SOLO • CONTACT • COMPOSITION -- Embodied Improvisation

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOLO • CONTACT • COMPOSITION Embodied Improvisation ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ This program unfolds through three mutually nourishing fields of practice: solo work, contact improvisation and composition. While the emphasis gradually shifts throughout the year, these three areas remain in continuous dialogue. Solo work explores fundamental questions of movement: How do we perceive? How is movement organized? How can we use our bodies with greater efficiency, versatility and awareness? These explorations provide a foundation not only for contact improvisation but for movement and dance practice more broadly. Building on this foundation, contact improvisation brings these same questions into relationship. Attention expands to include the partner, physical forces, touch, reflexes and the co-organization of movement. The experiences and skills developed through contact improvisation become valuable resources for compositional and performative work. In the composition block, the body, relationship and the movement vocabulary developed throughout the training become part of a broader creative process. We investigate how something can emerge in space, in real time, through us. Each of these fields is a complete area of study in its own right, while continuously informing and transforming the others. What is the focus of exploration at one stage of the training gradually becomes a tool for investigating the next. Skills are not left behind but integrated into increasingly complex layers of practice. A somatic approach is used throughout as a tool rather than an end in itself. Refining perception, understanding connective tissue and nervous system processes, and investigating the organization of movement all serve a common purpose: to expand our possibilities as dancers, deepen our adaptability and support more precise choices in movement. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOLO How is movement organized? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The aim is to cultivate a body that can increasingly sense, adapt, decide and move in a greater variety of ways. Throughout the practice, perception and movement develop in a mutually supportive relationship. Attention opens new movement possibilities, while new movement experiences enrich perception. Out of this ongoing dialogue, movement can gradually become more intelligent, versatile and creative. Each session begins with a somatic focus. We start with subtle sensing, attention and simple movement tasks, then gradually expand the work toward larger, more complex and dynamic forms of movement. At times we learn new movement pathways, techniques and movement principles. Not as fixed forms to be repeated, but as opportunities to open new territories for movement. These patterns are later varied, transformed, dismantled and reorganized until they become part of one's own movement practice. We also work with bodywork, touch-based practices and partner explorations. These approaches help us refine our perception, understand the organization of movement more clearly, and discover new possibilities within solo practice. As Steve Paxton famously said: "There is no solo dancing. The dancer dances with the floor." Through this perspective we begin to recognize that movement is never created in isolation. The floor, gravity and the physical forces already present in the environment continuously participate in the dance. An important aspect of this work is the cultivation of sustainable movement. In this work, health is not something separate from movement. We explore ways of organizing movement that are simultaneously efficient, harmonious and sustainable. Rather than pushing the body to perform despite its limitations, we investigate how movement can emerge through better organization, allowing greater complexity and dynamic range with less unnecessary effort. For me, effortless movement is not simply about ease. It refers to a way of organizing movement that supports freedom, adaptability and long-term sustainability. Throughout the process we expand the body's range of choices. More pathways become available. More options become accessible within the same situation and even within the same movement. By the end of each class we usually arrive in a more open and integrated improvisational space, where the discoveries, attention and experiences of the practice are no longer separate tasks but become part of the movement itself. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONTACT How does movement organize itself in relationship? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ For me, Contact Improvisation is not primarily a collection of movement patterns or partnering techniques. It is an investigation into how movement organizes itself in relationship. Meeting another body creates situations that cannot arise alone. Weight, touch, momentum, gravity and the physical forces generated between us continuously invite new responses from the body. Contact Improvisation therefore becomes a practice of perception, adaptation, decision-making and real-time creation. Throughout the process we work with: • giving and receiving weight • balance and off-balance • support • momentum • movement pathways • reflexes • sensing through touch Rather than searching for fixed solutions, we investigate organizational principles from which movement can continuously emerge. Movement pathways and technical material are not goals in themselves. We use them as tools to better understand how movement organizes itself and to expand the range of choices available to us while dancing. The relationship with a partner provides continuous feedback about our own organization. Through contact we can more clearly perceive our weight, supports, reactions, habitual movement patterns, and the ways we collaborate with the physical forces already present in the situation. Some of the questions we explore include: • How can collaboration with a partner become more fluid? • How do I perceive the forces that are present in the moment, and how do I work with them rather than against them? • How can the next movement emerge naturally from the previous one, without unnecessary effort? • How can we reuse the energy already present instead