A workshop with visiting artist, Taja Will, June 3rd & 4th at The Whole Shebang in South Philly

This workshop will introduce or remind participants of foundational embodied landmarks in a Contact Improvisation language. We’ll use hands-on methods to trace energetic and physical lines of awareness from the scapula to the fingertips and the sacrum to the toes. We’ll hold the volume of the torso, side to side, and the weight of the skull. Together we’ll support each other to yield into backspace and side-to-side lateral planes. We do this to counterbalance the many forward facing, visually-centered daily choreographies of contemporary life and work.

Thursdays in June with Nicole Bindler in West Philly

These classes will explore five body systems: endocrine, nervous, immune, organs, and fascia through anatomical study, guided somatic meditations, hands-on partnering, yoga, and movement improvisation. All levels of experience are welcome! Send a message for times and location information.

Sundays in June with Nicole Bindler at Headlong Studios in South Philly

This summer the CI-Philly organizing team will be running a class/jam combo event on Sundays from 4:00 - 7:00pm with rotating teachers and facilitators. Nicole will be teaching on June 18th, July 9th, July 23rd, and August 6th. Each of these classes will focus on one weight-sharing/partnering skill, and one CI ensemble skill to lead us into jamming with an awareness of the whole group.

June 23rd at 8pm at Studio 34 in West Philly

Blood, Sea is an improvised dance & music duo with Julius Masri. The title is drawn from the writing of Italo Calvino. His short story Blood, Sea refers to the balance of salinity in our blood and in the ocean from which we humans evolved: “Bathed by the primordial wave which continues to flow in the arteries, our blood in fact has a chemical composition analogous to that of the sea of our origins.” As we evolved into terrestrial beings, we brought the sea inside of us onto land.

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We began the creation process in 2017 in collaboration with students from Drexel University through the Ellen Forman Memorial Award. We further developed the work in 2018 with a cast of fifteen Philadelphia-based performers over a year-long rehearsal process during which we explored the organs and systems that contain or are impacted by blood, such as the endocrine and immune systems, and the liver, spleen, heart, etc. Julius and Nicole reunite five years later to perform our duo version of this work.