Program

In this intensive, we explore how two bodies can become an evolving architecture of swinging, spiralling, lifting, and returning each other through shared weight and momentum. Like coupled pendulums influencing each other’s arc, or spirals continuously unfolding into new spirals, our dancing becomes a study of continuity: how one movement gives birth to the next. We begin by grounding ourselves in the essential principles of Contact Improvisation: the rolling point of contact, clear pathways for giving and receiving weight, and an embodied understanding of how our structure can support both stability and motion. From this foundation, we enter the dynamic interplay between the over-dancer and the under-dancer. Special attention will be paid to sharing weight through the pelvis and understanding how we access the floor through the partner’s body. What does it mean to offer the body as a steady, reliable architecture? What does it mean to generously surrender ones’ weight and agency to a partner? How do we guide a partner safely and attentively, through flight and back to their own centre of weight? We will investigate transitions across levels, from bodysurfing on the floor to upright exchanges. We will examine how the architecture of the body, its bones, spirals, and shifting centres, can support another while moving through space. Throughout the intensive, we combine technical clarity with somatic listening and moments of compositional group work, allowing dancers to sense when to anchor, when to follow, all while cultivating a compositional awareness. Rather than seeking fixed forms, we practice responsiveness: attuning to momentum, shaping direction, and improvising movement together in real time. The aim is not to master a set of techniques, but to inhabit a dance where stability and softness coexist, where we can become both the pendulum and the one who catches its swing.