Contact Improvisation Weekend Workshop - Dublin
Echo Echo Ensemble - Ayesha Mailey, Kelly Quigley, Tonya Sheina and Zoe Ramsey - will be traveling to Dublin to offer a weekend workshop of goodies!
We we will start from Friday 5th evening until Sunday 7th evening working with different members of the company followed by a Jam each evening.
- Friday - Zoe and Tonya lead a warm up into an evening Jam
- Saturday - Zoe and Tonya lead in the morning. Kelly and Ayesha lead the group after lunch. Then a short improvisation performance from the ensemble leading into evening jam.
- Sunday - Kelly and Ayesha lead in the morning and then after lunch Zoe and Tonya lead the group and after we have final evening Jam.
About CI
Contact Improvisation practice is an important element of what we do in Echo Echo. We take a poetic approach to dancing. We believe that people are naturally poetic in movement from the day that they are born. We are interested in and appreciate that people have a natural desire to move and be moved and to celebrate the joy of simply dancing together or on your own.
Times and dates
- Friday 5th April
Workshop time: 18.00 - 20.30
- Saturday 6th (Full day)
Workshop time: 10.00-18.00
(there will be a lunch break of about 1.5hrs)
- Saturday 6th Community Jam: 18.30 - 20.30
- Sunday 7th (Full day)
Workshop time: 10.00 - 18.00
(there will be a lunch break of about 1.5hrs)
Cost
- Full weekend: €90
- Saturday only OR Sunday only: €50
- Friday or Saturday jam only: €5
Payment can be made by bank transfer.
Registration and for lodgement details by email only please: contactimprovireland@gmail.com
No cash will be taken for this workshop.
About the Teachers
Tonya and Zoe
During our part of the workshop we will play some games to activate our interest and desire in movement and in dancing with other people. We will explore different ways of warming up our attention to the details. We will be rolling, crawling, jumping, following, leading, joining in, watching and of course dancing!
Ayesha and Kelly
Our interest lies in the poetic potential of each contact dance. Through solo explorations and group improvisations we will share our practice of Embodying Memory and Imagination and invite participants to integrate this practice into their contact dances.
About Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a dance-movement practice that deals with the creative and poetic possibilities and limits of moving in physical touch and close proximity without a plan.
Most partner forms of dance emphasise modules of movement and a particular “feel”. In Contact Improvisation the emphasis is rather on understanding the principles of shared movement so that we can simply meet and create dances from there.
Contact Improvisation dances can be slow, fast, gentle, tender, athletic, boisterous and humorous. They are created through the meeting of two people in physical contact with no fixed intention beyond creating a dance together, and with no fixed leadership role.
Because Contact Improvisation approaches movement in an organic and natural way no-one really arrives as a beginner. We all have movement possibilities and we all understand to some extent, momentum, support, how to bear weight, how to move with and alongside someone else, how to travel up and down alone or together, how to deal with and enjoy gravity, how to adapt to the decisions and movements of a partner and how to understand and appreciate ones own decisions and intuitions as well as those of other people. Contact Improvisation is founded on this natural understanding and it refines and deepens it, opening up the opportunity for a rich expression of the human improvisatory, poetic, sensibility in interactive movement.
CI is a key influence on Echo Echo's unique movement style and Artistic Director, Steve Batts, describes Contact as "one of the great joys in my life".
You can hear Steve talk about Contact here .
Echo Echo regularly hosts Contact Improvisation workshops, classes, performances and jams over the last 20 years and since 2018 hosts Echo Echo Contact Improvisation Festival - the only international CI Festival on the island of Ireland.
Gallery
Thanks to Eugene Titov, Ailbe Beirne, David McClelland and Simon Alleyne (Living Witness) for gallery images.