Teachers

Message to teachers on this site: If you are unhappy with the bio or photo here, simply send a new one to webmasterciuk@gmail.com . It would be great to credit the photographers so if you haven't already done so, please tell us. Let us know if there are other CI teachers to include.make sure to include any blogs, weblinks and contact details as well. Thanks! Please send all info regarding the website to the webmasterciuk@gmail.com address.

TEACHERS BIOGRAPHIES (uk)

Simonetta Alessandri

Dancer, choreographer and teacher that lives and works in London. She obtained the PG Diploma in Choreography at LCDS, the T.C. at R.A.D® and she is a qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais® Method. Simonetta teaches at Laban Center,Goldsmiths University, London Contemporary Dance School, Independent Dance
and Birkbeck University. She collaborated as a dancer and choreographer with manyCompanies in Italy for Dance, Theatre, Site Specific and her work has been show in Italy, UK, Turkey, Colombia and Japan. Since 1999 MDA has been produced her choreography. She taught for more than 20 years in Italy and kept C.I. alive in Roma for 10 years with her classes and jams. She founded the organization Roma contact and she supported the development of CI in Italy. She has been a guest teacher in Germany, Colombia, Norway, Israel, France, Italy,Taiwan and in well-known dance institutions such as Tanzfabrik Berlin, CNDN Angers and IALS Rome. She is a member of S.o.F.T., a collective researching and creating improvisedperformances.

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, Andrew Harwood). 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 Jia-Yu Cortes, 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 and with improvisation ensemble SoFt.

Tamara Ashley

Tamara has pursued her passion for improvisation around the world having studied with teachers such as Nancy Stark smith, Susan Schell, Andrew Harwood, KJ Holmes, Nina Martin and Jennifer Keller. Other studies include body mind centring, yoga and contemplative movement. Tamara has taught and performed at Earthdance, the Nordic New Year Jam, Contact Improvisation's 36th Birthday celebration, Manchester Contact Improvisation, Nott Dance and at other schools and festivals nationally and internationally. In 2006, she undertook the entire 260 mile Pennine Way as a performance and is currently researching improvisation as an ecological practice.

Angus Balbernie

Angus McLean Balbernie has created about 85 pieces and taught in many places around the earth,
including many years at EDDC/artEZ Arnhem, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, and Dartington College of Arts.
Has lately been a lecturer in choreography at NSCD in UK but is now back to just stumbling across the odd project and bits of teaching here and there. When not doing stuff he lives on a hill in Provence, walks the mountains and plays the banjo left-handed and really quite badly.
If you need more information / loads of reviews / any more blah, please email me. abalbernie@aol.com or call 0044 07825 538402 / 0033 4 92 73 71 6

Jo Blowers

For over twenty years Jo has worked extensively as an Improviser, Performer, Choreographer, Movement/ Director and Teacher. She trained principally at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and has attended, and also been part of organising numerous national and international open and professional level classes, workshops and conferences.
She has specialised in improvisation including Contact Improvisation, which she has taught and performed nationally and internationally; working with a very wide range of influential CI practitioners including the innovators of the form; most notably Steve Paxton (with whom she has performed) and Nancy Stark Smith.
Jo is a founder member of the Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC) alongside Mary Prestidge, Paula Hampson and Andrea Buckley who were the organisers of the Liverpool International Festival of Dance Improvisation (LIFDI) which included a wide range of nationally and internationally renowned artists. She has also participated in and been responsible for facilitating and organisational work for (ECITE) in a range of European venues.
She has worked extensively in the UK in the context of further and Higher Education. Her last post was as head of movement on the Acting route at the Liverpool Institute for the performing Arts (LIPA).
She has sustained a particular interest in working with cross art form practitioners and has collaborated with numerous other artists across a wide range of disciplines and genre.

Andrea Buckley

Andrea Buckley works as an independent dance artist, whose experience extends over 20 years, performing teaching and creating work in various professional contexts to include the wider community.Her primary research draws upon an extensive range of improvisation and contact skills as a way to continue to develop an awareness of the moving body and expand a repertoire of composition.

