12day Contact Improv retreat with Mark Young
and Samantha Letourneau
Sept16-29, 2018 at Leviathan Studio, Lasqueti Island, B.C.
$1200Can includes all meals, dormitory, camping, tuition, taxes, and transportation on Lasqueti.
Arrive on Sunday Sept16 to be picked up from the ferry by a limousine, brought to the studio for dinner rest. Class begins on Monday morning. The final jam is Friday, Sept28 with departure after breakfast on the 29th at 10am, the ferry leaves at 11.
This workshop has become the signature of Leviathan. It is tried, tested and proven to work. Participants of past workshops have expressed surprise at their development by the third day and are amazed that they continue to improve as CI dancers throughout the 12 days. Some participants have done this workshop 5 times. In 2017 it was offered as a 19day workshop. Several participants asked that it be made longer.
We will start with Tai Chi exercises that emphasize the spiral nature of our physiology. Everything from the DNA to the milky way is spiraling. All of our muscles are laid on bones that are shaped in spirals. The ancient Taoist masters recognized this and developed movement patterns that harness strength and ease in movement.
We will bridge from Taoist Tai Chi to Steve Paxton’s ‘Material For the Spine.’ MFS includes spiral rolls, crescent rolls and Aikido rolls. These exercises are done alone on the floor. They inform the body of unnecessary tension. They bring awareness to blind spots. They bring consciousness to our dance.
We will bridge from floor work to partner work using these rolls to find smooth pathways with a partner. Exploring the concept that ‘lifts are organic’ we will let our feet come off the floor on our terms, when we want. Lifts and aerials in Contact Improv are not contrived like other dance forms. They happen because someone made a mistake; someone’s centre of gravity went below their partners’. We will play with this gentle riding up to slide down to roll up.
This workshop is the ‘essential’ Contact Improv. You can take these exercises with y0u and practice them for the rest of your life. They take more than two weeks to really know them, imprint them in your muscle-memory. Come back next year for a refresher.
Samantha Letourneau will be leading some of the classes during this 12day workshop. Sam’s work compliments Mark’s approach giving the participant
Movement for Improvisation:
“The body can provide a direct route to the emotions… In every physical action, unless it is purely mechanical, there is concealed some inner action, some feeling.” -Constantine Stanislavski
Examine how the body is the most important filtering device in interpreting and negotiating the world externally by using principles inspired by Laban Movement Analysis and contemporary dance. By studying the relationship between the architecture of the human body and it’s pathways in physical space, it facilitates the finding of harmonious patterns and can open up movement improvisation possibilities. Learn to analyze the body in motion, and communicate through understanding your movement preferences by exploring the what and how of movement. The classes begin with breath and body-mind awareness exercises.We then explore movement including modeling movement ideas into dance/improvisation.
Samantha Letourneau holds a Masters in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University, focusing on the transformative possibilities of art engagement, a Laban Movement Analysis Certification from Donna Redlick– Certified Movement Analyst, studied contemporary dance and movement with UK-Canadian choreographer Clare Cunningham and holds an International Diploma in the Performing Arts from the School for Traditional Sundanese music and dance in Indonesia.
Mark Young has been doing Contact Improvisation since 1997. What began as fun re-hab after a traumatic accident quickly became a serious study. He also began a serious study of Tai Chi and Vipassana meditation around the same time, these are the foundations of Contact Improvisation. He has studied C.I. with everyone who has come to the studio, many people outside of the studio and attended numerous conferences with the originators of the form at Breitenbush Hot Springs retreat centre. Also, he has attended numerous Contact Improv jams at Earthdance retreat centre in Massachusetts over the past 15 years. In 2000 he committed all of his resources to the creation of Leviathan Studio, a dance studio committed to the study of Contact Improvisation.
To register go to ‘Contact Us’ on the right side of the screen, send an email. You should be responded to within 24hrs.
