From the Ground Up:
A Weight Sharing Journey
with Jonathan Lilly
September 9, 16, 23, and 30
Calvary Church, 300 Mass Av, Arlington, MA
Jonathan says: "Weight sharing is the foundation of Contact Improv. It is also surprisingly profound, with enormous potential for connection and creativity."
This workshop explores weight sharing through a series of technical exercises that take us from elementary to advanced possibilities.
The workshop welcomes dancers of all levels.
• It's best suited for those who've attended at least a few contact improv jams with some basic familiarity with the form, not absolute beginners.
• More experienced dancers will still find much to learn in the class about the form's foundational principles.
This is a four-week series, and participants are strongly encouraged to attend all four sessions.
Each two-hour class builds on material from previous weeks.
Once registration for the whole series closes, if there are remaining spaces, they will be offered for individual class sign-ups.
Schedule and Time:
7:30-9:30pm, Wednesday Evenings
September 9, 16, 23, and 30
Class will start promptly at 7:30pm.
Please arrive before 7:15 and be ready to dance at 7:30.
Doors will open at 7:00 for arrivals.
Costs and Registration:
Registration is limited to 20 dancers.
Discounted registration online is available for the full series only.
Discount online registration closes midnight, Sunday, 9/6/2026
$105 - Regular rate - Employed, retired, self-employed. Hopefully this is most of us.
$90 - Reduced rate - For hard economic situations (Also see Financial Aid, below)
$115 - Well-employed rate - Please pay this if you can. Help keep the Reduced rate low!
$125 - Supporting the arts rate
Financial aid and contributions for future financial aid:
To Apply: If the lowest level of our sliding scale is too expensive for you, we offer a limited number of applicants $45 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. Contribute when you register online.
♦♦ Register here for Series ♦♦
Single class pricing (Accessible only later, if available at all)
$35 - Regular rate - Employed, retired, self-employed.
$25 - Reduced rate - For hard economic situations (Also see Financial Aid, above)
$40 - Well-employed rate - Please pay this if you can. Help keep the Reduced rate low.
$45 - Supporting the arts rate
Important note for those quite new to the form:
Attendance in the earlier sessions is expected in order to participate in the later classes.
Location:
Calvary United Methodist Church
300 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington MA 02474
Enter through: Linwood Street entrance and follow signs upstairs for Fellowship Hall
Transportation: Accessible by bus (77 from Harvard or Porter on the Red Line). If you drive, allow time to find on-street parking (it's likely available on Mass Ave)
Consent and Touch:
As always, participants have free agency to engage in any part of these classes to their own degree of comfort. Dancers will be invited to partner-up and practice the form in-contact. You have the option to choose (or choose not) to engage in any exercise or partnership, also to end any interaction at any time.
Health Considerations:
Do not attend if you are feeling sick in any way (even with a negative Covid test) or if you tested positive for Covid in the last 24 hrs (even without symptoms), or if you have been in contact with somebody with obvious Covid symptoms in the last 48 hrs. You will receive a refund.
You must notify the registrar in order to receive such refund. If you have recovered from Covid and are symptom-free for 5 days, you may return to the classes, even if you still test positive.
Contact the registrar with any questions:
Registrations@ContactImprovBoston.com. Thanks!
Teacher's Bio:
Jonathan Lilly is a movement researcher and improvisational dancer currently based in Connecticut. He trained for over twenty years in the martial art of aikido before transitioning to contact improvisation more than a decade ago. He has studied extensively with such teachers as Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Mark Young, Andrew Harwood, Alicia Grayson, Ray Chung, John Faichney, Jori Snell, Elia Mrak, Martin Piliponsky, Stuart Phillips, Frey Faust, Francesca Pedulla, and Baris Mihci, and has taught contact improvisation to hundreds of people in various cities in the US, Canada, and Norway.
Jonathan's movement and teaching styles are deeply informed by a period of in-depth study of the Feldenkrais method of somatic education in the mid-1990’s, as well as by a daily meditation practice. In his day job, he is a scientist studying ocean physics.
Instructor's assistant: In this workshop series, Jonathan will be assisted by Ciera Cleary, a dancer from Toronto who brings a background in ballet, yoga, and Pilates.
Cancellation Policy:
• If CIB finds it necessary to cancel the series in whole or part for any reason, we will refund the full or pro-rated registration fee of registered participants.
• If a registered participant withdraws from the series for any reason by midnight, Tuesday, one week before the event, we will fully refund their registration fee.
• If a registered participant withdraws closer to the event for health (or Covid 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!