Tal Shibi and JK invite you to join in a weekend full of dance, ci, movement research, and winter warmth.

Contact Quarterly offers a definition of Contact Improvisation from one of its founders, Steve Paxton:

Contact Improvisation is an evolving system of movement initiated in 1972 by American choreographer Steve Paxton. The improvised dance form is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open to these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner.

Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one's basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.

—early definition by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, 

from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979

Now 50 years after its beginnings in New York performances conceived and directed by Paxton in June 1972, CI has been embraced and applied internationally by all kinds of movers for a wide variety of purposes, including choreography, dance training, work with children, seniors and other-abled people, therapy, visual arts and music, education, environmental work, social activism, and more. 

This Creation Lab is an invitation to dancers and movers who wish to explore the language and strategies of CI in the context of choreography and performance.  While appreciating the varying approaches and styles of individual practitioners and collectives, we aim to research common threads that recur through the form and use shared language to heighten communication, galvanize creativity, and fuel development of personal styles.   

Drawing on their distinctive backgrounds and experiences in CI, Tal and JK will lead workshops designed to address the following elements:

·     Gaining experience with and literacy in CI’s movement language

·     Finding personal excitement and pleasure in the form

·     Identifying and unblocking barriers to being present and responsive

·     Developing scores and score-making as vehicles for self-expression and collective creativity

This lab is designed for CI dancers with Basic comfort level and experience of CI technique alongside giving and receiving of weight is recommended. 

Workshops will be geared to engage each participant’s abilities and challenges.  

JANUARY 19 - 22 | The Field Center | Vermont

Come celebrate 2023 with us in Vermont for four days of daily classes and open jams!

Our annual January Contact Improvisation Jam at The Field Center. Classes and jam facilitation by JK & Lilianna Kane. Classes, labs, and open jams. Live Music. Shared rooms of two to four people. Breakfast, lunch and dinner provided. Beautiful studios, steamy sauna, cozy fireplace, snowy hikes, polar plunges, and lots of dynamic dancing

As always, we offer tiered pricing for our events as well as [limited] work trade options and scholarships for BIPOC identified participants. We DO accept payment plans- if you need assistance with payment please email us. This event is limited to 30 participants

JULY 25th to JULY 31st | The Field Center | Vermont

Announcing our first annual Summer Contact Improvisation Festival featuring 6 days of intensives, classes and jams exploring and training in Contact Improvisation. We dedicate this gathering to the living legacy and memory of Nancy Stark Smith [1952 - 2020] | REGISTRATION OPENS MAY 30th

The Summer Festival is divided into two parts; The intensive with Karen Nelson, which runs Tuesday 25th through Thursday 28th includes room, 3 meals per day, daily focused training and nightly facilitated Jams.
Friday 29th through Sunday 31st, the festival moves into the open weekend format with presentations, classes and open music jams.

Registration options include taking the Intensive Only, Weekend Pass only, or a FULL FESTIVAL PASS with camping options available. This event is limited to 40 participants including campers.
For more on pricing options visit our REGISTRATION PAGE

This summer, we will host our first Summer Improvisation Festival from July 5-16. Proceeds will go towards the teaching artists and musicians, and will help raise funds for the emerging residency space that we're building. We have an incredible lineup of teaching artists throughout the two weeks, and dancers are invited to attend the entire festival and stay with us on the land in West Chesterfield, MA.  Dancers can also choose to attend session one from July 5-10 or session two from July 11-16.  In addition to workshops/classes, attendees will work on land, garden, and building projects to work together to create the emerging artist residency space.

Teachers/musicians include:

Jennifer Nugent, Edward Rice, Jen Polins, Katherine Ferrier, Kathy Couch, Pamela Vail, Penny Campbell, Michael Chorney, Jungwoong Kim, Sarah Konner, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Jake Meginsky, Deborah Felmeth, and Ron Rost.

