Full Class Descriptions

Monday, 9:00-9:50

Contemplative Dance Practice

Facilitated by Carolyn Stuart (any)

Contemplative Dance Practice is an integration of dance and mindfulness; it was developed by Barbara Dilley. It will be an hour long practice that consists of 3 parts: meditation, personal awareness practice, and open space. The following hour will be Contact Improvisation jam.

CI has taught me that another paradigm exists that supports mutual well-being! It is my life journey to explore that possibility, on and off the dance floor. So far my research spans 40+ years of labbing, teaching, performing in a wide range of settings, peoples and countries. Currently, I am based in Portland, OR offering 4-8 week CI series while dreaming of resuming residential retreats!
https://contactgames.wordpress.com/writing/7-options/

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Monday, 10:00-12:00

Trust, Touch, and Community: Moving Together with Care and Connection

Taught by Leslie Becknell Marx (She/her) & Bloom Davis (they/them)

Move together, get oriented, open up - build festival community

Join us to co-create our CI +/- 2025 community as we explore connection, communication, and creativity. This playful workshop is designed to cultivate emotional safety, deepen self-awareness, and explore the richness of community through shared touch and embodied presence.

We will engage with the internal questions that arise when practicing Contact Improv and discover that “I’m not the only one who wonders this!”
• Am I doing it right?
• Is this ok?
• What are they thinking?

We’ll engage with serious topics but not take ourselves too seriously.

Through interactive exercises, movement exploration, and group reflection, we’ll co-create a space rooted in care, consent, and curiosity to grow trust and authentic connection.
Let’s move together with attunement, awareness, and heart.

No dance or Contact Improv experience is needed—just a willingness to listen, move, and be moved. This is a great foundational workshop for the rest of the festival.

Leslie Becknell Marx (she/her) and Bloom Davis (they/them) are facilitators and actors in their professional lives who explore varied forms of dance in their personal lives. They met in a queer small group at Dance Camp NW 2024 and keep discovering more in common. In this workshop, they bring their extensive experience with interactive exercises, group dynamics, deep conversation, somatic practices, and love of Contact Improv to support all festival participants to deepen into a meaningful community experience.
www.ConversationThatMatters.com

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Monday, 12:00-1:45

Open Jam & Lunch Break

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Monday, 12:30-1:30

Discussion: Consensual Uncertainty

Facilitated by Nick Blaylock (he/him)

Contact Improvisation as always already dialectical consent and sense uncertainty.

The history of consent could be schematized as follows: pre-modern divine entitlement (because I say so), modern liberalism (go until ""no""), and progressive liberalism (""yes"" means go). My contention is that consent is complicated by desire and less agential. Furthermore, philosophical liberalism only perpetuates individualism, the apotheosis of which is relativistic permissiveness.

Necessary is a practice of consent that sustains the question of responsibility, collectivizing those engaged. Such a practice allows for politics proper and fosters interdependency in and outside of the studio. Fortunately, this work is fundamentally subtractive insofar as additional learning isn’t required, but only recognizing this work as always already happening, regardless of its avowal.

Contact Improvisation is a medium of tarrying with this question. Contra letting go to any presumably substantive flow—effectively answering the question—CI engages passive activity, an effort-towards, with its obstacle and impetus of constitutive failure.

Consent is uncertainly sensed, leading to a slippage of understanding which we nonetheless quilt with our act. This misunderstanding—and concomitant shared culpability—is paradoxically the cause and effect of the dance. Paraphrasing with ref(v)erence to ""In Praise of Bad Dancing"" by Christina Svane (Contact Quarterly 3, no. 1:22), the only dance is a failed one.

Nick Blaylock has practiced and taught contact improvisation for the better part of 13 years. He is a founding member of Heartland Collective, a multi-disciplinary collective directed by Molly Heller with collaborations in dance, visual arts, music, and performance. Nick has held professorships at Universities and choreographed nationally in the US.

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Monday, 2:00-3:30

OneBody/ManyMinds

Taught by Carolyn Stuart (any)

Orienting from WE for Mutual Well-Being.

In a OneBody/ManyMind approach to CI we establish contact and maintain it to, simultaneously, send and receive information. Each of our choices are offers for the other to respond to. Our thread of connection can support responses that match or do not match our partner's offer. Our choices are infinite and can be distilled to 7 mundane options to explore the dynamic of matching and not matching each other. We use the point/s of contact to Feel the present moment truth of what is transpiring. This anchors the infinite in the finite simplicity of now. We can use language to translate our experience to further our relational research of the simultaneous potential of CI, which is mutual well-being!