She has performed with many independent artists touring UK, Ireland, Europe and parts of America. These include; Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark–Smith, MacLennan Dance & Company, Rosemary Lee, Gill Clarke and Deborah Hay.

Committed to work happening in the North West Andrea is part of an artist led initiative, Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC) - initiating workshops, festivals and performance projects - they have a designated artist led space at the Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Janice Claxton

With more than 25 years of International experience she has worked both independently and with companies and organisations in several countries. She has performed with The One Extra Company (Australia 84-86), Michael Parmenters’ Commotion Company (NZ, 90) and her work is strongly influenced by Erick Hawkins who invited her to join his company in New York (1992).

With an on-going passion and commitment for movement research Janis’ reputation as a teacher traverses the globe. She has taught extensively in professional, community and educational dance settings including Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Beijing Dance Academy, Dance Academy Arnhem, London Contemporary Dance School and Scottish School of Contemporary Dance.

http://www.janisclaxton.com/

Lucy May Constantini

Lucy May Constantini first encountered CI in 1997 and started teaching it the following year, mostly in London, at some of the leading drama schools, but also in Asia and South Africa. She is lucky enough to have studied with some of the pioneers of the form, including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Kirstie Simson. She works as an independent dance and theatre artist, is a qualified yoga teacher and occasional writer and journalist. lucymayconstantini.wordpress.com +44 (0) 777 335 1812

Saskia Chaplin

Saskia first met Contact Improvisation in 2007. Since then she has attended workshops and events all over the world. She has studied with a number of inspiring CI teachers, including Nancy Stark-Smith, Martin Keogh, Angela Doniy, Charlie Morrissey, Ray Chung and Daniel Lepkoff and so many other wonderful dancers and teachers over the years.
Saskia has worked as a massage therapist since 2002 and qualified as a craniosacral therapist in 2010.
She has organised many CI events and classes in Bristol and beyond and began her journey into the world of teaching CI in 2011.
Contact, email: saskia (at) contactdance.co.uk, website:massageinbristol.co.uk

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.

Jocasta Crofts

I am a human animal. I like to squirm, wriggle and roll around with other human animals. It feels real and makes me feel alive and three-dimensional. My reflexes sharpen and my senses are brighter. I can express my playfulness, my madness, my non-rational being as well as being meditative and more conscious through my movement exploration. I need to be in contact with myself, the floor, and with others. It’s very intimate and a way to share that nurtures and nourishes me.
Whatever I am learning about in life, I bring to my dance and to my teaching. The last 11 months I have been conceiving, growing, birthing and mothering my baby boy. The journey has been intense and healing, this is the material I teach from now – How to dance when you are pregnant and can’t offer your centre? How you dance when you are lactating and have very sore boobs? How the movement qualities and life experiences of my child inspire me. This is my material right now.
email: jocasta@contactdance.co.uk

Rachel Dean

Rachel Dean is a contemporary dance artist based in Leeds who performs, teaches and choreographs. She has a particular interest in Contact Improvisation and collaboration with other artists and art forms and is part of improvisation performance collective Mathilde.
Rachel graduated from The Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2006. In 2007 and 2009 she was selected for the International Danceweb Scholarship at Impulstanz Festival. She has a BSc in Psychology. http://racheljanedean.wordpress.com/racheljanedean@yahoo.co.uk

Kathleen Downie

I'm interested in the roots of contact improvisation. What happens when two bodies jump at each other, collide and fall? Interested in the solo study of this work as developed by Steve Paxton and seen in his DVD Movement for the Spine. What happens when our bodies meet each other/floor/wall on a structural level? Energetically, emotionally, at speed and in slow motion, with various bodies’ physical abilities, degree of training and desire?
Sharpening the tool of our bodies to make an informed choice at such a high speed that it does not feel like we are making a choice. To go with, against or not. To be taken by surprise. I love improvisation as a vehicle for creating to be part of what is happening in this moment in this group, switched on, full of energy, full of force, moving with complicity together.
I aim to have an inclusive teaching approach, to reach people of all different backgrounds and abilities, through clear communication, boundaries and encouragement to gently push the edge.I teach from a level of learning, not mastery. Passing on and sharing what I find useful to work with and what interests me.
email: kathleen@contactdance.co.uk

