Contact Improvisation class
Internal Buoyancy, Inertia of Motion, & Underscore Aspects
Patrick Crowley and Rose Oceania
Photo by Nina Gerzo with Patrick Crowley
on Zoom
August 14, 2020, Friday, 6–7:45 pm
We warm-up through the internal somatic with qigong, the elements (air, water, earth, fire), breath, and rejoining the body tissues with the down-up of gravity. We will improvise new pathways through a focus on falling and movement inertia. Then integrate play with objects: weight, trajectory, following. We will connect and improvise with our environment and each other through exploring elements of the Underscore, including Telescoping Awareness, and one of NSS’s “purple ink” (new) aspects, Opening the Space.
Discussion of our dancing and a community topic will follow.
Patrick Crowley has been engaged with CI since 1983 and the Underscore since 1990 as a dancer, teacher, and performer. He began studying CI intensively in 1984 with Nancy Stark Smith and many other teachers. He assisted and has been dancing with Nancy very closely in a number of ways for over 15 years. New Dance, contemplative practices, yoga, qigong, Body-Mind Centering©, East-West bodywork, sacred ritual, and theatre improvisation have deeply influenced his life and teaching. He co-coordinates the annual Global Underscore events and leads Playback Theatre.
What is Contact Improvisation?
Patrick Crowley has been engaged with Contact Improvisation for over 36 years. He has taught at numerous dance centers, festivals, and universities both nationally and internationally, including Yale University, Boston University, Argentina Contact Festival, Freiburg Festival, Earthdance, among many others. He has worked and performed with Nancy Stark Smith, as well as with many of the founders and prominent leaders in CI including: Daniel Lepkoff, Nina Little, Andrew Harwood, Kirstie Simson, K.J. Holmes, and many others. Patrick has a background in modern dance, Body-Mind Centering®, bodywork, yoga, theatre, contemplative practices, expressive arts, and martial arts. He was certified in bodywork by Sensei Toshiko Phipps and Nationally Certified in 1993.