"Third Tuesdays" Contact Improv Dance Community and Connections -Santa Cruz

Name: "Third Tuesdays" Contact Improv Dance Community and Connections -Santa Cruz
Start: 2025-03-18T19:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-03-18T22:30:00-07:00
Location: Santa Cruz Yoga

Schedule

Tue Mar 18 2025 at 07:30 pm to 10:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Santa Cruz Yoga | Santa Cruz, CA

WOOT!! It’s time for our monthly gathering, and we can’t wait to dance with you! 🫶☺️💪🥰
Need to unwind, relax, and find a safe space to connect with others? This is the night for you! 💖
Beginners are welcomed and supported by a friendly community.
Join us on Tuesday, March 18th, for an incredible evening of contact improv dance, community bonding, and heart-opening connections. We’ll create a well-held container where you can down-regulate, connect with fellow humans, and release the stress of the day. Enjoy a Snackluck (bring something to share if you’d like!), cozy snuggles, and a group of welcoming, open-hearted folks. What could be better on a Tuesday night?
If there’s enough interest, we may even do another blindfolded exercise during the intro—let us know if you’re up for it!
Our monthly gatherings take place every third Tuesday of the month (3/18, 4/15, 5/20, etc.).
Snackluck!
Bring a snack to share with your community, or just come and enjoy what others bring. 🥰
This dance container will be guided by an agreement field with a focus on moving toward our Yes. Please check out the agreements listed below.
When & Where:
✨ 7:30 - 10:30 pm, Tuesday evenings
✨ Santa Cruz Yoga, 402 Ingalls Street #11
Our Event Flow:
✨ 7:30 - Doors open for stretching, chatting, and connecting
✨ 7:45 - 8:00 - Opening Circle: Passing chocolate, check-ins, and setting the agreement field (required for newcomers)
✨ 8:00 - 8:15 - Movement exercises to blend and connect the group
✨ 8:15 - 10:00 - Open jam space with downtempo music (some silence may be introduced to check in with yourself)
✨ 10:00 - 10:15 - Closing circle
✨ 10:30 - Cleanup
Energy Exchange:
✨ $20
✨ BIPOC Identifying: By donation (This option is here to make the space more accessible for people who may not otherwise feel safe enough to try it. If you try it and feel comfortable, we encourage you to contribute the regular amount—but no pressure.)
✨ Students: $15
✨ Worktrade/Scholarships: Available (If cost is a barrier, reach out—MichaelDavid is happy to discuss options.)
Additional Notes:
✨ Newcomers: Please attend the opening circle. It’s the best way to set the tone for the evening and meet others!
✨ Returning folks: You’re welcome to join the circle or arrive after it ends (at 8:00). We appreciate your energy in the circle, but if you’re pressed for time, no worries! Just arrive by 8:00.
✨ This space is beginner-friendly, so whether it’s your first time or your hundredth, you’ll find a welcoming, supportive container.
Come on out and start building community with this wonderful group—dance, connect, and grow with us! We can’t wait to see you there.
✨🥰✨
This is a very intentionally held, inclusive, and welcoming container designed to support everyone, especially newcomers. The beginning activities are crafted to encourage tracking your Yes and easefully flowing in and out of engagement. Support tenders are available to check in with at any time.
Come play with us! ✨😊
✨What to expect?
This is not a contact “jam” in the typical sense.
This is a carefully crafted container, with a focus on the development of the individual and group field toward supporting every dancer being in their Yes throughout the night.
This is a dance container where there is a high value on Community and Trust Building.
Contact dance is different from other modalities in that there is the ability to track, moment to moment, where your Yes is and to leave a dance when you are no longer feeling it or even when you just feel like seeing what it would be like to leave a still enjoyable dance and float off to something else enjoyable.
It is my belief that the most important skills a contact dancer can develop are their ability to track their Yes and to advocate for themselves coupled with an ability to be resilient around receiving a No from another dancer.
The agreements, exercises, and invitations in our opening circle/container setting are specifically crafted to form a group field that celebrates fluidity in engaging and disengaging with minimal “story” about it.
With a group field set up that celebrates fluidity of engaging and disengaging, each dancer can explore freely the types of dances they want to, without fear of getting stuck in something that doesn’t feel aligned.
The energy in a space like this is very different from a typical jam or ecstatic dance experience. It is exciting and flowing and moving in a very special way.
The agreement field helps to set the stage for a laboratory of exploration. The potential for learning and growth in a carefully crafted container is exponentially greater than what can be experienced in a more loosely held container. Your personal experiments in the space have context and setting and reference points in a way that you may have never experienced before.
There’s so much more I could say about this. I’m deeply passionate about these explorations and how they affect our interactions in all aspects of our lives. Attending this dance will almost certainly deeply and positively impact your human relationships of all kinds and support you in moving toward your Yes in all aspects of your life. This is not just about a dance form it is about finding your Yes and advocating for it.
Below are a few answers to possible questions and below that you can find the agreements that we read and agree to each week.
Feel free to message MichaelDavid with any feedback or questions.
See you on the dance floor soon! 🥰
~Why a deep circle container?
This is a space where there are a lot of folks who are new to contact improv dance and to the flowing style of close physical interactions. Especially for these newer folks, a trust building connective circle assists them in feeling like they understand the space better and leaves them feeling more in an open trusting state. The group goes deeper if we take some time to connect ourselves and set a container.
~Why should I be at circle if I’ve been dancing a long time?
Each of us helps to set the tone for the whole group. If you’ve been dancing awhile, having your energy present in the circle palpably affects the forming container. When we all hear each other’s voices and hear where we’re each at, emotionally and physically, there is a deeper layer that becomes available beyond the usual “show up and dance” type of spaces.
As well, when dancers enter the space without being a part of circle, newcomers miss out on hearing their names and getting a feel for them in the exercises.
One of the focuses of this group is on community building. Having everyone attend circle supports that. However, if you’ve been to several opening circles it isn’t required for you to attend circle.
~Why do we read the agreements each week together?
There is a magic in continuing to state the agreements and see a show of hands that we are in agreement with each other. Also, each time we hear the agreements it allows another opportunity for them to become more deeply embodied.
My hope is that restating and connecting with these concepts each week will support us in staying in our Yes more and more consistently throughout our evenings together and even out into our daily lives.

