Classes and Workshops:
The Tonal Continuum in CI
West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam (wcciJAM) July 2-6, 2025 at the Berkeley Finnish Hall
"Tone is the readiness to move" - Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
In Contact Improvisation our physical tone is ever-shifting and adapting to our changing environments - a partner's body, the quality of touch, the direction of gravity...as well as our personal histories, movement patterns, sensations and feelings. In this session we'll explore some strategies for balancing tone, working with intentional touch, developmental movement patterns and reflexes, and CI scores.
Somatic Strategies for Resilience: Body-Mind Centering® and Contact Improvisation
Schedule:
Sunday 5/25 1:30 - 6:30
Monday 5/26 10:30 - 5
This workshop will explore connections between the somatic movement practices of Body-Mind Centering® and Contact Improvisation. Each day will have 2 sessions, with a break for lunch.
Session 1: THE TONAAL CONTINUUM IN CI
"Tone is the readiness to move.”
- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
In Contact Improvisation, our physical tone is ever-shifting and adapting to our changing environments - a partner's body, the direction of gravity, the position of our head, the quality of touch. Our tone is influenced by the quality of our attention, our habitual movement patterns and personal histories. We'll practice cultivating a more balanced and responsive tone, as we explore developmental movement states, intentional touch, and CI scores.
Session 2: FLUIDS IN IMPROVISATION
“Transformation is just a membrane away.”
- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
About 70% of our body weight is fluid! Cellular, interstitial, blood, CSF, lymph, synovial: the fluids system is one basic medium, continuously circulating, that transforms from one fluid state to another as it passes through the body’s membranes. The fluids embody transformation. They support our ability to be present, to sense and feel, to find lightness and density, to go with the flow, to hold boundaries, to run fast and sit quietly. Together we’ll explore the dynamic states of the fluids through embodied physiology, partnering and improvisation.
TO REGISTER: https://forms.gle/uSEGQYGhv1bp84AG9
BODY-MIND CENTERING® is an ongoing, experiential study of the relationship between movement and mind. BMC was developed by somatics pioneer Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, in collaboration with her students and faculty at the School for Body-Mind Centering®. In BMC we practice the embodiment of our tissues, cells, body systems, and sense perceptions. We explore their expression through movement, breath, touch, voice, and the developmental / evolutionary movement process.
CONTACT IMPROVISATION is an open-ended movement form in which 2 or more people move in physical contact. Skills involve falling, rolling, supporting each other’s weight and fine-tuning the sense perceptions. CI blends elements of martial arts, partner dance, acrobatics, and meditation, while being completely improvised in the moment. Since its inception in 1972 by dancer Steve Paxton, CI has evolved into a form that’s practiced all over the world.
Body-Mind Centering® and Contact Improvisation Techniques with Cathie Caraker and Miriam Wolodarski
March 1 & 2
Berkeley Finnish Hall
Schedule
Saturday 1:30-5:30PM
* Join us at the Saturday Jam in the morning!
Sunday 11AM-5PM, with a break for lunch
Registration: $150-300
Zelle or Paypal to contactsenseobject@gmail.com
or Venmo @senseobject
Email contactsenseobject@gmail.com for questions.
* Money tight? That’s alright. Reach out, and we’ll figure it out.
When those who can, pay more, those who can’t still get to dance.
Somatic Strategies for Resilience (BMC)
“Tone is the readiness to move.” - Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
“All real living is meeting” - Martin Buber
How do we cultivate safety and connection through our embodied artistic practices? Can we meet this challenging moment in our shared history with a tone that’s active and resilient?
We’ll begin with the somatic practice of Cellular Breathing as a non-hierarchical paradigm for nourishing self and community. Respecting our cyclic needs for cocooning into action, we’ll explore the tonal continuum of active yielding/ pushing/ reaching/ pulling: practices that foster resilience in the midst of change.
Improvising with the dynamic states of the fluids systems, we’ll play with boundaries, tune our spidey-senses, ride cyclical flow, shake it all out and more. Integrating what comes up through the collective practices of Authentic Movement and Contact Improvisation, together we’ll evolve dance scores for the moment we’re in.
Centers of Power (CI)
This Contact Improvisation work is about finding power, identifying and contextualizing many different modes of embodied potential in contact improvisation. Mass, mobility, momentum, tone, tuning, and more come into play as we ask ourselves how we move on, move over, move through. From center to periphery, every part of us has myriad locomotive possibilities to offer. Let’s gather up our resources for staying safe, staying present, and sharing weight.