Aalia Hashem (also known as Marriki) first encountered the ​dance form Contact Improvisation at Edam Dance Company ​in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada, learning the practice with Andrew ​Harwood, Anne Cooper, Olivia Shaffer, Peter ​Bingham, and Helen Walkley. Discovering it's transformative ​effects on the body-mind within herself and others, she ​continued to pursue contact in Asia studying with over 50 ​CI teachers, including notable intensives with Kirstie Simson, ​Leilani Weis, Sasha Dodo & Dolores Dewhurst-Marks, Vega ​Lukkonnen, and Vangelis Legakis.

Influences and movement studies over the last 22 years ​include contemporary dance, fusion, hip hop, swing, qigong, ​yoga, meditation, and aikido. Aalia hosts the podcast Faces of CI, ​interviewing Contact facilitators about the practice as a mirror ​for life. During the pandemic, she created Contact Body, an ​online self-study course in Contact Improvisation, and Fortune ​Score - Contact Jam Oracle Deck. Her forays into contact dance has had her directing short films (Mangosteen, 2020, at Contact Dance Film Festival 2024) and dancing for musicians in music videos in Bali, "Make Like a Tree" and "Vlkno". She now guides new ​Contact facilitators in developing their careers through ​Momentum Contact Facilitator Trainings, with teachers now sharing her method in China, Portugal, and United States.

Momentum, her Beginner's workshop for Contact Improvisation, has been shared 30 + times, initiating hundreds of dancers into contact. Clients and teaching opportunities in recent years include Bali Bloom Festival, Bali Dance Festival, Georgia Silent Contact Festival, Towards 50CI Conference, and Flow60 Retreat. 

Aalia's curiosity and love of the dance form stems from sharing the principles of the practice and delving into the socio-creative aspects through reflective group conversation. To her, Contact Improvisation is a continuous investigation on movement as a vehicle for present-moment awareness, community, connection, creative expression, self-empowerment, spontaneity, and the pure joy of play. 

She splits her time between Asia (Bali, Thailand) and Canada (Vancouver, Saltspring Island).

 

Links & Upcoming Workshop Schedule

Aalia Hashem | Dancer Website

Faces of CI | The Podcast

Faces of CI |  Instagram

Telegram Community | Bali CI Events 

Maestros significativos

Influences, longer contact intensives, workshops, and residencies with: Anne Cooper, Andrew Harwood, Peter Bingham, Olivia Shaffer, Mark Young, Helen Walkley, Sasha Dodo, Dolores Dewhurst-Marks, Leilani Weis, Kirstie Simson, Vega Luukonnen, Vangelis Legakis, and Yasukichi Suzuki.