monday night improvisation class teachers

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jackie adkins from bringing attention into the physical self through sensing organs, muscles, bones and fluids we will move into action, aiming to balance inner and outer awarenesses. Creative tasks explore perception and relationship - of self, other and group.

gaby agis Gaby's improvisation classes are influenced by Skinner Releasing Technique, with the use of images, music, scores and spatial awareness.

simonetta alessandri Feldenkrais and Improvisation. We start with a short Feldenkrais class and develop the same theme in terms of dance. Maintaining the approach of aware exploration, working with improvisation and involving touch the use of the space, tempo and the rapport with others.

robert anderson Robert's classes explore the play between internal sourcing and external awareness while dancing in solo and with others. Arriving into sensation, gravity and the breath will be the preparation for opening movement into space and composition. We'll play with listening to atmospheres, to stillness and to ripples of movement within ensemble improvisations.

nonie bradley in improvisation, we hope to gain a clearer and more articulate access to our perceptions and to our imaginative world. We will work most specifically with eyes, touch, sound as well as energetic states to explore a full range of moving possibilities.

kate brown The classes will begin with a simple physical warm-up, alone or in pairs. This will lead into improvised dancing with a specific focus. We will then take the dancing into structures, with opportunities for solo, duet and larger group improvisations, and a chance to watch each other.

andrea buckley approaches teaching in a relaxed and supportive way inviting participants to fully engage in the process through using the tools of improvisation and contact work. From solo to group work the landscape of anatomical imagery will aim to increase creative potential, self awareness and energy flow through the heightened observation of our senses.

francisco camacho Francisco takes a break from rehearsing his major new work in Lisbon to visit London for workshops with IWF and this Monday Night Improvisation class for ID.

andrew downes An opportunity to move towards the unknown, in a safe environment with the help of simple tension releasing exercises based on Eastern Bodywork Principles and supported by large physio balls to guide us gently into the integration of spontaneous impulses as they occur towards unstructured improvised dancing.

sarah gray During this class we will work with the body as receiver and observe how deepening our perception sparks our dance and enables us to express greater depths of choreographic form.  We will intensify our connections to one another, bring vividness to our dancing and use stillness to awake the potential for dynamic flights.

paula hampson I am interested to pursue through solo, duet and ensemble dancing a range of improvisational pathways to free the imagination and allow our dancing it's full potential as a spontaneous and expressive body. As a starting point, specific focus will be given to stimulate and heighten our use and interaction of our senses. Time to watch and play with open and structured improvisations will encourage observation of our own thought processes and questions.

kate hilder In this class we will move and make sound By being present to our moment-by-moment experience we will expand our awareness of physical sensations and feeling states. We will explore how we can maintain our inner focus while connecting out to the space and the other dancers Kate's classes are influenced by her training in Action Theatre and dance improvisation.

k.j. holmes Through familiarity with the interior of our bodies, we will find and create pathways to the exterior of space, time and place, composing dances that are physical, sensorial and imaginative. We will play with memory, musicality and phrasing as we discover new challenges and risks within our movement vocabulary.

thomas kampe We will explore the use of restrictions, constraints, and structured problems as tools for finding ease, freedom, new patterns, and greater possibilities in our improvised movement choices. The Feldenkrais Method® is regarded as one of the most sophisticated movement education systems developed in the 20th century. In innovative & precise ways, the Method taps the innate intelligence of the human nervous system to produce higher levels of function & movement ability.

rainer knupp The class is drawing out of my experience of experiential anatomy, sensing, feeling and thinking. We explore body and movement and states of being. I like to play with movement/space/imagery and investigating scores which can also lead in other mediums like drawing and painting.

lalitaraja Beginning with awareness as the key; paying attention to the desires, impulses and appetites to move and bringing them from desire to form. Allowing dancing to arise out of letting be, letting go of doing and moving into being. Questions, skills and strategies held playfully within simple scores opening gradually into the full range of physically open to us in the dance.

rosemary lee we will explore ways that we can get to the optimum state in ourselves for improvising and see how much fun we can have whilst improvisations that are fully present, alert and while unfold. I am interested in working musically, with phrasing and rhythm both in silence and with music and witnessing the change in all of us, through the transformative nature of dancing, from when we arrive at the beginning of class and when we leave.

anouk llaurens we train the senses to get subtle information from the environment in order to use ourselves in an ecological way. We trick our habits of movement and open unexpected pathways. We constantly question the form and enjoy playing together in movement. What we perceive is nourishing us and we dance what we perceive.

jovair longo Classes combine improvisation, partner work and some set movement. Jovair encourages movement to be developed from the opening of spaces and support around the joints and the whole body, gradually including the senses in the awakening of the body's imagination into movement. He works with the different layers of the dancer's attention when performing movement and encourages the flow of movement with awareness of the space and group.

