*This lab-jam is partly inspired by the work of neuro-biologist Jill Bolte-Taylor and her book Whole Brain Living that emerged from her studying herself as she had and recovered from a stroke that took out her left hemisphere. It is also partly inspired by Kirstie Simpson, one of the OGs of Contact Improvisation and someone I deeply resonate with.
We will explore how removing sight and the primary use of verbal language can drop us into our "right-brain-feeling" sensory capacity and "right-brain-thinking" sense of wonder at our oneness with everything, and then... how we can bring our sight and voice back in, harness the skills of the logical "left-brain-thinking" tracker of details and "left-brain-feeling" part that cares for our safety, all while staying in touch with the right-brain parts' overarching presencing and big picture guidance.
We will do this through the body, by using structures that combine dancing with and without sight, and take time for reflection. Eventually this will flow into open dancing.
I am also excited to welcome a new musician to play with us! Philipp Samutan will join us on violin and loops. Philipp is studying music improvisation at St Jeromes College. And we will also be blessed by other musical beings... Michael Reginato and Fynn Fooks!
Sense your body and rediscover your intelligence and choice-making. Grow your capacity for being in a flow-state. Rise with ease out of the floor. Move with curiosity and sensual wonder. Release your inner child who dances like no one’s watching and plays with seeing and being seen. Become the music.
In these workshop-labs we will empty into the fullness of our unfolding experience, create dances as a way to heal, share them as offerings, and play with guided imagery, structures and movement games to support our coming alive to new possibilities and capacities, while collaborating with improvising musicians to emerge solo, duo and group dances.
No previous experience necessary, just curiosity and an openness to play.
Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, 116 Queen St N, Kitchener
When: Tuesday May 13, 2025 7:30-9:30 PM
**NOTE: We will not let people in late for this one, unless previously arranged. Please arrive between 7:00 and 7:20 PM so we can be ready to start at 7:30 PM. This way we can avoid the interruption of the buzzer and create a focused safer container for everyone. And have more time to dance!
Cost: $20-30 sliding scale
Contact: Tanya Williams friendsofthefloor at gmail dot com
519-fiveeighteight-1257
**(It's helpful to know who is coming, so if you can let me know, that would be great!)
The space is WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE - just let me know ahead so I can open the door to the elevator for you)
A bit about me and why I do this:
For over 25 years, the practice of movement and contact improvisation has been a life-line. It consistently invites me to lean into the dance of relationship… to embrace an openess to inter-being, to not knowing, with my whole body, and learn what it means to sense the subtle (and sudden) shifts of a shared space, time and centre of gravity.
I love cross-pollinating learning from such places as the Liminal Space Agency & Meta-Monastery, Bio-Emotive Framework, Collective Presencing, Internal Family Systems Therapy, devised physical theatre, ensemble dance improvisation, Butoh, Authentic Movement & Relating, Dynamic Structural Integration Bodywork and Alexander Technique movement education.
A touchstone for dancing with complex living systems, beginning with ourselves, I see all of this work as part of a larger evolutionary project in learning to move wisely together on earth.
Photo by Fred Hunsberger
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