Contact improvisation is a whole-body practice in the art of collaboration. It involves following what makes sense for you while exploring gravity, momentum, & whatever is happening in the moment, including the physical & energetic contact with your dance partners. At times playful, at times meditative, dancers may share a shifting centre of gravity that can take them into a dynamic dance of lifts and rolls, or into a subtle movement conversation.

Contact Improvisation Classes & Jams

In these classes & jams, generally, we will:

* Release tension
* Awaken our senses, notice the shifting focus of our attention
* Practice “enlightened selfishness”: grow our capacity to care for ourselves while being in the dance with others
* Tune into what makes deep sense for us moment to moment.
* Embrace our response-ability
* Practice finding ways to communicate what we need & want in the dance, verbally & non-verbally, including saying yes & no
* Practice listening and embracing when our partner expresses a boundary
* Nurture an environment of curiosity in oneself, that expands creative possibilities beyond judgment
* Transform how we see relationship: from transaction to co-creation
* Increase our awareness of our centre of gravity
* Practice caring for ourselves by going to the floor safely and with ease
* Learn to use the natural forces of gravity and momentum to create effortlessness and flow in the dance
* Learn to use the physics of the moment to create safe and easeful ways to share weight
* Offer practical tools for great dances
* Increase our capacity for play and connection
* Create suppleness and strength in the body
* Have fun!

Bring your water bottle and beginner’s mind. Wear comfortable clothing with layers you can shed as you warm up, and your bare feet. Yoga, sweatpants, or dance clothes with no buckles or zippers work well. Some people like to wear kneepads for extra comfort.

No previous experience necessary. All abilities welcome.

FRIENDS OF THE FLOOR DANCE-THEATRE is an evolving ecosystem of dancers, actors and context artists investigating and improvising: What creates the cultural conditions for co-intelligence, collaboration and flow toward creating the world we deeply want?
This happens through growing a trust in the wisdom of the individual & collective body-mind-in-process, primarily through the practice of movement, sound and contact improvisation.

TANYA WILLIAMS is a context artist with a passion for dancing with complex systems… in community, on the land, and in the body.  In her classes, she loves sharing both practical and magical pathways into the dance, and has been doing this for 20 years. She studied Alexander Technique movement education and Structural Integration bodywork for many years and enjoys developing new ways to draw on all these forms to enrich the practice of contact improvisation.  In recent years, she has explored the integration of the Pathway work of Laurel Mellin, integrating contact improvisation & authentic movement into an embodied self-facilitated practice for consciously changing neurological pathways. She has been working with the MT Space (Multi-cultural Theatre Space) for over 10 years, and currently gets totally inspired facilitating devised physical theatre with youth. She co-founded the Ontario Regional Contact Jam, Friends of the Floor Dance-Theatre and The Living Room Context 24/7 learning community exploring what it means to embody a systems understanding and an experience of flow in everyday life.
The practice of contact improvisation invites her to find delight in her learning edges and generate full-body co-intelligence with others to create the dance she wants as it emerges.

TIM SPRONK has been dancing for 25 years. He started training at the School of Alberta Ballet in Edmonton, Alberta. After completing a B.F.A. at York he joined the Newton Moraes company and had since worked for a variety of independent choreographers and companies. He was a founding member of the Chimera Project and danced with Kaeja d’Dance for eight years. Currently a member of the Arabesque dance company and orchestra, Tim has most recently appeared at the Canada Dance Festival with CORPUS. Aside from dancing, Tim works as personal trainer and is an instructor for Join the Dance Canada, a charity that brings ballroom dance to young people in the GTA.
Tim has actively practiced Contact Improvisation for 20 years, and he is eager to share his knowledge of strength training, dance partnering and internal martial arts to help fellow students expand their skills for safe, dynamic play in Contact Dance.

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FEE: ***PAY WHAT MAKES DEEP SENSE***

Our goal is to nurture and co-create a vibrant contact improvisation community as a common resource for everyone…
No one will be turned away for financial reasons, AND this common resource depends on our energy and support to continue.

If we look through a sacred economics lens, we might ask… What do I value and want to experience more of in the world? How might I be a resource to this common resource? What is the current situation for myself and the whole? When I tune into my body, what makes deep sense to me here?

Some possible ways we can bring our energies to the KW Dance Commons other than $:

-spread the word/poster/Facebook/tell your friends! Who might love this?

-get involved in nurturing the practice and the community

-support the organization, hosting of events, facilitation, teachers, musicians

-support the infrastructure of website, calendar, FB pages, etc.

-PARTICIPATE in classes, jams, demonstrations, video documentation

-come up with more ideas…