Contact Improvisation – Page 2

Embodied decision-making?

The University of Oxford has been using the humanities for leadership training – mostly for leaders in business. Acting and singing are two humanities featured in their programme but what about movement or dance? I draw-up a two day course based upon my movement practice of contact improvisation. [Research by Fiona Bennett]

C-12 Emerge Dance Festival 2020

Dance artist Jo Dyer with whom I worked last year, is performing a new dance in London and you’re invited! Save the dates: 3-7th March at The Space, 269 Westferry Rd, London E14 3RS. Tickets are available.

Stage dancing : Christmas Lights 2019, Oxford

On Saturday 16 November, dancer Jo Dyer, cellist Josie Webber and I, took to the stage in Oxford at the Christmas Lights Festival. We performed a revised version of the ‘In-between’ dance created earlier in the year.

Freiburg Contact Festival 2019: My Scrapbook

I attended the Freiburg Contact Festival 2019. Afterwards, I made a scrapbook using entries in my dance diary and accompanying photos. You can see it here (PDF).

I also photographed the Freiburg Contact Festival too.

Patrick Beelaert was one of the photographers at Freiburg 2019 and he has a great album of photos on Flickr which show people dancing.

Freiburg Contact Festival 2019: Dance the light fantastic

This summer, I attended the Freiburg Contact Festival in southern Germany. The festival is now in its twentieth year. The dancing and dancers are well documented by dedicated photographers. But the place, its light, and its buildings where equally of interest and less explored.

Fountain: a dance

Ideas for dance rarely come from nowhere. A few years ago, I saw a fantastic image of a man throwing a handful of small sticks into the air. The photograph had caught the movement, and indeed the moment in time as the sticks were suspended in a ‘stick cloud’. That was my starting point for a dance involving buckets and water.

In-between Performance films

There were two films of the In-between performance shot on Saturday 25 May by Fiona Bennett. A short feature with highlights, and a full length version. Both are presented here.

‘In-between’ performance

The Turrill Sculpture Garden in Oxford was the venue of my latest public dancing in a performance called ‘In-between’: two dancers, two cellists and a lawn to dance on. Thankfully, it didn’t rain!

Composition & rehearsal: ‘in-between’ performance

We had a composition and rehearsal session on Saturday 18 May for the ‘in-between’ performance. Cellists Bruno Guastalla & Josie Webber and the dancers – me and Josephine Dyer, created a score and jammed ideas for the performance the following week.

Research proposal

I submited a research proposal to the Freiburg Contact Festival 2019. It’s an idea which I’m also developing with others into a dance for a duet with two cellos. But the Freiburg proposal uses an instrument more at hand – our clapping hands. This is the proposal.