“Before Alice got to Wonderland, she had to fall.”
--Lewis Carroll
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When you gaze into the looking glass, who do you see? What does the looking glass really tell you? What do you tell yourself?
This festival is for those looking to go deeper into the exploration of the self. Contact Improv (CI) will be our method of inquiry. Movement becomes the metaphor. We will expose, express, and contemplate the possibilities of who we are, and how we can be in the moment.
We invite people of all movement backgrounds and identities. No CI or movement experience is necessary. Anybody with a curiosity to discover more about themselves is welcome!
Note: *participants must be 18 years of age or older.
DATES: May long weekend – May 16th, 17th, 18th
LOCATION: Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave., ODD Studio B (2nd Floor).
ACCESSIBILITY: Arts Court is wheelchair accessible via 67 Nicholas Street entrance
TICKETS:
Full Festival pass – sliding scale $100-$120. Send e-transfer to
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Single classes – please pay cash to the instructor at the class.
SCHEDULE OF OFFERINGS:
Friday, May 16th
CI: Relational Architecture
Facilitated by Laurinda Cheng
6:30pm-8:30pm
$20-30 sliding scale
https://www.facebook.com/share/1YHZvfzit5/
Saturday, May 17th
Imaginarium: Body of the Possible
Facilitated by Laurinda Cheng
2:30pm-5:30pm
$30-50 sliding scale
https://www.facebook.com/share/189i68h1BR/
Saturday, May 17th
Evening Sun: Harvesting the Shadows of the Dance
Facilitated by Kristen Lewis
7:00pm-9:00pm
$20 - $30 sliding scale
https://www.facebook.com/share/1FaVUM793N/
Sunday, May 18th
Nature as First and Final Dance Partner/The Worm with a Crown
Facilitated by Kristen Lewis
9am to 12pm
@ National Gallery of Canada (outside)
FREE of CHARGE (participants pay for entrance to gallery)
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Sunday, May 18th
Silent CI Jam: Integration of Reflections
Facilitated by Laurinda Cheng
6:30pm-8:30pm
$10-20 sliding scale
HEALTH POLICY:
Please do not come to class if you are experiencing any symptoms of cold, seasonal flu, or any other communicable sickness.
CLASS GUIDELINES:
1. Consent: You must get consent from a person before making physical contact with them. Consent may include verbal consent, or bodily consent (e.g. moving close to a person and waiting for them to move closer).
2. Diversity: This is a body-positive space that is open to people of all identities and backgrounds. Please extend respect to everybody in the space. There is a zero tolerance policy for any form of harassment.
3. Responsibility of care: You are responsible for caring for your needs, and for caring for the needs of others in the space. We are all responsible for making this space a safer space to dance in.
4. Substance free: This is a sober event. Please do not attend if you are intoxicated on any substances.
CLOTHING, WATER BOTTLES, SCENTS:
• Only water bottles with a lid are allowed in the studio. No glass please!
• No street shoes in the studio. We dance barefoot.
• Bring loose-fitting pants that cover the knees. Avoid wearing zippers, slippery clothing, or jewellery as they can make contact dancing difficult.
• Please avoid wearing strong scents (e.g. perfume/cologne)
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ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
Laurinda Cheng
Laurinda Cheng is an interdisciplinary dancer with over 30 years of training in classical ballet, contemporary, urban dance, salsa, and contact improvisation. She has trained in dance across North America, South America, Europe, and South Africa. She is also a registered psychotherapist in Ontario with a Master of Education in Counselling Psychology from the University of Ottawa, and post-graduate training in complex trauma and developmental trauma. Her work explores the intersection of movement and the relational self and collective. Currently, she her research inquires about the movement behind the movement.
Kristen Lewis
From 2010 to the present, Kristen has developed a teaching and performance practice focused on exposing the fundamental habits and possibilities of the self, past the frame of the normative conditioning that severely limits expressive possibility in a world narrated too narrowly by the norms of excessive digitization, widespread and unnecessary economic precarity, manufactured fear - and not enough bodily life.
Kristen’s training and major teachers include, in chronological order, from 1982 to the present: creative dance (Halifax Dance), gymnastics (Keiji Yamanaka), ballet (Clare Bader), competitive distance running (Clifford Mathews), yoga & meditation (Chogyum Trungpa), experimental theatre & performance art (Thomas Taylor, Performance Studies International, Rumen Rachev), Lakota-Cree Ceremonial tradition (David Westcott), Laban and Developmental Movement-based contemporary dance (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Anne Green Gilbert), law (University of Victoria, Osgoode Hall Law School - Benjamin Berger), systema (Yuri Beskrovny) and contact improvisation as relational practice (Stu Phillips).
When not dancing, Kristen can be found gritting her teeth as she nurtures an emerging identity as a suburban divorce lawyer, to supplant her former calling as a security professional. This latest endeavour is made possible by a deepening meditation practice, a beginner’s study of martial arts - and good friends, the strength of whose example inspires her daily.
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