London Contact Improvisation

Teacher	Biography	Class Description

Simonetta Alessandri	Simonetta Alessandri studied classic and contemporary dance, obtaining the T.C.- Royal Academy of Dancing® and the Feldenkrais ® Method teacher qualification. She studied improvisation, contact improvisation and release technique in Europe and in the United States with the foremost teachers: S. Paxton, N.Stark Smith, A.Harwood, J.Hamilton, J.Skinner, , R.Zaporah, D.Heitkamp, K.Simson. She has participated in performances in Italy and abroad, collaborating as dancer and choreographer with various companies: MDA, Incanto, Dark Camera, Il Pudore Bene in Vista, La Fabbrica dell'attore. She has choreographed for MDA Solo Suoni Gesti, Danze Cosmiche and Animarmonica. She has participated in improvisation festivals such as the Zip.Orvietofestival, Israeli Contact Festival,Freiburg Festival. She has been teaching dance for 20 years and she has kept Contact Improvisation alive in Rome ,through her classes and jams,for the last 10 years.	We will start with movements based in the Feldenkrais Method which aims to develops a detailed physical awareness and open new movement possibilities. Establishing a clear connection to our own bodies allows us to enter into contact with others with confidence, awareness and precision. We will playfully engage with the more technical side of contact improvisation: giving, receiving and sustaining weight at different levels, developing the ability to relate to space and rhythm and alternating between activity and passivity.

Robert Anderson	Robert Anderson is an independent dance artist based in London. He teaches improvisation and contact improvisation at Rose Bruford College and in a variety of settings in the UK and abroad. Robert has been passionately involved with contact improvisation since 1996 studying with leading teachers from the US and Europe (including Kirsty Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Martin Keogh, Ray Chung & Steve Paxton). Since 2001 Robert has been teaching and facilitating contact improvisation classes, jams and workshops in London. Robert has taught at international contact festivals in Germany, Israel, Poland, Russia and Italy and participated in co-teaching gatherings in Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Scotland and Austria. He has performed in work by Joe Moran, Adriana Pegorer, Kate Brown, Tino Seghal, Jovair Longo, Meghan Flannigan, Magdalena Radlowska, Lalitaraja and Sarah Shorten. He is currently performing with Touchdown Dance, in their latest work Closer, and with improvisation ensemble SoFt.	Arriving into sensation, gravity and breath will be the preparation for dancing. Then establishing connections through the body from core to periphery. Playing with momentum and spiral pathways we?ll explore possibilities for giving and receiving weight through the back-surface of the body. From this place of fluid connection we?ll begin to play with the physical dialogue that is contact improvisation; perceiving, following, making suggestions and taking the dance into new and exciting places.

Angus Balbernie	Angus Balbernie has directed over 60 dance and performance pieces in Europe. the USA, Canada, S America and S Korea. He teaches directing, composition and choreography internationally, including at the Dance Acadamy Of Arnhem,The Scottish School Of Contemporary Dance and as an Associate Lecturer at Dartington College of Arts. He taught for ten years at The European Dance Development Centre, and in 2006 was Guest Professor of Choreography at The Korean National University Of The Arts. He has been nominated for various awards including an Isadora Duncan Award in the USA.	A question would be, how to 'become' a dance? Or how to dance an idea? What medium, what muscles should we use? What obvious energies? And which stay more subtle, or cannot be repeated? There is something in this, a kind of memory that knows melody, and the bodies use of now. Both are true, both begin. 'Now' is a new shape to remember.

Kate Brown	Kate Brown is a choreographer, dancer and improviser, currently based in London. She has been making her own work since 1990, most recently having begun and this (London), whilst and Line on a Walk (Liverpool), all 2004. From 1999 to 2002 she worked on a number of projects with opera director Tim Hopkins, including Eugin Onegin for Theater Basel, 2000, and The Rake's Progress for staatsoper hannover, 2002. She currently teaches improvisation at LABAN and independently, and she directs L.I.P., (London Improvisation in Performance) from 2000 to present.	The classes will explore contact improvisation as a way into dancing alone, in partners and with the whole group. We will warm up with simple skills exercises and then allow their principles to lead us into more expansive dancing and improvising. Everyone welcome!

