“Dance in the City 2” is a second edition of Contact Improvisation festival that is going to happen in Ljubljana during the International Summer Dance School in July 2019.
This year, we want to take into account the philosophical foundation of the CI, so we invited our French colleagues to share their teachings.
Join us for 5-day long journey with:
- 1 intensive class in the morning
- 1 class in the afternoon
- every day jam in the evening
- additional program
TEACHERS AND CLASSES
- MORNING INTENSIVE with Asaf Bachrach (3h/day)
(8:45 AM - 11:45 AM)
* previous experience in CI needed
TECHNIQUES FOR WAITING / MATSU GIJUTSU (Japanese)
What does it mean to improvise?
For many people (and dictionaries) to improvise means something like “do or perform on the spur of the moment”. However, the latin origin of the word is in-provisus or unforseen.
So rather than focus on the doing, improvisation invites us to attend to what is yet unexpected or unknown...
In other words, as improvisers we ask how to wait for the un-waited for (French: attendre l’inattendu, Slovenian: čakati nepričakovano).
We will spend our time together collectively contemplating this koan like Proposition.
The French verb ‘attendre’ can be translated in English as ‘wait’ or ‘expect’. The verb ‘wait’ comes from Anglo-French and Old North French waitier "to watch". The verb ‘expect’ comes from the latin ex- "thoroughly" + spectare "to look". Unlike the two English verbs that are associated with vision, ‘attendre’ comes from the latin a-”towards’ + tendere ‘stretch’. A kinesthetic, haptic stance. So how can we wait for, or stretch ourselves towards something if there is nothing there?
In this series of workshops we will develop and share our techniques for waiting together. The work will be inspired by the teachings of Steve Paxton (Contact Improvisation), Lisa Nelson (the Tuning score), Min Tanaka (body weather) and the somatic philosophy of Hubert Godard (Rolfing).
- AFTERNOON CLASS with Romain Bigé & Alice Leguiffant (1,5h/day) - (7 PM - 8:30 PM)
* for all levels, beginners welcome
SURVIVING CONTACT
Practicing Contact Improvisation is not without risks: a dance of reflex and intimacy, it puts us through states of flow, but also of fear and confusion. In this workshop, we’ll endeavour to equip ourselves to survive contact. Everyday of the week, we’ll target one object of survival: surviving weight, surviving falling, surviving flying, surviving boredom, surviving loneliness.
Improvisation is filled with fleeting moments when we don’t know: we don’t know what to do, what we should do, what our bodyminds can do. How do we give ourselves the time and patience to study our own surviving skills? How do we learn to expose ourselves to this vertigo without putting ourselves in danger?
- TEACHERS BIO -
Asaf Bachrach
Asaf has practiced contact improvisation (CI, a contemporary dance technique) as well as other improvisation techniques (Butoh, release, tuning score) since 1994. He Studied in Tel Aviv, New York, Paris and Boston. Among his most influential professors are Steve Paxton, Kirstie Simson, Lisa Nelson, Min Tanaka. Since 2000, he has taught in Europe, in the USA, in Buenos Aires and in Israel. In 2012, he organized an international conference in Paris around CI and ‘mindfulness’ (http://mindthepoint.wordpress.com/). He is the co-founder of the ME-lieu collective (2015). Since 2016 he is a certified Rolfing® practitioner. Asaf has been co-leading with Matthieu Gaudeau, since 2016 the F.A.R. nomadic somatics school, a
trans-somatic (Feldenkrais, Alexander, Rolfing and CI) experiential research group. He is also a practicing cognitive neuroscientist at the CNRS where he has been studying language and dance (labodanse.org).
More:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwtRM04zyY
https://vimeo.com/66725428
Alice Leguiffant
Alice has been dancing for about all her life, and dancing Contact for almost 13 years now. She has met amazing teachers, among which were Scott Smith, Nancy Stark Smith, Malcolm Manning, Nita Little, Karen Nelson, Matthieu Gaudeau, Isabelle Uski..... She started teaching CI in 2010 and has been organizing events big and small for the last 6 years. She organise monthly workshops from September to June (either teaching or inviting teachers) as well as a festival near Rennes « le festival du bout de l'année » where teachers from around the world come to share their experience. Recently she's started to organize residencies for CI with labs, practices and classes, some open to all levels, some restricted to advanced dancers. Alice also teaches CI in primary school and enjoys it very much. Kids understand the main principles so quickly.
Romain Bigé (PhD)
Romain practices dance and philosophy. A dance improviser curious to bring philosophy in the dance studio, he dedicated his dissertation to Contact Improvisation (Le partage du mouvement, University Paris-Sciences-Lettres, 2017) which led him to curate two exhibitions-performances : Gestes du Contact Improvisation (Musée de la danse, 2018) and Steve Paxton_Drafting Interior Techniques (Culturgest, 2019). He trained in dance in the US and in Europe with Lisa Nelson, Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, Charlie Morrissey, Matthieu Gaudeau, and many others. He performed dance and philosophy internationally, with choreographers Boris Charmatz, Myriam Lefkowitz, Chris Aiken. He endeavours to prepare the revolution; and awaiting the great day, he rolls on the ground.
More:
cargocollective.com/sharingmovement/
- EVENING CONTACT JAMS -
Every evening are planned open contact improvisation jams for everybody that is willing to participate.
You can support the jams with a free donation.
Mon-Fri: 21.00 - 23.00
FEES
The classes are part of the Summer Dance School 2019 program.
- 1 class/intensive (5 days x 180 min) 80 EUR (before May 25) 100 EUR (after May 25)
- 1 class/day (5 days x 90 min) 60 EUR (before May 25)
80 EUR (after May 25)
Applying to both class and intensive you get 10% of discount so, the price is (before May 25) 126 EUR (after May 25) 162 EUR
* the price does not include accommodation and food
More info about Summer Dance School FEES:
http://www.jskd.si/ples/izobrazevanje/sezona_2018_19/poletna_plesna_19/sds_19_fees.htm
TO APPLY
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAvKR3pPW70IctQ_grCImdlPGM7iqPYNSyqsEjuhUfUkvjog/viewform
ACCOMODATION
For accommodation in the immediate vicinity of dance studios you have to apply here until 25 May 2019. After this date you have to arrange the accommodation by yourself.
http://www.jskd.si/ples/izobrazevanje/sezona_2018_19/poletna_plesna_19/sds_19_accommodation.htm
MORE INFO
For more info you can contact us on info@moave.si or www.moave.si
https://www.moave.si/dance-in-the-city-project
or
https://www.facebook.com/events/593907584423207/
Davide, Nayeli and Živa
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The event is co-funded and organised in collaboration and with the support of JKSD (public funds of Slovenia for cultural activities).