Falling Leaves Jam and Authentic Movement Workshop

Falling Leaves Jam 2014

October 23, 2014 - 6:00pm - October 26, 2014 - 3:00pm

Surround yourself with the vibrant colors and crisp scents of autumn at Earthdance! Allow the shift of weather and time to express itself in movement as you come together with community. Come harvest the fruits of the passing year; rejoice in old friends, abundance and new growth at our final Seasonal Jam of the year!

We are proud to announce the Earthdance Diversity Scholarship for this Jam!

Also offered will be Active Witnessing: The Art of Authentic Movement in Contact, a one-day workshop with Alicia Grayson from 9:30-5:30 on Thursday, October 23.

In this workshop we create a safe container to explore the practice of authentic movement with a mover, an active and a sitting witness. Working in trios we will discover the powerful learnings that come from each of the three roles. This practice can be immeasurably helpful in deepening the practice of contact improvisation by supporting our capacity to source from within and support our skillfulness in deeply listening to ourselves while connecting with another.

*as a mover with eyes closed we deepen our ability to follow our own authentic impulses inspired by sensation, imagery, emotion or story. We have the opportunity to experience staying true to our own inner impulses and journey while being relational with an active witness who is supporting us.

*as a sitting witness we learn to cultivate our own ability to non-judgmentally witness other while simultaneously witnessing our own inner process

*as an active witness we learn to stay true to our own impulses while actively supporting the mover's process with or without touch

No experience in authentic movement or contact improvisation are necessary for this workshop. However, experience and a willingness for deep embodied listening and comfort with touch are helpful.

Faculty

Jeff Bliss has been exploring and learning about Contact Improvisation for over 27 years. Jeff began performing contemporary dance with Betty Jones in Hawaii and then joined Liz Lerman/Dance Exchange for 8 years. Besides teaching in Movement Research and many Universities in the US, he has traveled to teach CI and improvisation in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Argentina. As a member of Group 6 (with Chris Aiken, Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Julie Carr, and Peter Bingham) he explored performance issues in Contact Improvisation. He and Nancy have performed a trio with musician Mike Vargas at Naropa University in Colorado, Bates Dance Festival in Maine, and at the CI 36 festival in 2008.

Alicia Grayson has been passionately involved with dancing, teaching and performing CI for the past 25 years. She has taught contact improvisation as an adjunct faculty at George Washington University, University of Denver, Naropa University and Shenandoah University. She teaches CI, yoga and pilates classes in Boulder, CO and regularly travels both nationally and internationally to teach. Her long time practices of authentic movement, yoga and meditation are important influences on her dancing and teaching. As a registered psychotherapist and certified Hakomi therapist she works with clients in somatic psychotherapy and movement education. She delights in exploring and discovering new depths to contact improvisation and related disciplines and is particularly interested in the intersection of physics and expression and the mind/body relationship.

Earthdance 252 Prospect St. Plainfield, MA www.earthdance.net