with Andrew Wass and Caterina Mocciola

15.+16.04.2023, 15:00–19:30

Level requirements: Good of CI experience. Being comfortable with inversions, falling into your back space, level change, taking and giving full weight.

Workshop Description

The dance of contact improvisation arises from the dialogue between confusion and understanding, the oscillation between the known and the unknown, and the struggle between ambition and curiosity. In this workshop we will practice a range of dynamic events, un/known pathways. Some klein and fine, others more robust and effortful. These partner pathways will serve as points of departure for improvising in contact.

Several questions will guide our research. How can we use what we know to create something we don’t know? Can confusion provide fertile ground for understanding and extending the improvisation? How can we balance momentary ambitions with expansive curiosity?

Starting with scored solo improvisations, we will transition to technical solo skills. After practicing known pathways, we will layer in the solo skills, improvising our way into, out of, and during the dynamic events.

This workshop is intended for people with a good amount of CI experience. Please be comfortable with inversions, falling into your back space, level change, taking and giving full weight.

Warning: Occasional bruising might occur

About Caterina Mocciola (IT/AUS)I

am an independent performer, teacher and producer, also an interpreter and a translator. My practice is based on Contact Improvisation and Composition while related disciplines, such as Feldenkrais, BMC, Viewpoints, Release Technique, Body Weather and Kung Fu play a strong influence in my approach to teaching and movement. Since 2008 I have taught regular classes, workshops at festivals and Universities, in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Japan and across Europe. For over a decade I lived in Australia where I founded the Sydney Sunday Jam; for a few years in Berlin, where I taught at Tanzfabrik and Marameo, co-organized the Berlin Underscore and ECITE 2017 in Italy. I now live on the mountains in Italy working with animals and the earth, integrating it all with dance.

About Andrew WassBy experimenting with aleatoric processes, Andrew Wass formalizes the coincidental and emphasizes the conscious processes of composition that are the generative source of much of his works. Influenced heavily by his undergraduate studies of Biochemistry at U.C. San Diego, Andrew works by creating a defined, almost crystalline palette in order to generate a myriad of possibilities. His performance work has been shown in San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Marfa, Tijuana, Berlin, Seattle, Tokyo, and New York. He has been investigating Contact Improvisation for over 20 years and taught at festivals, studios, and universities in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Along with his colleagues of the Lower Left Performance Collective, he organizes March 2 Marfa, a performance lab for experienced dance makers.