Why do we do this...?
Because we love to move.
Because we want to create spaces where we can sense our whole selves, and
our selves as part of a larger whole.
To create environments where we are so rapt with the intricate unfolding,
that questions about who we 'should be' or what we 'should do',
simply fall away...
...where we seem to have found ourselves to be more alive than we thought
was possible...
...as if we forgot we could take up this much space, until again, suddenly we had room to move.
What has been said...
About Contact Classes:
"The next day I noticed my voice was more resonant. I attribute this to being flattened by human steam-rollers. :-)"
"Yesterday's contact class was splendid! I find that contact seems like a fusion of movement/dance and therapy/energy healing through the contact."
About The KW MOOV:
"Woken up!"
"I felt freed up and able to wheel around the room, enjoying the a freedom of expression."
"I appreciate your understanding of the elements, the 3rd force and our loop of choice within that. It's great that you have this whole thing humming along - I look forward to being on that floor again soon."
About Workshops:
"People LOVED the contact dance..they were talking about
it for hours afterwards...it was such a wonderful experience. I know people
are interested in doing more of it :) Thank you once again for a great workshop!"
Margarita Osipian, Organizer of Love Your Body Week and Coordinator UW Women's
Centre
"I feel like I really got out of my head and completely into
my body, and just felt so chilled out afterwards. I really liked the progression
you moved us through- from stillness to movement and from solitude to community
with the rest of the group."
Leena Miller, Workshop Participant
"I appreciated your sensitivity. You gently invited me to explore." Carousel Workshop
"LOVED the ASK workshop! It got me out from behind the comfort zone of my djembe and onto the dance floor! Very liberating!!"
Two Letters from David Trinh, International Swing Dance Instructor and Performer
Hello Tanya,
Thank you for a wonderful class tonight, I enjoyed it a lot and hope to see more of your classes in our dance scene.
I believe what you are teaching is very valuable to anyone who really wants to learn 'how' to dance not what to dance. As I have already told you, I am an active member in the Lindyhop community, not only here but in Toronto and surround areas.
Thank you so much for contributing to the community, I hope to see you soon.
David Trinh
To the Social Dance Community,
I took the intro to contact dance last Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Get away from the details of counts and the music and go back into the roots of body movements and connection.
Steven and Virgine talked about relationships to the floor last summer when they were in Toronto during their musicality class. Here's a chance to really focus on that relationship through a series of exercises.
I hope to take more of these classes and encourage those who wish to explore raw body movements to try it out. I am sure this will help inspire you to do more in your social dancing.
David Trinh
Feb. 14/06 'What is it to be pining away from the norm?' : A Poem
to topBattle shots gone strangely silent;
A body can no longer acclaim the hold of the trench.
All eeriness bound to his crouched position of ever so long--
This closed off the fountain of the gentle, searching gaze he scarcely
Understood that he craved.
What would it take to freshen his expectation,
To curate the muscles which might yet be
Fletched forward in the course of sheer curiosity?
Could his ear conceive that all shouts in the external were not
To check his impulses in their fluttering state,
He might be surprised, charmed to detect
The warmth, privilege endowed without care by
The land others didn't think twice to call home.Phil Klassen
Who are the "Friends of the Floor"
The Friends of the Floor are an evolving group of contact improvisers from Kitchener and Toronto, who practice this form of dynamic, non-verbal communication regularly in "contact jams". They have been meeting to explore how they can more consciously incorporate their thoughts, feelings and desires into the dance.
The Friends of the Floor Dance-Theatre is a part of The Collaboratory.
The Collaboratory is a focus of community, events, resources and action drawing
together people interested in learning the perspectives, skills and tools
of collaboration. We see collaboration as taking creative action together,
while nurturing trust of ourselves and others as creative learners in an interdependent
world. Read about the LRC (Living Room Context) and early steps in the Collaboratory
here, we'll have our own page
for the big LRC soon ; ).
Tanya Williams
Tanya Williams, a graduate of Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo, has been integrating systems consciousness with creative expression for 15 years. She has a passion for consciously creating spaces with others that inspire our learning together through awareness and dialogue bringing our world closer to our heart's desire. She has been facilitating & performing improv dance & theatre for over 10 years and draws on her experience in physical theatre, forum and environmental theatre, movement and sound improvisation, choreography, modern dance, aikido, contact improvisation and Alexander Technique movement education. She has performed in such venues as the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists and the Festival of Interactive Physics. Her adventures have found her creating environmental dance on the shores of Ireland and in the canyons of Utah, and creating collaborative community theatre on school buses, in ruined mills, malls, and inner city alleyways. More recently, she performs with The MT Space, Friends of the Floor in Kitchener, and Art Rodeo in Toronto.
Nicholas Cumming
Nicholas Cumming has a BA in Drama and English from the University of Waterloo. He is an original member of The MT Space (www.mtspace.ca). He has been spotted acting in Pinteresque : Exit Strategy, Yes or No, Legion of Memory, The Other End of the Line, Me Here/Me Happy, Motio X Industria, Season of Immigration to the West, and Three Legged Horse with The MT Space; Mimetic Flesh & Mimetic Hotel, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Spring Awakening with UW Drama. He is developing his playwriting with Pat the Dog (www.patthedog.org), KW's recently formed playwrights collective (Look out for Psy Co.'s Cross , Cycle 0, and Capsule). Directing credits include two of his plays : The Children's Crusade and HE.He is also performing several characters on the adult-oriented web puppet show dotBoom (www.dotboom.ca). He discovered contact dance many years ago in a workshop with Kaeja d'Dance but has only recently rediscovered it with a fiery passion. He hopes to continue exploring personal and performance dance with Friends of the Floor.
Ron Schweitzer
Ron Schweitzer has been improvising with sound for as long as he can remember. He enjoys creating instruments out of whatever he can find, and plays a host of the more and less familiar ones. He also creates and inhabits puppets from time to time. He is a co-founder of the Festival of Possibilities and performs with Friends of the Floor and De Capo Vocal Ensemble.
Emma Manchester
Emma Manchester creates magical creatures and things out of fabric, paper, paint and papier-mache. She is a weaver of tales, an animator of found objects, and a facilitator of mutual, creative learning. She has been a practicing contact improvisation for two years, and recently performed in The Vagina Monologues at the University of Waterloo.
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