FIRST STREET STUDIO
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701 Tillery St. Austin, Texas 78702
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Fridays 7:00pm-9:30pm
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$10-20 Sliding Scale
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Venmo: @scottgregoryarts
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IG @austincontact
Contact Improv
-isation Jam
Contact Improvisation is an evolving movement form, originated in 1972 through work by Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark-Smith and their collaborators, and since expanded upon by many others. It centers around the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion – gravity, momentum, inertia.
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The body, in order to open to these communications, must learn to relax. We cultivate presence to maintain an aware and prepared state towards the flow of movement. Practice includes falling, being upside down, supporting and giving weight to a partner, being very still, rolling around the floor and each other. As we do so, we engage our innate ability to reflexively respond to physical disorientation.
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Contact quarterly, an ongoing dance and improvisation journal begun by Nancy Stark Smith, offers many resources and writing about CI. https://contactquarterly.com/
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But ultimately the practice is found in how it feels to do it.
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As the jam begins, we hold an optional separate tutorial for beginners to cover some safety basics, fundamental concepts, and practical approaches (~20 minutes)
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Our full jam guidelines can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/cijamguidelines
We have a guest teacher about once a month. Follow @austincontact for up to date info on lessons.
Facilitators
Scott Gregory (he/they) is a massage therapist, mindfulness teacher, and video artist. He is especially grateful to Liz Ganz for her teaching in a variety of relational mindfulness practices and her own movement explorations Deep Play and beingLoved. He also thanks Brandon Gonzalez, Drea Marz, and Kan Yan for the CI jams and lessons they’ve held in Austin.
Since 2012, he has been tending spaces for community via Authentic Relating, Circling, and Ecstatic Dance containers in Houston, Austin, and Hanoi, Vietnam. He is committed to holding spaces where people can play, surprise themselves, get confused, and grow.
Katie Lain (she/they) is a queer Austin-based movement artist, performer, teacher, and massage therapist with a particular passion for improvised dance. First introduced to Contact Improvisation locally through Brandon Gonzalez in 2021, she has since traveled to study with other teachers nationally and internationally. These include Irene Sposetti, Mark Young, LowerLeft collective, and SetGo collective, as well as numerous workshops at CI jams across the country from Berkeley to Oberlin.
Passionate about exploring the subtle body through movement, she weaves somatics into her teaching. They are also interested in ensemble work and group composition as a way to hone collaboration and be in service to the whole. Most recently she has shown work at Austin Dance Festival and American College Dance Festival.