Contact improvisation: Lifting and Flying | Pedro Penuela

Contact Improvisation is a dance form started in 1972 by Steve Paxton and other dancers. It proposes an improvised dialogue between bodies through touch, focusing on physical elements such as gravity, leverages, momentum, friction, centripetal and centrifugal forces, spirals, among others, that provide many possibilities for exploring and improvising.

In this workshop we will work on skills, techniques and forms that help us to access movements usually known as lifts and flights. The class will range from topics such as: . Training and widening attention, . Stretching body and perception, . Tuning to the reflex intelligence in the body and to the other's body and the quality of each meeting, . Alignment and architecture of support for weight exchange, . Connection with the ground and gravity, . Forms that teach the body important skills when "flying", . Feeling and getting awareness of the center of gravity and it's role in CI . Use of momentum, leverages and centripetal forces.

The workshop is for people with a good level of experience in Contact Improvisation and/or dance and acrobatic forms.

The class will be taught in English

Price: 30€

The teacher

Pedro Penuela is a dancer, psychologist and PhD in performing arts from Brazil. In his PhD he researched forms of presence in the works of Steve Paxton, Pina Bausch and Kazuo Ohno, having had the opportunity of interviewing Paxton twice. He has been dancing and practicing Contact Improvisation since 2006, having studied with many different teachers such as Nita Little, Ray Chung, Daniel Lepkoff, Otto Ramstad, Lisa Nelson, and many others from different countries. Pedro has given workshops and classes in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Greece and Israel. Website: http://pedropenuelaeng.wordpress.com