Andrea Buckley	Andrea Buckley has been working as an independent dance artist for 11 years. She engages in and initiates numerous projects ranging from teaching work through to her own choreographic projects. As a dance performer, she has worked with many choreographers, such as: Sue MacLennan, Gregory Nash, Rosemary Lee, Gill Clarke and most recently with Kirstie Simson. Throughout her professional career, improvisation and contact work has been her main source of her inspiration. Allowing her to travel overseas to study in depth with the originators of the work. In 1999 she co-organised the Liverpool International Festival of Dance Improvisation (L.I.F.D.I) ~ now in its 4th year. Andrea's current programme of work involves artist in residence at Merseyside Dance Initiative. Allowing her to investigate further in her own research and performance work, as well as continue her commitment with artist led initiatives, Chapter 4 and Liverpool Improvisation Collective, both of whom are based in the Northwest of England.	Andrea approaches teaching in a relaxed and supportive way, inviting participants to fully engage in the process of contact improvisation. From solo through to group work a high energetic form will be accessed through the experience of momentum and gravity. As well as homing in on the practicalities of the dance itself, a landscape of anatomical imagery will inform the workshop with the aim to increase creative potential, reflex action and energy flow in our bodies in order to achieve a heightened state of readiness.

Naomi Claire	After a lifetime of ballet and general commercial dance Naomi attended Middlesex University graduating in 2002 with a Master of Arts in Choreography. She then went to rural Canada for 3 months to study & perform improvised performance with Karl Frost. On return to the UK she established a community performance project for adults with disabilities funded by a Millennium Award and a Fast Forward Social Fund Grant. As a performance group they produced live work and a film in collaboration with Roswitha Cheshire performing in the opening ceremony (& other events) at artsdepot and in Xposure 05 at Lillian Bayliss. She also worked extensively with children with disabilities. Naomi's study interest is in the creation of spontaneous performance and the creation of performance arena in an improvised atmosphere. This year Naomi has performed in improvised performances with Caroline Waters, Otto Akkanen & Ulla Makinen at Meeting Point, Helsinki, Finland; Solo & with Anna Casey at Shunt, London Bridge; & in 'Photographs of a Rehearsal' at Camden Arts Centre directed by Augusto Corrieri. Naomi was a co-curator of CI36 London as a satellite event to CI36 USA & regular assists with LCI. She has studied with Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, Kirstie Simpson & Christian Burns, Steve Batts, Gesine Daniels, Pen Dale, John Koratjitis, Gaby Agis & Falling Wide. Her strongest influences are Karl Frost and her long term teacher and mentor Robert Anderson.	We will focus on quietening ourselves & truly listening deep to the dance within us, our partner & between the two; to find those moments of ambiguity when we are not fully consciously aware of/controlling the movement, as if it has developed an existence of its own. We will begin with agitating & controlling the physical, the tissues & senses, & the mental, the intelligence & creative, to release it all and surrender to the subconscious undercurrent and essence of our chosen medium for expression, the body.

Kathy Crick	Kathy Crick teaches Contact and Improvisation at Laban Creekside, London. Previous work has included: Dancing with choreographer Yolande Snaith and Motionhouse Dance Theatre; collaborations with Theatre Directors Richard Gregory and Tim Wheeler to create performances with and for young people and adults with learning disabilities; devising and performing with choreographer / composer Sarah Goldfarb; site specific work with composer Charles Hayward; lots of teaching and choreographing in educational and community settings; studies in shiatsu, psychology and education.	In teaching CI I aim to encourage people to attune their senses and tap into deeper awareness; promote enjoyment and ease of effort in movement; suggest structures for dancing both in and out of contact; integrate principles and skills in giving and supporting weight and generate different energetic states for dancing into jamming.

