"𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒚𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓" Workshop with Anjelika Doniy

Before entering the silence of the Silent Contact Retreat, we gather for four days of guided practice in Contact Improvisation and Authentic Movement. This workshop is an invitation to refine listening — to breath, to movement, to attention itself. Read more and sign up here: https://silentcontactretreat.dance/preretreat/ 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒚𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓. What is this workshop about? About the possibilities and limitations. About relationships with the other and others. About the flow of movement and consciousness. About contact with yourself, despite the constantly changing circumstances. About joy. Who dances, watches and enjoys at the same time? Where is this "pleasure muscle" located? How can we train it, stretch it, use it? How do we turn from just eccentrics in love with CI into aesthetes, finely tuned to the beautiful, funny, sensual? One of our natural needs is to be visible. This gives us strength, energy, motivation to realize ourselves and to live fully, with taste. In dance, this manifests in the way I look and can see the movement, and how others look at me and give feedback in the form of attention, movement, in words. We can call it presence. And our other need is to be invisible, free and unconditioned by the external environment. Not to check if we do our tasks correctly—basing our view on the authorities or opinion of elders; to do, to try, to encounter the result ourselves and to choose our own path. Let's call it totality. How to combine these two healthy needs? By experimenting! Improvisation is a game with the known and the unknown. With rules to be followed or broken. With a degree of freedom that is respected or violated. Improvisation can only be learned through practice and improvisation. By practicing continuity, flow, unpredictability of movement in space. By adapting the space behind to a spherical, connected, technically poetic dance. By experimenting with vision, stretching this possibility from safety to aesthetic pleasure. By training what can allow you to be spontaneous in the unpredictable world of dance. To be ready for new offers, to play, to tune in. To allow others to look at you and learn to accept the support of the beholder. By integrating this into CI practice. We will remember that we can perceive, feel, see, hear beauty. To expand, to explode, to feel the flow, to stick a curious nose into movement and stillness, silence and sound. For this we have time and place, music and silence, presence and disappearance. Authentic Movement is a beautiful tool to connect to inner impulses. It is a possibility to express feelings, images and information from the subconscious that come through our bodies. We will be experiencing the movement and finding pathways inside the body in relating to others with an inner guideline. There will be exploration of a range of touch qualities in stillness and while moving. This excerpt from “𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘥𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵” book by Janet Adler describes what continuously brings me to Contact Improvisation: “Here, in this studio on this day, as in life anywhere on any day, experiences happen simultaneously that are vastly different from each other. One is alone, one is not alone. One feels a sense of belonging and another does not. Longing, belonging, soaring, withdrawing, sleeping and walking, individuals take turns descending into different aspects of being human in the presence of each other. Consciously embodying one’s truth in the presence of others can create an experience of wholeness, belonging and completion as well as an experience of incompletion, frustration, and alienation. “I am because you are” seems true regardless of our experience of suffering or freedom from suffering. Time passes, commitment deepens. The inner witness becomes increasingly stronger and more accepting of oneself and therefore of others. Language that naturally surfaces from conscious embodiment names this love. Presence becomes this love.” 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 This workshop takes place 11–14 August 2026 at Nordmarkskapellet in Nordmarka, just outside Oslo. It is open to movers with previous experience in Contact Improvisation. Participants may continue and join the Silent Contact Retreat (16–22 August 2026), or join only for the workshop. Accommodation and shared vegetarian meals are included. Detailed information about prices, accommodation options and registration can be found on the retreat website. https://silentcontactretreat.dance/preretreat Registration https://forms.gle/1QSSfCKfG2HEPPMKA