Let’s Dance Ian!! Updated October 23 2020 – Mis à jour le 23 octobre 2020
Let’s Dance Ian!!
The best way to read this message is using the Newsletter Web Version that is updated mid-week. Click on your favourite events in the Table of Contents. – Ian! D. Allen
Local News:
Avoid Pandemic Panic this winter by thinking like a Norwegian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/26/dreading-a-dark-winter-lockdown-think-like-a-norwegian
There are no official Friday Strathcona Park events scheduled due to the increase in infection risk in the Ottawa/Gatineau area. See Ottawa Public Health.
There are some other outdoor in-person dance/movement events happening in the region. Check out the links below.
Ottawa Public Health says be W.I.S.E.:
The links to images on the facebook may be broken in this newsletter. They must have changed their policy on access, so at some point I’ll have to go through the newsletter and delete all the facebook references. Event organizers: please ensure you have a non-facebook web site with images to which I can link for your event.
Dancers who pursue graceful movement must practice being aware of their bodies and being aware of wordless communication. These skills are particularly important today, when we spend so much time sitting and in virtual realities. Our way of life has taken us further from our own physical experiences and the understanding of the wordless emotional messages of others. For example, contact improvisation makes the dancers listen attentively to the body of their partner. Touch is known to reduce pain, fear and anxiety. – Hanna Poikonen
Events in the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
Events that recur weekly or monthly show only the nearest upcoming event or two. Follow the link for future events.
There are no official Friday Strathcona Park events scheduled due to the increase in infection risk in the Ottawa/Gatineau area. See Ottawa Public Health.
See the Dance to Nature group on the facebook or contact Alana O’Donnell for more information.
On the Web:
On the facebook:
The events in this section happen next year.
The Global Underscore long-form Contact Improv Dance Jam takes place for four hours simultaneously, world-wide in June in 2021. (Contact the organizers for the date.) Follow the link for a location near you. We have no Underscore practice in Ottawa, alas, but we might have a regular dance jam on Saturday and you can find events in other communities on the facebook Global Underscore page.
The Underscore is a long-form dance improvisation structure developed by Nancy Stark Smith. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe.
The Underscore is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational dance practice; for developing greater ease dancing in spherical space—alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. It allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expressions, embodying a range of forms and changing states. Its practice is familiar yet unpredictable.
The practice—usually 3 to 4 hours in length—progresses through a broad range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity and other times of higher energy and interactive dancing.
Events outside the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
This workshop is for dancers who didn’t know they could write, writers who didn’t know they could dance, and the generally curious who are open to unfolding.
One participant describes ReMix in terms of a “creative colaboratory.” I’m really excited by this online work. It offers deep presence and insight, as well as pragmatic techniques for unseating habits of (or blocks to) apprehension and creativity. Using the core movement resources from Open Floor’s movement curriculum, the exercises developed for ReMix build creative and emotional intelligence through basic embodied practices. All of this weaves into a beautiful dance of unfolding, building, and exploring of meaning and meaninglessness in the spaces between: the inter-media of technology, language, and communication. I really hope you can join me in this play of being and becoming. The two halves of ReMix, 1 and 2, are running back to back, taking us right to December, and I’m offering a 10% discount at check out to anyone signing up for the whole ten weeks.
Each five-week series is a closed group capped at 16 participants.
What’s in the ReMix? Physical movement loosens rigidity and tightness, and thus supports creativity and inspiration. Participants are surprised at the prolific material and available depth that emerge in this combination. I am fascinated by both emergent meaning and story. My approach for these series is grounded in select theories of language, meaning, and psychoanalysis. While I share that material, the intellectual dive is not necessary to what we do in the class. We will explore language at the level of sensation both separate from, and as well as, at the levels of sense and meaning. Our words reinvest and support physical exploration. In the mix, we both develop and differentiate story from sensation, one of the four fundamental differentiations that support and enable mindful presence.
Together, we will explore:
We cover each topic over the course of two classes: the first is based in exploration and includes homework during the week; the second revisits the material through sharing and, at times, extending the previous week’s homework work. Each topic is balanced between writing and sharing on the one hand, and moving on the other. In every class, expect time to arrive, and time to warm up physically and creatively. We do a movement exercise and a writing exercise, with time to settle the exploration, and then continue each practice during the week with a small amount of homework.
