A weekend of CI workshops (Thursday evening through Sunday morning) including CI Essentials as well as deeper investigations into the form. Consider this festival a great preparation for the July 4th Jam! Classes with different teachers from around the country, many of whom attended the CITE conferenc (CI in the Academy held at Connecticut College (June 17 – 20, New London, CT)).

Serving as a bridge between the focus of CI in the Academy discussed at CITE and the upcoming July 4th Jam, which holds a focus upon the community practice of CI, Ground Research offers a rich opportunity to explore the intersections of how Contact Improvisation is taught, practiced, and experienced.

Full Schedule and class descriptions coming soon.

Mornings:

MOVING THE ENVIRONMENT - led by:Daniel Lepkoff. The visible boundaries of our body are transparent to the force of gravity. The forces that we feel within our body, (compression or stretch) do not know the difference between what is us and what is our environment. We move ourselves by extending our architecture and expressing our force into the environment. The environment answers. We move it and it moves us.We work with exercises designed to help us embody this physical fact in both solo and partner work This duality offers an extended dimension to our awareness and understanding of what is happening as we navigate through space

These three classes are part of a larger study of the real time function of the mind and body that is the basis of a dance technique. The class work is physical, direct, and highly focused. Please come organized to work. Because these classes are offered in the context of a Contact Improvisation focus I would be very happy if students read a recent writing of mine : “Contact Improvisation: A Question”. Read it now at http://www.daniellepkoff.com. This class series is not open to drop-in attendance.

Designing the Moment, Creative and Technical Flow in Improvisation with Paul Langland - Paul's classes will start with a thorough warm-up then lead into technical and creative explorations in improvisation. We will then delve into open-ended scores with clear structures where students will be able to expand on their work and share creative directions in solo, duet and ensemble scores. Classes will focus on tried and true material from Paul's long relationship to improvisation as a student, teacher, and performer. We will look at how to use music in improvisation. Class material is informed by Contact Improvisation, Performative Improvisation scores developed by Paul, and is also influenced by the many artists he has worked with. All levels and ages are welcome.

Afternoon Classes: partial list

The Dreaming of Bones with Kerstin Kussmaul. Bones and joints define the structure of our body. At the beginning we will think, feel and move us through our skeletal system in order to find clarity, articulation and lightness in the dance with our partner. In doing so, the changing relationship to gravity will organize itself efficiently and we will be able to give and take weight effortlessly. This enables precise duets in a range from being energetic to a more meditative state. Open Level

Trace Elements with Tamin Totzke and Dustin Haug. This class focuses on authenticity rather than tricks.  You will transcend skill training and discover the unique voice rising out of each new dance. By allowing a trace of movement to always exist in the past, you paint the trail of your journey so others can find you with ease and effortlessness. Expect to work at a slower pace, shirking the adrenal rush to discover the profound heart. You will trace, pull, and push to tune yourself into different tones of touch. You will become accustomed to disorientation through intentional risk of your balance while remaining anchored to the beacon of your partner. You will pour weight, maintain connective threads and allow yourself to be followed.

music in contact with Kerstin Kussmaul. Perception of time, rhythms and phrasing are often unaware in a duet. It is an unexplored box useful to surprise yourself, your partner and - metaphorically speaking - to sing a dance. How can we use synaesthetic perception, meaning our ability to i.e. hear movement or to see sound -  to enrich our qualities of perception and movement? The class will be a journey for personal discoveries and exploring specific interests. For Intermediate/Advanced Dancers.

Letting Go to Fly with Kristin Horrigan. Find a state of fluidity in your joints by releasing the weight of your limbs into the hands of a partner. Move into active dancing from fluid state, finding vigorous expression in the body without losing the ease and softness in the joints.

The Collaborative Gensture with Olivier Besson. Contact improvisation is a compassionate dance of reciprocity. How do we surround a dance with space, allowing it to flower in our presence? We start with the body, deepen our beginner's mind to skills and give our attention to what's new within what's familiar. Through our senses, we observe and experience the relationship we have to the collective space. We expand our capacity to connect in and around contact, and evolve the dance into a simultaneous collaborative gesture.

