SUMMER CONTACT IMPROVISATION FESTIVAL
AUGUST 21st - 27th
Announcing our second annual Summer Contact Improvisation Festival featuring 6 days of intensives, classes and jams exploring and training in Contact Improvisation.
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The Summer Festival is divided into two parts; The intensive with Nita Little, which runs Monday 21st through Thursday 24th includes room, 3 meals per day, daily focused training and nightly facilitated Jams.
Friday 25th through Sunday 27th, the festival moves into the open weekend format with presentations, classes and open music jams. Live accompaniment by Lily Gelfand.
Two classes on Friday with Sarah Konner and two classes on Saturday with Funda Gul!
MORE DETAILS COMING SOON.
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Registration options include taking the Intensive Only, Weekend Pass only, or a FULL FESTIVAL PASS with camping options available. This event is limited to 40 participants including campers.
Arrival for the Weekend Pass is Thursday at 4pm.
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3 day intensive with Nita Little | AUG 21 - 24
Intensive Description:
Somatic Communication for Contact Improvisation: An Intermediate/Advanced Deep Dive
This three-day workshop is a deep dive into relational practices inherent in dancing contact improvisation. Engaging all levels of touch, our dancing awakens communication that moves among bodyminds, faster than body language. While working on the physicality of moving well and moving well together, we will train those embodiments that are always also in consideration of our partner’s well-being – and our ability to know so. Through training specific practices, working through scores, showings, discussions, and other investigative modes, we delve into topics that make physical the ethics of care, modalities of difference, decolonizing our embodiments and our relational expectations, and reWilding our moving presence. Creative, thoughtful, heart based, skill based, our learning will be anchored in the core principles of Contact Improvisation. From the concrete to the sublime, we will stretch the reach of our dance until it lives within our every moment.
Daily schedule TBA.
SCHOLARSHIP + WORK TRADE
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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.
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Nita Little is an activist for relational intelligence through improvisational dance practices that began with the emergence and development of Contact Improvisation (CI). Her work with Steve Paxton was generative of CI in 1972 and she is now the last remaining teacher of the original pioneers of this form. A dancer, teacher, choreographer, and theorist, Little received her PhD in Performance Studies in 2014. She tours worldwide on a regular basis working for dance companies, at festivals, conferences and universities teaching, lecturing, and choreographing. Her writing investigates ecological actions of attention and the creative potentials present in entangled relations. She initiated the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (the ISSC) in 2016 with dance research ensembles (which all share CI in common) participating from around the globe.
Sarah Konner is a dance artist, improviser and somatic movement educator researching dance as a process of evolution and collective storytelling. Sarah makes dance theater performance and recently worked with Jeanine Durning, Sara Shelton Mann, Jenna Riegel, ChavasseDance&Performance, Austin Selden, SetGO Performance Improvisation, and Shura Baryshnikov. She holds an MFA in Dance from Smith College and certification in Body-Mind Centering®. www.SarahandAustinDance.com
Funda Gul is a fearless explorer of movement, embarking on a captivating spiritual and intellectual journey through various disciplines. She first ventured into the world of Aikido in 2005, igniting a passion that would shape her path. Along the way, Funda immersed herself in the art of Systema, honing her skills as an instructor-in-training. The allure of spirituality also led her to complete a transformative 500-hour teacher training program in the Krishnamacharya lineage of Yoga, where she discovered the power of personalized and adaptable practices.
Since 2016, Funda has been an avid student, teacher, and facilitator of Contact Improvisation. Collaborating with esteemed dancers, she facilitates enticing workshops and events, including the unforgettable Nita Little's inspiring workshop in the heart of New York City.
Drawing from her background in Yoga and Martial Arts, Funda effortlessly tailors her teachings to meet the diverse needs and abilities of her students. She crafts an all-inclusive sanctuary for movement exploration, guided by the profound philosophy that "Function Creates the Form."
Lily Gelfand is a Brooklyn-based dancer, experimental cellist, composer, and teaching artist. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Lily received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College. While at Ohio University, she also began her dance musician training under the mentorship of Andre Gribou. As a dancer, Lily has had the pleasure of performing works by Kyle Abraham, Joanna Kotze, Kendra Portier, David Dorfman, Jasmine Hearn, Thryn Saxon, Serena Chang, and Ani Javian. As a cellist, Lily is currently on staff as a dance musician at The Juilliard School, and has composed and performed original collaborative works for Christina Robson, Jasmine Hearn, Dance Lab NY, Toscana Dance Hub, Venza Dance, The Wooden Floor, Douglas Gillespie, and Nik Owens. Additionally, Lily is a 200 Hour RYT through the Yoga Alliance, and uses cello as a source of sound healing for a variety of meditations and restorative practices throughout the city.
Her favorite color is green.