Contact Improv Jam in Chiang Mai with guest facilitator Daniel

Greetings Improvisers: Contact Improv Chiang Mai Invites you to our weekly Contact Improv Jam with Guest Teacher, Daniel Mang/Sweden Wed, 15-Mar, 7-9pm in the meeting hall at Eco Resort, Chiang Mai Next Jam: Wed, 23-Mar with Alfiya Shamsutdinova Please show up ready to start at 7p Suggest you bring water and loose comfortable cloths to move in Cost: sliding scale of B250-B300 (Please try to bring exact amount) We offer our Suggested Guidelines to support the dance and community and to help promote safety, awareness and enjoyment in the space: https://www.facebook.com/notes/contact-improv-chiang-mai/contact-improv-chiang-mai-guidelines-feb-2016/647612655341703 Contact Improv Chiang Mai is a community space for personal exploration and deepening through the form of Contact Improvisation Dance (since 2012) ~~ WELCOME TO CONTACT IMPROV CHIANG MAI We hope these “frequently asked questions” help you join in. What’s going on at the jam? Contact Improv is a form of improvised dance started in Ohio at Oberlin College in 1972 and now all around the world. There’s no right way to do it...improvise and find what feels good to you. Whom can I dance with? From observing, you’ll see that people can dance alone, with a partner of any gender, and in a group of any size. People also change partners whenever they want, sometimes staying with one person for a long time, sometimes dancing with different people over the course of a minute. So: you can invite anyone here to dance, for as long or short a dance as you want. And anyone can invite you to dance. But you don’t have to dance with anyone you don’t want to. To refuse a dance, just say, “no thanks,” or turn away, or don’t respond when they signal interest. It is always fine to say no. The single most important guideline of Contact Improvisation is “Take Care of Yourself.” Please read the page about physical and emotional safety and awareness, which you can request ir get at the jam. How do I start a dance? Approach people on the dance floor. In most cases you will likely get a “yes.” If someone doesn’t respond or in other ways indicates disinterest, that’s fine! Just try again with someone else. Here are a few ways to signal your interest: •Verbal – such as “Could I join you?” •Eye contact and smile – see if they respond •Mirroring – start dancing near in a way that matches their energy, and see if they respond •Touch – dance near enough to gently make contact on their hand, arm or shoulder How do I do this kind of dance? Don’t be surprised if you feel awkward or out of your comfort zone when first trying it. You are invited to listen to your own impulses and respond to your partner. Most often both of you will readily go back and forth between leading and following until it becomes hard to tell. It’s OK to make noises and to speak about the dance -- but please take other chatting outside the room. After people get more comfortable many start to share weight. This can be small amounts of weight, such as leaning into each other, or full body weight, through lifts. Please be careful as you experiment with this, to make sure you and your partner stay safe. Find an experienced partner and get some guidance if you want to share significant weight or take part in lifts. How do I end a dance? To leave a dance, you can end verbally, (e.g. “thank you for this dance”), signal non-verbally (e.g. slow down, wave, bow...then smile and leave), or simply turn away. One graceful way to leave a dance can be to first join some other dancers as a group, so your partner has new partner. If you feel unsafe in any way and aren’t able to easily take care of yourself, please tap any dancer who seems experienced and ask for help. There are dancers here whose role is to be sure safety is maintained within this intimate dance form. ~~ WHAT IS CONTACT IMPROV DANCE? Contact Improvisation is a unique freestyle dance form that explores the body’s connection to the world through touch. It is an open-ended exploration of the kinesthetic possibilities of bodies moving through contact. Sometimes wild and athletic, sometimes quiet and meditative, it is a form open to all bodies, changing from moment to moment and dance to dance, as a result of the physicalities of those meeting. Contact manifests in different ways depending on accidents of physics and the intentions and curiosities of those participating. It is a dance that fine tunes your senses and wakes up your ability to listen and respond to what is happening in the moment. Contact Improvisation is a partner dance form based on the physical principles of touch, momentum, shared weight, and most quintessentially - following a shared point of contact. The form was founded in 1972 by Steve Paxton. Integrating his background as a modern dancer and his studies in the martial art form Aikido, Steve developed Contact Improv through explorations with his students and colleagues at the time. This dance practice explores the skills of falling, rolling, counterbalance, lifting using minimal effort, how to make ourselves light when being lifted, centering and breathing techniques, and responsiveness to our partners and surroundings. Contact Improvisation is an honoring of every moment. There is a sweet surrendering that happens when our bodies stay faithful to what is happening now, and now... and NOW! One learns to recognize and differentiate subtle impulses in our movement choices and our partner's choices. We begin to decipher the cues that we give and receive which tell us when to lead or follow, when to go up, when to go down, where to touch, how to lift, when to slow down, and when to be still. In this form one learns to stay in integrity with each choice, never forcing, never rushing. When Body, Mind, and Spirit are united in their instinctive wisdom one finds ones-self at home in every moment expressing ones true nature. - Mark Moti Zemelman From Contact Improv - a wildly incomplete guide to the art v 3.3 Contact Improvisation is a unique freestyle dance form that explores the body’s connection to the world through touch. ~~ Artistic drawings by Susan Arnsten-Russell