Tried and true lab

Questions posed (ranked according to votes):

1. How do you teach consent exercises?
2. We are sitting in a circle. What would you say/do to explain to newcomers what CI is?
3. Exercises around the theme emotions.
4. How do you teach “fascia communication”/listening? words, images, exercises that help
5. How do I teach physical + attentional agency?
6. Which exercise presents CI best for newcomers? (Exercise, which is attractive, may be easy to repeat by participants and breathtaking at the same time)
7. If you have mixed levels of students in your class, how to make it interesting for beginners and advanced to do an exercise e.g. on spirals?
8. How others teach safety for the spine and for the flyer while sharing weight and flying?
9. Expansive awareness of the whole room and the self
10. How to transition from one to another exercise to follow a “red thread” in my teaching?
11. How can I support these, who are afraid (avoid) to go to contact, but want to? (on jam)
12. Spirals
13. How to teach lifts and high momentum practice to college-age dance students, who are beginners in CI?
14. How can a facilitator create a space that is not pushing people out?
15. How do you teach a hip lift?
16. A first time student has a difficult experience during another teachers class. They relate it to me. How should I respond?
17. When I am very energetic as the facilitator/teacher but the participants are not, how do I find a way to teach material I feel like teaching/sharing?
18. What is contact improvisation?
19. How to discover/connect with the proper/meaningful question?

How do you teach consent exercises?

Ariye: through touch

Ann Kristin:  A lies, B touches freely, A verbalizes “enough”

Kaisa: like before, but A takes B’s Hand and directs to the spot, then continuous to say yes, yes, … until there is a no

Ali: A touches B, B always says “no”, then also with a physical no – in order to practice it, like a muscle

Ariye: how to speak out a specific no inside a general yes: A offers lift to B, B drops center/says no; A wants to stick their fingers into B’s eyes/wants to hug B, evade. This can give A the joy of being noted.

Ray: we need to first practice the awareness, to realize, to know

Anya: A dances their solo, B wants to join, A continues solo. To practice endurance to stay with myself, to take my dance with me.

Barbara: A wants to lift B, B, instead of dropping center, backs off.

Frederic: A dance happens only when two “yes” meet, one yes is not enough. Duet, lower arms together, push arms or pull with open hooks. As long as the forces meet, there is a yes, a connection, a dance. How to get out: just relax the arms. Rationale: when we stay with leaning and no grabbing, it is easier to make the consent or lack thereof clear

We are sitting in a circle. What would you say/do to explain to newcomers what CI is?

Ariye: let the back of your own hands meet and let them dance. Then meet the hands of two other people

Dan: it is an invitation to be in the here and now. Contact = here, improv = now.

David: My aim is to catch their curiosity, also by showing videos

Anabel: it started as an and is still is an experiment

Ariye: shows 3 videos: 1^st babyliv, 2^nd sophie an itay, 3^rd up to you

Exercises around the theme emotions

In the solo, emotions can be dissolved

Speak out the state of being, let it be here

Connect the emotions to something physical

Pendulation: direct the awareness from the bad place in your body to a good place back and forth, such to acknowledge both exist

Sharing with someone else

Ariye: emotions while finding a partner – I say it is difficult and I let people meet a few times in new constellations, each time stay but far away and acknowledge the difficulties, differences, etc.

In gatherings: Emotional 1^st aid group, safe space groups, morning check-in groups

How do you teach “fascia communication”/listening? words, images, exercises that help

Phoenix: B lies on belly, naked or not upper body, A grabs skin of back and tweezes it between fingers to prepare fascia, then dance

Ali: A touches B next to spine, get through various layers, sense qualities on both sides, stay with fascia layers

Julian: Stand in front of each other, A takes B’s hands or shoulders as joysticks with an open touch and leads/directs B (similar to tango)

Barbara: touch the floor with the inner side of your forearm and let it stay there, see the movement possibilities of swimming skin, of moving the rest of the body while keeping the touch

Nica: A lies on belly, B moves skin of the back with shearing force (sideways), 1) A follows when needed. 2) A goes against the movement of the hand

Ann Kristin: take a piece of cloth and put on ground, lift slightly at any point and see the whole fabric moving

Dan: Stand in front of each other, touch each other with inner sides of forearms, communicate and move with and through this touch

Mario: A and B hold a T-shirt with hands and stretch it to a plane, eyes closed. C puts object on the surface and A & B guess where it is put, also by slightly pulling in various directions without letting the cloth slack

Daniele: it is about connection…?

Frederic: to me fascia is a buzzword and I hardly use it in class. What matters to me is a certain quality of low-medium tone and communication of movement directions with shearing force not involving the bones.