Contact Improvisation – The Basics

September 1 – February 23

THU 6-8pm

MR@Gibney 280 Broadway

$14

No Class November 24 and December 29. 

September Bradley Teal Ellis | October Elise Knudson | November Tim O’Donnell | December Sarah Konner | January Bradley Teal Ellis | February Paul Singh

Contact Improvisation, initiated by dancer Steve Paxton in 1972, is a partnering dance form that plays with the physics between bodies and gravity. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching and falling all help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact. These weekly classes, open to people of all levels of movement experience, are informed by the individual artist faculty.

The Basics is an introductory class for those with little to no experience with Contact Improvisation or those who would like to revisit the basics.

 

Bradley Teal Ellis is a Brooklyn-based improviser. He has practiced Contact Improvisation for 17 years, and frequently collaborates in process and performance with other artists. In addition to Movement Research, he teaches at NYU/Tisch Experimental Theatre Wing, the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase, and Gibney Dance.

 

Elise Knudson has created about thirty works, which have been presented around NYC, in Canada and Mexico. She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University and has worked with Koosil-ja/DanceKumiko, Risa Jaroslow, Luke Gutgsell and other wonderful people. Elise recently set a dance on Manhattanville College students and taught Theory and Practice of Improvisation at Yale University.

 

Sarah Konner is a dance artist, improviser and somatic movement educator—interested in somatics as expression and the innate intelligence in our bodies. Sarah teaches, practices and performs improvisation in New York and elsewhere, as well as creates dance-theater work with her collaborator Austin Selden and others.

 

Tim O’Donnell discovered CI in 1995 and continues to teach at various universities and festivals throughout Europe and the USA. His exploration in the form is strongly rooted in a deep physical listening and a sense of adventure. His classes range from the gentle and subtle to the acrobatic and fluidly athletic.

 

Paul Singh earned his BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana. He has danced for a lot of people and companies, made a few works that have been performed places, and has taught technique and Contact Improvisation all over the world. If you'd like more info, ask him.