Contact Improv Workshops

Using Contact Improv principals and trauma-informed somatics to foster embodied relationships and dropped-in dances.

EMPATHIC CONTACT

Deep listening and attunement
for rich connection on and off the dance floor.

Cultivate more body awareness of yourself and others in order to enjoy richer connections. Using classic Contact Improv exercises and somatic tools, we explore how the subtle levels of self-awareness, and non-verbal communication inform our ability to authentically connect. Through dance and embodiment, we learn more about our desires and boundaries, enabling a bigger range of consensual connection.

SoulPlay Festival, 2019
Pinecrest, CA

My CI offerings focus mostly on how our relational and psychological patterns are found in our bodies' unique experience and movement expression.

RELATIONAL CONTACT

Embodying secure attachment
through contact improv

Employing Contact Improv principals, we let our bodies tell us more about how, when & why we move towards & away from connection. We'll explore how to cultivate a deeper relationship with our ground & center through all of our relating, using movement & somatic exercises as ways to address & repair old body-based attachment patterns.

SoulPlay Festival, 2019
Pinecrest, CA

I also include my modern dance technique training to support developing the technical and physical skill involved in CI:

The Spiraling Core
of Contact

Drawing from modern technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals, we explore the equal importance of the body’s core and limbs in CI. How does initiating movement from the center or periphery effect directionality, momentum, and balance in your dance? In this class we learn about landing gear & safety, the spiraling body, body halves, orientation to the floor when upside-down or in a lift, finding your way to the floor safely and risk taking. This class can be applied to all different levels of experience in CI.

NCDC Dance Camp, 2018
Kings Canyon, CA

What is Contact Improv?

Contact Improvisation (CI) is a dance form in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation. It is also a lineage, a community and a body of knowledge that has intentionally avoided codification, and in doing so has allowed for a wide range of interpretations and styles to be expressed through the form.

Brandon Stewart and Odessa Avianna Perez
WICCI Jam, 2014 - Berkeley, CA