CI has taught me that another paradigm exists that supports mutual well-being! It is my life journey to explore that possibility, on and off the dance floor. So far my research spans 40+ years of labbing, teaching, performing in a wide range of settings, peoples and countries. Currently, I am based in Portland, OR offering 4-8 week CI series while dreaming of resuming residential retreats!
https://contactgames.wordpress.com/writing/7-options/

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Monday, 4:00-5:30

Murmurations: Moving Beyond the Dyad

Taught by Robin Ekeya (He/Him) & Quinn Gumbiner (they/them)

Ensemble work moving through slow attunement to each other into group scores.

In this class we will practice dancing in ensemble. We will spend time attuning to each other and the space before moving into contact. We’ll practice through trio, quartet and large group scores. This will be an opportunity to break from the contact improvisation duet and gain new perspectives in dancing with larger groups.

Robin (He/Him) has been practicing partnered dance for nineteen years and Contact Improvisation for fifteen years. Of late he has been interested in the practice of CI as a doorway to better understanding one’s self as well as a conduit to a more authentic relating both on and off the dance floor. Robin’s work co-facilitating the Queer CI Jam with Leland in Portland has led to an appreciation of the hurdles faced by queer folks engaging with Contact Improv as their full selves. For Robin these insights have led to a passion for fostering spaces and experiences where participants may shed however briefly the needless weight of collective assumptions and expectations.

Quinn Gumbiner is a dancer and dedicated practitioner of contact improvisation. Quinn received their BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College in 2020. Quinn was a member of the Boulder Contact Improvisation Lab’s Core (2021-2023). Currently, Quinn is a member of the Portland Queer Contact Improvisation Cohort. They host jams locally, teach and perform CI. Quinn is inspired by the form and physicality of contact improvisation and other movement modalities. Their work is rooted in the practice of consent, listening and noticing opportunities for collaborative creativity to unfold.

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Monday, 7:00-9:30

Jam @ SomaSpace

Facilitated by Jacqueline Rubinstein (she/her)

Live music jam. Musician tbd.

Located at SomaSpace: 4050 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232.

SomaSpace is ADA accessible.

Tuesday, 9:00-9:50

Contact Beyond Contact

Taught by Maddie Fontaine (she/her)

A heart centered, interpersonal and intrapersonal connected dance practice

Contact Beyond Contact is an invitation to slow down and listen — to the body, to the breath, to the subtle currents moving through and around us. Rooted in mindfulness, authentic movement and relating, and contact improvisation, this class weaves together inner awareness and shared connection.
Through guided explorations and partner work, we’ll cultivate deep presence with ourselves first, awakening our inner wisdom, and then gently extend that awareness into connection with others and the environment. Movement becomes a conversation: an unfolding dance of attunement, play, integrity, and freedom.
This space welcomes all bodies and experiences.

Maddie Fontaine is devoted to cultivating spaces of deep presence, attunement, and connection — with self, with others, with the living environment, and with the wider weave of community. Rooted in the practices of Contact Beyond Contact, somatic healing, and expressive movement, Maddie invites dancers to slow down, listen inward, and awaken their inner wisdom as the first step toward authentic relating. Her workshops nurture a field where inner peace, belonging, aliveness, freedom, integrity, and play naturally arise. Through guided improvisation and sensitive exploration, Maddie holds space for participants to reconnect with their essential selves and move from a place of embodied truth.

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Tuesday, 10:00-12:00

Contact Improvisation Fundamentals

Taught by Hannah Krafcik (they/them)

Experience Contact Improvisation through fundamentals of conditioning, communication, cues and composition.

Contact Improvisation tends to bring up a lot of personal uncertainty: The practice involves generating and recieving stimuli simultaneously, which can be both exhillarating and also overwhelming. This class is designed to support improvisers at all levels of practice in navigating the cognitive load of contact improvisation while also making safe and consensual decisions in dances. We will explore how to read and give cues for possible weight shares and also how to navigate the relational nature of the practice through clear communication and check-ins. We will ask ourselves: Why are we here, engaged in this practice? How does getting in touch with the desires we are able to name help us to make self-aware choices in our dances? How do we grapple with physics across different physicalities in order to engage in nourishing co-creation? This class material is offered early in the festival as a touchstone to return to in moments of overstimulation and overwhelm throughout a week of so much dancing.