Pen Dale	Pen Dale's love affair with Contact Improvisation has brought her far from her Australian home. She comes to London after 18months teaching and studying in the US. Major teachers include Nancy Stark Smith, Martin Keogh, Patrick Crowley, KJ Holmes, Ray Chung, Andrew Harwood and Martin Hughes (amongst others). She believes that Contact Improvisation is not only the ultimate form of adult play, but a philosophy to live by that can be applied to any aspect of life.	In this class we will look at the ways in which we can invite more flight into our dancing. We will look at both sides of the equation - how to feel more confident and safe in the air, and also how to provide a more stable base for the flight of others. In looking at the mechanics of flight we will see how it is not about "lifting" using muscular strength, but how is is more about "supporting" using bones and structural alignment to carry weight. In the air we will explore how we can make friends with momentum and gravity to enhance our safety and sense of security in aerial movement. We will also play with the ways in which we can 'invite' flight, as opposed to forcing it. What are the ways in which we can make invitations and playful suggestions? So bring your questions, quandries and queries, and let's play!

Gesine Daniels	I am a choreographer, dance teacher and performer living in Germany and in Wales (UK), dancing, creating and teaching internationally. I have been dancing since I was a child, Studying and practicing many forms of dance and movement from Ballet and Gymnastics to New Dance and Contact Improvisation. Since 1985, CI together with improvisation is my passion; that influences my teaching and artistic work and enriches my whole life. My way of dancing and teaching Contact improvisation is energetic, playful and sensitive. Exploring the physics of the human body in movement fascinates me a lot and the question of ?how do we communicate in and through dance?? is an ongoing exploration for me. I have been dancing and creating in a wide range of events and places from opera to street performance, solo and group works. As a teacher I have been working in social ghettos and theatre schools, I taught children in primary schools as well as educated dancers. Since 1986, I create and perform my own performances in addition to my work as a free-lance dancer and performance-artist. In 2000, I founded the SomeBodyElse Dance	Being surprised - Falling from moment to moment In these three classes the practice of doing less and listening more, surrendering to the dance that happens inside and outside of us, will enable us to sense and observe the possibilities of any moment and to be ready for transformations and shifts in the dance: in and out of contact, from stillness to action, from floor to air, from fast to slow, from gentle to vigorous... We will explore different qualities of touch (leaning, pushing, sliding, rolling...; very light or down to the bones...), giving and receiving touch with diverse intentions (supporting, following, listening, restricting...) and with various body parts and thus become more familiar with communicating through touch. Particular exercises will enable us to utilize our own weight and the weight of our partner and to take advantage of the physical forces gravity, levity, inertia and momentum, as we move together in and out of contact, falling up into space or down towards a soft landing on the ground. This training will give us the basis to plan less, trust more into our own open senses, our reflexes and our communication skills and from there, to find the courage and the joy of being surprised by the flow of our improvised contact-duets and trios. It will also enable us to Integrate some lifts, jumps, catches and flight patterns in our dancing.

Katy Dymoke	Professional dancer / improviser, working nationally and internationally she has also worked in collaboration with Julyen Hamilton, Angus Balbernie, Ray Chung, Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton. Dance Film maker, (including a major Capture award to make a 10 minute film of contact improvisation called SENSE-8) she established the NW digital dance forum in 2002. A dancer and company director with Touchdown Dance, BMC practitioner and Teacher, (setting up the BMC school program in the UK in 2007 as well as a performing arts program with Mark Taylor (U.S.) in London. Katy is a registered Dance Movement psychotherapist, and 3rd Dan in Jujitsu. The Somatic Movement Educator program is running from 2008.	This is an opportunity for everyone to work with embodiment and the senses in their dancing. Contact improvisation is accessible to visually impaired people because of the touch communication that is an intrinsic part of the work. Many sighted people close their eyes to focus on the messaging between themselves and their partner. A visually impaired person can focus in the same way, on the dialogue that is on-going, and also have a really great experience feeling the role of leading or supporting their partner. Steve Paxton started this work with Anne Kilcoyne at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. Many people have experienced the core processes that were developed and have taken them into their own practice. The work is really enriching as an experience for both sighted and visually impaired people as it breaks down assumptions of ability as the dance evolves. We are hoping that the class will be inclusive of visually impaired and sighted dancers to enable an exchange and sense of discovery. Please tell a visually impaired friend and better still bring them along.

