WAIT LIST - LA CI: January Training in Contact Improvisation with Ray Chung

January Training in Contact Improvisation with Ray Chung: Riding the Curves of Spacetime January 3-14, 2024 80 hours over 2 weeks in Long Beach, CA Course is FULL. WAIT LIST ONLY. Current Wait List: 3 We will dance for 10 days over 2 weeks, each week full days Wednesday - Sunday (with a break Mon/Tues in the middle) focusing on CI study with Ray. This will be complimented by floorwoork, restorative yoga, plenty of improvised meals together, and a few organized conversations. Our intention is to create a transformative experience for a group of dedicated CI practitioners. For “intermediate” participants with a minimum one year focused study in CI. (could be cumulative over several years) Application: https://forms.gle/uRWAUgPJSZTYN4sd7 Admission is on a rolling basis until the course is full. Early application recommended. Content Description: Riding the Curves of Spacetime In physics, gravity can be seen as the curvature of space around massive objects, such as the earth. We evoke the image of riding these curves as a way of moving in the field of gravity, and playing in this field as a way to develop proficiency with the skills and approaches necessary for leaving the ground, moving through the air, and landing safely, in the context of Contact Improvisation (CI). Focusing on essentials of grounding, centering, intention, and moving support, we'll move onto weight modulation, creating levity, precision in locating centers, developing the optimum tonus and alignment for sudden weight shifts, and more. The emphasis will be on creating pathways and opportunities to move out of the floor and into the air, or onto your partner, instead of lifting and carrying. Catching and jumping as a way to initiate contact, and creating continuity through supporting the movement rather than the weight of one’s partner, will be one of the practices. Playing on the edge of what is possible for each participant, we will challenge one's self to really "go for it" in aerial movement and landing/catching strategies and techniques. How do I use someone’s weight and movement in a way that creates more choices for both of us? We’ll practice integrating our centers with another’s seamlessly as well as awkwardly. Crashing and bumping safely will also be part of the vocabulary we will develop. Integration of these practices into dancing will also be included. Ensemble & Composition What makes a composition? Is it the way we perceive the action, or is it the intention of the player? Framing our intention, we practice embodying stillness in movement, and movement in stillness, as an aesthetically satisfying compositional activity. Furthering our practice, we will work with ways of moving "out of the box" of the duet form, expanding our range of choices of how to include more than one other dancer while moving seamlessly into, and out of, contact. We will practice strategies for improvising, or how we improvise the way we improvise, as well as ways of embodying our imagination in movement. As supplemental work over the two weeks, Jen Hong will facilitate restorative yoga after lunch three days each week, and Ezra LeBank will guide “dirt work” floor work several mornings. Bio Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, engineer, and artist who has a passion for dancing which he likes to share with other people. His main focus is improvisation and he has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979 as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement. Ray has worked with the leading proponents of Contact Improvisation and regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists. His work has been featured at numerous national and international festivals and venues. Currently based in San Francisco & Sweden, Ray regularly teaches abroad. Stay in Long Beach for the LBCI Fest! January 18-21, 2024 www.bossyflyer.com/lbcifest