of constantly restarting movement? • How can support remain alive and mobile rather than becoming rigid? • How can we be both stable and adaptable? • How can lifting become a mutual process rather than an act of carrying? • How can we become lighter and more available for one another? • How can I remain connected simultaneously to myself, my partner and the larger space? Contact Improvisation offers a unique opportunity to learn about adaptation, collaboration and risk-taking through movement itself. It develops capacities that later become fundamental in compositional and performative work: • divided attention • rapid and precise responsiveness • the ability to read another body • the capacity to remain creative in unexpected situations Here, too, we work through perception-based learning. Refining perception is not an end in itself, but a way of deepening our understanding of movement and physical collaboration, allowing for richer, more nuanced and more responsive dancing. Alongside duet practice, we occasionally work with trios, group forms and more complex attentional situations, gradually opening pathways toward composition and ensemble practice. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ COMPOSITION How does movement organize itself in space, in groups, and in the presence of witnesses? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ In the composition block, we explore how movement becomes real-time composition. While the solo practice develops the relationship with one's own body, and contact improvisation investigates relationship through touch, weight and physical forces, composition expands the field of attention further. Space, group dynamics, witnessing, and the perception of the larger system all become part of the practice. The question is no longer only: How do I move? How do I relate? but also: What is happening around me? What does this situation need? What is the space asking of me? Rather than approaching composition as a predetermined form, we work with it as a living process of organization. We practice orienting and making decisions in situations where the next moment is not yet known. How do I remain available to what is actually happening? How do I commit to an action and still remain free to change course when the situation changes? How do I become less attached to my own ideas? How do I perceive my own process while remaining aware of the larger group dynamic? A central aspect of this work is cultivating comfort with not-knowing. Rather than searching for the right answer, we develop the capacity to navigate continuously changing situations. We investigate how improvisation becomes composition. How do patterns, repetitions, structures and relationships emerge? How can forms arise in real time that remain both spontaneous and perceptibly organized? We also explore the fertile territory between improvisation and choreography. How can improvisation condense into form? How can form remain alive, responsive and open? The presence of witnesses is another important element of the work. We explore how attention, decision-making and movement are transformed when someone is watching. The goal is not to learn fixed compositional rules, but to cultivate the ability to perceive, choose and compose with increasing sensitivity in real time. The perceptual, relational and movement skills developed through the solo and contact practices take on a new role here. They become compositional tools through which something can emerge in space. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHO IS THIS PROGRAM FOR? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ This program is primarily part of the Zero Plus one-year training program, while also welcoming a limited number of external participants. It is intended for dancers, performers, actors, movement teachers, bodyworkers, and anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of movement organization, improvisational practice, and real-time composition. The program is designed for those who are not looking for quick solutions or fixed recipes, but are willing to engage in a longer-term process of research, practice and development. Previous experience in dance or improvisation can be helpful, but equally important are sustained curiosity, commitment to regular practice, and an openness to deeper inquiry. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ILONA REGŐS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Ilona Regős has been engaged with movement since childhood. Folk dance, competitive gymnastics, ballet, jazz dance and contemporary dance have all played an important role in her development. She spent five years participating in the company training of Béla Földi while deepening her studies in various contemporary dance and improvisation practices. Later she worked as a performer, creator and teacher with independent performing arts companies as well as at the Csiky Gergely Theatre. In recent years her work has centered around Contact Improvisation, somatics and various forms of improvisation. Alongside her dance practice, she has trained and continues to practice fascia-informed bodywork, manual therapy and movement therapy. These fields continue to inform her research into perception, movement organization and the intelligence of movement. She was a performer and creator with KIT Ensemble for four years and is currently a member of Third Kind Collective. She teaches, facilitates jams, leads workshops and organizes festivals, including serving as co-organizer of KontaktLand Festival. At the center of her work are the intelligence of movement, perception, movement organization and real-time composition. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRACTICAL INFORMATION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Dates September 10, 2026 – June 2027 Thursdays 9:15–10:45 AM Location Zero Plus Studio Jurányi House Jurányi u. 1, Budapest 1027, Hungary This course is part of the 9-month Zero Plus Performing Arts Training Program. Information about the full program: https://www.facebook.com/events/1353303489964371 Application: https://forms.gle/eSqog38G9nxApkr5A Number of Sessions 34 sessions Tuition Fee 125,000 HUF / year Participants enrolling in multiple modules within the Zero Plus Program are eligible for a discounted fee. Questions & Contact Gyula Berger [email protected]