CONTACT @ the DOJO
Contact Improvisation (CI) class & jam
Mixed level, open to beginners and advanced
2024
1st & 3rd Sundays
3:00–6:00 pm
3:00 Class, 4:30 Jam.
Teachers for class:
4/21 Aaron Cantor
5/5 Patrick Crowley
5/19 Gabi Revlock
CLASS
4/21/24 Playfighting: Cooperative Combative Games for Contact Improvisation w/ Aaron Cantor
Cubs, kittens and kids play. This class is about playing like they do (with focus, attunement, ferocity and gentleness). The games we will be playing connect us to our animal intelligence and child like mischief making wonder.
Aaron Cantor grew up in Japan in Brazil and has traveled the world to do deep dives into yoga, Zen, Taoist practices, and various martial, athletic and dance forms. He has been teaching embodiment internationally for the past 20 years and is known for his playful, inquiry based way of instigating physical intelligence and insight through games. He runs the School Of Physical Intelligence (SOPHI) where he helps therapists, coaches and teachers craft games to improve learning and skill development.
General description of class & jam:
Once a month, I am excited to curate 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).
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, inertia of motion, solo/lead/follow, various physical connections through the body, reflexes, experimentation, readiness, rigor, heart, 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. Please arrive a little early.
What is Contact Improvisation?
(Park in parking lot to right of building. Come in entrance in parking lot. Go in and upstairs to right.)
Dojo Etiquette:
- Take shoes off outside the door
- Bow to space when entering & exiting.
- Hygiene & what to wear: bathe that day. Wear pants that are free to move in — no belts. Cut and filed toenails. Little or no jewelry, no belt buckles. Wash or sanitize hands upon entering.
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 COVID in the last 5 days. Health safety agreements
- Here is my approach to CI. https://patrickcrowley.net/whatiscontactimprovisation.
- 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