In this Contact Improvisation workshop, we will explore how tone—the balance between release and readiness—laxation and tension, shapes our dancing both in and out of contact. Through solo, partner, and group explorations, participants will be guided to find greater clarity, playfulness, and depth in their movement.
Together we will:
* Practice centering techniques and weight transfer to ground and expand our dancing.
* Work with rolling, reaching, folding, and off-balance to discover pathways into and out of the floor.
* Explore listening in partnership—how to follow, support, or disrupt through touch.
* Investigate “tone” from the inside out, using living and moving sculptures as playful structures for trio work.
* Develop strategies for performing contact—including piloting, blindfolded duets, and shifting between giving and receiving in the dance.
This session is open to movers with some curiosity about Contact Improvisation—whether you are just beginning or wishing to deepen your existing practice. Expect a balance of movement drills, creative scores, and performance play, all within a supportive environment.
Lisa May Thomas is a dance artist, teacher, and facilitator whose work weaves together somatic practice, improvisation, and contemporary dance. She has also extensively explored how we are embodied with different technologies, making dance films, and working with technologies such as motion capture and multi-person virtual reality to create participatory immersive performances.
Lisa has a broad-range of teaching expertise which includes lecturing in higher education across the UK, teaching class for experienced dancers, working with inclusive dance groups and with communities of elders. With a background in both performance and movement research, she creates spaces that encourage curiosity, playfulness, and embodied awareness. Her teaching is rooted in an attentiveness to the body and exploring our interconnectedness to the world around us. She works with practices that orient around touch and weight to open new possibilities for movement and connection.
Lisa has taught and performed widely, developing a practice that values both rigorous technique and improvisational responsivity, supporting movers of all backgrounds to deepen their experience of dance as an expressive and relational artform
*Free entry to the jam and foodshare afterwards at 5:15
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