Saturday Dance Events
The ‘Saturday Dance Events’ are an opportunity for all members of the Champaign-Urbana community and beyond (including University students) to participate in a five-hour dance experience led by Kirstie Simson. During the course of the spring 2008 semester there will be five Saturday Dance Events that will take place at the Channing Murray Chapel at 1209 West Oregon Street, Urbana. The sessions begin with a two-hour class in which participants are introduced to the principles of Contact Improvisation, with a focus on partnering skills and ways to move together as an ensemble. A potluck lunch break is followed by a two hour ‘dance improvisation practice session’ accompanied by various local musicians coordinated by Jason Finkelman. This session is designed to give people simple guidelines within which they are free to practice their dancing together in an easy and pressure-free environment.
The sessions have been very much enjoyed and have attracted people from far and wide including the local area, Chicago, Indianapolis, Lafayette and Oberlin, Ohio.
“Attending the classes helped me relax and replenish from my 9-5 desk job and incorporate some of the advice into my daily like and feel better as a result. I learned how to listen to my body.”
“It was very special to be welcomed as a community member and to have this rich overlap between the Dance Department (students, faculty), the contact community, the improvisers who showed up form Ohio, Indiana, Bloomington, and Chicago, and the newbies. It takes an experienced and gifted teacher to guide a group with such mixed experience levels and for each person to experience something new and wonderful.”
It is not necessary to attend all classes, however participants are encouraged to attend multiple events for a deeper experience and a sense of continuity. All students are welcome, however a basic understanding of improvisation or movement will be helpful. Please come ready for full immersion in a fun and exciting movement and sound experience.
Walk-ins are welcome or you can register in advance.
Contact Improvisation is a form of improvisational dance usually done in contact with a partner. It is practiced as a social or performance form and generally involves a heightened sense of touch and an awareness of the body in relationship to gravity. Contact Improvisation began in the 1960’s as an exploration by post-modern artists such as Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith in response to inquiries about the major physical, social and political issues of our time. Contact Improvisation artists have broken many stereotypes about WHO dances, attracting a diverse population that has included athletes, physically challenged, seniors, children, as well as dancers, actors and musicians.