The Class:

History, memory, here, now, bodies, air, objects, land, space.......blur in moments of rapt improvisation. By practicing improvisation we learn to show and accept vulnerability, give and receive support, follow and lead, embrace stillness and collect energy, attune to and penetrate sonic space........in the studio, in performance, and in everyday life. My teaching of improvisation engages my background as a construction worker and electrical technician, along with my studies and life experiences in Korean martial arts, traditional Korean dance, Contact Improvisation, Western contemporary dance, site-specific choreography, clowning, parenting.... All of this merges into the ways I open space and possibilities for seeing, hearing, feeling, communicating, and creating.

Recently I’ve been intrigued by the various ways we experience time---especially with the disruptions and separations that have occurred during the COVID pandemic. How do we translate time in our bodies? How do memories---close or distant, pleasing or jarring---live in us? Do different parts of us experience time differently? How does our relationship to time affect our ability to withstand the warped speed of our current social, political, and climatic environments? These questions influence the approaches and strategies I bring to the workshop space.

Monday, June 27, 6-9pm & Thursday, June 30, 6-9pm

Price: $60-100 sliding scale

Location: Community Education Center (CEC), 3500 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, PA (West Philly)

Sign up: https://forms.gle/6YAVsgc7ANt5Q4Y86

Questions? nettasadovsky@gmail.com

The Field Center presents 3 days of open jams, workshops, labs and performances with Jungwoong Kim + Stephanie Turner.

Registration includes room, board and access to all events. All levels welcome.

Limited to 21 persons.
No late arrivals permitted.
All bedrooms are shared rooms [3-4 persons]
All participants must show proof of vaccination OR negative PCR test within 48 hours of arrival. For more on our covid-19 protocol.

SCHEDULE *subject to change

Thursday 20th: Arrival 4pm | Dinner | Arrival JAM

Friday 21st: Breakfast | Opening Circle | JAM | Lunch
| PM Classes | Dinner | JAM

Saturday 22nd: Breakfast | Workshop | Lunch | Open
| Dinner | Performances >>> Music JAM

Sunday 23rd: Breakfast | JAM | Lunch | Closing Circle | Departure 3pm

PRICING
$375-250 [see registration for details]

The HotHouse Summer Intensive is a deep dive into the acting methodologies of Blanka Zizka and the Wilma  HotHouse Company. This three- week intensive will integrate the core areas of HotHouse practice: Hot Body, Hot Voice, Hot Movement, Hot Music and Hot Text. All five areas of focus work in concert to foster embodied acting, which Blanka Zizka describes in her recent interview with the NY Times as, “emotion, body, voice, all in fluid expression.”

The Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos grounds the corporeal training in a structured progression of exercises that expand the breath, awaken the body and cultivate a collective energy. Improvisational play, through exercises in vocal exploration, music making and contact improvisation, serve to draw actors out of their heads and into their bodies, enabling them to listen with the heightened awareness of all five senses. Text-based, Cecily Berry inspired exercises encourage actors to follow their impulses—particularly those grounded in their bodies—and in the inherent musicality of the words themselves.

HotHouse intensives are designed for advanced acting students and professional actors. However, this work has a way of meeting you wherever you are; curious and brave directors, playwrights, and theater educators are welcome.

• Come prepared to move. The work can be rigorous, though adjustments will be made for various body types, injuries and physical limitations. 

• Come prepared to play. The more fun you’re willing to have with this work, the more curiosity and openness you to bring to it, the more you will learn. Leave your concerns about looking foolish and your standard measurements about success at home. They won’t serve you here.

Registration

To register for the HotHouse Summer Intensive, please complete the application online or print and complete the downloadable application. Printed applications may be dropped off at the box office or mailed to:

The Wilma Theater
ATTN: Rachel Beecher
265 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Acceptance decisions will be made on a rolling basis in the order in which they are received. We will notify applicants as soon as we have made a decision.

Tuition

Tuition for the HotHouse Summer Intensive is $1,300 due by May 29, or $1,100 if paid in full by April 13.

There is a $250 non-refundable deposit required to reserve a spot in the class.

