with Reimar Wen Shen
Contact Improvisation is a known yet often misunderstood dance practice.
It emerged in 1972 as an experiment into the meeting of bodies and the interplay of physical forces — inertia, momentum, gravity. What emerged was a transformative and radical approach to dance, now widely and wildly practiced today.
As the practice became more widespread, it often shifted towards familiarity: patterns, habits, and a safe repetition of the known.
In this residency, Reimar proposes a return to its roots: a joyful, physical meeting with the unknown.
At the center of this residency is research.
Orienting towards research means becoming curious and learning through direct experience. This allows us to meet ourselves and the dance freshly — true to us and what we are curious about. This is not about getting it right, but about exploring together, at your own pace and from wherever you are.
“The point is not to know what you are doing, but to be in the process of discovering it.” — Steve Paxton, initiator of Contact Improvisation
Ken Buslay kenbuslay.com
To give direction to the process, the residency is structured around two core fields of inquiry.
Listening gives birth to the dance.
Listening is about what we attend to and how we perceive. Listening is the invisible dimension that shapes the dance that emerges between us.
We can listen to sensations, impulses, and forces. We can listen to the body, our partner or partners, the ground, and the space. Listening is a state of emptiness and an openness to that which is and what is about to be.
“In listening we touch.” — Kirstie Simson
Eli Hill stonehousefilms.com
At its root, Contact Improvisation is about physical forces.
We become familiar with physical forces -weight, gravity, momentum, friction- in a way that is gradual, playful, and responsive to each body.
And we discover the capacity to ride them with our partners: falling, flying, reaching, releasing, and responding.