monday night improvisation class teachers

click on teachers for their biographies

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, use of images, music, scores and spacial awareness.

robert anderson Robert has studied dance improvisation for seven years with leading teachers from the US and Europe. After gaining a BA Dance and Culture at the University of Surrey, he spent six months in San Francisco to train specifically in contact and improvisational dance. He has performed in work by Jovair Longo, Meghan Flannigan, Margot Henderson, Lalitaraja, Sarah Shorten and Touchdown Dance along with many collaborative improvisation projects. Robert took part in an Anglo-Israeli project, When Mountains Roar, last year that developed performances from outdoor research in the Rammon dessert. Since the beginning of 2001, Robert has been teaching and organising contact improvisation classes/jams/workshops in London. He is currently working and performing with integrated dance company Touchdown Dance.

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 I am interested in improvisation as a place where one can explore and expand personal movement facility, sensitivity and vocabulary, investigate moving in relation to other people, and enjoy the exhilaration of instant composition with bodies in space and time.

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 Eastern Bodywork Principles and large physio balls guiding us gently into energetically unstructured improvised dancing.

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.

thomas kampe In this class 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 movements choices. The Feldenkrais Method® is regarded as one of the most sophisticated movement education systems of the 20th century. In innovative and precise ways, the Method taps the innate intelligence of the human nervous system to produce higher levels of function and movement ability.

rainer knupp The class will draw out of my experience of experimental anatomy, sensing and feeling, to explore the 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.

lalitaraja beginning with a slow, thorough warm up 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 do 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 Jovair Longo leads a class combining improvisation and contact improvisation. His release based work explores imagery to develop awareness and skills for movement and dance.

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.

rick nodine discovering our appetites for movement, and focusing on kinaesthetic sensation will be our warm-up practice. By using vision, hearing and touch to bring us into contact with our environment, we will begin to compose our movement in relation to the space and other dancers. Creating and watching dances will give us something to talk about.

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.

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.

caroline scott Caroline will begin class with a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson and use this as a starting point to explore dancing on our own and together 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. could you do a joint link to go to that text instead?

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.

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