Hannah Krafcik is a Portland-based neuroqueer artist. Throughout all their making, they rely on their love of pattern recognition to locate connections, cultivate language and build relationships. Hannah has been taking dance classes since they were five years old as a way to satiate their sensory needs and bodymind curiosities. Sensorial inquiry continues to be a central facet of their work. Their ever-growing list of practices include performance, film photography, new media and arts journalism.
www.hannahkrafcik.com / instagram: @hannahkeliza

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Tuesday, 12:00-1:45

Open Jam & Lunch Break

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Tuesday, 12:30-1:30

Research Sharing and Discussion: Moving in Touch with Palestine

Facilitated by ara oshin (they/them)

somatic pathways into Palestinian solidarity, collective memory, and shared movement

share ideas, experiences, and curiosities on the topic of sensing our interconnection across geographies, histories, and nervous systems through Contact Improvisation -- particularly in connection with Palestine, Palestinian liberation, and collective liberation.

ara oshin will share their ongoing research from their multi-city workshop series Moving in Touch with Gaza: Expanding Engagement Through Contact Improvisation (CI). More info about the workshop can be found here: araoshin.com/withgazaci. Please contact ara to sign up for the next offering of this workshop: araoshinsomatics@gmail.com

ara oshin (they/them) identifies their core teachers as: clay, rivers, trees, and fungi. As a therapeutic somatic facilitator, ara co-creates transformation with individual clients and groups. ara's Cl teachings - influenced by The Feldenkrais Method - offer opportunities to sense CONTACT in new ways. ara loves witnessing the ways this attunement births new possibilities in Cl dances and Cl jams - at home and in other communities where they visit to share their practice. ara co-facilitates Portland's Queer Contact Improv Jams.
araoshin.com

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Tuesday, 2:00-3:30

Breaking Patterns

Taught by Lui (Louis) Gervais (He/Him)

Becoming aware of patterns is the first step.

Our feelings about our bodies, our genders, our personal stories and our values all impact our dancing. In order to avoid uncomfortable vulnerabilities, we build patterns and pathways of movement to keep us safe. Limiting our movement in certain ways and closing off areas of dance exploration. Creating safety systems is not wrong or bad necessarily but over time, we may discover that we have closed off access to creativity, that our dancing begins to fall solely into a safe zones of predictability. In this workshop, we will look at our patterns of movement in contact improvisation and make them conscious. To be able to recognize them while we are dancing gives us the opportunity to challenge ourselves to expand beyond them when we wish.

Lui Gervais is a yogi, dancer, teacher, writer and artist. As a performer, he has appeared with more than 30 companies during his career as a professional dancer. He has collaborated with mask, mime and puppet theatre artists. As a solo artist and yogi, his spiritually inspired one man shows integrate his love of dance, acting and audience participation. Lui teaches intimacy workshops centered in Somatics, Neo-Tantra and creative movement. He is currently a guest teacher for the BodyElectric School.
embodiedinstitute.com

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Tuesday, 4:00-5:30

Intimacy in Motion

Taught by Merrick Jacob (she/her)

Slowing down. Pausing. Listening. Dropping into that epic small dance.

Slowing down. Pausing. Listening. Dropping into that epic small dance. Let’s luxuriate in collective research of s l o w movement to foster deep listening and conversation through the whole body. When we have the chance to slow down, what surprises are revealed? This contact improvisation class will progress with care with an extended exploration in our solo dance, entering into our innate preverbal ways of simply being together to build a strong base for more dynamic dances later in the festival and beyond.

Merrick Jacob is a lover of movement, continuously in awe of the body and its potential for delightful expression, wild creativity, & authentic connection. Influenced by her practices of contact improvisation, figure skating, acroyoga, and hand-balancing, she guides playful movement experiences as an opportunity for deep listening, research, and co-creation. Merrick teaches and organizes contact improvisation across the San Francisco Bay Area. Say hi here: merrickjacob.com
www.merrickjacob.com

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Tuesday, 6:30-8:30

Queer Jam @ New Expressive Works

Facilitated by Hannah Krafcik (they/them)

Exclusively for LGBTQIA2S. Open to all levels. 

