Although improvised, Contact Improvisation is a dance style that teaches a large amount of coordination.
In this introductory course, students will focus on key concepts, practices and techniques of Contact Improvisation to begin dancing. This will include the development of sensational awareness, corporal dialogue, and balancing and interacting with other dancers.
In itself, Contact Improvisation is more than a dance form: its a means by which to learn to better inhabit one’s own body. In this way, many dancers find that being involved in Contact Improvisation helps them in their daily lives by teaching them about such fundamental concepts as present mindedness, corporal expression, and anatomical consciousness.
Because of its nature, Contact Improvisation is an accesible dance form for anyone who may be interested. These classes are designed for adults and no previous experience is required.
For more information, please e-mail carolinabecker7@gmail.com in English or Spanish.
ABOUT CAROLINA BECKER By Sean Morris
Carolina Becker has worked with Contact Improvisation since 2002 when she began studying at the C.C. Ricardo Rojas in Buenos Aires with teacher Cristina Turdo.
She then traveled to Europe to continue her study of this dance form and the theory behind it. While in Europe, Carolina studied with some of the most distinguished CI teachers from around the world, including Steve Paxton (USA), Nancy Stark Smith (USA), Martin Keoghs (USA), Lucía Walker (England) and Eckward Muller (Germany) among others.
In 2005 Carol moved to Cordoba Argentina, where she began to offer classes and open Contact Improvisation sessions in and around the city. In 2006, she moved to the island of Mallorca, Spain, where she would continue to teach classes, offer intensive workshops, and organize open sessions. Here, she co-founded Espacio Esfera, a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the benefits of CI in the Balearic Islands.
In September of 2008, Carolina was one of the teachers from around the world to teach at the first International Contact Improvisation Festival in Ibiza, Spain.
She then traveled to Europe to continue her study of this dance form and the theory behind it. While in Europe, Carolina studied with some of the most distinguished CI teachers from around the world, including Steve Paxton (USA), Nancy Stark Smith (USA), Martin Keoghs (USA), Lucía Walker (England) and Eckward Muller (Germany) among others.
In 2005 Carol moved to Cordoba Argentina, where she began to offer classes and open Contact Improvisation sessions in and around the city. In 2006, she moved to the island of Mallorca, Spain, where she would continue to teach classes, offer intensive workshops, and organize open sessions. Here, she co-founded Espacio Esfera, a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the benefits of CI in the Balearic Islands.
In September of 2008, Carolina was one of the teachers from around the world to teach at the first International Contact Improvisation Festival in Ibiza, Spain.
Soon afterwards, she moved back to Buenos Aires, where she has continued to play a large role in the spreading popularity of CI, regularly teaching classes, and hosting workshops and open JAMs. She studyed Body-Mind Centering ® with Silvia Mamana.
In January of 2010, in Uruguay, she was certified as DanceAbility teacher by Alito Alessi’s artistic direction and she started working with inclusive dance. He came back to Spain and taught intensive courses in Badajoz, Sevilla, Menorca and Valencia.
He now lives in Mallorca where he continues to develop its teaching dance and also writes and produce events for anyone interested in making Contact Improvisation a part of their life.
Collaboration on Contact Quarterly Magazine (2009)
MALLORCA, SPAIN, is the biggest of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. In 2006 it wasn’t connected to the CI network. I was a "contact improv traveler" and had somehow chosen to live there. Body to body communication was a necessity in my life. I felt a mission to share my experience in CI with the islanders. I grew up in Buenos Aires, a city made and influenced by migration. Maybe that is why I always had curiosity about different cultures.
In Mallorquin there is a popular expression about how the culture moves: "poc a poc," which means "gradually." Poc a poc, classes and JAMs formed—spreading in that fertile land the seed that was in my body. Every JAM, people without experience came, so we always started with a circle: names, experience or not in CI, questions, suggestions… I encouraged people who had jammed to say what they think people should know to improvise. In that way we made premises that informed and transformed JAM to JAM. One which is very important to me is the Silent Spirit. Sometimes we use time structures inspired by the Underscore, or start with a round robin, or just set a closing circle time. We meet once a week. Our biggest JAM so far was part of the June 2008 CI36 Global Underscore Solstice. About 25 people came.
MENORCA and IBIZA have their own stories of how CI arrived. In each island we are JAMming with this new form of communication and exchanging experiences: the Balearic Islands are now connected to the body to body network.[Carolina Becker, Mallorca, Spain; carolinabecker7@gmail.com]
In Mallorquin there is a popular expression about how the culture moves: "poc a poc," which means "gradually." Poc a poc, classes and JAMs formed—spreading in that fertile land the seed that was in my body. Every JAM, people without experience came, so we always started with a circle: names, experience or not in CI, questions, suggestions… I encouraged people who had jammed to say what they think people should know to improvise. In that way we made premises that informed and transformed JAM to JAM. One which is very important to me is the Silent Spirit. Sometimes we use time structures inspired by the Underscore, or start with a round robin, or just set a closing circle time. We meet once a week. Our biggest JAM so far was part of the June 2008 CI36 Global Underscore Solstice. About 25 people came.
