Shared Architecture: a two-day CI Immersion with Kieran Mitchell

Link to Kieran's twin event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1297202652263296 In this workshop, we explore how two bodies can become an evolving architecture—swinging, spiralling, lifting, and returning each other through shared weight and momentum. Like coupled pendulums influencing one another’s arc, or spirals continuously unfolding, our dancing becomes a study of continuity: how one movement gives rise to the next. We begin by grounding ourselves in the core principles of Contact Improvisation: the rolling point of contact, clear pathways for giving and receiving weight, and an embodied understanding of how structure supports both stability and motion. From this foundation, we enter the dynamic relationship between the over-dancer and the under-dancer, with particular attention to sharing weight through the pelvis and accessing the floor through the partner’s body. What does it mean to offer the body as steady, reliable support? What does it mean to surrender weight and agency with clarity and trust? How do we guide a partner safely through flight, and back to their own centre? We will explore transitions across levels—from bodysurfing on the floor to upright exchanges—investigating how the body’s architecture—bones, spirals, and shifting centres—can support another while moving through space. Throughout the workshop, we weave technical clarity with somatic listening and moments of group composition. This invites dancers to sense when to anchor and when to follow, cultivating awareness within a shared field of movement. Rather than seeking fixed forms, we practice responsiveness: attuning to momentum, shaping direction, and improvising in real time. The aim is not to master a set of techniques, but to inhabit a dance where stability and softness coexist—where we can become both the pendulum and the one who receives its swing. TIMES Saturday 10am to 4:30pm Sunday 10am to 4:30pm LOCATION Main Hall Glebe Townhall 160 St Johns Rd, Glebe NSW 2037 COST $200 $150 supported $250 supporting Kieran Mitchell has been a dedicated practitioner of Contact Improvisation (CI) for the past 14 years and has taught and facilitated the form for the last 8. He has taught at major international CI festivals across Asia, Europe, and Australia. With a background in modern dance, ballet, and improvisation, Kieran’s is involved in physical theatre, contemporary dance theatre, and other performance art. As a movement mentor, he works one-on-one with individuals to cultivate embodied play, increase range of motion, and enhance physical function. Kieran is interested in the way CI allows the practitioner to dissolve and reify the borders between the self and the non-self. To ask the questions: where do I end? Can I extend myself into another body and access the floor through that body? Where is my attention? Is it focusing on the internal, the external or the sense data itself? Kieran’s teaching emphasises clear communication of technical understanding. His classes often begin with a focus on the ‘doing’ aspects of CI—“moves” and pathways— before inviting participants towards a forgetting of the technical and allowing the body to express itself in its ‘being’ modality. REGISTRATION For further information please contact Eamonn O'Flaherty via Messenger or at [email protected] ----- USEFUL LINKS The local Contact Improvisation Dance group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3993588900725636 Sydney events page: https://eamonn-o-flaherty.github.io/Sydney-Contact-Improv-Dance-Community/