Eszter Gal	Eszter is a dancer, teacher and choreographer, currently living in Budapest. She is a certified Skinner Releasing Teacher and is a faculty member of the Washington University summer SRT Introductory Intensive since 2002. Since 1993 she has been creating her choreographed and improvised works and she regularly teaches, leads and participates in international performance projects and festivals in Europe, Russia and in the US. She has been teaching Contact Improvisation since 1995 at the Budapest Dance School, at the Higher Institute for the Arts Arnhem ? Dance Academy (The Netherlands) and since 2000 at the Ekaterinburg Liberal Arts University Contemporary Dance Faculty (Russia) as a guest, where she also teaches movement and release technique, improvisation and composition. She was the chief organizer of the 15th ECITE (European Contact Improvisation Teacher?s Exchange) in 2000 July and established the annual Kontakt Budapest, International Improvisation Dance and Music Festival in 2002 in Budapest.	First the stillness, listening, giving in to gravity, observing the reflexes at work, following the natural laws of movements. Then developing skills by gathering information with the senses and practicing simple moves that support safety and trust when taking physical risks, with the focus on disorientation. ?CI is a duet dance form that creates a frame for observing the functioning of the bodies reflexes and our innate ability to respond to the touch of a partner and the floor on any surface of the body?This work is a form for researching movement.? (Daniel Lepkoff)

Sarah Gray	Sarah Gray?s work emerges from a body of dance improvisation informed by key practitioners such as Kirsty Simson, Katy Duck, David Zambrano, KJ Holmes, Lisa Neslon, Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton and Deborah Hay. Her work is a reforming of this knowledge, reworked and physically reanalysed during projects, study labs, workshops, performances, festivals and meetings with a new generation, renewing this knowledge and carrying it on. She is only one of these practitioners and she is particularly interested in presence and how this itself is informed by even older practices that connect directly to the Source of movement and life itself.	Stillness and Activity: The act of sourcing and becoming vivid on the way to form. How can we ask for guidance? How can we allow ourselves not to know? How can we tread the shifting map and be present to knowledge yet to come? How can we receive and allow the space to open up in us? These classes will continue to ask : How can form arise from the canvass of time and space? And how can we bring our attention to it?

Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood	Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood is the artistic director of AH HA Productions a project oriented company focusing on improvisation as a performing art. Andrew is recognized as an exceptional international teacher, performer and creator in the field of instantaneous choreography and contact improvisation since 1975. His work has been presented in numerous international festivals since 1980 (Impuls Tanz, La Biennale, Festival Montpellier, F.I.N.D., Festival des Antipodes, IF/ New York, Bates Dance Festival, etc). He has danced with the companies of Fulcrum, Jo Lechay, Marie Chouinard, and Jean-Pierre Perreault, and has collaborated with many renowned dance artists including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Kirstie Simson, Peter Bingham, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung and Benoit Lachambre among many others. His background includes athletics, gymnastics, yoga, modern dance, Release Technique, improvisation and Aikido. He was awarded the Canada Council's Jacqueline Lemieux dance award in 2000.