Jo Dyer

I have practised Contact Improvisation for a number of years. It has inspired and challenged me and enriched the scope of my movement practice. After taking a break from Contact when pregnant, I returned to it with a renewed appetite for its playfulness and unpredictability. My classes reflect the playfulness I enjoy in CI, but they are also rigorous and energetic, grounded in my training in release-based contemporary dance. I also like to allow for exploration in classes, giving scope for dancers to find their own solutions and discoveries.
As well as teaching for LCI, I undertook a residency at Newington Dance Space to research aspects of teaching Contact Improvisation, and have taught movement classes for children and CI for parents and children. I have recently completed a PGCE and work as a supply teacher, which has certainly tested my improvisation skills!
As a dancer I have worked for Siobhan Davies Dance (Jerwood Bank 2008), Caroline Salem, Jia-yu Corti and created my own work, which has been performed at various venues including the Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), the Linbury Studio (Royal Opera House) and the Masdanza festival (Gran Canaria).
http://josephinedyer.wordpress.com/

Katy Dymoke

Photographer: Eric Richmond

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.
katydymoke@gmail.com
www.embody-move.co.uk

Polly Hudson

Polly Hudson is a dancer, artist and teacher who makes performance and Screendance works. She first encountered Contact improvisation in the mid 1980s when in a youth dance company and took her first class with Steve Paxton at London Contemporary Dance School where she was a student in 1988, continuing to study and teach the work since. She was instrumental in the development of CI in the UK in the 1990s, organizing jams and events.
Polly has continued to share CI for more than 20 years and is currently Co Course Director for Dance at Coventry University.
She is also a certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique and is particularly interested in how the under-pinning principles of the work translate into making, performing and teaching in other contexts.
www.pollyhudson.com

Suna Imre

Suna Imre’s interest lies in how contact improvisation can help us connect to ourselves, one another and the world we live. She has been involved in the practice for over twenty years as a teacher and dance artist and has worked intensively with the founders of the form. Other somatic dance practices such as Authentic Movement and Body Mind Centring support her dance practice, but it is her passion for contact improvisation that truly enriches her as a human being! Creating Hampshire Contact Improvisation with Richard Parker has helped establish Contact Improvisation in the local community, where Suna regularly teach the fundamentals of the form in a relaxed and accessible way.

Merav Israel

Merav Israel is a movement artist and performance maker. She is a teacher of movement, improvisation and the Feldenkrais method. She has been initiating programmes and events and teaching CI in Edinburgh since 2002. Her work is somatic based and is interested in the dialogue between the internal and the external with a sense of investigation and discovery. She organised large Contact Improvisation events called: Mid-day to Mid-night Duet and looking to make this a score that repeats itself annually.
Contact Merav via: www.lanua.org or mirabailos@yahoo.co.uk

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).

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.

Miram Keye

Miriam teaches dance to professional dancers, as well as in community and educational settings. Specializing in Early Years and people with Special Needs she was dance lecturer for Loughborough College New Pathways programme. In 2005 she attended the International Study Week at Reggio Emilia, Italy, with Second Skin, Creative Partnerships Coventry. She is a resident dance artist with Bamboozle Theatre Company (Leics), a regular choreographer for the So….Dancers and Dance Dangerous (Northampton). In December 2005 she was artist in residence at Earthdance Centre for Contact Improvisation, Massachusetts, USA where she returned a year later to live and work for 6 months.
http://www.strandlooper.org

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.

