courage – trust – surrender:
Following through
Where does my dance lead me to when I give full commitment to gravity and to the movement flow? How does a lift feel like that moves both of us through space instead of simply bringing my partner straight up and down again? How can I find the trust to follow my partner unquestionably?
Following through is one of the core principals of Contact Improvisation – this is what I found in the last years of dancing, exploring and teaching this form. As following through is something very active it goes fare beyond of just letting the dance happen. To follow my own movement impulses, gravity and my partners dance I have to be absolutely present and to develop the ability to change the direction of my movement at any split second. Moving in this way will bring me inevitably into the very here-and-now – and the dance evolving from there may be very wild and fast or almost not visible from the outside.
In this workshop we will explore Contact Improvisation under the aspect of following through as well on the level of movement technique as from the improvisational point of view. This can be very demanding and liberating at the same time! You will need to find your trust, surrender and sometimes also your courage to follow the offered material, but over the time – hopefully when the workshop will end at the latest – you will discover more and more the big freedom, the excitement and the grace coming from the principal of following through.
We will work on movement principles, contact skills and – very important – on deepening our ability to perceive our body, the space and the partners movement. Improvisation scores and bodywork will round off our work in movement. There will be space for free dancing, verbal exchange and for silence to get a deeper understanding of this dance form and to integrate the new material in your own dancing.
Adrian Russi
Adrian Russi is one of the leading CI teachers in Switzerland and travels all over Europe to teach and perform Contact and Free Improvisation. He has been deeply involved in CI since 1992 and since then has dedicated the greatest part of his life to this wonderful dance form.
After studying Modern Dance at “bewegungs-art” in Freiburg/Germany he continued his education with many different teachers, including Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith who had started to develop CI in the early 1970s with a group of other dancers.
He offers his work as a freelancer to a wide range of people and also regularly gets invited to teach in schools. In his teaching he focuses on the technical aspects of CI (ease, precision and strength) as well as on matters of perception (sensation, connection of inner and outer space, of bottom and top) and on a creativity coming from a distinct body-awareness. For him the pleasure of play, of deep engagement in dance, and respect for others are the basis for gaining the best possible experience from dancing CI.
As a performer he works with many different international artists and his performances are primarily based on Free Improvisation incorporating Contact Improvisation, dance, dance-theatre, voice and live music. In 2007 he initiated “Moving Men”, a men’s trio with Charlie Morrissey and Jacky Miredin touring with their performance work all over Europe.
As an organizer of CI-events he is involved in many festivals, jams and teachers meetings, including the “Moscow Contact and Performance Festival”.