MENORCA and IBIZA have their own stories of how CI arrived. In each island we are JAMming with this new form of communication and exchanging experiences: the Balearic Islands are now connected to the body to body network.[Carolina Becker, Mallorca, Spain; carolinabecker7@gmail.com]
Collaboration on Contact Quarterly Magazine (2006)
On the particular way Contact Improvisation Spreads
CI in BUENOS AIRES has a very strong presence. If you’ve never gone out of town, you believe it naturally exists all over the world. In Buenos Aires, JAM is an everyday word and an option for every night of the week.
Even though at the Jams I found silence, the city sounded too hard. I decided to leave Babylon and look for nature. I went to CORDOBA, a district in the centre of the country where the landscape is trees, rivers, and sierras, and where people live in another time…I find the way of life in the sierras totally linked to CI spirit. That’s why I was surprised when I found out nobody there knew what CI was about.
Causally (and I say causally and not casually!), I met some other people on a similar search, who arrived to live at the sierras already familiar with CI. We coincided on a wish for an experiment: Bringing the basic concepts of CI to every day life.
So we rented a studio in the middle of nature, close by a village called SAN MARCOS SIERRAS, (150 km away from CORDOBA CITY), where we lived altogether for a month in a spontaneous and self-gestated encounter. We spent the week experimenting, and on Saturdays we opened the space with classes and jams to whoever was interested in finding out what it was that we were spending so much time on.
One Saturday, a painter came from Cordoba city. He participated in the class and spent the rest of the day painting landscapes. When I approached him to ask how he felt, he answered: “Inspired! You’re living the art here.”
It ended up that this man was the director of the Contemporary Art Centre in Cordoba city, and during our chat he mentioned that since he had assumed that political post, he hasn’t painted again. The two following Saturdays, he came back and kept on dancing, painting, and— totally enthusiastic about what was going on there—he offered us the support and the space of the Contemporary Art Centre, which up to that point was only used for art expositions.
We happily accepted his proposal, which implied taking CI to Cordoba city.I feel something special when dancing in new spaces, particularly when it happens in spaces that were never danced in before. At CAC, we did the first Jams and classes, and we also got support to organize a workshop with Cristina Turdo, my first teacher in Buenos Aires.
At every Jam, we agreed on the date for the next one. And so the CI net kept spreading and contacting new bodies, while ¨contacters¨ from Buenos Aires and ROSARIO kept arriving to enjoy the possibility of dancing on such a far, unknown, and receptive land, close to the river and mountain.
And so, in 2005 the CI movement was born in Cordoba. Nowadays, Jams, classes, and “living together” experiences happen regularly at the sierras and in Cordoba city. [Translated from Spanish by Paula Colangelo] [Carolina Becker, Mallorca, Spain; carolinabecker7@gmail.com]
CI in BUENOS AIRES has a very strong presence. If you’ve never gone out of town, you believe it naturally exists all over the world. In Buenos Aires, JAM is an everyday word and an option for every night of the week.
Even though at the Jams I found silence, the city sounded too hard. I decided to leave Babylon and look for nature. I went to CORDOBA, a district in the centre of the country where the landscape is trees, rivers, and sierras, and where people live in another time…I find the way of life in the sierras totally linked to CI spirit. That’s why I was surprised when I found out nobody there knew what CI was about.
Causally (and I say causally and not casually!), I met some other people on a similar search, who arrived to live at the sierras already familiar with CI. We coincided on a wish for an experiment: Bringing the basic concepts of CI to every day life.
So we rented a studio in the middle of nature, close by a village called SAN MARCOS SIERRAS, (150 km away from CORDOBA CITY), where we lived altogether for a month in a spontaneous and self-gestated encounter. We spent the week experimenting, and on Saturdays we opened the space with classes and jams to whoever was interested in finding out what it was that we were spending so much time on.
One Saturday, a painter came from Cordoba city. He participated in the class and spent the rest of the day painting landscapes. When I approached him to ask how he felt, he answered: “Inspired! You’re living the art here.”
It ended up that this man was the director of the Contemporary Art Centre in Cordoba city, and during our chat he mentioned that since he had assumed that political post, he hasn’t painted again. The two following Saturdays, he came back and kept on dancing, painting, and— totally enthusiastic about what was going on there—he offered us the support and the space of the Contemporary Art Centre, which up to that point was only used for art expositions.
We happily accepted his proposal, which implied taking CI to Cordoba city.I feel something special when dancing in new spaces, particularly when it happens in spaces that were never danced in before. At CAC, we did the first Jams and classes, and we also got support to organize a workshop with Cristina Turdo, my first teacher in Buenos Aires.
At every Jam, we agreed on the date for the next one. And so the CI net kept spreading and contacting new bodies, while ¨contacters¨ from Buenos Aires and ROSARIO kept arriving to enjoy the possibility of dancing on such a far, unknown, and receptive land, close to the river and mountain.
And so, in 2005 the CI movement was born in Cordoba. Nowadays, Jams, classes, and “living together” experiences happen regularly at the sierras and in Cordoba city. [Translated from Spanish by Paula Colangelo] [Carolina Becker, Mallorca, Spain; carolinabecker7@gmail.com]
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