Susan Coates playing with momentum, plus giving and receiving weight in Contact Improvisation

Delicate-Wash-Spin-Cycle: Fundamentals of Contact Improvisation

Date: Saturday, November 6th, 2010 3-6pm
Location: Packing House Center for the Arts, 835 E. 50th Avenue, Denver
Cost: $35
Registration: Contact Susan Coates at susan@livinglaundry.org to hold your spot. Checks payable to Living Laundry and mail to 3349 Elizabeth St., Denver, CO, 80205 postmarked no later than October 28th. See www.livinglaundry.org for more information about this workshop and other Living Laundry offerings.

Description
In this workshop we will explore the fundamentals of Contact Improvisation–from surrender to the point of contact, falling and rising spirals, and momentum to effortless partner lifts and ensemble movement. We will also introduce a feedback model to help you get what you want from your dances. You are invited to bring your humanity and your humor to this form! Great for non-dancers and performers wanting to expand their movement toolkit. All experience levels welcome. Kneepads provided.

“Contact Improvisation is a dance form, originated by American choreographer Steve Paxton in 1972, based on the communication between two or more moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia.

The body, in order to open to these sensations, must learn to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner.

Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one’s basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.”

From Caught Falling: The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and other Moving Ideas, by Nancy Stark Smith and David Koteen, available through Contact Editions.

Announcing a weekend workshop with Brandon Gonzalez & Susan Coates, January 16–17, 2010…

Weaving the Dance: Contact Improvisation from the Personal to the Ensemble
Our perception of dance is threaded together from many sources including our emotional states, the stories we create, our physical condition, our motivations, and our physical environment. In this workshop we explore the impact of these sources on our own state of being and the group dynamic.
We’ll build from the foundations of Contact Improvisation with body mechanics that coordinate with the physics of gravity and the geometry of bones, the reading of subtle changes in weight and support, micro/macro spirals as a way of creating continuity and flow, and access pathways into the “third mind” where we find a sense of empathy, ease and effortlessness in the dance.

Where: A Living Arts Centre, 2231 South Platte River Drive, Denver, Colorado 80223 (map)

When: January 16–17: Sat. 1:30–5:45 pm;  Sun. 10 am–3:30 pm (with breaks)

Registration: Contact Susan Coates to reserve your spot at livinglaundry (at) gmail .com or 303-455-0852.

Cost: $96 postmarked by December 31st, $114 after 12/31, $130 at the door. Mail checks payable to Susan Coates at 3349 Elizabeth Street, Denver, CO 80205.

Pre-requisites: Although we will be working with some fundamental mechanics, this is an intermediate level workshop, and therefore some CI experience is preferred. If you need a starter lesson, please contact Susan Coates for class options and one-on-one lessons.

Brandon Gonzalez is an influential teacher and interdisciplinary artist who has explored the overlap of embodied movement, performance, and visual art. Coming from a background in art, yoga, wrestling, and gymnastics, CI’s non-competitive athletic qualities were a perfect fit. He currently co-teaches CI at Texas State University, organizes/teaches CI workshops and founded DanceLab, an ongoing series of embodied movement events in Austin, Texas.

Susan Coates has been teaching and performing contemporary dance and dance theater for over 10 years, working full-time as a performing and teaching company member of Speaking of Dance from 1999–2004. In 2002, she co-founded Dirty Laundry Dance Company, performing original dance theater in the Denver area. In 2006, she co-founded Ecstatic Cling, a Boulder-based contemporary dance/contact improvisation ensemble that engaged in guerrilla performances in the Boulder/Denver area until 2008. In 2007, she founded Living Laundry , a creative and innovative practice that transforms individuals, organizations, and communities through living arts. Susan also founded and leads Contact Improvisation labs, jams, workshops, and classes in the Boulder/Denver area.