David Leahy

David's long interest in movement has led him to extending his creative practice to incorporate Contact Improvisation, an improvised dance style created in the 1970's, and David has performed as a dancer/musician throughout Europe. Some of the artists and groups that he is currently involved with include; the London Improvisers Orchestra, a number of smaller groups containing members of the orchestra, Lode (improvisational string duo), Dha (Indian/European Improvisation ensemble), Deirdre Starr (Irish vocalist/pianist), Geraldo Si (dancer) in SichtLautTrio and with Frey Faust and Mirva Makanan (dancers) in the Balance Project.
http://www.dafmusic.com/

Annie Pui Ling Lok

Annie Pui Ling Lok

Annie is an independant dancer, choreographer and teacher based in London. She has worked with Matteo Fargion, Les Ballets C de la B, Siobhan Davies Dance, Dog Kennel Hill Project and Babakas Theatre Co. amongst others.

She teaches professional classes for Greenwich Dance Agency, Independent Dance, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Co. and is a guest lecturer at Bedfordshire and Roehampton Universities, She is also Resident artist at Greenwich Dance Agency and Associate artist with DanceDigital and Step Out Arts. 
Her classes are informed by her work with meditation, experiential anatomy, biodynamic craniosacral therapy and fantastic teachers such as Nancy Stark Smith, KJ Holmes and Martin Keogh.
Her work has been shown in Europe, China, India, Canada, America, Brazil and the UK.

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 has taught his work to dance companies, schools and in festivals both in the UK and abroad. He is currently a lecturer in Partnerwork and Improvisation at London Contemporary Dance School.

Daniel Mang

C.Bartley @ECITE 2011

Contact improvisation has been my primary movement practice since 1986. I also practice aikido and am strongly influenced by the Feldenkrais method and Body Mind Centering. I have studied with Bruno Stefanoni, Dieter Heitkamp, Ka Rustler, Kurt Koegel, Howard Sonenklar, Nina Martin, Benno Voorham, Nancy Stark Smith, K J Holmes and many others. I have been teaching the form since 1990 - at first mostly in Berlin, from 2005 on primarily in the South West of France, but also in Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK. I am fluent in English, German and French and regularly teach in these three languages. I was one of the organisers of the "European Contact Improvisation Teachers Exchange" (ECITE) in Potsdam in 1999 and participated in ECITEs in Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland and Spain. From 2005 to 2011 I was part of a small network of contact improvisation teachers in Toulouse that organized jams, classes and workshops locally. Since my move to the UK in July 2011 I have been teaching mainly in London, but also in Brussels, Paris and Toulouse. I was one of the organisers of the first week-long international contact improvisation festival in London 26 Dec 2011 - 2 Jan 2012. I am involved in making CI available as a way of exploring body politics, as a tool for communication and personal change, to radical left, feminist, queer and antiracist activists. I see my interest in radical social theory and my love of contact improvisation as two aspects of the same desire.
http://www.danielmang.com/

Jacqueline McCormick

Jacqueline has been teaching, performing and making dances for over twenty years. Directing and performing in her company DanceAbout, works that take a dancing journey through the outback of the self. She is fascinated by creating movement from sensation, especially in natural environments. Her dance film Settle captures her impulse to improvise as a contactor. She has a B.Ed from Bedford College of Higher Education in Human Movement Studies, an M.A in Dance from Mills College California, USA and has been, Associate Professor in Dance at Western Oregon University (1985-1996) and Connecticut College, USA (2000-2004). Since 1990 Jacqueline has taught Contact Improvisation at numerous Contact Festivals and workshops throughout the USA and Europe, and from 1997-2000 she co-led the CI Teachers Lab in San Francisco, California. Alongside Contact Improvisation her curiosities lie in Authentic Movement, and the methodology of delivering dance where participants feel safe to explore their own movement freely. All of her work is informed by her extensive knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology of the body. Jacqueline is in her 8th year as Co-Director for Cheshire Dance, UK. Her role as Dance Director is to lead the artistic direction of the organization. As a practising artist she is working alongside a core team providing the artistic direction, guidance, and input into all aspects of Cheshire Dance’s operation. Most recently Jacqueline was Artistic Director for The Moment When… Cultural Olympiad project 2012, involving over 900 performers.

