Jam Jam Sessions: Contact Improvisation (CI) x Clowning w Wonder Phallen

If you don’t know what “Jam Jam” in the event title refers to, skip to the bottom for some context, and then come back and read! Starting Wednesday, April 1, and on Wednesdays in general from then on, The Jam Jam inquiry continues at ESPA! In pursuit of coming to understand the interactions between modalities, we are selecting 2 JJ elements (Contact and Clowning) and immersing ourselves in their specific flavor combo. The intention is for real skill-building that leads up into an open score, an extended period of improvisation where we can play in the space that includes both Contact Improv and clowning. A slice of Jam Jam. Class description: Jam Jam Sessions: Contact Improvisation (CI) x Clowning w/ Wonder Phallen Important note: Please be ready and present with energy. This class will explores the intersection of CI with the theatrical clown. The basics and skills of Contact Improvisation. We will tune in as a group, moving toward getting us to move together as a group. Ww will go over some weight Sharing forces. We will transition into clown games where tracking multiple aspects requiring a lot of attention. We will move in a duet with objects with our focus on the object while staying in connection with our partner. We will work on generating and repeating sound and movements. Passing Emotion. Questions to Consider: Where is my attention? What am I noticing? How can I add to the space/ what is needed or not needed? How can I support what is happening. key aspects instant Instinct Peripheral vision Tracking Attention Toward Time Space Breath Wlingness to try Schedule: 7:30 Doors open; Solo warm up with invitation 7:45 Class starts; Guided warm up and transition into CI 8:00 Doors close 8:20 finish CI skills 8:25 Transition into clown Games 9:00 ensemble open score 9:30 transition into open space using skills developed 9:45 Closing Circle |___𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐫___| Fragrance-free space Something that is easy to move around in without getting tangled up is a basis for safety. Loose-cut long pants and long sleeves are strongly recommended for ease of movement and sliding across the floor. No jeans or other clothes with features like metal rivets, big buttons, or other complex features that could scratch or tangle. No shoes allowed while dancing, barring exceptions for accessibility |___𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬___| Contact Improv classes and Jams are full of invitations and prompting for sharing weight and finding balance with other people, which inherently entails some risk of having to catch yourself from falling. Participants, especially those of us that dance more vigorously, occasionally experience bumps and bruises. This form is an exploration of momentum and the unknown, and some amount of collision is inevitable. Plan to remain aware of and responsive to your surroundings to create a safer dance floor for everyone. New to Jam Jam? From our original invite to a small group of people 1 year ago: WHAT AND WHY IS JAM JAM? Through attending and tweaking the Contact Improv Jam over the past couple years, a strong sense of something else that wants to emerge has emerged. As attendees tested the boundaries, the foundations were traced for a bigger container with fewer constraints. A jam between and beyond other jams. A wide welcoming space to cultivate our innate capacities to create in the moment: a Jam Jam. We played around with the idea and came up with a framework for as open-ended a jam as we can imagine, with roots in the wide variety of improvisational spaces we’ve experimented with over the years. There is a lot of overlap, but each form brings particular flavors. 1.⁠ ⁠Contact Improv The qualities of slowness, sensitivity, care The skills of falling, effortless lifting and graceful easy movement 2.⁠ ⁠Songmaking The qualities of harmony, transcendence, many simultaneous layers The skills of rhythm, rhyme, composition, and pitch 3.⁠ ⁠Theater The qualities of vulnerability, connection, spontaneity The skills of imagining and articulating compelling alternative realities (storytelling and character creation) 4.⁠ ⁠Somatic Clowning The qualities of delight, absurdity, embracing failure and conflict The skills of playful physicality, comedic timing, nonverbal expressiveness The fifth element that supports all of these is Ensemble Thinking, a practice that emphasizes a wide field of awareness, attunement to all the other players, a strong sense of composition in space over time, among other things.