Complete this form as stated above and also send a copy to lieve.de.pourcq@idocde.net

For - FULL NAME:
Eroca Nicols
- PHONE NUMBER:
323-4998664
EMAIL:
erocanicols@gmail.com

- SHORT BIOGRAPHY (400-500 characters) – relevant to the proposal, Symposium theme

I have been teaching and practicing contact around the world for a decade. It is a practice that I love for many reasons and has informed much of my movement education. However, I feel it crucial to come out and directly address the issues around consent, oppression, boundaries and exclusion that exist in contact improvisation. Unfortunately, much the culture of contact is at best creepy and at worst coercion or assault. The heteronormativity and unsubtle pick up scene of many jam environments leave little room for skills development without the compromising of one’s values or boundaries. The compromises I have made to continue to be in this practice are no longer valid because, as a queer femme, I feel uncomfortable inviting my community (or really any queers, women or people of color) to CI events for reasons of safety, both emotional and physical. My proposal for using start and stop cues of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a way of starting to address these issues and offering an alternative consent practice. Perhaps this is a way to begin a conversation regarding the deeply necessary cultural shift in contact to happen in a fun and easeful way. This is how I am conceiving of compromise as it relates to the theme.

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- TITLE OF THE ACTIVITY:
Aggressive Snuggling

- DETAILED CONTENT DESCRIPTION (max. 2000 characters):
I have recently been studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I see many parallels to contact. Like CI, in BJJ it is absolutely necessary to commit all my attention to the task at hand because of real physical risk. One of the aspects I love about BJJ and where I see a very real difference from CI, is the incredible clarity of boundaries. When a person "taps out"- a little tap on the shoulder or leg or really anywhere that can be reached- this means: stop doing what you are doing, let go, physically come apart and start again. Before engaging in any touch, there is a customary fist bump then high five. The cues are not a suggestion of agreement, the cues are clear; yes, I agree to engage and; no, I longer agree and now we stop.

Often boundaries are muddy in contact improvisation and there are many reasons for this including systemic hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialist ideas of "freedom" and ableism. CI culture can include clear boundaries but in my experience it does not. This exclusion prevents many people, particularly many women and femme presenting folks, queer folks, gender fluid folks, people of color and folks of different abilities from engaging in CI. I want CI to be a place I can invite my community but it is currently not. Perhaps by adopting some of the explicit consent codes of BJJ, we might begin to address issues around consent and boundaries that exist inside the CI community. And do so with care and openness.

I believe that we can begin to work on this and at the same time have a good time learning some fun skills from another partnered movement practice (BJJ.)

Here's a list of some of the things we will definitely do:
-Ask for and receive consent before touching anyone!
-Develop and practice both a physical and a verbal start and stop signal.
-Practice saying yes and saying no and meaning it.
-Practice hearing yes and hearing no and responding to it.

More skills we will work on:
-play with different levels of compression and weight
-extreme squeezing, how do we dial up and down our tone?
-improvising from three BJJ "positions"
-guard, half guard, side guard.

- SUMMARY OF CONTENT DESCRIPTION AND MOTIVATION (max 400- 500 characters; for publishing)

I have recently been studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I see many parallels to contact. Like CI, in BJJ it is absolutely necessary to commit all my attention to the task at hand because of real physical risk. One of the aspects I love about BJJ and where I see a very real difference from CI, is the incredible clarity of boundaries. When a person "taps out"- a little tap on the shoulder or leg or really anywhere that can be reached- this means: stop doing what you are doing, let go, physically come apart and start again. Before engaging in any touch, there is a customary fist bump then high five. The cues are not a suggestion of agreement, the cues are clear; yes, I agree to engage and; no, I longer agree and now we stop.

Often boundaries are muddy in contact improvisation and there are many reasons for this including systemic hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialist ideas of "freedom" and ableism. CI culture can include clear boundaries but in my experience it does not. This exclusion prevents many people, particularly many women and femme presenting folks, queer folks, gender fluid folks, people of color and folks of different abilities from engaging in CI. I want CI to be a place I can invite my community but it is currently not. Perhaps by adopting some of the explicit consent codes of BJJ, we might begin to address issues around consent and boundaries that exist inside the CI community. And do so with care and openness.

I believe that we can begin to work on this and at the same time have a good time learning some fun skills from another partnered movement practice (BJJ.)

- SHORT BIOGRAPHY (max 60 words for publishing (if co-taught all in all max 60 words)

Eroca Nicols is a choreographer and movement educator. Her multiplitous practice stems from a family of semi-mystical nomadic trailer people, years working as a janitor, and a BFA in video/performance art and sculpture from California College of the Arts (formerly and Crafts.) Her teaching and training are deeply influenced in her continued study of anatomy, biomechanics and ritual.

- GENERAL INTERESTS, CODE/KEY WORDS

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- Participating requirements (for whom is this workshop for?)

Folks interested in addressing consent, boundaries and anti oppression in contact improvisation. And/or martial arts nerds.

- TIME REQUIREMENTS (how much time do you need for sharing?)
2-3 hours

- SPACE REQUIREMENTS (what kind of space do you require for your sharing? studio size etc)
Studio space... size depends on the of the number of people

- TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (what kind of technical support do you require? audio, beamer etc)

- OTHER REQUIREMENTS – comments.

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THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS AND WILL TO SHARE YOUR WORK...