$0-10 (is not included in the CI +/- Festival "All-In-Pass").
Located at New Expressive Works: 810 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR 97214.

New Expressive Works is ADA accessible.

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Tuesday, 7:00-9:30

Jam @ SomaSpace

Facilitated by Jacqueline Rubinstein (she/her)

Live music jam. Musician tbd.

Located at SomaSpace: 4050 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232.

SomaSpace is ADA accessible.

Wednesday, 9:00-9:50

Contemplative Dance Practice

Facilitated by Carolyn Stuart (any)

Contemplative Dance Practice is an integration of dance and mindfulness; it was developed by Barbara Dilley. It will be an hour long practice that consists of 3 parts: meditation, personal awareness practice, and open space. The following hour will be Contact Improvisation jam.

CI has taught me that another paradigm exists that supports mutual well-being! It is my life journey to explore that possibility, on and off the dance floor. So far my research spans 40+ years of labbing, teaching, performing in a wide range of settings, peoples and countries. Currently, I am based in Portland, OR offering 4-8 week CI series while dreaming of resuming residential retreats!
https://contactgames.wordpress.com/writing/7-options/

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Wednesday, 10:00-12:00

Teaching and Learning CI: A Co-Created Exploration

Taught by Eric Nordstrom (he/him)

How can we teach CI rooted in relationship and relevance?

How do you teach the dynamic, ever-evolving dance of Contact Improvisation? What makes a CI class truly fulfilling for you as a participant? How can we cultivate a co-created learning space that inherently values diverse voices and experiences?

This class actively explores pedagogical approaches for learning and sharing CI. Recognizing that every student, teacher, and setting is unique, we'll investigate ways to foster a learning environment rooted in relationship and relevance.

Expect ample time for dances, movement explorations, and open discussions—an opportunity to enrich our understanding of teaching, learning, and collectively deepen our connection to this dynamic dance form. All experience levels with CI are welcome.

Eric Nordstrom, a Portland-based dance artist, brings his expertise in contact improvisation to the +/- Fest. Currently teaching at Lewis and Clark College, Eric has also held faculty positions at Portland State University and Portland Community College. He has taught at national and international dance festivals, including Contact Festival Freiburg (Germany) and the Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation. As a performer, Eric has collaborated with esteemed artists like Keith V. Goodman and Karen Nelson, and was a core member of Oslund + Company. His work extends to filmmaking, documenting dance with prominent figures such as Simone Forti. Eric's film, ""MovingHistory: Portland Contemporary Dance Past and Present"", has been widely screened, and he partnered with Portland State University to establish the Portland Dance Archives. Eric holds an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University.
www.eric-nordstrom.com

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Wednesday, 12:00-1:45

Open Jam & Lunch Break

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Wednesday, 12:30-1:30

Discussion: Ableism & Internalized Ableism in CI +\- Spaces

Facilitated by Lisa Wells (Any) & Monel Chang (all pronouns)

A facilitated discussion of how ableism impacts our dance spaces.

During this hour we will gather to explore how ableism impacts our personal dance and the culture of contact improvisation. This is especially poignant given that the Village Ballroom is not an accessible space.

Lisa Wells has practiced CI for 25 years. She occasionally performs site specific movement improvisations as the world calls her. She has trained as a DanceAbility™ instructor and lives with ovarian cancer. Monel Chang (all pronouns) is a naturopathic doctor, movement educator, and performance artist who has been teaching contact improvisation since 2012. Monel has taught contact improvisation in the US, Korea, Greece, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Their movement practices are informed by Authentic Movement, Continuum Movement, Body-Mind Centering, theatrical clown, and non-violent communication.

Monel Chang (all pronouns) is a naturopathic doctor, movement educator, and performance artist who has been teaching contact improvisation since 2012. Monel has taught contact improvisation in the US, Korea, Greece, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Their movement practices are informed by Authentic Movement, Continuum Movement, Body-Mind Centering, theatrical clown, and non-violent communication.

http://www.somaticmedic.com

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Wednesday, 2:00-3:30

Action Theater: Embodied Imagination

Taught by Mary Rose (she/they & Nathaniel Holder (he/him)

Introduction to Action Theater, including the integration of Contact Improv

For movers who want to talk, and talkers who want to move. Through physical, vocal and verbal games, we tune in to the body's inherent connection with imagination, creating improvisations that are alive with truth and oddities of being.

