Tag Archives: teaching
What Is The ‘Purpose’ of Contact Improvistion?
Two Monks are Walking in the Woods…
What are the Qualities of an Advanced Contact Improvisation Dancer? Part one
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Recently some of the organizers of my “advanced” workshops have turned away students for not having enough of the fundamentals of C.I. to join the group.
In Barcelona this past July the organizers and I asked two people to not continue because we didn’t feel Continue reading
101 Ways to Say No to Contact Improvisation
Boundaries and Trust
…it is important that awake people be awake, or
a breaking line may discourage them back to Continue reading
Embers in the Heart
Any time we risk really hearing someone, letting who they truly are dance against the intimate core of our being, what we give that person
is the gift of themselves. When the space in us is an invitation,
we find things around us answering by coming alive. It is in the nature
of things that a beautiful opening inspires us to find something
of equal beauty to put within it.— “The Creative Imperative” Charles Johnston
An old African proverb says, “When one flower opens, dozens open.”
There is a moment during a class when everything changes. Continue reading
Mortality and Teaching
A major resource when I work with a group is the act of summoning the past by conjuring what I’ve learned from my past teachers and dance partners. There is something alchemical in the act of Continue reading
It Helps To Let Go…
As in falling asleep, it helps to let go…
As in taking a bowel movement, it helps to let go…
As in lovemaking, it helps to let go…
It’s the same with teaching contact improvisation – it helps to let go…
The Geography of a Dance Studio
I teach in a converted colonial convent that was completed in 1765. This building houses the National School of Fine Arts in San Miguel, Mexico. The dance studio has vaulted ceilings, large windows looking out into a Continue reading