Agreements:
Self:
I agree, to the best of my ability, to tune into myself and to track my Yes in interactions in this space and to advocate for myself and to make shifts when I need to, to stay in my Yes.
I agree, to the best of my ability, to pause and take some space when I am no longer clear about where my Yes is.
When I am unable to make those shifts I agree to track myself in that process and to learn and grow in my ability to be resilient and to courageously advocate for myself.
I am aware that there are Tenders to support me, and I will consider getting support from them if I am feeling like I need that support.

Each Other:
I agree, to the best of my ability, to attune to those I’m dancing with and sharing space with and to value them being in their Yes.
In that attunement I will be aware of dynamics that might affect the other dancers’ Voice and Choice in interactions with me including the possibility of there being gender and ethnicity dynamics, differences in experience level, or the possibility of someone being new to the community.
I agree to practice my resilience around receiving a No.
I agree to consider checking in if I’m sensing that someone may not be a Yes to an interaction.
I agree, to the best of my ability, to track the story I’m making up about the dance I’m having with someone and to be aware that the stronger that story is the less likely it is that I am attuning to my dance partner’s actual experience.
I agree to leave dances on the dance floor and to not expect another dance, nor a hug goodbye, nor a phone number nor anything else.
Space:
I agree to value inclusivity, and community building in this space and to have awareness of how my movements affect the space.
I understand that this is a sober space, and I agree to honor that.
Although dancing with another can be a deeply sensual experience, I understand that this is a non-sexual space.
If a dance feels like it’s becoming sexual for me or (in my perception) for the person I’m dancing with, I agree to either shift my energy, have a check in, or simply take a break from that dance.
(MichaelDavid understands that this last agreement offers the idea of a sensual to sexual spectrum and that that can be confusing for some.
Please ask for clarification!
I’m happy to discuss this and anything else.)
See you dancing soon!!
✨