CWPS Faculty Lecture with Amy Chavasse

CWPS Faculty Lecture with Amy Chavasse: Contact Improvisation at the edge of democracy: improvising new steps from south to north

Tuesday September 23 2025 | 6:00 pm
Studio 2 - Walgreen Drama Center 1226 Murfin Ave Ann Arbor MI 48109
Free and open to the public

University of Michigan Professor of Dance Amy Chavasse will discuss their nine-month collaborative project supported by the Center for World Performance Studies exploring the evolution of Contact Improvisation (CI) in Argentina – where it arose after the dictatorship’s end in 1985 – as a lens for examining democracy resistance and artmaking amid social upheaval. Through workshops lectures and community events in Buenos Aires with Argentinian CI leaders Marina Tampini and Cristina Turdo and U-M alum Sarah Konner the team mapped the South-North dynamics of the dance’s history using archival video and interviews to spark reflection on democracy authoritarianism and cultural exchange while highlighting how CI has become a vibrant activist art form deeply tied to Argentina’s sociopolitical context.