CI Essentials

The Contact Weave

with Catherine Lessard, assisted by Benoit Guillemette

April 8 (Thursday evening) – April 11 (Sunday afternoon)

Contact Improvisation is a physical conversation in perpetual motion. It's child's play that lets you rediscover your link to gravity and space. In this course, we will progressively enrich our knowledge of the organic weave of the principles of Contact Improvisation. Through that research, our body will reveal its intelligence, and our mind, its malleability. Each session begins with a warm up, and a series of exercises in solo, then in contact, and ends with improvisation and a warm down. Music, silence, and meditation are used to support the research. This course is open to all levels and will cover foundations of CI.

For the last 10 years, Catherine Lessard has been exploring the Contact Weave. She transmits with passion and coherence the key principles of improvised dancing and Contact Improvisation. She is a member of the PIE (Performance Improvisation Exchange) collective in Montreal and served as president of the Montreal Association for Contact Improvisation (ACI). Benoit Guillemette has developed creative expertise in coaching bigger/heavier people on how to be light and fluid in Contact (particularly tall himself). Besides dance, Benoit has a music degree in flute from University of Montreal.

Total Workshop Fee = Tuition + Room & Board.

Thursday - Sunday Tuition (4 Tiers Available):
   Student Rate: Economically challenged students and the unemployed: $155
   Regular Rate: Employed but struggling (teacher, librarian, lots of kids, etc.): $180
   Professional Rate: Actually contributing to your retirement plan (support the arts!): $205
   Contributor Rate: Contributing additional funds to support the Earthdance Scholarship Fund:: $235

Standard Room & Board: $140 (For commuting or alternate housing options, click here)

Deposit Required*: $75

Early Registration Discount: $25 off if registered by March 8.

Late fee: A $20 late fee applies to registrations received after April 1.

Arrive Thursday, 04/08, after 5 p.m.
Last session ends Sunday afternoon 04/11

Partial Scholarships are sometimes available for Earthdance workshops. Please click here for more information.

*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.