registration discount deadline: July 1, 2010

Information and Registration: Dance Art Group

Dance Art Group Spring Workshops

Workshops with local teachers and a super-size jam to benefit DAG!

With Nate Dryden | Lila Hurwitz | Cyrus Khambatta | Stephanie Skura

Velocity Dance Center | 1621 12th Avenue | Seattle

Only $100!: All Workshops & Jam
$30: One Workshop; $5 off each additional workshop
$5-15: Jam

Info/Registration: info (at ) danceartgroup.org; 206.686.7323; Dance Art Group

:: :: ::

FRIDAY, MAY 7 | 6-9pm
Upside Down & Backwards: Partnering With All Sides | Cyrus Khambatta

Created with Contact Improvisation practitioners in mind, this workshop will be about exploring upside down and backwards in confidence. A malleable 360 degree use of the spine enables increased ease of pathways through the back/side/frontspace while partnering. This "molding" use of the spine helps navigate options in dealing with gravity in relationship to friction and creates a better intuitive understanding of how to use a partners' architecture as an extension of one's own. By slowing down the process of falling it provides more time to respond and react and more physical confidence in partnering.

Cyrus Khambatta is the Artistic Director of Khambatta Dance Company (formerly Phffft! Co.), fusing contemporary dance and Contact Improvisation. His work has been presented in 12 US states, throughout Europe, in Russia and Latin America. In 2003 he received California's Daman New Choreography Award, and will be teaching this summer at the Freiburg Festival in Germany, in Latvia, Lithuania and France.

SATURDAY, MAY 8 | 10am-1pm
Breath, Suspension & Dynamic Movement with Skinner Releasing Technique™

Through the practice of Skinner Releasing Technique, dancers will explore awareness of suspension and breath in ways that catalyze greater freedom of movement and shifting dynamics, while supporting and sustaining the physical self. Improvisational movement studies with guided imagery engage the participant's creative process and technical skill learning abilities.

Nathan Dryden is an independent choreographer, performer, director, aerialist and teacher from Seattle whose work crosses through dance, improvisation, aerial dance, Contact Improvisation and movement theatre. In 2001 Nathan became a certified instructor of the Skinner Releasing Technique, serving as faculty at the annual Skinner Releasing Institute's summer program in Seattle and teaching in festivals and universities across the USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

SATURDAY, MAY 8 | 2-5pm
The Athletic Voice | Stephanie Skura

Tools to find courage, freedom and specificity. To open the voice -- literally AND figuratively. To trust our inner world as a resource. To find physical manifestations of our ideas in body and voice. Bring paper, pen and drawing materials.

A radical and perpetual innovator, Stephanie Skura received one of the inaugural New York "Bessie" Awards for Choreographic Achievement. She creates with an abiding interest in interdisciplinary process, individual creative empowerment, and a current focus on imagistic language and the athletic voice. She has taught and performed throughout the USA and Europe. She directs a teacher training program called Open Source Forms.

SUNDAY, MAY 9 | 10am-1pm
Feldenkrais® & Friends | Lila Hurwitz

The Feldenkrais Method is a subtle and powerful system of neuromuscular re-education that evokes changes in muscular tone, flexibility, coordination, attention, and the comfort and efficiency of movement. We'll explore using Feldenkrais as a warm-up into an array of fabulous improvisational and perceptual practices including Authentic Movement, Contemplative Dance Practice, and the Tuning Score.

Lila Hurwitz is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner who has been teaching since 1987, including one of Seattle's longest-running weekly Feldenkrais classes since 1995. She likes to think she introduced Portland, OR, to Authentic Movement; learned from and has performed the Tuning Score with Karen Nelson and originator Lisa Nelson; and learned Contemplative Dance Practice from creator Barbara Dilley in 1987. She's performed with Ann Carlson, Nina Martin, Bebe Miller, Lucia Neare, Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson, Mary Oslund, Stephanie Skura, Crispin Spaeth and many others.

SUNDAY, MAY 9 | 2-5pm
Super-size jam to benefit DAG!

Beyond the Threshold Dance Program

June 7th-11th, 2010

Study with national and international artists, including:
Donald Byrd (USA),
Oleg Gorboulev (Russia/USA),
Cyrus Khambatta (USA),
Maika Misumi (Japan),
Jasmine Morand (Switzerland),
David Nicolas Russo (Italy) and
Darryl Thomas (USA).

Two tracks:
1. Contemporary Partnering (great for CI-minded individuals)

2. Dance Technique (International Perspective)

Day Session is $350, 10am-5:15 daily (Intermediate/Advanced)
Evening Session is $125, 5:15-7:15 daily (Beginning/Intermediate)

Both tracks 1 and 2 are available for the day and evening sessions.
Scholarships are available for the day session.

Register or get more information on the Dance Intensive or email abigail (at) phffft.org.

Go to http://www.phffft.org/sidf.html for more info on performances
and the rest of the festival events!

DEADLINES:
Registration and $50 deposit due by May 7th, 2010
Full tuition due by June 4th, 2010

SFDI Registration is Open

The 17th annual
Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation
August 1-8, 2010 | Seattle, WA

Master classes, performances, discussions & jams with local, national & international dance artists!

. 5-class Intensives with Miguel Gutierrez | K.J. Holmes | Susan Rethorst
. 4-class Somatic Intensive with Martha Eddy
. 3-class Beginning Contact Improvisation Intensive with Vitali Kononov
. Plus classes with Cathie Caraker | Karl Frost | Louis Gervais | Aiko Kinoshita | Michal Lahav | Rachael Lincoln | Nina Martin | Bebe Miller | KT Niehoff | Haruko Nishimura | Aaron Swartzman | Christian Swenson | Alia Swersky

Classes include Solo & Group Improvisation | Performance | Contact Improvisation | Contemporary Dance Technique | Butoh | Contemplative Dance Practice | Composition | Body-Mind Centering® | Voice

Plus...
. Nightly jams
. Panel discussion
. Faculty & student performances
. Daily Contemplative Dance Practice sessions

EARLY-BIRD REGISTRATION DISCOUNT DEADLINE: July 1, 2010
Work/study scholarships available... apply now!

Information | Registration | Tickets: www.sfadi.org

17th annual SFDI! August 1-8, 2010

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation
17th annual SFDI! August 1-8, 2010

CLASSES . PERFORMANCES . JAMS . DISCUSSIONS

Intensives with Martha Eddy, Miguel Gutierrez, K.J. Holmes, Susan Rethorst

Classes with Cathie Caraker, Karl Frost, Louis Gervais, Aiko Kinoshita, Vitali Kononov, Michal Lahav, Rachael Lincoln, Nina Martin, Bebe Miller, KT Niehoff, Haruko Nishimura, Aaron Swartzman, Christian Swenson and Alia Swersky.

Information coming soon at Dance Art Group.