Contact Improvisation Basics

*2/23 IS FREE FOR BIPOC IDENTIFYING FOLX IN HONOR OF BLACK HISORY MONTH! JUST WALK IN.

Contact Improvisation has been described as a post-modern folk dance, a moving meditation, a practice of two or more people sharing weight and playing within the bounds of physics.

CI is usually improvised. However, like Jazz, there are pathways, anchors, skills and practices that enrich the possibilities of communication within the form.

In this series of Contact Improvisation Basics, we'll start with a short opening circle, followed by a warm up that helps us to release tension and tune into our sense of touch and weight. We'll then practice consent and move into exercises that develop and expand our capacity to share our centers and make choices that serve the dance.

Kneepads and loose or stretchy clothing recommended.

https://www.vsaia.com/all-classes-events

Class is taught by Elise Knudson.

ELISE KNUDSON (eliseknudson.org) is a New York City based dance artist. She teaches Contact Improvisation for Movement Research and facilitates CI at festivals and studios such as Touch Festival (China), Leviathan Studio (Canada) WCCI Jam (Berkeley, USA) and Moab Jam (Utah). Elise has taught repertory and CI at Manhattanville College and Theory and Practice of Dance Improvisation at Yale University. She created NEXToNow, modeled after The Impermanent Society of Philadelphia to provide a platform for the practice of performing interdisciplinary free improvisation. Honored by the opportunity to perform improvised dance with Nancy Stark Smith, David Appel, Chris Aiken&Angie Hauser, Alicia Greyson and others, Elise has also enjoyed the opportunity to perform choreography with various Artists, including Christopher Williams, Jenni Hong Dance, Kiori Kawai/Purring Tiger, Risa Jaroslow, Jody Oberfelder and Koosil-ja/DANCE KUMIKO. Over the years Elise has choreographed aerial dances, experimental installations and concert dances for stages large and small. She is currently interested in developing fluidity between instantaneous and premeditated choreography.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Elise Knudson plus