Accidental Excellence or The Joy of Stumbling into Contact

Workshop on contact improvisation with Katarina Eriksson

17 & 18 September  2016

Content

This workshop is inspired by a verbal misunderstanding.  In a CI event that I was recently part of, an on-looker made a comment that I heard as “accident dances”, when he really said “excellent dances”.

I have noticed that, what can be perceived as mishaps in a dance often become an opening to deeper listening and awareness of the particularities of the dance I’m having right now.  So, in this class we will cultivate our capacity of being “accident-prone” – to stop trying to get it right and instead becoming more and more curious about where the principles of contact improvisation can take us moment by moment.

We will study;
Falling (How does my body fall safely? Where is the edge of my comfort zone? What kinds of falls make me laugh?)
Rolling point/Sliding point/ In and out of contact  (How can these concepts support my dance towards surprise and discovery?  Can I shift from making it happen to watching it happen? Can I find joy in the moments of difficulty? )
Weigh exchange (How do I respect my own and my partner’s limitations without letting “politeness” dull the dance? What are all the micro-grades on my scale for giving and receiving weight?)
It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.  ~Ornette Coleman


Teacher bio

Katarina Eriksson has been involved with improvisational dance since 1989, collaborating with artists, such as Julyen Hamilton, Ray Chung, Cathie Caraker, and as a member and co-founder of Swedish improvisation ensemble Floke.
She teaches Contact Improvisation and other improvisational forms in Europe and the US, and since 2000 she curates the performance series Moments Notice in Berkeley.
Katarina’s traditional dance background includes graduation from The Ballet Academy, Gothenburg and working at The Gothenburg State Theater and Opera, as well as with numerous choreographers and dance companies in Sweden.
Recent performance endeavors are; an Artist in Residency at CounterPULSE, San Francisco, touring in Sweden and Germany with Hoppalappa Postfolki Tanziteatteri, co-creating a site-specific dance piece with Siljeholm/Christophersen in Beirut, and directing multi-disciplinary performances at Earthdance, Massachusetts and Movement Research at Judson Church, New York.

Katarina’s teaching supports collaboration, diversity of expression, and “beginner’s mind. Her main guides in art making are vulnerability, musicality and deep play.

Schedule:
Saturday 17 September 10:00 – 13:00 and 14:00 – 17:00
Sunday 18 September 10:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 16:00

Fee:
Sliding scale SEK 500 (unwaged) SEK 750 (low waged) SEK 1000 (waged)

Venue:
Musikens Hus, Djurgårdsgatan 13, 414 62 Göteborg, Sweden

Registration:
To reserve your place, please first contact the Göteborg contact collective at gbg.cic@gmail.com, your registration is valid when you transfer the full fee to the following account:

Account holder: Carine Cassia
Account number: 5694 04 676 29
Clearing number: 5694
IBAN: SE0350000000056940467629
BIC: ESSESESS
Bank: SEB (Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken)

Don’t forget to put your name and what the payment is for (“WS September” for example) in the payment reference.

Registration deadline: 10 September

Should you be unable to participate, we will refund you your payment.

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