2024
1st & 3rd Sundays
12/1 Patrick Crowley
12/15: Aaron Cantor
1/5: Patrick Crowley
3:00–6:00 pm
3:00 Class, 4:30 Jam.
____________
Once a month Patrick Crowley teaches the contact improvisation class, and once a month he curates other teachers who hold and convey Contact Improvisation with a comprehensive depth. Contact @ the Dojo began in Oct 2021, meeting 2 Sundays a month.
Dojo comes from “Do-”, a variation of Tao/Dao (the way) and “jo” (immersive learning space).
CLASS (general description)
A broad range of Contact Improvisation will be explored — states, skills, scores/Underscore, artistic practice, life learnings.
In Contact @ the Dojo, dancers play with movement pathways in contact with a partner — in relationship with gravity, momentum, inertia, and friction. We work with ease and natural tone in our tissues and neurology. We explore rolling, falling, and flying in CI with the safety of mats as our floor.
The slow and subtle brings us to the big and enthusiastic, and vice versa. Centering, perception, integrated body, solo/follow/lead/3rd entity, reflexes, experimentation, readiness, rigor, heart, awareness, and enlivening will all be in the mix.
January Workshop 2012 © Emily BowmanJAM
The jam will be open space to play and practice — with music and possible structure/warm-up.
For those experienced and new to CI, honoring different abilities. ~10–25 people. Please read Health safety agreements: gist — come w/ no symptoms. Please arrive a little early.
What is Contact Improvisation?
WHERE: Aikido of Northampton 30 N Maple St, #14, Florence, MA 01062
(Park in parking lot to right of building. Come in entrance in parking lot. Go in and upstairs to right.)
REGISTRATION & PAYMENT (sliding scale: abundant–regular–low)
Just Class (3:00 pm) or just Jam (4:30 pm): $25–$20–$15
If unemployed or student, please contact Patrick about other discounts.
Make Payment
Dojo Etiquette:
- Take shoes off outside the door
- Bow to space when entering & exiting.
- Hygiene & what to wear: bathe that day. Clean feet, cut & filed toenails. Wash or sanitize hands upon entering. Wear pants that are free to move in — no belts. Little/no jewelry, no belt buckles.
Other Info:
- Please come early (5-15 min) to leave enough time (for finding the Dojo, parking, settling in the space, and making payment if you haven’t).
- The Dojo is in the center of Florence: 30 N Maple St, #14, Florence, MA 01062. Upstairs.
- Health safety: come with no symptoms; no exposure to someone with illness in the last 3 days. Health safety agreements
- Here is my approach to CI.
- Be ready. The class can be quite physical and there is a lot input, in a number of ways. You may not be able to do everything so you can always modify and/or witness/take breaks.
- Bathrooms are downstairs to right.
Aikido of Northampton Dojo © Emily Bowman
Patrick Crowley has been engaged with Contact Improvisation and dance improvisation since 1983. 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 others. He is a Coordinator of the
Global Underscore. He worked with Nancy Stark Smith closely until her death in 2020, and studied or performed with many prominent teachers in CI including: Andrew Harwood, Kirstie Simson, K.J. Holmes, Daniel Lepkoff, Nina Little, Alan Ptashek, and others. Patrick has a background in modern and contemporary dance, Body-Mind Centering®, bodywork, yoga, theatre (Playback Theatre, Action Theater), contemplative practices, expressive arts, and martial arts. He has performed with various dance and theatre companies, including the Underscore +/- Group, Zany Angels, Six and 1/2 Project, and Boston's
Access to Theater.
He was certified in bodywork by Sensei Toshiko Phipps and Nationally Certified in 1993 and currently teaches Playback Theatre, Yoga, and somatics, in addition to Contact Improvisation.