Week 1

Dates: 13–17 January
Location: Critical Path [1C New Beach Rd, Darling Point NSW 2027]

Relational Intelligence in Contact Improvisation: Embodied Co-Creative Practices
Level: Intermediate-Advanced

“All Intelligence is Collective Intelligence” — Michael Levin

This workshop dives deep into the relational practices inherent in Contact Improvisation, focusing on co-creativity, trust, and emergent phenomena. We explore how embodied attention shapes our meetings and awakens communication that moves faster than body language. Through training specific practices, working with scores, discussions, and showings, we engage in topics such as the ethics of care, decolonizing our embodiments, and reWilding our moving presence.

This immersive learning will be anchored in the core principles of Contact Improvisation, taking you from the concrete to the sublime, stretching the reach of your dance into every moment of your life.

Week 2

Dates: 20–25 January
Location: Critical Path [1C New Beach Rd, Darling Point NSW 2027]

Contact Improvisation Meets Ensemble: Somatic Communication within Co-Creative Practices

This workshop introduces a body of material that merges Contact Improvisation with Ensemble Practices. Moving beyond individual improvisation, we explore how somatic intelligence allows dancers to come together in powerful ways that combine CI’s functional orientation with the vast physical range of western dance forms. This integration fosters relational intelligence and embodied freedom. Through this work, we aim to uncover new possibilities for dance relations from their somatic roots.

Week 3

Dates: 28–31 January
Location: Western Sydney University The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development AND Critical Path [1C New Beach Rd, Darling Point NSW 2027]

How Dancers Do Research: The Study of Somatic Communication

This Research Training Workshop provides dancers with the tools to study the physicality of somatic communication within improvisational ensemble practices. Focusing on how dancers develop physical attention to communicate beyond verbal language, the workshop delves into research methodologies, including listening skills, framing research questions, scoring techniques, and more. The goal is to enhance dancers’ co-creative practices and offer access to CoLab research groups under the ISSC.