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.
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, 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 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 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 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.