ijrkj – Page 9 – Creative & dance journal

Freiburg Contact Festival 2019: Dance the light fantastic

This summer, I attended the Freiburg Contact Festival in southern Germany. The festival is now in its twentieth year. The dancing and dancers are well documented by dedicated photographers. But the place, its light, and its buildings where equally of interest and less explored.

Fountain: a dance

Ideas for dance rarely come from nowhere. A few years ago, I saw a fantastic image of a man throwing a handful of small sticks into the air. The photograph had caught the movement, and indeed the moment in time as the sticks were suspended in a ‘stick cloud’. That was my starting point for a dance involving buckets and water.

Rope tricks: a class with Maga Radlowska – Judd

At the class of London Contact Improvisation on Saturday 15 June, Maga Radlowska – Judd explored the theme of ‘Awaken ‘ninjas’. The use of rope as a teaching aid added another to my list of them used in classes for contact improvisation.

In-between Performance films

There were two films of the In-between performance shot on Saturday 25 May by Fiona Bennett. A short feature with highlights, and a full length version. Both are presented here.

‘In-between’ performance

The Turrill Sculpture Garden in Oxford was the venue of my latest public dancing in a performance called ‘In-between’: two dancers, two cellists and a lawn to dance on. Thankfully, it didn’t rain!

Photographs of the ‘In-between’ performance by Andrew Bell

Photographer Andrew Bell took some great black & white photos of the in-between performance at the Turrill Sculpture garden on May 25 which you can see here.

Composition & rehearsal: ‘in-between’ performance

We had a composition and rehearsal session on Saturday 18 May for the ‘in-between’ performance. Cellists Bruno Guastalla & Josie Webber and the dancers – me and Josephine Dyer, created a score and jammed ideas for the performance the following week.

Research proposal

I submited a research proposal to the Freiburg Contact Festival 2019. It’s an idea which I’m also developing with others into a dance for a duet with two cellos. But the Freiburg proposal uses an instrument more at hand – our clapping hands. This is the proposal.

Teaching Contact Improvisation?

I started teaching Contact Improvisation at Oxford Contact Dance in 2015. But how do we teach contact improvisation – it’s an improvised dance after all.

Jamming at Oxford Contact Dance

We had a silent jam (dance session) for contact improvisation at Oxford Contact Dance on Sunday 17 March 2019. Here’s a few photos of a very juicy jam! Photos by Piotr Znamierowski.