jennifer monson Guest teacher from NYC as part of the Falling Wide Skinner Easter Course.

henry montes with attention to our midline, focus on the fluidity, expansiveness and support of the organs and expanding our field of awareness to take things in, we can begin to let movement initiate from a place of simplicity.

joe moran Joe's improvisation classes explore underlying qualities and energetic relationships as a way into widening movement possibilities and the expression of our inherent sense of form, space and composition. Scoring and writing may at times play a part in our explorations. Joe's classes draw influence from his studies with Anna Halprin and Stephanie Skura, and his practice of Skinner Releasing.

charlie morrissey Charlie's classes explore ways of deepening our sense of the three dimensionality of our bodies; their mass and their relationship to gravity and space. We take time to feel the support of the floor and to notice the physical sensations that inform our relationships to our bodies and their interactions with the physical world. As we meet other bodies we are encouraged to take a playful approach to what we find. We explore our own desires for moving whilst negotiating the other people we come into contact with. We use listening in the body as a tool to learn about and navigate the new territories we encounter.

rick nodine A combination of set movement patterns, improvisation, and skills for connecting the limbs into the centre of the body will be our entrance into dancing together. Phrases that move the centre up and down from the floor and turn the body upside-down, combined with elements of Contact improvisation will get us flying and falling as we dance with risk, humour and a vigourous physicality.

stephen affear ochalla (INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP FESTIVAL GUEST TEACHER) The opportunity to experience an improvisation class with Sudanese teacher Stephen Affear Ochalla. Stephen is part of Kwoto, led by Derik Uya Alfred and Ochalla, who have kept alive the song and dance traditions of the peoples of the south of Sudan by giving performances in the camps.

florence peake Florence explores improvisation through the use of imagery informed by skinner releasing and the visual arts. Drawing materials, colour and writing are used as a resource for movement and a place for invention.

lionel popkin Drawing on imagery from Skinner Releasing Technique, we will move into improvisation that improve our skills for dancing near, on and next to other people.

marie-gabrielle rotie Class places emphasis on internal imagery, externally given poetic imagery and on navigating the borderlines between inner and outer spaces. Her classes encourage an attentive listening process and a conscious use of time/speed methods, particular to Butoh, to sensitise to quiet processes and movements that grow into dynamic patterns or impulses.

carolyn roy In this class we will focus on using perception to develop spatial and environmental awareness. Observing our relationship to the external world and our own internal landscape, we will explore the way that information gathered through the senses informs movement and helps us to detect, interpret and navigate the space around us.

caroline scott Caroline Scott begins each session with a Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement lesson and uses this experience to lead into improvised dancing We will often work with a partner to help clarify our own self image and to help refine our ability to observe and work with others.

segun (INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP FESTIVAL GUEST TEACHER)
The opportunity to experience an improvisation class with Nigeria's most exciting young choreographer, Segun, who is Artistic Director of the Crown Troupe of Africa and a leading exponent of the use of traditional dance forms to create contemporary performance.

kirstie simson kirstie simson leads students into a state of mind from which dancing arises effortlessly and spontaneously. The activity of locating, listening and allowing dance to be expressed through the body, combined with simple technical and sensory expanding skills, guides people to be able to access and work with the powerful energy of Ki, training a concentration that excites and loosens the body's natural hunger to express itself through full and vibrant dancing.

stephanie skura Stephanie's class explores improvisational techniques focusing on individuality and specificity. She will draw on methods, discovered and refined from directing and choreographic work, that involve physical expression as multilayered and unique as our life experience. Drawing, writing, speaking, and sounding interact with movement in both solo and group forms.

scott smith & charlie morrissey The contact and partnering work will be informed by Charlie and Scott's ongoing research and development of partnering forms. The research is concerned with physical studies, and dancing applications, in relationship to mass, gravity, momentum, acquiescence, action, flying, falling and support, with the aim to generate enthusiasm in movement.

lucia walker How can we access both presence and playfulness as we improvise? How can we be both flexible and decisive? How can we make choices and allow co-incidence? Moving in and out of contact; alone, in partners and as a group; the class will offer opportunities to dance and play together and to explore the dynamics of improvisation.

irmela wiemann we will draw on the investigation of three fields of interest: felt anatomical or energetic connections in the body, looking, listening into musicality and the play with rhythm and sound, or working with imagery, to discover moment to moment composition that is fun and sourced by spontaneity.

sheron wray Her improvisational practice has extended into the area of voice, and draws on the The Kaleidoscope Approach which is founded on fundamental music principles embedded by a cogent actualisation of pursuit of rhythmic responses - physical listening is the key and works both ways between the dancers.

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