ReMix conforms to Open Floor International’s Art in Motion stream. Our aim is to build both emotional and creative intelligence through a combination of movement and writing. We engage with process as well as product in order to move with the mover, the maker, the editor, and the inner critic.
Contact Majero Bouman
No Montreal Jam this year. Maybe next year?
The 38th Annual Montréal International Contact Improv Jam may take place some time in late 2021. Nearly 200 dancers participate from across Canada and the USA.
Contact the organizers for the exact date of the CI dance jam.
The ACI’s most prized event: Montréal’s Annual Contact Improvisation Dance Jam. This annual dance jam usually takes place in November, and is jam-packed with great warm-ups and a beginner class, lots of open jamming, great food, a show and dance. Don’t miss it!!
Please bring your own re-usable mug, cutlery, and dishes, if possible.
This event has been postponed.
The events in this section may happen in 2021. Check back closer to the event
Enjoy dance, movement, and community at the The Dance New England annual Summer Dance Camp. in Massachusetts in August 2021. See the previous 2019 Camp Schedule to see the kind of workshops that may take place in the 2021 camp. Child and family friendly; free child care available much of the day. (This location is only partially wheelchair accessible.)
Dance New England (DNE) is a creative collective of individuals who love to dance, as well as a consortium of cooperatively-run, not-for-profit freestyle barefoot dances in the New England area. DNE members are also actively involved in creating and running other freestyle barefoot, cooperative dances in New England and elsewhere. DNE events include our annual summer camp, and a few weekends throughout the year hosted and produced by our member dances.
Recurring Events outside the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
I don’t know if these events are now happening online. Contact the organizers.
Groove Tonic PEC hosts a weekly barefoot, free-form movement and dance event in Picton.
We meet every Wednesday evening from 7–9:00 pm for barefoot, free-form movement and and dance. All are welcome! Wear comfortable clothing, bring water to keep hydrated and a $5 donation to cover the cost of the space. Groove Tonic happens at the Picton Town Hall, 2nd floor above the old firehall (2 Ross St, at King St).
Contact Arsalan Ahmad for details on what’s happening around Contact Improvisation Dance in Peterborough, Ontario. (For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact Arsalan.)
For other Peterborough dance events, e.g. Ecstatic Dance, see Dance Your Bones
DYB’s purpose is to offer an Ecstatic Dance movement practice in an accessible, respectful and safe environment.
Each Thursday evening, we dance together in a beautiful church hall for 90 minutes without interruption. The music varies weekly depending on the dj. We try to use an interesting blend of world music, pop, blues and even classical.
Dance and celebrate – Danser, se rassembler, célébrer, s’émerveiller …
Classes in Biodanza and Authentic Movement in and near Montréal with Catherine Fabiola Lessard
Dance and celebrate – Danser, se rassembler, célébrer, s’émerveiller …
Classes in Biodanza and Authentic Movement in and near Montréal with Catherine Fabiola Lessard
Freeing the Creative Spirit Teaching people to experience the pulsating sensual energy inside them and awakening their connection to flowing breath, rooted feet and a centered alive pelvis – reach up, root down, live in the heart center. Visit http://www.erik.iversen.ca/ or http://www.5rhythms.com/teachers/Erik+Iversen or contact Erik Iversen for more information. (For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact Erik.)
Dance a weekly Thursday night 5Rhythms class with Lynne Adams in Montréal. (For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact Lynne.)
Contact Improvisation de la ville de Québec
Bienvenue à tous. Les jams de Contact improvisation seront annoncés dans le groupe par le biais d’évènements. Consultez la publication épinglée pour plus d’information.
Classes are facilitated in French (with possible English translation on request): Biodanza Sherbrooke: français and Sherbrook Biodanza: English
Ian! D. Allen via idallen@idallen.ca
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Prepared by:
| Ian! D. Allen, BA, MMath - idallen@idallen.ca - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| Home: www.idallen.com Contact Improvisation Dance: www.contactimprov.ca
| Former college professor (Free/Libre GNU+Linux) at: teaching.idallen.com
| Defend digital freedom: http://eff.org/ and have fun: http://fools.ca/
