RADICAL SOFTNESS - a playful investigation in Contact Improvisation

a playful investigation in Contact Improvisation ~ 2-day CI workshop in Nevada City with Carmen Serber (optional) April 25-27 Friday 12:30-6:30, Saturday and Sunday 11-5pm ABOUT: The intention of this workshop is to clear the path toward the bones by softening our bodies all the way into our deepest tissue - the psoas. Psoas is located deep within the center axis, and grows out from the spine. It is a source of power, integrity, safety, and agency. It plays a vital role in the understanding of fluid versus bound core. A fluid core opens a portal to our felt senses and allows for a more direct experience with gravity and velocity that move our bones with ease and delight. There is no separation between muscles, ligaments or joints. We will be looking at our body as a living system, employing biomorphic and embryonic paradigms. When the concept of a mechanical body changes into an experience of a moving river, the questions of how we learn and develop our dance changes dramatically. We will be experiencing the body as a vessel of experimental inquiry and somatic communicator - oscillating between cerebral musings, body poetry and wild physicality in solo, duet, trio and ensemble practice. Expanding our availability in a dance. We will work on: Proprioceptively sensing the limitations and pathways of our joints in order to find freedom in motion. Respecting our skeletal structure and using it to move instead of using muscles unnecessarily. Toning versatility. Allowing body (parts) to fall all the time in order to hone in and use momentum. Rediscovering the fluid nature of the human body. Belonging here. Tending to the whole, entering the environment of choice, focus, ease and clarity. LOCATION: The workshop will take place in a sunny upstairs room with beautiful wood floors in a historic building in the heart of Nevada City. Odd Fellows Lodge 212 Spring St RATES* STANDARD by Apr 5 $220-320 (Standard: $270) LAST MINUTE by Apr 24 $300-400 (Standard: $350) *We aim to make this accessible by offering slicing scale rates. Those who are able to pay at the high end of the scale make it possible for us to offer the low end to those who need it. If these amounts are a barrier to you, please reach out. **Accommodation is not included for the workshop. Carmen Serber: I teach dance because I love dancing and because I want to share that. I teach because I love to learn in community and believe in the infinite potential of exploring movement together. I teach dance because probably nothing else kept me more engaged and intrigued about life and guided me toward the places that I needed to look at. I teach because I had a hard time in many dance classes just because I couldn’t remember the freaking phrase! I want to create an environment where every-body can feel welcome, learn and play with presented material and apply it in their own dance practice. I am annoyed about ideologies that preach what is the right way of moving and I strive to offer something different. In the last 25 years I have been exploring and deepening my practice of embodiment. Extensive studies in perspectives of anatomy and movement practices that are not limited by this study are relevant for my offerings. I am interested in investigating embodied attention within improvisational movement practices which are both creative and relational. My teaching is shaped from my longtime study of the Axis Syllabus and Contact Improvisation, from my work as a biodynamic craniosacral therapist, the exquisite exploration of the subtle realm of the body and my longtime practice and study of contemplative and improvisational dance scores. Inspirations for dance/improvisation: Frey Faust, Sara Shelton Mann, Mary Armentrout, Liz Koch, Lynda Caesara, Contact Improvisation jams, witnessing improvisers take risks, practicing dancing with peers, my students, my inner worlds, my relationship with nature and my two kids. www.carmenserber.com