CONTACT IMPROVISATION

The Temenos Dance Collective offers regular Contact Improvisation (CI) 'Class & Jam' sessions.
 

Hosted and facilitated by Soledad de la Hoz and Manuela Sarcone, two professional contemporary dancers, the sessions consist of a somatic warm up followed by a class that will include a series of exercises for participants to try. Following the class there will be a 'Jam' (the CI term for an unfacilitated dance).

 

Some sessions will involve some additional teaching, but the primary focus will be on supporting us to connect with our own bodies before beginning an exploration of movement through contact with others. Musical accompaniment each month will be provided by Temenos founder FX10K. 

To book a session visit our Tickets page.

Some background information on the teachers.

Soledad de la Hoz trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She has performed extensively in opera and theatre productions (ROH, Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, ENO) as well as immersive dance and screen productions, working with notable choreographers such as Aleta Collins, Anna Morrissey, Maxine Doyle, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, Scarlett Mackmin, Jennifer White and Lisa Welham. In addition to her professional dancing Sole is a trained Thai massage therapist and has a deep love and interest for Contact Improvisation which has an immense positive benefit in her movement practice and well being. She is very happy to continue developing in this field by training and teaching. 

 

Manuela Sarcone completed her contemporary dance studies at the London Contemporary  Dance School before joining Bern Ballet. While in Bern, she seriously injured her knee while rehearsing. Contact Improvisation has been an  integral part of her return to dance after injury and her main movement  practice since then. As a freelancer, her performance experience ranges from choreographies for the stage through operas, installations to improvised work. Her Master dissertation examined the relation between technical training and improvisational practice within CI. Manuela likes to bring this enquiring approach to the classes that she facilitates alongside the influences of her diverse movement experiences.

 

Contact improvisation is a form of improvised partner dancing that has been developing internationally since 1972. It involves the exploration of one's body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movement awareness. It has evolved into a broad global community of social dancing around "jams" characterized by their welcoming attitude towards newcomers to dance, as well as seasoned practitioners.
 

American dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton originated contact improvisation, drawing from his past training in aikido, a martial art form, to explore and push boundaries with his colleagues and students to develop this new practice. Contact improvisation plays with the artistry of falling off balance, counterbalance, finding the shelves of the body, learning the mechanics of the body in order to handle someone else's weight or be lifted, breathing techniques, and can involve the art of getting to know your partner past the physical point through the physicality.
 

Formally, contact improvisation is a movement improvisation that is explored with another being. According to one of its first practitioners, Nancy Stark Smith, it "resembles other familiar duet forms, such as the embrace, wrestling, surfing, martial arts, and the Jitterbug, encompassing a wide range of movement from stillness to highly athletic."

While those with absolutely no experience of Contact Improvisation are always welcome please be mindful that CI sessions often involve a significant amount of physical contact and if, for any reason, this is something you are uncertain about or uncomfortable with then you may wish to try an introductory class before attending. (Rick Nodine hosts an absolute beginners class on Monday evenings in Tufnell Park which we cannot recommend highly enough, please see his website for details).

*Please note, no photography is allowed at Temenos sessions without prior permission.

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