Emergent Practices: Contact Improvisation into Ensemble Improvisation

Emergent Practices: CI into Ensemble Improvisation 📅 May 15–18, 2025 📍 Studio 2, Bethanien – Mariannenpl. 2, 10997 Berlin (Kunstquartier Bethanien, 2nd floor) 🌀 Led by Nita Little Workshop Schedule: 📌 May 15 (Thursday): 14:00 – 18:00 📌 May 16 (Friday): 11:30 – 13:30 | 15:00 – 17:30 📌 May 17 (Saturday): 10:00 – 13:00 | 15:00 – 17:30 📌 May 18 (Sunday): 09:00 – 12:00 | 13:00 – 15:00 Workshop Description: Contact Improvisation (CI) holds in its ethos physical practices that expand a dancer’s relational potential. As with CI duets, engaging as an ensemble is a generative act, requiring us to be more than just individual movers. This workshop invites dancers to explore ensemble improvisation through somatic, spatial, and attentional practices, allowing us to tap into emergent group dynamics. Rather than following predetermined structures, we will engage in score-building, a framework that guides our attention and organizes our interactions. Participants will work with different types of scores, integrating their personal movement practice into collective improvisation. Through this process, we will investigate the co-creative interplay between technical precision and creative freedom, fostering an environment where improvisation arises organically from the shared intelligence of the ensemble. This workshop is designed for intermediate and advanced dancers who are ready to deepen their practice and engage with the spontaneous and transformative nature of ensemble-based composition. Together, we will explore how to support and unleash physical and relational imagination within structured constraints that give rise to emergent movement. About Nita Little Nita Little has been a pioneer in Contact Improvisation since its inception in 1972. As a performer, choreographer, and dance theorist, she has trained generations of CI practitioners worldwide. Her research focuses on relational intelligence, ecological actions of attention, and the creative potential of entangled relationships. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies and directs the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (ISSC). 📢 Registration & Details 🔗 Register here: https://forms.gle/bVzcj2AyJHXKZDMf7 📌 Limited spots available – sign up now!