Mary Rose (she/they) and Nathaniel Holder (he/him) are long-time teaching and performing collaborators with shared practices in Contact Improvisation as well as Action Theater improvisation. Action Theater has its roots in physical theater, dance, and meditation. Through tuning in to sensory experience, practitioners hone awareness of the moment and respond with movement, sounding, and speech, tapping into the body’s deep conversation with the imagination. Over the past year they have been exploring the cross sections between these two favorite practices and are excited to share what they are discovering with participants in the festival. Mary has been
https://portlandactiontheater.com

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Wednesday, 4:00-5:30

Trauma-informed Contact Improvisation

Taught by Monel Chang (all)

Blending playful movement, consent, and emotional awareness

Explore boundaries, and nonverbal communication through guided improv. Build trust, resilience, and connection in a supportive space where every “yes,” & “not yet,” is honored. Building awareness of how trauma can affect the body and mind.

Monel Chang (all pronouns) is a naturopathic doctor, movement educator, and performance artist who has been teaching contact improvisation since 2012. Monel has taught contact improvisation in the US, Korea, Greece, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Their movement practices are informed by Authentic Movement, Continuum Movement, Body-Mind Centering, theatrical clown, and non-violent communication.
http://www.somaticmedic.com

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Wednesday, 7:00-10:00

Dance Party Pop Jam

Taught by Kat Freya (she/her)

Contact improv jam meets the disco?!

Not your regular contact jam! We’ll begin our practice with a grounding movement meditation, connecting first to ourselves, our bodies, and the floor. This flow will transform into a dance party jam session -- a Sweat-It-Roll-It-Dance-It-All-Out celebration! Come for the dance vibes, stay for the fun tunes!

Things to Note:

✨ This practice provides a hint more structure than a CI jam, and a hint less structure than a workshop/class.

✨ You might sweat!

✨ You might say, Oh my gosh how did this very grounded movement meditation transform into such a hopping and bopping vibe?

✨ We’ll start promptly at 6:30pm with an opening circle... (tbc see note below)


(NOTE TO CI TEAM - will there be a door person? If not, we will need to note the door will lock at 6:30 people and folks WILL NOT be able to trickle in afterward. If there is somebody working the door, they folks can come afterward. I'd like this to be clarified in the description).

Kat Freya is an artist, dancer, writer, and embodiment facilitator. After sixteen years of training as a ballet dancer, she dyed her hair purple and moved to Paris, where she lived for five years. During her time in France, she worked as an au pair, studied at Parsons Paris | The New School, graduated summa cum laude, and participated in several exhibitions and performances, including a solo exhibition on the intersection of purity culture and pop culture. Since returning to her native Portland in 2022, Kat co-founded Peace Tree Collective along with Maile Crowder and Alicia Ralls, an artist-run organization centered on healing from grief through community and creativity. Her current work integrates her decade-long practices of yoga, Pilates, and somatics, offering weekly classes and private lessons at studios around town. Most excitingly, she has started a unique Embodied Artistry Coaching offering, serving creatives who seek to become more embodied in their creativity and lives. Learn more about working with Kat on her website, www.katfreya.com, and connect with her on Instagram at @freyafleurs.
@freyafleurs

Thursday, 9:00-9:50

Experiments in Sensing: Miracles in Movement with ara oshin 

Taught by ara oshin (they/them)

Contact as threshold: sensing, mystery, and movement

we will practice deepening our attunement to the dimensions of CONTACT through guided practice influenced by the Feldenkrais Method.

We’ll layer this expanded sphere of felt-sensing with shared visceral-imaginal scores inviting possibilities of MIRACLES in Contact Improvisation dances with a range of partners.

together, we research: our movements and felt sense within the forces of mystery, aliveness, truth, and potentiality — i.e the miraculous — as refuge and refusal. there is healing at the threshold.

ara oshin (they/them) identifies their core teachers as: clay, rivers, trees, and fungi.  As a therapeutic somatic facilitator,  ara co-creates transformation with individual clients and groups. ara's Cl teachings - influenced by The Feldenkrais Method - offer opportunities to sense CONTACT in new ways.  ara loves witnessing the ways this attunement births new possibilities in Cl dances and Cl jams - at home and in other communities where they visit to share their practice. ara co-facilitates Portland's Queer Contact Improv Jams.
araoshin.com

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Thursday, 10:00-12:00

Listening Instinct

Taught by Tracy Broyles (she/her)

Relational listening and clear transmitting is explored through meditations and movement as we play with refining our whole body communication.