Jonathan Megaw

Jonathan studied Acting and 'Laban/Carpenter Movement Psychology' at The Drama Centre London, Performing Arts at Middlesex University, Drama at Flinders University of South Australia, Post Graduate studies at London Contemporary Dance School and Laban, as well as Complimentary Medicine. He has worked as an Actor, Comic Entertainer, Trapeze Artist, Dancer, Choreographer and Live Art practitioner. He first studied CI with Laurie Booth in the 1990s, and since with many founders of the form in International workshops, teachers exchanges and research groups. He has studied extensively with Nancy Stark Smith since 2012.
Contact Improvisation and Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore (_) have formed the core of his practice and research for over 10 years. He has taught and facilitated CI and The Underscore recently in the UK, Australia, Poland, and Russia.
He seeks to bring mindfulness, inspired by his regular practice in recent years of Puja, and training in Kundalini Tantra Yoga at Ashram Munivara in Bali Indonesia, to his dancing and teaching of CI. Jonathan is interested in how we can cultivate our ability to meditate in movement , upon our shared practice and shared dances. He proposes building a reflective practice by dropping into the simple foundations of our awareness and presence, finding a grounding from which to expand towards complex spatial awareness and world views, and finding with compassion our own places within them. jonathanmegaw@yahoo.com

Charlie Morrissey

Charlie Morrissey is a performer, teacher, director, researcher and organiser.  He has been working in the UK and in many other countries around the world for over twenty years.  He creates large and small-scale site-specific and theatre and gallery based performance work in diverse contexts working with set and improvised materials.  His teaching is informed by his own research and by ongoing and long-term collaborative working relationships with dance makers such as Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Scott Smith, Kirstie Simson, K.J.Holmes, and many others.Charlie is part of the trio Moving Men with Jean-Hughes Miredin and Adrian Russi who have been teaching and performing together across Europe since 2007. They have performed in Rome, Bern, Brighton, Moscow, Rotterdam, Warwick and Freiburg.  He co-organises a group called Movement 12 in Brighton – a group of dance artists who curate an international professional development programme.www.movement12.org  More information at www.charliemorrissey.com
The picture is from one by Pari Naderi

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 15 years he has collaborated with many dancers, actors and musicians to create improvised performance (Jovair Longo, Kate Brown, Gaby Agis, Lalitaraja, ESP, 5 men dancing, Jamie McCarthy and Neat Timothy).
Since 1997 Rick has created is own work and his most recent program of choreography and improvisation will premier in the Spring Loaded festival in April 2010.
rick.nodine@theplace.org.uk

Richard Parker

Richard Parker was first introduced to Contact Improvisation in Paris 2006, being deeply amazed by the freedom and connection he felt through this movement form. Since then has been learning and exploring this form with many inspiring teachers from around the world. In recent years he has had the opportunity to work intensively alongside Suna Imre to help deepen his knowledge and understanding. Together they have set up Hampshire Contact Improvisation, a community space for people to meet and explore this dance form. His practise began over 20 years ago with Martial Arts slowly moving into Tai Chi & then Yoga and has been guiding workshops and classes for over 10 years.
His focus is on exploring and discovering a practice of movement that is organic, free, easy and kind on our bodies. Evolving as the practice evolves us. Using a grounded and easy going approach he enjoys sharing his understanding of the principle movement forms within Contact Improvisation alongside our capacity to connect, so that we may each discover and share our own unique dance.

Mary Pearson

Mary Pearson is a performance maker, improviser, dancer, teacher and organizer currently based in Liverpool, UK. In 2005 she co-founded Fool's Proof Theatre company, which has toured nationally internationally in the UK/USA with devised pieces The Eagle Has Landed, Je Suis Dead and It?s Uniformation Day.
She has organized interdisciplinary laboratories, performance platforms and festivals in the independent arts sector in Liverpool (UK) and Berne (CH), guest taught CI and Improvisation at Liverpool Hope and John Moore?s Universities, and leads ongoing classes in association with Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC).
http://www.foolsprooftheatre.com

