SMOOTHie like with Artem Markov

𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐢𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 Contact Impro Course 10-13 April, Koh-Phangan 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙀𝙈 𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙊𝙑 My name is Artem Markov and I am a teacher of contact improvisation and Somatics, dancer, performer and somatic therapist. I have been dancing modern dance more than 20 years and teach contact impro more than 15. I have two official somatic educations and I teach in professional American somatic program (SomaticBODY Training). What means I know anatomy well, and work with injuries and with psychological trauma through BMC perspective. 𝙅𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚❗ My personal interest lies in the pursuit of authentic, intuitive dance, grounded in somatic perceptual (sensory) experience. It’s a dance where contact and composition emerge spontaneously because I give them the space to do so—versus the kind of dance where we intentionally create composition and contact or opposite dance where we loose some conscious in flow of unconsciousness. In other words, I focus on teaching how to perceive own body more subtly and to observe the world around with wide-open awareness. Just two things. This course is centered around cultivating a gentle attitude toward yourself and your partner. The technical aspect of the course will involve studying lifts and supports at various levels, from the floor to standing positions with a partner. This is enough to create a technically rich dance. If we're fortunate, we may explore shoulder rolls. The material I work with allows us to approach these movements with great gentleness. But above all, I prioritize quality. If we can maintain the right soft quality, we may rise higher and move forward. The goal is not height, but soft/smooth and light, flowing quality. Dance is not solely about lifts. We will explore the interconnectedness and flow of movement in shared dance. We will also learn to observe our own dancing, as well as that of others, which will help us appreciate the beauty of the present moment. This is composition in dance. Through more detailed and precise differentiation in the body, we discover new interconnections—and sometimes even new, previously unrecognized parts of the body. This leads to better articulation and movement flow. We will spend time experiencing and rethinking bodily processes to connect with the intelligence of the body. From a place of resource and pleasure, we will step into contact dance. I will incorporate elements from somatic practices like BMC and the Feldenkrais method. For those who don’t know me or are attending a Contact Improvisation class for the first time, I want to clarify that contact improvisation is not limited to what I teach in class—it’s a much broader practice. However, in my classes, you will discover a particular teaching style. I invite you to generously share in what I have learned and danced over many years. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨? 🟣REACH (stretching with different limbs), 🟣Rolls (shifting weight), 🟣Lightening weight when lifting up (changing levels beyond the eyebrows), Pelvic rolling (legs are not the first to move), 🟣TOR. 𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫, 𝐬𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬. In this course, I want to teach how to move from a sense of weight—how to distribute it, maintain it, and not collapse it. How to avoid overwhelming a partner in rolls—too much weight can press down. How to understand and use your weight so that mastering it brings mutual pleasure in dance. Many people love hammocks, weighted blankets—weight can soothe the nervous system. I want to teach you how to be that comforting weight. For the kind of dance I propose in this course, we can take inspiration from any pre-vertebrate sea creatures: octopuses, jellyfish, sea stars. The goal of this course is to learn how to engage the entire body for movement in space, without pressing down with isolated parts. To avoid creating strong contrasts between hyper-tonus and hypo-tonus in different areas of the body. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐛 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞! registration: artemmarkov.com/floor