Dancing at the Heart of the Matter
From the heartwood of our branching lineages to the budding heart of the moment
A Mixed-level CI Workshop with
Nelson Té
Skip some details and get right to Registration
Photo: Brando BrandesNelson says:
"We could imagine that all the millions of CI dances that ever happened in all of history form together one massive tree."
You could trace every dance you've ever had from the tips of twigs down to the branches of the people who influenced you, back down the boughs of their teachers until you reached the trunk - the heartwood - representing the original founders of CI.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we are dancing on the shoulders of giants, and all our CI interactions are informed by our personal lineage(s) of movement research.
Or we could think of CI as a common language: we each communicate in our own unique way, and we might share a strong local accent, but we can all engage in conversation with folks from various parts of the map.
Steve Paxton & Nancy Stark Smith, two of many FoundersAnd yet!!!
Every moment we improvise together is a uniquely novel emergence in this universe - a new branching of possibilities into the unknown. And it can be the birth of a "new dialect" that's completely off the map...
This tension between established heritage and co-creative novelty is at the heart of every CI dance.
This workshop will focus on the core propositions that the founders of CI dove into. If we lean into the moment together with even just a tiny spark of the bright-burning spirit of investigation that they brought to their practices, who knows what new blossoms of slow-motion fireworks we might ignite!?
Let's put our minds (and bodies) together and see what emerges. Yes?
This is a mixed level workshop, not for bare bones beginners:
We expect participants to have a foundational understanding of the form - to have attended jams or classes and to have gained a good sense of how to share and listen to weight, both your own and a partner's.
The material in the workshop will be both skill-based and principle-based, making it engaging for dancers with a broad range of Contact Improvisation experience.
Proximity and touch:
In this workshop, participants will be invited to partner-up and practice the form in contact. As always, everyone has free agency to engage in the exercises to their own degree of comfort.
SCHEDULE:
Saturday, December 7th, 2024
Doors open - Registration and warm-up........................9:45am
Workshop activities........................................................10:00-6:00pm
1.5-Hour Lunch break sometime in the middle (BYO, please)
Out of the space by........................................................6:30pm
Food note: Lunch break will have a fairly quick turn-around.
Please BYO or make a quick trip to a local restaurant. CIB will provide some snack stuff, but bring your own as well.
COSTS & REGISTRATION:
Register soon. Registration is limited to 30 participants.
On-line Discount Pricing:
Discount on-line registration closes midnight, Wednesday, 10/11/2023
$85 - Regular rate - Employed, retired, self employed.
$95 - Well-employed rate - Please pay this if you can.
$70 - Student rate, also unemployed or severe economic situation
$105 - Supporting the arts rate
Financial aid fund:
To Apply: If the lowest level of our sliding scale is too expensive for you, we offer a limited number of applicants $20 off their fee on a first-come-first-served basis.
Apply on the registration form.
To Contribute: If you have even a little extra, please contribute to the financial aid fund as you register. Your support enables more dancers to attend CIB events.
Help with financial aid when you register online.
♦♦ On-line discount registration opens Tuesday night ♦♦
At the door pricing: (if available)
$95 - Regular rate - Employed, retired, self employed.
$105 - Well-employed rate - Please pay this if you can.
$75 - Student rate, also unemployed or severe economic situation
$120 - Supporting the Arts rate
LOCATION:
St. Mary Orthodox Church, 8 Inman St, Cambridge (Central Sq: right behind Life Alive Cafe)
Transportation: Accessible by T (Red line to Central Square) or if you drive, allow time to find parking. There are some parking spots in the lot behind the church; check there first.
Covid considerations:
Contact Improv Boston does not require masks or vaccinations.
Please be mindful of your activities particularly in the week before the workshop and take an antigen test in the 24 hours before the workshop, if possible. We will have tests available when you arrive at the church.
Do not attend if you test positive (even without symptoms), or if you are feeling sick (even with a negative test), or if you have been in close contact with somebody with active Covid symptoms in the last few days. Your registration fee will be refunded. You must notify the registrar in order to receive this refund.
TEACHER BIO AND QUESTIONS:
Nelson Té has delighted in studying human bodies in movement since… well, since he was a baby! Learning to crawl was tremendously satisfying, but it’s upon discovering Contact Improvisation 30 years later that the kinetic explorations got seriously fun.
In the following 15 years, he’s had the good fortune to experiment and play with a multitude of folks with remarkably intelligent bodies. He has studied with many great CI teachers who know how to bring out the somatic genius in all of us. (He expresses much gratitude to Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, Daniel Lepkoff, Karen Nelson, Kirstie Simson, Martin Keogh, Neige Christenson, Brando, Catherine Lessard and so many more…) He is thrilled that he gets to share his passion for CI and mindfulness in action, and honored that he gets to help people cultivate more healthy and vibrant relationships to pleasure.
He presently lives in the Boston area where he organizes and facilitates weekly CI classes/labs/jams. He is studying massage therapy and is particularly fascinated by the potent possibilities that emerge at the intersection of Dance, Awareness practices and Bodywork.
Questions:
About the workshop, email Nelson: nelsonessence@gmail.com
About registration, email Paul: registrations@contactimprovboston.com
THE FINE PRINT:
Cancellation Policy:
• If CIB finds it necessary to cancel the entire event for any reason, we will refund the full registration fee of registered participants.
• If a registered participant withdraws from an event for any reason by midnight, Friday, 1 week before the event, we will fully refund their registration fee.
• If a registered participant withdraws closer to the event for health (or exposure) reasons and notifies the registrar, a full refund will be issued.
• If a registered participant withdraws closer to the event date for non-health related reasons or does not notify us, no refund will be issued. Also applies to no-show.
• We will consider hardship situations for refunds before and during the event. Please notify the registrar.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE AND DANCE!