Physical Poetics: a contact improvisation workshop with Karl Frost

A workshop in Contact Improvisation explored as bio-mechanical investigation and physical poetry. When: 3-5 December 2021 19h-22h Friday, 10h – 18h Saturday/Sunday (plus Saturday night contact gathering) Where: Leipzig, Germany Fudoshin Aikido Dojo Josephstraße 45 in Leipzig (a convivial, focus-inspiring space with a padded floor) Contact Improvisation is a 40 year old art-sport exploring the possibilities of bodies moving through physical contact: support, flow, resistance, lifts, and falling together through space. The workshop will be one part technical work to two parts poetic exploration. Technical explorations develop functional physical awareness of self and other. Poetic explorations investigate art-making and poetic sensibility in movement together through physical contact. We develop tools and perspectives for distilling and diversifying our explorations of physical contact and use the metaphor of “poetry” in exploring moving together. The technical work is both a pleasure in itself and a tool for more refined art-making. Technical work… Part of the workshop looks at the mechanics of two bodies moving together, expanding our movement possibilities with lifts and shared falls. The technical work is based on the Passive Sequencing work. Developed out of principles from contemporary release technique, Alexander technique, and practices from the internal martial arts, Passive Sequencing cultivates finer awareness of our own body use and how we affect the state and body-use of our partner. We increase moment-to-moment functional awareness through tuning into proprioception – our physical experience of the body. Through noticing and releasing nervous reactivity, we find greater ease, speed, softness, and power. Physical Poetics… In the rest of our time together, we explore a poetic play with experienced meaning in movement and the senses. “Meaning” may be in the pleasure of kinaesthetic experience, curiosity, and physics. It may be in the poetry of sensation, emotion, and experienced image. As with writing a poem, there is a blend of intentional composition and artistry with improvisation and felt inspiration. We play with identifying and holding onto themes in the dance in a sense of collaborative art-making that moves us. The poetry is the poetry of inner experience shaped by and interlocking with the physical. The goal is a blending of felt meaning and artistry. Logistics: Fees: 140 -240e sliding scale (pay what you can within the range). Early registration: 100-240e if registered by 28 January, 120-240e if registered by 11 February for registration and more information, see the website... www.bodyresearch.org