GRAVITY DANCES WORKSHOP
Shining a light on the queer side of the body
11-6 - Saturday 31 January - £40
https://wainsgate.co.uk/gravity-dances-workshop/
We move through the questions that Contact Improvisation continues to raise more than fifty years after its birth:
What does it mean to meet?
To fall?
To touch?
To share weight?
To research instability in an unstable world?
We draw from Steve Paxton’s legacy, from the small dance, from material for the spine —
We’ll look at CI not as an aesthetic, but as a political practice: a way to study care, consent, solidarity, empathy and interdependence.
– because everything is political — every weight shared, every hand released, every floor we trust again.
We invite you into this dance — a field of gravity, resistance, tenderness, and revolution(s)
We want to send big shout out and gratitude to @makisigakin & @anya.cloud for being a constant inspiration to us, and for originating the phrase, and developing a body of radical work around the concept of “the queer side of the body” 💗💗💗
The sub title paraphrases Steve Paxton’s "bring the light of consciousness to the dark side of the body" from Material for the Spine.
About the teachers...
Nica Portavia, born in Fano, Italy to an Italian father and a Lebanese mother, is a queer dancer, activist, teacher, and researcher working in Contact Improvisation and its political dimensions.
After early professional training in contemporary dance in Italy and Barcelona, they discovered CI and have been deeply engaged with it ever since.
Nica has trained internationally with teachers including Steve Paxton, Daniel Lepkoff, Charlie Morrissey, KJ Holmes, Anya Cloud, and Karen Nelson, and completed Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine training. Together with Karen Nelson, they co-teach Faking it with Gravity and perform the research work Smaller internationally.
Nica has taught across Europe, the Americas, and the US, organizes major CI events including ItalyContactFest and Being Touch Festival, and explores CI as a political practice through community work, public space performances, and research on impact and documentation.
Also check out other Workshops in Luddenden Foot, Festivals in Luddenden Foot, Dance events in Luddenden Foot.