Teacher Bio's

Daniel Lepkoff's work looks at all of our movement as a finely tuned physical dialogue with the environment and explores the form and composition of these interactions as a language for making dances. He played a central role in the development of Release Technique with Mary Fulkerson and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton since the early '70's. As a performer and teacher he is known for composing dances that arises from the process of living movement, a vision a living in the body in a physical dialogue with the environment. He is one of the founders of Movement Research in NYC.

Paul Langland is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and innovator in dance and performance. He has been a Contact Improviser since 1972 when he studied with Steve Paxton and other founders. A New Yorker since 1973, Paul helped establish Contact there. Contact continues to inform his work at a core level. He teaches Allan Wayne Work, is an original member of the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble, and was in the Contact-based group Channel Z. Paul has worked with many artists in the USA and internationally, and he has toured his work widely. He is currently an Associate Arts Professor at New York University's Experimental Theater Wing. Recent and upcoming projects include teaching in the Contactfestival, Freiburg, Germany 2010, teaching at the Santa Fe, NM Regional Contact Jam 2010, teaching at the CITE Contact Conference at Connecticut College 2010, Six Viewpoints Certification 2010, teaching at the Inauguration Contact Jam, Washington, DC, 2009, appearing in Inner Voices a movie about Meredith Monk 2009, and performing in the Movement Research 30th Anniversary Festival, 2009

Kerstin Kussmaul is an improviser, movement educator & dance facilitator. She  holds an M.A. in dance & music and focuses on somatic movement education and embodiment. She studied at Moving On Center and at the Acupressure Institute, Berkeley among other places and teaches regularly dance technique and contact improvisation in Germany, Italy, Austria and the U.S. and has been invited to teach and perform at major European dance venues such as ImPulsTanz Vienna, k3- Choreographic Center Hamburg. 

Tamin Totzke and Dustin Haug, based in Minneapolis, MN, perform and teach under the moniker VESSEL.  Together they have reinvigorated the Minneapolis contact community by facilitating the weekly jam, participating in CI labs, and organizing workshops with Jane Hawley and Martin Keogh. They collaboratively teach weekly contact improvisation and modern dance technique at Zenon Dance School. They have also taught at GLACIER (Willard, WI), SEEDS (Earthdance, MA), and West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival (Berkely, CA).  They have guest taught at Gustavus (St. Peters, MN), Luther College (Decorah, IA), University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), and Purdue University (West Lafeyette, IN).  They will also be teaching again the at the 2010 West Coast Festival and welcome visitors to contact them about dancing anytime they are in the Minneapolis area.

Kristin Horrigan has been practicing CI for 12 years and has taught across the East Coast and Midwest, as well as in Germany and Argentina. She is one of the organizers of the CI Teachers' Exchange happening at Connecticut College immediately before Ground Research. When not dancing CI, Kristin runs the dance program at Marlboro College and directs Dance Generators, an intergenerational dance company.

Olivier Besson is an improviser/choreographer who hails from France and is based in Boston. Olivier is currently on faculty at The Boston Conservatory. He has been on faculty at the French National Circus School (CNAC), Bates Dance Festival, Emerson College and the School of Fine Arts at Boston Universtity. Most notably, Olivier's work has been presented at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Micadanses (Paris), Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), The Boston Conservatory, Boston University and Radford University. He created and continues to run the movement improvisation jam with live music since its inception (1990) in Cambridge, MA.

Registration and Fees

Tuition/Room/Board All Inclusive. Special Offers:
1. Attendees of CITE receive 50% off CI Ground Research Fees.
2. Attend Ground Research and stay for the July 4th Jam and receive $50 off the price of the July 4th Jam, plus stay for free the 2 days between.

Deposit Required*: $75

You may also come to Earthdance in advance of Ground Research for retreat/residency/personal lab time for an additional cost of $45/day (includes accommodations and food, though during retreat time you may need to prepare your own meals).

Arrival Thursday, June 24, after 5 p.m.
Last session ends Sonday afternoon June 27

*You will not be officially registered until we receive your deposit. If your registration is cancelled up to 3 weeks prior to a workshop, you may either transfer the entire deposit amount to another event or be refunded 1/2 of the deposit. Cancellations within 3 weeks of the start date are not eligible for a refund or transfer.