This 12day workshop has been requested by participants from last year who did this work in 7days. They wanted a longer time to look at the material. We will be working with Tai Chi exercises that exemplify spiral movement, connecting these exercises to Steve Paxton’s spirals rolls, and finally implementing these principles in our improv dance. This is safe and supported work for the level you are at. This work can be referred to as ‘forever’ work, in that one can study this work forever, continually evolving, refining, attaining softer, more subtle, feathery-lightness in ones dance. 
$850Canadian includes tuition, all meals, camping or dormitory, transportation on Lasqueti. Go to ‘Contact Us’ on the right side of this page to send an email to register or inquire.
The schedule will be two classes per day of 2 hours each. It is optional to begin at 7am with one hour meditation. Breakfast is at 8. Morning class is at 10. Lunch break is 3 hours to allow for rest and digest and another optional group meditation. Afternoon class is at 3pm for 2 hours. There is a third meditation time after dinner. The evenings will be for jamming with some guided warm-ups.
We will do a lot of Tai Chi in this workshop. It is more suitable to dance than yoga because of the fluid movement and balancing. Experience has shown that this is the most beneficial skill based exercise to train in for Contact Improv.
We will begin with Tai Chi foundation exercises as taught by Master Moy Lin-Shin. These exercises are to get us moving in a spiral way while shifting weight in a fluid manner. We will connect Tai Chi exercises to Spiral Rolls and then show how spiraling while dancing conserves energy, provides a more stable base, increases tone and provides more clear communication with our partner.
‘From the Ground Up’ – Cultivating awareness of our own sensations by feeling the floor, feeling the alignment of our bones as we stand, feeling the difference between tension and relaxation. We will focus on the physical sensations that arise in proximity to another as we weave in and out of each-others personal space. What effect does physical intimacy have on my sensations? Coming into contact gives us a different set of sensations, not only our own but we can now feel another persons tensions and relaxation. This linking through a single point of contact is where we find our impetus for movement, by tuning into our own genuine sensations we feel the effect another has on us. As the week progresses we will practise lifts and pathways off of the floor with partners. Aerials should happen spontaneously in an improvised dance. However, it is nice to know that a pathway exists without going into fear and stopping the flow. We will practise these pathways in a slow, supported way. For the adventurous, there is the ‘Helicopter’ as depicted in this.
This 5min video is of the group score ‘pass the dance’. The intention of the score is to increase spontaneity. We will spend the last 15minutes of each class working with this score where participants circle, similar to round-robin but duets are short, less than 30seconds, never a trio. You become aware of the entire room. I blame Ms. Simone and Sinnerman for the digression from the original score you see…but it was a lot of fun.