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.
http://www.tangorelease.blogspot.com
http://www.adagioconbrio.co.uk

Lilly Picts

Lilly Picts performs and creates kinesthetic, experiential performance utilizing the human form and moving body. Research interests include exploring architectural space; performativity; the gallery context; audience's perception, expectation, and interaction with art; as well as what includes, excludes, enables, and invites audience participation towards co-creating, as active contributors, a participatory role within the creative process. As a performer, Lilly works with directors exploring similar interests and she remains curious in being seen, not seen, understood, misunderstood, heard, not heard, documented, perceived, and interpreted. As an internationally respected teacher, Lilly has worked extensively with dancers of all ages with and without disabilities in dance and contact improvisation festivals and events, and in professional, community, academic, and teacher training environments. Lilly has an MA in Choreography from Middlesex University, UK, and is currently completing her PhD in Dance at Texas Women's University; she has studied extensively with Nancy Stark Smith, and has an ongoing relationship with Earthdance retreat center in Western Massachusetts.
http://lillypicts.tumblr.com/

Mary Prestidge

Mary Prestidge
Originally an Olympic gymnast in the 1960’s, Mary's first professional work was as a contemporary dancer with the dance company, Ballet Rambert. In the mid 70’s she co-founded the radical X6 Dance Space and its successor Chisenhale Dance Space, in London. She has continued to evolve new work through collaboration with other artists and art forms in a variety of performing contexts. She has been a lecturer in dance at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts since 1995 until 2008. She currently shares a studio in Liverpool with dance artists Andrea Buckley and Paula Hampson.
email m.prestidge@blueyonder.co.uk
photo by; Esko Koivisto

Oliver Scott

Oliver trained at Coventry Centre for the Performing Arts, and independently in London. He continues to study with Julyen Hamilton, Steve Paxton, Kirsty Simpson, Sten Rudrstrom and Nancy Stark Smith, and other international teachers through residencies and workshops
Passionate about Improvisation as performance Oliver continues to explore this genre through the Coventry Wednesday Group and performing with Making Space (2009) Without Planning Permission(2008) Julyen Hamilton Company (2006), and the London Improvisers Orchestra at the Shifti Festival of Improvisation 2006, ESP’s Defenceless (2005) and other improvised performances with Fluxx

http://www.mercurialdance.co.uk

Scott Smith

Scott Smith started his dance studies in 1977. Originally from the American mid-west he has lived and worked in New York and Seattle., and is currently living in the United Kingdom.
He teaches dance, makes performance, composes music for live performance and film/video.
Scott studied and performed for several years, with Steve Paxton via contact improvisation and material for the spine, and was a founding member of ‘Image Lab’ with Lisa Nelson, KJ Holmes and Karen Nelson, developing ‘tuning scores’, researching the realm of the senses and perception as foundational to form and composition.
His initial training's and professional performance experience included modern and classical dance forms, and he has worked for dance companies in Kansas City, New York, Berlin, and London.
Since the early 90’s, Scott has been focusing his practice in new dance and improvisational work, and maintains ongoing collaborations and performance/video making with Lisa Nelson, Charlie Morrissey, Becky Edmunds and others.
He plays American folk and roots music in the band Porchlight Smoker, and is a member of movement12, a dance advocacy organization based in Brighton.
http://www.scottsmith.org.uk/
ssmith8309@googlemail.com

Irmela Stone

Irmela Stone (Wiemann) has been involved in exploring and performing Contact / Improvisation for over twenty years, teaching it for fourteen years. When in full time study as a musician in Austria she discovered her passion for dancing, causing her to change gear in training and study with the pioneers of Contact / Improvisation, such as with Steve Paxton, Mary Fulkerson, Barbara Dilley, Eva Karczac and others. Since then she has performed and created work - both as a musician and a dancer - in Austria, Germany and Holland before moving to London in 1998. Collaborations in England include work with Tadashi Endo, Kirsty Simson, KJ Holmes, Gaby Agis, Jovair Longo, Rick Nodine, ESP and a production for the BBC4. She is currently a member of the performance collective SoFt. Irmela has taught for a wide variety of educational settings and in numerous institutions across London, with her work spanning from training actors and dancers over circus artists to senior citizens and kids. Currently she is teaching Contact, Improvisation and Composition at the Laban Centre, Tower Hamlets Life Long Learning Service and The City Lit, where she runs open classes in Contact Improvisation.