Relational listening and clear transmitting are explored through meditation and movement as we play with refining our whole body communication. When we dance we are constantly listening, broadcasting, and responding through multiple senses. How do we choose when to lean in, when to pull back? Whether to meet a moment with strength or softness? We experiment with tools to widen our field of choice in a relational dance (conversation, experience, life.) We practice listening through our whole body and energy field, like the sentient and animal beings we are.

Tracy Broyles is an embodiment facilitator, somatic therapist, dancer, energy worker, writer, artist, and storyteller. She is endlessly curious about how the unseen intangible world of energy, emotion, the psyche, and the mystic braid into our tangible embodied reality. She has lived, created, and played in the Pacific Northwest for many years.
tracybroyles.com

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Thursday, 12:00-1:45

Open Jam & Lunch Break

Jam Music: SUNHiVE

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Thursday, 2:00-3:30

do as you wish

Taught by stuart phillips (he)

we delve into honoring where we are in relation

as we honor our being, we relate through energetically attuned gestures in duet to enhance our resolutory process, guidance supports inner reality

stuart phillips teaches ci worldwide for over 40 yrs w/deep focus on inner healing
stulips.org

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Thursday, 4:00-5:30

Contact in The Viewpoints

Taught by Isabel McTighe (they/them)

Intro to The Viewpoints! Flow, ensemble, listening and play.

This class explores entering and exiting contact, non-verbal consent and group listening, through the lense of The Viewpoints Method. Developed by choreographer Mary Overlie and stewarded by Anne Bogart and the SITI company, The Viewpoints Method is a language to talk about movement as well as a way to practice being together in time and space. We’ll spend this class getting familiar with some basics of the practice (moving through space together, listening as an ensemble and following impulse) with a particular eye toward contact and consent. Through conversation and embodied practice, the group will research what listening and communication feel like in primarily non-verbal, improvisational spaces.

Isabel Strongheart McTighe is a performance artist and facilitator specializing in collaboration and devised theatre. They hold a BA in Theatre with a distinction in Performance from Lewis and Clark College and are a graduate of PETE’s Institute for Contemporary Performance and the SITI Company’s Skidmore Summer Intensive. Isabel’s work is rooted in emergent strategy and a daily practice of community care. Recent directing credits include, Big League Chew (PETE’s a/void/fest), Certain Death and Other Considerations (Edinburgh Fringe, Echo Theatre Company L.A.), I’m In Control Which Means Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Me (PETE Presents) and La Mariposa (Many Hats Collaboration, The Hatchery). Performance credits include The Lovers (PETE’s a/void/fest), I Think of You: Illuminating Mass Incarceration from the Inside Out (Lewis and Clark College and PCS) and spur(s) (Shaking the Tree, Open Space Residency). Isabel’s solo performance work has been produced by ICP and The Verdancy Project.
https://www.petensemble.org/class/viewpointssuzuki-intensive

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Thursday, 7:00-10:00

Jam @ Baker Building

Facilitated by Kris Young (he/him)

Open to all levels. This jam begins with an all levels warmup

Located at the Baker Building: 5511 N Albina Ave, Portland, OR 97217

Baker Building is not wheelchair accessible. The jam is held on the 2nd floor and only accessible by stairs. The stairs are 6 feet wide with handrails on each side.

Friday, 9:00-9:50

We All Fall Down

Taught by Kris Young (He / Him)

Falling isn't what hurts us, it's landing badly...

Falling isn't what hurts us, it's landing badly. Guided by patience & curiosity, we will intentionally slip and fall repeatedly! By sliding and rolling instead of bracing we will begin retraining ourselves to have smoother, safer landings.

In time, when we fall we'll meet the ground gracefully without needing to be conscious of our process.

Join us in this playful exploration as we redefine our relationship with gravity and embrace the dance between ourselves and the earth.

