Contact Improvisation- Riding the Edge
The focus of this workshop is to: examine the role of perception, sensation, expression and imagination in our work; integrate contact improvisation into our improvisational palette in order to freely move in and out of partnering; alter the mind's beliefs about space and time and experience how this can dramatically affect our bodies and the way we move; and find a sense of timelessness in our dancing- a state of consciousness that is aware but not self-conscious. Dancers will be encouraged to ride the outer edge of their physical limits while attending to the rich inner worlds of sensation, imagination, and inspration.

ZOOM: Contact Improvisation in Detail and Perspective
Returning to simple physical and perceptual principles and techniques to help clarify, enliven and refine our dancing in Contact Improvisation. With this sensational orientation as our base, we'll bring Contact Improvisation into play within a broader field of improvisational/compositional dancing. By working with a few specific practices and scores, we'll address physical and enegetic changes of state, natural composition, presence and relationship. Alone, in and out of contact, in groups, in silence and with occasional live music by Mike Vargas, we'll develop our ability to focus our dancing at various levels of magnification.

Looking at Composition is like Painting the Golden Gate Bridge
Composition is the putting together of a whole by the combination of parts. We'll focus on the nature of organization, researching practical applications for a collection of concepts I call "85 Aspects of Composition", a checklist of selective filters meant to help us break down the mechanics of inspiration. By deciding which of these filters or "lenses" to look through, we simplify the field of view for a given moment, directing our attention, on whatever scale we choose, toward specific issues. Taking turns improvising and watching structures based on aspects such as balance, community, geography, generosity, mystery, proportion, repitition, and timing, we'll clarify and refine our actions and our perceptions.

Some considerations concerning SPACE when improvising before a public
Julyen Hamilton's work as an improvising dance artist has been the base for his teaching work over the past 20 years. This work falls into three areas: space, time, and dramaturgy. In these classes, the main focus will be upon space. The dancing practice in the classes will be conceptual, technical, practical, and creative.

Up and Under (Air Contact)
A three hour daily intensive, beginning with: BELLY/ Breath/Sounding/Stretching/ Strengthening/Lengthening/ALigning. Using rhythm and phrases, get down on your arms, and up on your legs. Coming into contact with groups and duets, follow your body and voice to find the up and under with AIR. Open the mind and imagination to their potential. Expolore weight sharing, balance, and body awareness, while learning to move in relation to one's self, the floor and a partner. Suspend, accelerate, REBOUND and find surprise within the dance of partnering. Deepen the skill and improvisation in contact; it is a science and a playground.

Composition/ Improvisation
Music (Cage-improvisation music), choreography and theater scores placed in improvisation sessions with feedback, which defines the concerns about ensemble improvisation. (Example) entrance and exit, timing, space orientation, presence, physical states, disappearance and appearance, theme and variation of a structure, variation off a theme, silence, counter point, space shifts, site-specific and the gathered crowd, individual (physical materials) and ensemble transformations (solo, duet, trio, etc)The overall concern is for the dance student to be able to use chance and choice in a flexible and intelligent way.