12 day retreat with two classes per day and jams in the evening. $1800 includes all meals, tuition, accommodation, transportation to and from the ferry. Go to Contact Us on the right side of this page.
In Mark’s class: This workshop connects Tai Chi to Material For the Spine to Contact Improvisation. It involves a lot of spiral movement. We start with floor work and slowly work our way up, rolling over each other, finding the floor with safe and gentle landings, we explore the fear reflex, overcoming old habits, exploring new pathways and possibilities.
The Tai Chi style that I studied extensively in the 90’s is based entirely on spiral movement. It is the natural organization of all life. Everything from the DNA to the Milky Way is spiralling. Our bones and muscles are designed and function in spirals. This way of moving accesses both strength and lightness. When lifting, we are stronger and more stable when utilizing spirals. When flying, we are lighter when twisted.
In Lesley’s class:
Dynamics of Non-verbal Dialogue in Contact Improvisation
In the afternoon labs with Lesley we will explore dynamics of non-verbal dialogue in CI through various anatomical and physiological perspectives on listening and responding. We will investigate the experience of our own attentional and perceptual systems as we dance together to support nuanced physical reciprocity in contact improvisation.
Lesley Greco
With backgrounds in osteopathy, movement and voice, Lesley works in the fields of rehabilitation, performance and movement education as a practitioner, artist, teacher and researcher. Contact Improvisation has been a key part of Lesley’s movement practice since being introduced to it in 2001. Her practice of CI is focused around the dynamics, and the physiologies of perception, physical listening, responsiveness and non-verbal dialogue.
Photos by Alice Arida at A Tapestry of Relations by Kerwin Barrington at the Nomadic College at Earthdance
Lesley began teaching CI in 2009 assisting choreographer/dancer/activist Pam Johnson at Humber College School of Performing Arts teaching CI to physical theatre students from 2009-2011. She has been a guest lecturer for graduate and undergraduate classes at the University of Guelph School of The Arts, has facilitated groups with; Sweet Labour Arts Collective at the Field Center and artist residencies, for Guelph Dance Festival, at the University of Guelph Improv lab, Humber College, Halliburton School of the Arts, Leviathan Studio, as well as teaching privately and in her local communities.
Lesley’s essay on listening, touch and voice is included in The Anthology of Essays on Deep Listening edited by Monique Buzzarte and Tom Bickley and published in 2012.
Her essay The Small Dances of Listening can be found in Resistance and Support Contact Improvisation @ 50 edited by Ann Cooper Albright and published by Oxford University Press (2024).
