Save the date for a day of improv-focused classes! More details and registration coming soon.
12:45pm–2pm: Contemplative Dance Practice / dominik carl lee
2:15–3:45pm: TBA / Shura Baryshnikov
4–5:30pm: Resonant Action / Angie Hauser & Chris Aiken
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:
12:45pm–2pm: Contemplative Dance Practice / dominik carl lee
CDP is an hour-long community practice that combines meditation and movement, created by Barbara Dilley. Bring a blanket, yoga mat, and your own cushions to support your meditation practice. When you arrive, arrange your cushions around the edges of the space. This is generally a non-verbal practice; please become familiar with the following score before you arrive (or don't, and feel the wonder of it all!).
20 minutes—Meditation: Use any of the four noble postures: seated, standing, lying, walking.
20 minutes—Personal Awareness Practice: Could be considered personal warm-up; you are listening to your body and letting the body lead. You could be near your cushion or anywhere in the space; writing and singing are also possible. You could bring an instrument and play it, too.
20 minutes—Shared Open Dancing: Sense of community; short bow to enter and to exit the space; it's practice not performance.
A few final moments of sitting, and ding, ding, ding, ding.... group bows together to close.
domenik carl lee (he/they) works with light, time, movement, soil, and seeds to explore life and understand relationships. They were first introduced to CDP by Kellie Ann Lynch at the Bates Dance Festival in 2016. He deepened his practice through many sessions with Nancy Stark Smith and fellow practitioners in and around Florence, MA. Throughout the COVID pandemic lockdown, they held a digital space for the practice, eventually returning to IRL sessions in Rhode Island public spaces, including the Slater Mill National Historic Monument and the Temple to Music at Roger Williams Park. There are three sessions remaining at Roger Williams Park for 2025; visit dandylionmedia.com/dancing for more information.
2:15pm–3:45pm: TBA / Shura Baryshnikov
Coming soon!
4pm–5:30pm: Resonant Action / Angie Hauser & Chris Aiken
We will explore what becomes possible when our actions arise from listening, observing, and resonating with what is inside, outside, and between us. We will consider how becoming attuned to one's ecological context not only creates sources of inspiration but also builds confidence that comes from feeling oriented. This is a class for those who want to awaken connections between composition, feeling, and movement research.
Chris Aiken is an internationally recognized performer and teacher of dance improvisation and contact improvisation. His approach has been guided by the effort to link one’s poetic sensibilities with the capacity to engage ecologically through perception, action, and imagination. In this sense, ecology includes the self and others, non-human beings, and the world. It also includes culture and human artifacts. Chris has performed and collaborated with many renowned dance artists, including Angie Hauser, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung, Patrick Scully, Olivier Besson, and Steve Paxton. His work has been shaped by years of practice in the Alexander Technique, Gyrokinesis, ideokinesis, yoga, and fascial bodywork and movement training. He is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance at Smith College.
Angie Hauser is a “Bessie” Award-winning performer, choreographer, and director with training in modern and postmodern dance, ballet, and contact improvisation. Angie Hauser’s research focuses on the creation and performance of dances for the stage, and it is grounded in the interrogation and practice of movement, improvisation, and collaboration. Hauser is a long-time collaborator with the celebrated Bebe Miller Company. For over 20 years, Hauser has created collaborative multidisciplinary performances with dance artist Chris Aiken. They have toured their work and teaching extensively throughout the US and abroad, including iDance (Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan), Contact Festival Freiburg. She is a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she directs the Graduate Program in Dance.