Body as Teacher: Investigations on Embodied Intelligence, Collaboration and Care
This workshop is an inquiry into the body as an intelligent, responsive teacher. Through Contact Improvisation, we will explore what it means to move in collaboration with our bodies’ innate intelligence and with the physical forces that shape us—gravity, momentum, and centrifugal force. Learning from our direct experience, we will investigate the qualities of care, attention, and responsiveness needed to meet the unpredictable, alive nature of the dance together.
This is an open invitation for anyone interested in practicing Contact Improvisation. Over two days together, through solo work, partner explorations, and simple group scores, we will engage with the fundamentals of the practice: embodied listening, attention, and mutual support. The space will hold a balance of guided exercises and open explorations, offering time to sense, experiment, and integrate.
Everything offered throughout the workshop is an invitation and emphasis is on listening to our own bodies to guide the pace and intensity of the dance. This is an opportunity to be together and listen deeply, to soften, dance and play.
Open Level
This workshop is open to all bodies and curious minds. No previous experience is required. Both beginner and experienced practitioners supported.
Structure
Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March
Arrivals from 10:30
Practice 11am - 5pm
Lunch break 2pm - 3:15pm
Venue
St Matthew’s Community Hall
Chapel Lane, Stretford, Manchester M32 9AJ
We will gather in the Clarke Hall.
Practical things
Wear comfortable, loose clothing (long sleeves and trousers). Remove any jewellery or belts. Some folks opt to wear knee pads to protect their knees.
Bring water, a journal and lunch.
Cost
Saturday: £50
Weekend: £80
It’s encouraged to attend both days as the material will build in depth, however if you can only attend one day then it’s possible to come just for Saturday.
It’s important to us that this practice is accessible to everyone. If money is a barrier to accessing this workshop please get in touch and we will work something out.
If you are financially comfortable, paying a bit extra helps us to keep workshops accessible to those who otherwise would be unable to join.
Booking link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd6Q8GJnlOr7QMvP7szWX27UblyfKr05O95eboIg-MELQn2EA/viewform?usp=header
Email:
aXNsYWRvbmFsZHNvbmNvdW5zZWxsaW5nIHwgb3V0bG9vayAhIGNvbQ==
YWlzbGluZ3JtYXJrcyB8IGdtYWlsICEgY29t
WhatsApp:
Isla - 07849722100
Ash - 07464690540
About Us
Isla Donaldson
I am a psychotherapist, Contact Improviser, and facilitator. Each thread of my practice is rooted in a trust in the innate intelligence of our bodies, and a curiosity about what supports this intelligence to emerge within and between us. For me, Contact Improvisation is a research for living; It offers us a direct, visceral encounter with ourselves, one another, and the physical forces that shape us. Through playfully embracing the unknown together and reclaiming our embodiment, we can rediscover our adaptability and collective capacity to respond to an ever-changing, unpredictable reality. In our current world, to simply be together, feel our bodies, and trust what we know directly, is an act of revolution.
Aisling Marks
I am a devoted practitioner of Contact Improvisation as an embodied research for living ethically, joyfully and courageously through the ecological decline and crises of late-stage capitalism. As a facilitator, therapist and researcher, my work is grounded in a commitment to collective care, learning how to live relationally and being sensuously with the complicated questions of our messy human lives. I have a PhD in Art Education where I studied pedagogies of care in artist communities, and I’m currently completing a professional Diploma in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy. I facilitate, teach and organise Contact Improvisation in Sheffield.
Us
We’ve been dancing CI together since we first discovered the practice, and have supported each other in learning and growing through the questions the dance brings. This will be our first collaboration and we are so excited to share the beauty of the practice together, and with other curious bodies.
About Contact Improvisation:
“Contact Improvisation was initiated in 1972 by the American choreographer 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘅𝘁𝗼𝗻. Its roots are grounded in the experimental and innovative spirit of modern dance, and in ancient eastern philosophies, martial arts, meditative and contemplative traditions (Aikido & Tai Chi).
It presents a touch based, non-prescribed way of collaborative movement and interaction, favoring bodily awareness and mutuality over form. Its essentials invites to open the senses, to trust to the immediate direct experience, to connect to the ground, and to restore embodied connection with gravity and the changing physical reality.
It is an ongoing research that serves multi-directionally as a profound attentional, perceptional, relational, and physical training. CI in itself does not convey any particular meaning and has no specific goal to achieve. One of its core principles is to remain empty of any agenda while focusing on improvisation continuously…. It is open for all bodies and inquiring minds.”
- Sasha Dodo 2023
You may also like the following events from Contact Improv MCR:
Also check out other
Workshops in Sale,
Arts events in Sale.
