CONTACT IMPROVISATION: A QUESTION
WITH DANIEL LEPKOFF + SAKURA SHIMADA
JANUARY 13 - 16
EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNICATION THROUGH MOVEMENT & TOUCH
Offered by: Daniel Lepkoff and Sakura Shimada
We will base our practice of Contact Improvisation on:
● OBSERVATION
● THE MOVEMENT OF ATTENTION
● RECEIVING INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT
leading us as movers to access our innate ability to learn from our experience with gravity and touch.
The work integrates Daniels research with functional movement and extensive experience with Contact Improvisation, together with Sakura's work with the Feldenkrais method and ongoing movement research practice.
For more information go to: https://daniellepkoff.com
SCHOLARSHIP | WORK TRADE | PAYMENT PLAN
We offer 3 full scholarships for Black, Indigenous and People of Color [BIPOC] folks in each session. As well as 3 Work Trade spots in each session. If interested please select 'BIPOC Scholarship' OR 'Work Trade' when registering via the link below. For more information about the work trade exchange, go to the Work Exchange page.
CLICK HERE to register with a Payment Plan.
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Beginning in the early '70's Daniel Lepkoff played a central role in the development of Release Technique with Mary Fulkerson and John Rolland, and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton. Through ongoing experimentation in performance, exploring specific questions about movement with students in workshops, ongoing personal movement research, and a stream of collaborations with improvising artists, Daniel has slowly expanded and deepened his understanding of functional movement and the presence of the imagination in the body.
As a performer he is known for composing dances that arises from the process of living movement and as a teacher for his continual invention of original techniques, making direct contact with information and pursuing questions together with students.
He is an original founder of Contact Improvisation since 1972 and one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC.
He works internationally through Europe, Eastern Europe, and South American.
He lives on a piece of land in Vermont.
Sakura Shimada is from Japan, currently she lives in Vermont.
In Japan, she studied Modern Dance, Ballet, Jazz, and Japanese Fusion dance. She moved to New York City in 1997 and studied at the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance school, Dance Space Center, Movement Research and presented her own works. She was an Artist Residency at Movement Research in 2008. She began working with Daniel Lepkoff in 2001, engaging deeply with his work, co-teaching and traveling internationally. Her improvisation practice is strongly focused on body information and observation of body
mind connection with movement.
She is a certified teacher of DanceAbility, completing the training with Alito Alessi in Bogota in 2012. In 2018 she completed The Feldenkrais teacher training in NYC.