Program
The festival program will feature a variety of activities, including intensive sessions, workshops, jam sessions, live performances, underscore events, morning practice, as well as opportunities for relaxation, leisurely walks, bodywork, discussions, and engaging conversations, among others.
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Intensive
I’m interested in sharing my ongoing research based on the applications of the Feldenkrais Method to the practice of Contact Improvisation.
With the Feldenkrais Method we direct our attention to internal sensations, without judgment, acknowledging the intelligence of the body and curious about new possibilities, we identify habits and clarify choices to promote efficiency, freedom and a sense of ease that involve our whole selves. This specific way of tuning in with what we are experiencing will magnify
our senses, affecting the quality of our presence and alertness, bringing us to the present moment while engaging in self-discovery and authenticity.
The group’s shared somatic process will create trust and will support experimentation and imagination while working with larger and more complex movement in solo, duet, trios and group. When engaging with touch and weight we will find more sophistication in sensing, reading, and communicating in the physical dialogue with our partner.
When we dance we meet someone else’s sensitivity, body structure, imagination,
expectations, knowledge and movement habits. I’m interested to see how the Feldenkrais Method could help us to question our habits and habitual patterns and pathways in Contact Improvisation. This could emerge as a consequence of being fully in the present moment as well as due to the repatterned movement which normally happens with Feldenkrais. We will also intentionally use strategy from Feldenkrais to break the automatism of certain skills, changing speed, directions, reversing the pattern and supporting unfamiliar pathways. We will see Contact vocabulary from another perspective that brings more enjoyment, rejuvenation and authenticity to the emerging of new dancing.
Simonetta Alessandri
SENSING NEW PATHWAYS - EMERGING NEW DANCING
Intensive
The workshops offer a research-driven exploration into contact dance, addressing topics such as fall and recovery, tone modulation, tensegrity and sequencing movement. The material will be enriched by influences from the two teacher’s diverse backgrounds in various practices such as axis syllabus, combat dance and play-fight/liquid body-practices.
Shifu Ash & Catrin Kaitaro
CASCADING BODY: FALLING WITH PURPOSE
Intensive
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Abhilash Ningappa's workshop focuses on improvisation based on martial arts principles. He has developed a unique method and practices that empower dancers to make choices and explore the possibilities of movement through composition. Through creative choices, dancers can recover and revisit movements, leading to the creation of a performance.
The workshop starts with a warm up session that leads into various movement practices influenced by martial arts and contemporary dance. This progression ultimately leads towards improvisation practice.
Abhilash's research focuses on sensorial perceptions and their relation to early life and memories. In his workshop, he emphasizes the fundamentals of movement, such as breath, speed, and energy, involving the core structure of the body, influenced by different methods of kalari payattu and other martial arts. The focus is on the dancer's relationship with the space and the people around them, creating a unique and embodied experience.
Overall, Abhilash Ningappa's workshop offers dancers a holistic and embodied approach to improvisation based on martial arts principles. Through his unique method, dancers can develop their creative choices, expand their movement possibilities, and create dynamic performances.
Abhilash Ningappa
EMBODYING CRITICAL SITUATION
Movement Class
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Passing through uses the dynamics of complex systems to create a collective web. The group will create dynamics that will be flexible, complex, getting the group to fit tight together, yet always keeping doors open for the unpredictable. The group moves constantly, transforming the environment of the dance. The room is full of pathways - infinite pathways passing through the walls, the floor, even the bodies. These pathways go in any direction and are filled with curves, large and small.
Visible and invisible spirals are constantly passing through the students. Thus the “passing through” is created into a spontaneous composition. When the group becomes one mind, it can never get lost, there is never one person leading, everyone is following.
The whole group is constantly traveling, weaving their bodies inside and out of their classmates and still always aware of the environment around them.
After taking part in the “passing through” the student will learn to instantly connect with their environment and become more spontaneous in the making of choices as an improviser, choreographer or dancing in someone else’s work.
Aric Master
PASSING THROUGH
Contact Class
We are lately interested in practice through the lens of Nancy Stark Smith’s insights, We invite you to experience the concept of "streaming"—the continuous flow of energy and presence that shapes our practice. We will see how interplay between focus and transition happens in the "gap," where reference points diminish and new possibilities emerge. This class is designed to help you embrace both the clarity and uncertainty in your practice, enhancing your awareness and freedom in movement. Whether you are new to these concepts
or looking to deepen your understanding, this class might be interesting for you .
Adrianna Michalska & Guru Suraj
NAVIGATING CHOICES : EMBRACING STREAM
Contact Class
This workshop offers a chance to connect and explore essential techniques for dancing with partners and larger groups. We'll emphasize self-responsibility as we explore how to move with others while staying attuned to your own well-being—caring for your partner by first caring for yourself. Through a series of physical exercises involving weight, momentum, and lifting, we'll deepen our understanding of these concepts.