Contact Improvisation and Improvisational Composition Intensive with Andrew Harwood and Ray Chung, August 8-17, 2015. $650Canadian
Arrive Saturday August 8 for dinner, orientation, jam and rest. First class is Sunday morning. There is one day of rest with performance one evening TBA. Class resumes the following day and continues till Sunday August 16th with the final jam that evening. This intensive ends after breakfast on Monday Aug 17. $650 includes camping, dormitory, all meals and transportation on Lasqueti. 
Each class will begin with warm-up focusing on releasing and extending the body, awakening the senses and developing an awareness of inner/outer space. Various Contact skills will be practised daily to develop a better range of movement, create safety and confidence. We will examine the role of perception, sensation, expression and imagination in the Contact work. Our goal is to find a sense of timelessness in our dancing- a state of consciousness that is aware but not self-conscious. We will also seek to bring Contact Improvisation into a greater improvisational universe in order to move freely in and out of partnering, strengthen our solo dances and develop a group mindfulness. Through various compositional strategies we will look at how the mind’s beliefs about space and time can be altered and how this can dramatically affect our presence, our bodies and the way we move. Throughout this practice we will be encouraged to lower our expectations, and accentuate our inventiveness.
Andrew de Lotbiniere Harwood has been deeply influential in the development of Contact Improvisation and instantaneous composition worldwide since 1976. His work has evolved through ongoing collaborations and various investigations of performance, composition, spacial design and movement techniques and has been influenced through the study of gymnastics, Alexander Technique, Aikido, release technique, contemporary dance and yoga. He studied and performed extensively with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, the founding members of Contact Improvisation. Harwood danced for the companies Fulcrum, Jo Lechay, Marie Chouinard, and Jean-Pierre Perreault, and has collaborated with Chris Aiken, Kirstie Simson, Ray Chung, Benno Voorman, Peter Bingham, Marc Boivin, Lin Snelling and Benoit Lachambre, among many others. Andrew de Lotbiniere Harwood is the recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts Jacquiline Lemieux award for the year 2000.
Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, engineer and artist with a passion for dancing which he likes to share with other people. His main focus is improvisation and he has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979 as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement. Ray has worked with the leading proponents of Contact Improvisation including Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, Nita Little, Lisa Nelson, Peter Bingham, Chris Aiken, Andrew Harwood and regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists. His work has been featured at numerous national and international festivals and venues. Currently based in San Francisco and Sweden. Ray regularly teaches abroad.
To register: Go to ‘Contact Us’ on the right side of this screen. Send an email with Aug8-17 in the subject line. Registration has begun. This event is limited to 30 participants. As of Feb 5, there are 26 people registered.