Karl Jay-Lewin	In 2000, Karl moved to the Findhorn Community in NE Scotland, after several years living and working from London as a professional choreographer/dancer with his dance company, m.e.parker, and as a freelance teacher. He formed his company in 1995 on receiving a BA (Hons) degree in Dance and Independent Learning from Middlesex University. Karl now works under his own name. He has studied and practiced Contact Improvisation for 10 years and has taught for 7 years. Karl is a co-director of BodySurf Scotland, that exists to provide ongoing professional dance training, and study of movement practices, by producing residential dance and movement based workshops and events in Scotland. Recent events include European Contact Improvisation Teachers Exchange (July 2003), Bodysurf Findhorn New Year event (2003/04 CI, 5 Rhythms, Feldenkrais).	last season's description for the childrens' class: Karl will draw on the physical games and light-hearted interactions he enjoys with his two children (11 and 6 yrs) - as they roll and tumble through Contact Improvisation jams, play at home, and perform the farther-son the dance duets, Generation & Every day life.The emphasis of the class will be on enjoyment as the group tries out both structured and 'make it up as you go along' contact based exercises. For children aged 7 ? 12 and their adults. Outside that age group please call first. For more information call Karl: 07967 830 174 "Even though I'm no dancer (anyone who knows me could tell you that!), I love movement and I love being and doing with my kids. KJL's contact class is a fantastic way to do both - it's not intimidating, even for those with no experience of contact, it's fun, often funny, and at times, unexpectedly moving. I hope he does another one soon. " Charlie Kronick last season's description for the adults' class: The listening body: We will investigate distinctions between different methods and qualities of making and moving in contact, and use this investigation to drop into a state of attentive physical listening. Developing this listening and sensitivity to each other, we will allow our curiosity and fascination to guide us around the landscapes of the body - as they dynamically roll, slide, give support and rise up around each other. Some trio work.

Thomas Kampe	Thomas Kampe has worked with dance, theatre, and movement for the last 25 years. He worked as performer, choreographer and director in Germany and Britain, and works as Senior Lecturer for Dance at London Metropolitan University. He has taught somatic approaches towards movement education, dance theatre, and Contact Improvisation in different settings around the world. While working as a free-lance choreographer and dancer he collaborated with director and writer Julia Pascal as a performer, choreographer, director, and designer since 1990. During the early 90's Thomas collaborated with Rosemary Lee for several years in large scale site -specific dance theatre creations. In 2003 he co-directed Urban Rituals, a site-specific dance theatre event with 150 performers and 1 dog in the St.Pauli Football Stadium in Hamburg Germany. His teaching of contact improvisation has been informed by extensive studies in explorative and somatic disciplines including Holistic Massage, Traditional Thai Massage, Cranio Sacral Therapy and Laban Movement Analysis. He is a qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method ®, which forms a foundation for his teaching of dance and movement.	Many Small Moves Using explorations and concepts drawn from The Feldenkrais Method® Thomas?s classes will explore and refine solo movement skills to expand movement vocabularies relating to Contact Improvisation. It will lead to refined sensory dialogues through touch before progressing to delightful and expansive Contact Improvisation dancing.

Lalitaraja	Lalitaraja (aka Jo Chandler) spent his early career working in major ballet companies. Subsequently he has danced for Michael Clark, Adventures in Motion Pictures, David Massingham Dance, Laurie Booth,Yolande Snaith Theatredance, Rick Nodine and Fin Walker. He is the director of Oracle Dance Co and choreographs and performs both improvised and set work. Lalitaraja has been teaching contact improvisation and improvisation for many years. Lalitaraja is his Buddhist name, given when he joined the Western Buddhist Order. He teaches meditation and Buddhism in London.	Mindful attention to the spaces between things that happen; used to warm-up, to move, to explore, to awaken the possibilities in each moment. We play, we dance, we use skills and strategies, we make connections...we do contact.

Asher Levin	I've practiced Contact Improvisation for 7+ years, largely in London. I’ve learned many lessons and had much inspiration from the London-based teachers (*ROBERT, SEE ABOVE) as well as international teachers visiting London, in Berlin and at Festivals. Equally important has been dancing and jamming with innumerable partners: professional, experienced, inexperienced, big, small, dramatic, emotional, playful, serious, abstract and all in myriad combinations... Recently I’ve researched collaborated and performed with Josephine Dyer, Renata Piatrowska and Maria Elste (also teachers). I trained (ooh, a long time ago), in theatre at École Jaques Lecoq in Paris, as well as at The University of Birmingham and have worked extensively in Theatre creating, directing and performing in several contexts. Most of my work has been devised during the rehearsal process, based on a seed idea of the director/facilitator and using the creativity of the company to make and tune the piece. I believe strongly in the collaborative process. I also give tuition in acting. Over the years I have increasingly centred my focus on Contact Improvisation, as a self-justified practice and recently as a tool for exploring and creating dance and dance-theatre. Teaching/facilitating is greatly enriching my practice, my understanding of physics, bodies, relationships, dynamics, impulses, desires and habits. It teaches me much, is usually fascinating and often is thrilling. Aside from sharing often in Labs (a practice I highly recommend), I co-taught Contact at Barcelona Festival 2007 and taught classes at Trans-Contact Festival in Romania this summer. I am currently based in Berlin where I teach a weekly class.	Deep Awareness of, & Welcoming, the Point of Contact We shall take our attention and focus to: deeply sensing and accepting the point of Contact with a partner - and other surfaces provided by the room becoming more aware of where we are in space and where our weight is going in a strongly connected Contact dance using the point of Contact and other information to sense when and how we may generously give or take responsibility for own weight exploring ways of making our surfaces more available and taking our partners weight through a point of Contact - through our bodies - into the floor – into the dance maintaining clear, open Contact while allowing momentum into our dance sensitising to, and accepting, our partner’s responses

