This is 7 full days, arriving on Sunday Aug30th for dinner and live music. First class is Monday 31st. Final class is Sunday Sept6, followed by final jam. This intensive ends on Labour Day Monday, Sept7, after breakfast, before the 11am departure from Lasqueti. $575($500US)
This was a very popular workshop last year and the year before. So we will repeat it, almost verbatim. This seems to be the way to study Contact Improv. Guaranteed, you will be a better dancer by the end of the week, assuming you work hard. Although suitable to new people and beginners, it is recommended that you be fit and willing to work through the discomfort of Spiral Rolls, Crescent Rolls and Aikido Rolls. This work and the partnering exercises we will use are accessible to all, you do not have to be an athlete or professional dancer. There will be higher level participants and for those willing to explore lifts and flying. Everything in the world is based on the spiral, from the DNA to the Milky Way. It makes sense that we practise moving in such a way. The Spiral Rolls and Tai Chi we practise will help us to access strength and stability will remaining fluid and flowing in our movement.
2 classes per day. We will begin with Tai Chi foundation exercises as taught by Master Moy Lin-Shin. These exercises are to get us moving spirally while shifting weight in a fluid manner. This form has an emphasis on feeling the floor, aligning our bones in an effortless way. It is this respect of our first partner in CI, the floor, that will allow us to do aerials in a safe manner. This form of Tai Chi emphasizes remaining aware of genuine physical sensations as we move. This inward focus heightens awareness as well as accelerating reflexes.
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.
In exploring the concept ‘tension masks sensation,’ there will be three meditation times per day to reduce tension. Meditation is is not being taught or guided and is not part of the class time. It is not compulsory to meditate but it is asked that participants commit to being contemplative and remain in a quiet solitude during the meditation times. One may choose to sleep or walk to the beach. Conversation and caffeine are discouraged during these three times throughout the day. The intention is to reduce tension in the body, hence cultivating a greater awareness of genuine sensation to react to in an appropriate way.
This is a long workshop, 7days. The work is exhausting. With respect to managing fatigue, we will do Yin/Restorative yoga every other afternoon with the intention of falling asleep in the space.
The schedule will be 7-8am meditation, 8-10breakfast, 10-12 class, 12-3 lunch, 3-4meditation, 4-6pm class, 6-7pm dinner, 7-8 meditation, 8-midnight jam/sauna
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, the foundations of Contact Improvisation.
He has studied C.I. with Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Karen Nelson, John Faichney, Alicia Grayson, and Andrew Harwood 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. Leviathan Studio operates during the summer months hosting the best teachers for long workshops for those who want to advance their skills in Contact Improvisation.
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