Unclasses

Open to all levels of experience, this workshop focuses on the underlying elements of Contact Improvisation. Together we will develop skills such as kinesthetic awareness, breathing into efficient movement, receptive touch, pouring weight and rolling through a point of contact. We will also explore partnering from a place of curiosity and compassion for ourselves and for one another. The workshop will flow into a Jam for open dancing.

What is Contact Improvisation (CI)?

Contact Improv is a dance form created in the 1970’s. It stems from various traditions including Aikido, Capoeira, and post-modern dance. Though also used in performance and choreography, a social gathering for CI is called a JAM (in the same way Jazz musicians get together for a musical improvisation jam.) Following points of physical contact (with other dancers or the space) provides the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation. As an art form and a movement practice, Contact Improv offers a holistic approach to how we understand our bodies— how we move, feel, think, create, and interact with one another.

Lee Fogel is a contemplative artist who writes, dances and teaches with a passion for living out nature’s rhythms. She has been an Artist in Residence in schools and community settings in places as diverse as Philadelphia, New Orleans, Ohio, and El Salvador. She has led workshops in Contact Improvisation, somatics, movement-based creative expression, environmental awareness, literacy, conflict resolution and self-empowerment. She was a guest speaker at the CosaCosa Art at Large forum on Art as Dialogue in 2005, and at the Earthdance SEEDs Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth Dance and Science) in 2009.
Lee is currently living in Philadelphia where she co-founded the Philly Contact Collective, and is a Teaching Artist for the Pennsylvania Arts in Education Partnership and CosaCosa Art at Large, Inc.. She holds a BA in Visual Arts/Dance, with a minor in Religion from Oberlin College (‘07), and is a working towards her MA in Dance and Somatic Well-being through the University of Lancashire’s New York City program.