Anouk Llaurens	Anouk Llaurens is a choreographer, a dance teacher and a performer. After being actively involved in the Belgium dance scene, she recently relocated herself to London. She has been studying dance for 26 years and has been practising ballet, jazz dance, tap dance, release technique, flying trapeze, contact improvisation, improvisation and yoga. Her knowledge of music comes from playing transverse flute and classical singing, as well as being the assistant of the Belgium rhythm teacher Fernand Schirren in P.A.R.T.S, Brussels. Her investigation of dance and composition is currently supported by her meetings with Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay and Kirstie Simson as well by a Zen meditation practice. She is teaching at the London Metropolitan University, the Laban Centre, for Candoco and the Siobhan Davis Dance Company in London. She performs her own solo work with Sarah Gray, improvising with Kirstie Simson?s group, dancing for Henrietta Hale and Tony Thatcher. She takes part in a multimedia improvised piece with Els van Riel and Julia Eickardt in Brussels. Anouk is interested in linking improvisation and choreography and use them to cultivate the bodymind as a vehicle for change.	Contact jam warm up We will use the support of attention, movement and stillness to gently open the body to its sensation in the present moment partnering at first with the ground and the air. We will then travel from breath to skin and, ready to meet, use our senses to support duet, trios, quartet... as they unfold. Taking time will make space for experiencing details and discoveries.

Jovair Longo	Jovair longo is a dance artist originally from Brazil. His work involves both performing and teaching. As a dancer, apart from developing his own work, he has worked mostly with Yolande Snaith. He regularly teaches his work to different dance companies in the UK including Scottish Dance Theatre and Diversions Company. He has also taught in different schools and at present teaches at London Contemporary Dance School and London Metropolitan University. He is currently touring Winterspace with Igloo and will be performing at the Liverpool Improvisation Festival later in November.	Unfolding Stories Following the different moments of interaction that writes the stories of each dance. Playing with beginning, phrasing and concluding long and short dance stories. Developing different ways in and out of contact. From floor work into flying higher in space. Developing skills throughout release imagery exercises and gradually incorporating them into improvised dances. Allowing for different dances to unfold in a supportive environment with time to sit out and watch and space for individual needs.

Charlie Morrissey	Charlie Morrissey has been researching, directing, performing and teaching nationally and internationally for fifteen years. He creates large and small-scale site specific and theatre and gallery based performance works with diverse groups in different contexts. He is fascinated by the potential and the challenge of the live event and continues to work with the body as an expressive container of its experiences and perceptions of the world. He initiates research and performance projects on a regular basis. His teaching explores experiential approaches to the moving body and is informed by his ongoing work with Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Scott Smith, Henry Montes, K.J.Holmes, Kirstie Simson, Gill Clarke and others.	Charlie's classes explore ways of deepening our sense of the three dimensionality of our bodies; their mass and their relationship to gravity and space. We take time to feel the support of the floor and to notice the physical sensations that inform our relationships to our bodies and their interactions with the physical world. As we meet other bodies we are encouraged to take a playful approach to what we find. We explore our own desires for moving whilst negotiating the other people we come into contact with. We use listening in the body as a tool to learn about and navigate the new territories we encounter.