email: irmela@talktalk.net

Anne-Gaelle Thiroit

Anne-Gaëlle is an independent dance artist interested in improvisation, composition, community and architecture. A certified choreologist (specialist of Laban-based embodied practice) and a contemporary dancer trained at Trinity Laban, she met Contact Improvisation through Didier Silhol, Kirstie Simson and Mark Tompkins in 2001. She kept studying since then with among others Lisa Nelson, Nancy Stark-Smith and Julyen Hamilton. She collaborates with uprising choreographers across the UK, and regularly teaches for Candoco Dance Company and The City Lit.
When dancing/ studying/ teaching she researches clarity of intention and rhythm in space, and explores the link between form and feeling and how to dance forever.
In 2011 she co-started CI Goldsmiths Society in Goldsmiths College (SE London) and co-organises the Southern Jams there.
Contact: anga.thiriot@gmail.com / ci.goldsmiths@gmail.com

Lisa May Thomas

Lisa May Thomas is a contemporary dance artist working with improvisation and choreography for live and filmed performance. Her award-winning work has been presented internationally at film festivals, broadcast for television and the web and presented within community and education sectors.

Contactemail: lisamay.thomas@mac.com

Caroline Waters

Caroline Waters is an Independent Freelance Performer, Organiser and Arts Educator currently based in Brighton. She is an Associate Lecturer on the Dance Degree at Chichester University, a Broadcaster on BHCRadio and Performer in Tanglehead Productions. Originally trained in Mime and Physical Theatre, she has constructed a body of work located in the use of improvisation in performance as a context for physical research. She first trained with Steve Paxton, whilst obtaining a Degree in Theatre at Dartington College of Arts. Mainly drawing from CI and New Dance practices, Caroline teaches, performs and directs in various situations ranging from the performic to the therapeutic, working with both professionals and non-professionals. The work often focuses on collaboration and working with other Art forms, which includes experience of working with a range of non-theatre spaces as a locus for performance.
Caroline curates International Improvisation events, which has included 5 European CI Teachers Exchanges in the UK, Hungary and Russia. She was an Artistic Director of Contact Moscow for 5 years, as well as being on the team of Dance Connect in St Petersburg and the Altai Festival in the Altai Mountains Russia. She has also completed 2 tours of Siberia with one of her main performance Collaborators Kipling Dance based in Yekaterinburg. . She has also performed at many International Improvisation Festivals across Europe, America and South America. .Amongst all the travelling Caroline was an Associate Lecturer at Dartington College of Arts UK for 11 years. Caroline continues to develop her own body of work internationally as a freelance improviser in performance, as a Dancer, Teacher/Director and Musician.

Lucia Walker

Lucia Walker (teacher and workshop facilitator) has been practicing and teaching Contact Improvisation since 1986. She first encountered the form in workshops with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark-Smith and Kirstie Simson. In 1987 Lucia qualified as a teacher of Alexander Technique and teaches the technique to individuals, groups and on teacher training programmes in England, Germany, US and Japan.

Lucia worked for many years with Jointwork Dance Group exploring improvised performance and continued this research with Telling Times International Theatre project. She also works on performance collaborations with other artists and dancers Attention, vitality and curiosity are central to her work as a teacher and a performer.

Jamus Wood

Jamus Woodíhas an interest in the quality of touch, the textures of the dance and how we inhabit this body of ours; exploring intimacy with ourselves and then meeting another from this place.

He has trained at the Outokumpu Oppimiskeskus Vocational School for New Dance, Finland in Contact Improvisation, Body Mind Movement and Feldenkrais. Jamus currently organises Contact Improvisation classes in Bristol .