S11 / Gender in Contact Improvisation
Workshop
with
Kristin Horrigan
In the frame of Sommer Tanz 2016
Contact Improvisation - What's gender got to do with it?
Contact Improvisation (CI) is an exploration of the movement that is possible when two bodies are in physical contact and sharing weight. Gender is the way we enact our masculinity, femininity, our queerness and even our rejection of societal norms. In theory, contact improvisation is a dance form without gender roles…and yet gender shows up in many subtle ways, shaping our choices. Gender plays a part in how we organize our bodies and relate to space. And we respond to the perceived genders of our dance partners. In this workshop, we will investigate the deeply embodied notions of gender that we carry with us at all times. Let us find out how these ideas and behaviors influence the choices we make in our CI dancing and use this knowledge to clarify and enrich our physical choices.
Kristin Horrigan
Kristin Horrigan has been a contact improviser since 1998, and she has taught and performed CI around the world in places including the USA, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Australia and Argentina. Kristin holds an MFA in choreography from Ohio State University and is a Professor of Dance and Gender Studies at Marlboro College in Vermont, USA. She also spent ten years directing Dance Generators, an intergenerational dance company, and has choreographed several intergenerational community-based performances in Germany with her collaborator Christa Cocciole. Kristin’s current research focuses on the intersection of gender and dance, particularly in improvisation and contact improvisation.
Diana Thielen (Assistent) has studied contemporary dance at SEAD in Austria and is a certified Axis Syllabus teacher. She teaches dance, CI and yoga in daily classes, Workshops, Festivals and Intensives around Europe. Diana is a student of education and gender studies and is particularly excited about the political aspect of her academic work. Diana has worked with Kristin already 2015 at the CmC Festival in Göttingen. www.movementactivism.com.
Level: Basic skills in CI
in English
Assistent: Diana Thielen