""Kris has been dancing Contact improve for 18 years, primarily on the West Coast (Portland , Seattle, San Francisco, & Boulder). Before finding Contact he struggled though Ballroom classes, and did Capoeira. Both his teaching and dance styles center on an understanding of basic concepts while choosing not to be unnecessarily limited or weighed down by them. From that starting lace he trains muscle memory, and listens for cues to initiate unlikely explorations like last years Octopus inspired workshop. He co-facilitates the Thursday Night Contact Jam at the Baker Building, and is an active member of the Drip and Nectar Fusion communities""
www.pdxCI.org

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Friday, 10:00-12:00

The Sneaky Deep Way of Interconnection

Taught by Xanne Kozuki (they/them)

Experience ways to connect via movement, voice, storytelling and stillness.

Movement, voice, storytelling and stillness--these four healing salves are our human birthright. The expressive art form of Sneaky Deep Play is a community building tool offering authentic connections through creative play and self-expression employing the four healing salves as the medium. In surprising, fluid ways the play forms support individuals to break down barriers/walls of perceived differences and connect with each other's humanity.

Sneaky Deep Play consists of play forms that is done individually, with partners, in small groups and in front of the entire group. Some play forms could involve contact-the facilitator will announce when contact is involved in order to give participants the option to modify or opt out.

Xanne Kozuki, aka Uname, (they/them) is the founder of Sneaky Deep Collective, whose mission is to ignite social change through play. Born and raised in Hawaii, they developed a passion for multiculturalism, which led them to a path of majoring in Intercultural Communication. After dedicating the past 20 years of raising two children with special needs, they are excited to be in a position of having the time and energy to apply their passion of building authentic connection and community.
https://sneakydeepcollective.com

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Friday, 12:00-1:45

Open Jam & Lunch Break

Jam Music: Eric Harod

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Friday, 2:00-3:30

Triaxial Trajectories: Axis Syllabus and Contact Improvisation class

Taught by Emily Jones (she/they)

spirals, arcs, curves, gravity, suspension, flight

In this class, we will play with the spirals, arcs, and curves inherent to our bodies in motion. We will consider how utilizing these pathways helps us find and offer support, whether dancing solo or with others. We will explore how patterns that spiral, arc, and curve open up possibilities for being in a more easeful relationship with gravity and prompt opportunities for suspension, loft, and flight.

Emily Jones is a dancer, choreographer, movement teacher, and bodyworker based in Portland, OR. Emily’s work emerges from sensitivity and intuition; she enjoys collaborating with other artists, admiring how their sensibilities bring nuance and varied perspectives. Emily is part of a long-term artistic collaboration with Hannah Krafcik. Their work together has taken on various forms, including dance, video, sound, sculpture, and writing. Emily and Hannah’s work has been presented by New Expressive Works (Portland, OR), Art Klub NOLA (New Orleans, LA), Pieter Performance Space (Los Angeles, CA), Performance Works NW (Portland, OR), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), KH Fresh Festival (San Francisco, CA), Paragon Arts Gallery (Portland, OR), and Velocity (Seattle, WA). Emily also facilitates contact improv jams, teaches, and performs with the Queer Contact Improvisation Cohort: ara oshin, Hannah Krafcik, Leland Hull, Robin Ekeya, and Quinn Gumbiner. Emily is a certified Axis Syllabus teacher and teaches dance classes from this lens locally and nationally.
www.emilyannejones.com / IG: @emulyjones

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Friday, 4:00-5:30

Floorwork (Open Level)

Taught by Kenny Frechette (they/he)

Finding ways to dance our dances with the floor.

Floorwork is learning to move into, across, and out of the floor with intention and clarity as we dance. In this class we'll explore foundational tools that allow us to embody pathways horizontally and at low-mid levels. We'll workshop transitions that take us from standing to seated / laying down and vice-versa. Short sequences will invite us to piece these things together to find continuity in our floor-dance. Class ends with improvisation to play with and integrate our work together. *Long sleeves, pants, and kneepads recommended.

Kenny is an independent dance & performing artist, teacher, and choreographer based in Portland, OR since 2021. They have trained and engaged with dance/movement/arts communities across several cities in the US as well as in Europe. Their most recent projects include creation of a solo in residency at New Expressive Works, dance films/festivals, and experimental theatre. Kenny is deeply passionate about community practice and you can find him teaching dance at various dance/arts organizations around PDX.
IG: @k__e__n__n__y__ || www.kennyfrechette.com

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Friday, 7:00-10:00

Performance & Open Jam @ Village Ballroom

Facilitated by Mary Rose (she/they)

Short performances followed by a final open jam.

Teachers and participants will share original performances. Signups will be made available during the festival.