Contact

For additional information, please email our Education Assistant, Rachel Beecher.

https://wilmatheater.org/education/for-artists/hothouse-summer-intensive/

Two Philadelphia based artists *MEGAN MAZARICK  and  MARION RAMIREZ *share
the evening program.

Choreographer/performer *MEGAN MAZARICK* performs in *Boundaries *along
with new work, which also includes performers Actress/Singer, *Jess Conda* and
Drummer, *Mel Gervasio.*

Choreographer/performer *MARION RAMIREZ* will perform excerpts from her new
work, created and performed in collaboration with *Jungwoong Kim*, and Cuban
percussionist *Juan “Cuco” Castellanos*, and *Gamin* playing a Korean wind
instrument.

Tickets: $15/ $10  at danceboxoffice.com Cash ONLY at the door)

*Megan Mazarick*, choreographer, teacher, performer, collaborator and
curator, creates work that is humorous, serious, theatrical, and personal,
often including a stop-motion physicality and a love of fantasy.  Of her
knock-out solo, “Boundaries,” and new work, she says. *“I look to smash the
cultural and political references against one another in places where
tension and entertainment collide.”*

Her choreography has been presented in Philadelphia at Live Arts Festival,
nEW Festival, Philadelphia Dance Projects, and PARD, and in New York City
at Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, and Dance New
Amsterdam.  She has toured throughout the USA as part of various dance
festivals and events, and internationally at Budapest’s Trafo Theatre,
Bulgaria’s BlackBox Theater and Dance Festival, Singapore Fringe Festival,
Zielony Jazdow Festival in Warsaw, and By Change Festival in Cairo.

Puerto Rican dance artist, *Marion Ramírez* has choreographed, performed,
and taught Contact Improvisation in numerous dance festivals, university
residencies and events across the US, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Cuba,
Germany, and the UK. For over 15 years, she has been immersed in the
practice of Kinetic Awareness and Body-Mind Centering.  She will perform
excerpts from her new work commissioned by Temple University Dance
Department this year, and created and performed in collaboration with
Jungwoong Kim. thINKing Dance writers have called their other intimate work
together, as *enchanting,* *transfixing;* “ *with **bewitching craft the
choreographer folds layers of personal life and a broader cultural setting
into an exhilarating performance.” *

Get tickets now…. danceboxoffice.com

The HotHouse Summer Intensive is a deep dive into the acting methodologies of Blanka Zizka and the Wilma  HotHouse Company. This 3 week intensive will integrate the core areas of HotHouse practice: Hot Body, Hot Voice, Hot Movement, Hot Music and Hot Text. All five areas of focus work in concert to foster embodied acting, which Blanka Zizka describes in her recent interview with the NY Times as, “emotion, body, voice, all in fluid expression.”

The Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos grounds the corporeal training in a structured progression of exercises that expand the breath, awaken the body and cultivate a collective energy. Improvisational play, through exercises in vocal exploration, music making and contact improvisation, serve to draw actors out of their heads and into their bodies, enabling them to listen with the heightened awareness of all five senses. Text-based, Cecily Berry inspired exercises encourage actors to follow their impulses—particularly those grounded in their bodies—and in the inherent musicality of the words themselves.

HotHouse intensives are designed for advanced acting students and professional actors. However, this work has a way of meeting you wherever you are; curious and brave directors, playwrights, and theater educators are welcome.

“Observing Blanka in action for the first time was enthralling. She exudes remarkable passion, generosity and experience while providing masterful instruction for rigorous and abstract exercises.”

-Tom Trudgeon, HotHouse Intensive participant

“I was consistently impressed with how committed the instructors have been to sharing the foundations and rigors of Hot House practice. I never felt that we were getting some watered down version, even though they could share only so much of a complex practice in 3 weeks.”

-Germaine Ingram, Hothouse Intensive participant

“This intensive was easily one of the most intriguing and transformative acting classes I have ever taken.”

-Evan Raines, HotHouse Intensive student