MIRVA MÄKINEN TRAINING - ALGARVE/ PORTUGAL

1-12 JUNE 2025

EARLY BIRD till April 30st 2025
 

Deeper diving into the practice of CI to fly higher 

Spend 12 enriching days in the Algarve, Portugal, exploring Contact Improvisation through workshops, jamming, and research in a peaceful natural setting.

Join us at Quinta Braz for an immersive residency focused on the art of Contact Improvisation, creative exploration, dynamic jams, and collaborative learning in a serene environment. Assisting teachers: Ilda Freire & Sakari Savola

Somaesthetic Experience
This twelve days long workshop is somatic and artistic research about contact improvisation that involves diving deeply into embodied experiences and from there investigate new information. My curiosity as a teacher or facilitator is to find a context to investigate the way of thinking through contact improvisation and the values that are in this dance form. I have had a need to research and find greater understanding of the awareness that I find through this dance form.

What kind of somatic or somaesthetic experience each dancer has? In order to find these values and understand them, this workshop is research that is placing contact improvisation in a wider perspective through historical background, the rehearsal process of contact improvisation and theoretical writings about bodily experience, skill and art. I am referring to somaesthetics by Richard Shusterman, pragmatistic philosophy by John Dewey and philosophy about skill by Timo Klemola as a theoretical background. We will be aiming for deepening the practice and committing for continuous learning and aim for flying higher.

Respond To The Unknown
In a longer, in-depth format, we will be free to explore our ability as dancers to navigate more deeply what I’m calling “public space,” “intimate space,” and “spherical space.” In each environment, we will examine how bodily perception can affect thought, negotiation, choice, trust, discomfort, and how we respond to the unknown. Atunement to inner states and outer stimuli will increase discernment whether we are sensing a fall and the choices it presents or adjusting our responses rapidly to a changing space among other bodies.  As somatic listening deepens, empathetic connections become more possible. To facilitate this vulnerable exchange, the workshop will take place in a sustainable and ecological residency in Portugal.