Welcome to the Web home of contact improvisation for Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Southern California.

Weekly Jam

Every Sunday, 6:30pm-9:00pm
Dance Home, 522 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401 

Upcoming 2009 Classes

Contact Meets Tango: An Evening for the Curious…

6:30pm - 7:30pm, May 17, 2009: Daniel Trenner

(optional class during the first hour of the jam)

Tango is a traditional South American form of duet improvisation, handed down from generation to generation, veiled in an elaborate grammar of ritual and social codes, but an improvisation in every gesture and step.
Contact is a modern North American form of duet improvisation invented in the 1970’s. Its rituals and grammar are meager as is befitting of its new territory in dance, and its rejection of traditional dance form and/or code.But what Tango and Contact share are deep concerns with the quality of human connection between dancers. In each form there is a melding of bodies to form a new anatomy of the duet. In both forms, when danced well, there are efficiencies of effort, resulting in a feeling of “levity” from the duet that could not exist in a solo. These qualities of connection are so familiar to dancers of both forms that, while the forms are superficially so different from each other, we actually believe that, at their cores, they are more the same than different.In this class we will look at the roots of connection in improvisational dancing, and use examples of each form to elucidate the thematic material. Dancers with experience from each form will be able to help dancers from the other form in their area of comfort. Dancers in each form will receive a safe and comfortable introduction to the other form. Together we will inform our own dances with new awareness about connection and how it serves us at the source of our creativity in improvisation.Daniel Trenner began his career as a contemporary dancer in the class of Bill T. Jones at the American Dance Asylum in Binghamton, New York in 1976. He went on to become and Jazz and Tap Dancer with Brenda Bufalino, and discovered Contact at the first Acappella Motion Workshop in Northampton with Nancy Stark Smith, Charles Campbell, Byron Brown, and Sara Shelton Mann in 1980. Shortly thereafter he met Bonnie Cohen at Naropa Institute in Boulder and became a student of Body Mind Centering. By 1986 he was teaching Contact, Jazz, Tap, and BMC in more than 50 cities, when he was invited to teach in the State School of modern Dance in Buenos Aires and met Tango. He has since become associated with Tango’s international revival, creating the Tango tour (Bridge to the Tango 1993), the tango store (The Tango Catalogue 1995), and teaching tango for the first time in more than 50 cities in 13 countries (The “Johnny Appleseed” of Tango). He is still a lover of both forms, although now at 50 is very careful with his body when dancing socially in either form.

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Be or Bring a Beginner Jam Class

6:30pm-7:30pm, Sunday, May 31, 2009:  Jacqueline McCormick from England

 

Jacqueline has been teaching, performing and making dances for over twenty years. Her work has been greatly influenced by her research into Contact Improvisation. Jacqueline has a B.Ed in Human Movement Studies, an M.A in Dance from Mills College California, USA and has been, Associate Professor in Dance at Western Oregon University (1985-1996) and Connecticut College, USA (2000-2004). She directs and performs in her company DanceAbout, works that take a dancing journey through the outback of the self. Along with Contact Improvisation her curiosities lie in teaching Authentic Movement and Ensemble Improvisation. All of her work is informed by her extensive knowledge of the kinesiology of the body. Jacqueline is currently Dance Director for Cheshire Dance UK.

 

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Be or Bring a Beginner Jam Class

6:30pm-7:30pm, Sunday, June 21, 2009:  Jeffrey Nash

 

Jeffrey Nash began to explore dance and movement in the Early 80’s.  In the late 80’s he discovered “contact improv” and began combining principles from his studies in holistic health and physics to his exploration of the form.  He was a performing member of the Carol Solomon Dance Company from 1992-1994.
During more than 25 years of work and study he has also created an eclectic distillation of health approaches known as “The Awakening Process”.  Its focus is to return to the basics of what healing is; “the natural movement toward our joy and our wholeness”, and to present a set of tools/techniques to assist people in that “process”.
He teaches and works with clients across the US and Canada as well as in Europe.   He has worked for over 20 years with the Simonton Cancer Center and was Director of Massage Therapy at Glendale Career College for nearly four year.  He continues to explore movement and dance, while teaching and practicing the contact improv form.  He is currently a primary organizer and instructor for the Los Angeles Contact Improv Jam.  

 

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Be or Bring a Beginner Jam Class

6:30pm-7:30pm, Sunday, July 19, 2009:  John Dowel

 

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Be or Bring a Beginner Jam Class

6:30pm-7:30pm, Sunday, August 9, 2009:  Leralee Whittle