Instant composition performance and aikido principles – I explored this theme for one weekend with some dedicated dancers and aikidoka’s in October, and we now decided to pick a date directly for a 2nd edition in February!
You are welcome to join us.
Experience in either improvisation dance or aikido required (at least one of the two). Tell us you are interested by also telling us a bit about your experience – apply through the website of Dansimprovisatie Utrecht.
The Moment of Contact
7 + 8 February 2015, 10:30-16:30 – Utrecht
Aikido training has many things in common with Contact Improvisation (strong sense of centre, flow, yielding to the partner’s movement) but being a martial art, some things are decidedly different. The fact that you work with an opponent means that timing and distance are crucial. The moment of contact, or more precisely the moment just before the contact is where everything is decided.
As timing is also crucial for improvisation performers, we will spend this weekend researching timing, flow and making bold decisions (at the right time :-) ).
We will train our bodies to be physically and mentally “on time” by discerning between almost contact (when no real commitment is given to the moment), full contact (when there are no options anymore) and the moment of contact when for both imagination and physical reality, all options are still open.
In aikido, it is the moment where you either yield to your partner (becoming one) or pro-actively move in, creating a new situation. Therefore, it is also a moment that asks for unhesitant action. In dance improvisation we sometimes loose ourselves in the flow of movement, which in performance context can become problematic. Aikido training teaches us to combine flow with crisp choices and our openness/availability to ‘what is’ with the courage to seize the moment and make it your own.
This workshop is recommended for all physical improvisers who want to strengthen their ability to instantly compose, but also for aikido practitioners who are interested in dance improvisation. Would be exciting to have a mixed group of improvisers and aikidoka’s on this weekend!
The workshop is organised by Iris van Peppen and Dansimprovisatie Utrecht&Amsterdam (DIU&A). To inscribe for the workshop, visit www.dansimprovisatie.com or write to info@dansimprovisatie.com
Originally posted on 
From noise to music and back, is it a question of the mind and it’s perspective? It certainly is an experience we recognise in the Genetic Choir work: Many voices that are creating a noise-wall of sound will become more musically distinct purely by the joint effort of singers and audience members to listen more closely or changing their listening position.
