Philadelphia Contact Improvisation

From the Ground Up
This class will begin with fundamentals of contact improvisation in a relaxed and engaged approach to awaken the senses, tune the body/mind and engage in full weight support. As a technique and a practice we will explore the full range of dynamics inherent in the form with an emphasis on creating trust, sensitivity and agility.

BIO
An improviser at heart, Leah Stein has been making dances since 1987 when she moved to Philadelphia to begin her professional dancing life. Since then, she has taught, performed, made decades of dances, traveled far and wide, and come to appreciate the moment more than ever. She offers much gratitude to her first contact and improvisation teachers Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Krieckhaus, Simone Forti, Ishmael Houston Jones and Eiko and Koma. Leah Stein teaches contact at Swarthmore College and co-teaches improvisation with Roko Kawai at Bryn Mawr College. The company's new site-specific work GATE will be performed at Eastern State Penitentiary in June 2007. This work marks the third project of the company's On Site Philadelphia program.

Contact Improvisation is a movement form that offers opportunities to experience heightened states of being ­ times when we feel fearless and alive. There are no recipes to create these moments, but training can lay the foundation for physical and emotional breakthroughs. In this workshop we are specifically interested in developing our reflexes, our coordination, and the capacity to continually recycle our mental and physical energies back into the dancing. At the core is the commitment to staying with the modulation of tone and weight in the body ­ so that the touch remains alive.

All levels welcome. Come with questions, energy and commitment to playful, imaginative dancing.

BIO
Angie Hauser is a dancer, teacher and performing improviser. She teaches contact improvisation, compositional improvisation and dance technique though out the U.S. and in Canada and Europe. She collaborates and performs with many gifted artists including Chris Aiken, Kirstie Simpson, K.J. Holmes, Kathleen Hermesdorf and Darrell Jones. Since 2000, Angie has been a member of the Bebe Miller Company, where she contributes to the creation of dance works that are performed throughout the United States. In 2006 Angie was awarded a BESSIE Award for Creation and Choreography for her work with the company. She has also danced with the companies of Elizabeth Streb, Liz Lerman and Poppo Shiriashi.