SOMATIC STRATEGIES FOR RESILIENCE:
BODY-MIND CENTERING® AND CONTACT IMPROVISATION in Ojai, CA

Schedule:
Sunday, 5/25 1:30 - 6:30pm
Monday, 5/26 10:30 - 5:00pm

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.

CATHIE CARAKER MFA, RSME is a longtime dance artist and somatic movement educator. Her teaching work integrates her extensive background in post-modern dance practices and somatics. She was fortunate to work extensively with the founders of Contact Improvisation, including Nancy Stark Smith and Steve Paxton, and has been profoundly influenced by their research. She was on the faculty of the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam for 10 years. She has also shared her work at the New York Improvisation Festival, Movement Research, Omega Institute, Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, wcciJAM, Moving On Center, Contact Festival Freiburg, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Barcelona Contact Festival, Contredanse Brussels, de Beweging Antwerp, and numerous US colleges. She has co-organized CI events including wcciJAM and the European CI Teaching Exchange (ECITE).

Cathie is a Body-Mind Centering® teacher, a Somatic Movement Educator and an instructor of the Pilates and Gyrotonic methods. Her writings on Body-Mind Centering® as a somatic approach to dance education have been published by Nouvelles de Danse.