Contact Improv class [Nijmegen]

Over dit evenement

Weekly classes in Nijmegen 🌺 First session after the summer break!

~ 𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦-𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴.

♦️ In a nutshell:
Johanna and Alkis lead the class, sometimes together and sometimes alone. Each time we study a different aspect of this rich practice called Contact Improvisation. For participants completely new to the practice we invite you to the first class of each month, as well as the "Fundamentals" series twice each year. And keep on reading 😊

♦️Practical:

Wednesdays 18:00 - 20:00 (come 10 or 15 minutes in advance to change and warm up)

Studio "upstairs" (after entering the community space of the Circus Space, climb the stairs next to the bar and then turn left once more.)

Dressingrooms available - also upstairs and turning to the right.

After the class we have an (optional) tradition for a plantbased potluck dinner and there's open circus training until about 22 o'clock (with 5€ additional contribution, paid on the spot). Kneepads are _not_ necessary 😉

Via this platform you can buy either a loose ticket or a seasonal card for 10 lessons, the later offering some discount and bonuses. Please choose a price that feels right for you, considering that we already do our best to keep the prices affordable for the value we believe we have to offer 🌹 For unique cases and requests don't hesitate to reach out, we strive to make dancing as accessible as possible.

♦️About the practice:

Contact improvisation is a dance practice developed by various pioneers in the 1970s, in which physical contact is central to movement. Dance becomes a play with gravity, sharing weight, touch, and imagination.

You might enjoy looking at this recording, an improvised meeting of dancers in Montreal, as a non exhaustive variety of possibilities within this form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsUrDmFaas

♦️What to expect from a session:

In these weekly classes, we offer tools to achieve movement. We start every session with a warm up of all layers: physical, mental, emotional, etc. The class is built around open tasks that leave enough space for you to fit in, with the energy, and/or limitations that are present with you on the day. We go into technical principles about your body and relating with another body in motion. We give different ways of approaching dance that might change your perception.

🗓️ Each month the lessons are inspired by a different theme, exploring broadly within this container. For the dancers who join more classes, we aim to connect the sessions and paint a wholistic picture of each subject.

Whether you're new to the practice, or want to upgrade your experience in jams, this is a class for you!

♦️Important detail - minimum participants

The scheduled classes will always take place. If we are with 6 people or less, we will change the structure of the lesson into a 'lab'. As facilitators we will still offer a guided warm up and from there we go into a collective movement research. In this research we will investigate an aspect of Contact Improvisation. We decide collectively which aspect we will focus on. A lab is accessible for both beginning and experienced dancers.

About the facilitators:

♦️Johanna Sauër

Johanna is a dancer, choreographer and educator. She graduated as an artist educator in dance from Artez in 2022. She then did further training in contemporary dance and choreography at La Faktoria, in Spain. Contact improvisation is a great fascination for her, she enjoys the physical play with gravity and the possibilities another body gives her in her dance. Additionally, contact improvisation is for her a learning path in relating to other people.

♦️Alkis Barbas

Alkis grew up as a dancer in the cultural scene of Thessaloniki, Greece and later moved to the Netherlands to follow a bachelor of dance in Arnhem. He's been working as an interdisciplinary performer since the end of the lockdowns in 2021. Alkis has had a rich path in movement through physical theater, martial arts, butoh, folk, classical, urban, and contemporary dance forms. Alongside the dance studies, he has explored various ways of training that maintain and grow avail-abilities of the body and mind, while keeping it healthy. This is what brought him 3 years ago to pick up teaching Contact Improvisation and facilitating jams for dancers of all levels of experience. He has since guided hundreds of people in finding their own dance journey and their authentic way of relating to others.

“In my practice and in my class, I place care highly in my priorities, without compromising the search for excitement and individual limits. I love connection, I love to combine playing with learning, and I love to share my passion for movement.”

🌬️❤️ We are looking forward to seeing you in one of our upcoming lessons! And if you're interested in continuing dance training in the summer, send us a sign and we'll keep you in the loop of our upcoming plans :D Good things cooking up, soon to be released!