Rick Nodine	After completing a degree in Biology, Rick Nodine went on to study Contact Improvisation with the pioneers of the form. He began a performing career in the early 90's, and has appeared in many dance contexts including theatre, dance theatre, digital media, television, mixed ability, site specific and pure dance. In 2001 Rick became a member of staff at London Contemporary Dance School where he teaches Composition and Improvisation. For the past 12 years he has collaborated with many dancers, actors and musicians to create improvised performance (Jovair Longo, ESP, 5 men dancing, Jamie McCarthy). Since 1997 Rick has created 10 pieces, and his most recent choreography Come To Mamma will also appear in Spring Loaded in May 08.	Work on physical listening will demand that we open channels of communication with a partner as we engage in Contact Improvisation. Building trust with a partner will open space to fall, fly and release as we dance with risk, humour and a vigorous physicality.

Adriana Pegorer	Adriana started CI with Jackie Adkins in 1996, the same year in which she started Tango Argentino. She trained with Thomas Kampe (during her BA at University College Chichester) and has taken workshops with Rick Nodine, Scott Smith and KJ Holmes amongst others. In Tango she mainly trained with Carlos Gavito, Junior Antonio Cervilla and Pablo Veron. Adriana uses the intricacy of Tango's leg work and the intimacy of the stylized poses in her improvised dancing and is interested in fragmenting the 'verticality', the 'embrace' and 'lead & follow' traditional of Tango by using the spiralling dynamics and sharing of the weight of CI.	During the classes we will work in partners on: warming up with body manipulation; walking in unison/flocking; embrace and its release; invading each other footpath space (similar to Judo!), jumps, falls and turns; legs locking and displacement.

Kirstie Simson	Kirstie Simson works internationally & has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called "a force of nature" by the New York Times, she is an award-winning dancer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London. Kirstie's eternal subject is freedom, as she dares to go beyond the boundaries of form and structure to create movement out of the rhythm of life itself.	Kirstie's approach to the body is open and sensitive. She places emphasis on the activity of locating, listening to and allowing dance to be expressed through the body, combined with the learning of simple technical and sensory expanding skills. Kirstie uses her extensive knowledge of Dance Technique, Open Improvisation, Contact Improvisation and Ki-Aikido to lead students into a state of mind from which dancing arises effortlessly and spontaneously.

Caroline Waters	Caroline Waters is an international dance/theatre practitioner dedicated to the craft of improvisation in performance and the study of contact improvisation. Originally trained by Steve Paxton, Mary Fulkerson Kirsty Simson etc she has over the past 15 years been developing her collaborative practice with artists from many continents and art forms. When not travelling, teaching and performing internationally she is as associate lecturer at Dartington College of Arts UK.	Developing strength from within. Referencing Ki-aikido work, one of the source materials for CI, we will be working to recognize the difference between dancing with muscle and energy. Experiencing a satisfactory way to achieve a solid, safe point of contact, we?ll roll from the floor to the sky. Open to all levels, visually impaired people welcome.

Irmela Stone (nee Wiemann)	Irmela Stone (nee Wiemann) has been involved in exploring, performing and teaching Contact Improvisation for the last fifteen years. When in full time study as a musician in Austria she discovered her love for dancing, causing her to change gear in training and to study with the pioneers of Contact / Improvisation, such as with Steve Paxton and Eva Karczac. Ever since then she has performed and choreographed work - both as a musician and a dancer - in Austria, France, Germany and Holland before moving to London in 1998. Collaborations in England include work for Tadashi Endo, Kirsty Simson, KJ Holmes, Gaby Agis, Jovair Longo, Kisook Cho, Rick Nodine and ESP. Irmela is currently teaching Contact, Improvisation and Composition to actors and dancers at Laban, The City Literary Institute and Tower Hamlets Life Long Learning Service.	I am particularly interested in the journey in and out of contact, recognising space around partners to allow contact even before physical touch, exploring physical impulse and intuitive response, playing with accepting offers as well as letting them go, in short: truly dancing with the myriad of choices given at any moment in the duet.