CI A SYNAPTIC ARCHITECTURE – Andrew Wass

Part of the learning process for me is taking ideas/thoughts/nuggets/movements/pathways
that I have gathered from teachers I have met along the way and modifying them, putting
them in different contexts, doing them (in)correctly. 

Even though I have only taken a few classes from Daniel Lepkoff, I find his text Contact Improvisation: A Question to be quite influential in how I approach CI. 

I created the text below by pulling out nuggets
from Daniel’s text, putting them in a different context using a randomizer and re-doing them (in)correctly.

Contact Improvisation: a synaptic architecture

What do you need to know?

Which of these surfaces offers support?

Where am I able to go?

The body has an innate ability to respond physically to its environment.

CI’s initial stance empowers an individual to rely on their own physical intelligence; to

meet their moment with senses open and perceptions stretching and compose their own
response.

This spontaneous physical material can be viewed as danced composition
Where do I think I am going?
What do you imagine?
In Contact Improvisation, one finds oneself in circumstances that demand accessing support from any area of one’s own body surface, in physical contact with any area of another person’s body surface, both of which are in motion.

To prepare for and survive the surprises of Contact Improvisation what does one visualize when entering a dance.
Where is my center?
Where is down?


This questioning, rather than formulated within one’s verbal mind, is formulated and resides within the tissues of the body: bones, muscles, organs, nerves, brain, and is a level of physical functioning that is ordinarily unconscious.

In this situation, one is not able to rely on habits, the reflexes take over, and the rest is
history.
If Contact Improvisation is the physical act of posing a question about one’s own present
circumstance, then the work is ever expansive and has applications to dance well beyond
the manifestation of the duet interaction.


Living the void – Elisa Ghion

Verbal exchange shapes our dialogical relationship, giving shape to the silences that intersperse words. Silence can therefore be considered a relational place in which we are

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Linus and Emelie

Linus and Emelie are two professional musicians and sound healing practitioners fromSweden.Emelie has been studying classical percussion and chamber music at Örebrouniversity in Sweden and

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Circle – Nayeli Špela

A circle is a place where our dance continues and we witness each other through another chanell.  We still improvise and we also allow ourselves

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Beginner’s Mind – Lior Ophir

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Who moves who? – Roberto Bellatalla

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Polarità – Elisa Ghion

In this period I am particularly interested in observing how polarities interact with each other. Thepresence of one makes the presence of the other vivid.

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E=mc2 – Anna Da Pozzo

E = mc 2Did Einstein dance contact? Today at school I explained this wonderful scientific revolution condensed into a formula.When the time comes for this

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LEAF JAM – Angela Mara Florant

Finding pleasure in every movement.Connecting with the season.Harvesting thoughts,Inspirations.Moments of silence.Focused spaces where we dance.Moving from the insideTo the outside.I don’t know the next stepI

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ECHOES – Marta Iucci

« Once a Zen Master asked a disciple: ‘Have you seen the snow leopard?”No’, replied the disciple.’Isn’t it wonderful?’ The Master asked him.from «Silence is

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Tomo Haru

TOMOKOMBU

Here is Tomokombu at work, he will accompany us in the evening jams of the first round of the retreat. We remind you that the

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6 – 10  April 2023

Gaia Terra, Flambruzzo, Udine

31 Agosto – 4 Settembre 2023

Monterosi, Anghiari, Arezzo

29 October – 2 November 2023

Gaia Terra, Flambruzzo, Udine

CONTACT SILENCE

info@contactsilence.it

CONTACT SILENCE retreats is a social promotion project of LIBERA MENTE APS association

We firmly believe that contact improvisation holds great potential on a social and communicative level and carries within it an unequivocal educational message. In addition to being the vanguard of the natural and authentic movement, it teaches respect for one’s body and the other, nourishing the fundamental need of the human being to physical contact, gives joy and well-being to those who practice it, reconnects man to his creativity and the primordial dimension of the game.