SPRING CI RESIDENCY

PORTUGAL, 25 APRIL- 11 MAY 2025

SOMATICS, TECHNIQUE & IMPROV / PERFORMANCE : 3 THEMES, 3 VISIONS. WITH RICK, HUGH & VEGA


Join us for a transformative two week CI Residency blending workshops, jamming and research in a stunning natural setting in the Algarve, Portugal.

Join us for an immersive Contact Improvisation Experience for two weeks of workshops, jamming and research in the art of Contact Improvisation in Quinta Braz. 

This  longer event is designed for those eager to deepen their understanding and hone their practice with fellow enthusiasts.It is an invitation to people wishing to establish a deeper understanding of the form and dance with other movers to find more rigor and focus in their approach to Contact Improvisation. It is a curated frame for those wishing to invest time and space to delve into their dance-practice, in beautiful nature surroundings supporting their process.

Two weeks to grow as a dancer, dance professional and artist, with the support of three of Europe's most prominent teachers


This two week study is structured as a series of workshops and a three day jam interlude. 

The workshops will be articulated around three areas of study: Somatics, Technique and Improv/Performance. They will be led by three experienced teachers who will share their unique vision on how we weave together the subtle knowledge of somatic awareness, the athletic responsiveness of CI and the spacious generosity of the performer.

Through focused study, discussion, feedback and loads of dancing we will look to develop our pleasure in movement and bravery in exploring the possibilities of dance

- Somatics: Somatic movement practices are a holistic approach to understanding and experiencing the body from within. Rather than focusing on external appearance or form, these practices emphasize internal awareness and the body’s sensations. By tuning into the subtle messages of muscles, joints, and breath, somatic movement promotes a deeper connection between the mind and body, helping to release habitual tension, improve coordination, and enhance overall well-being. It encourages mindful movement that fosters self-awareness, healing, and greater ease in everyday actions.

- Technique: technical exploration will be framed around carefully crafted workshops that will aim to help you Improve your CI technique, expand your CI vocabulary with new set patterns, acquire new tools and skills to develop your physical awareness and coordination and get personal feedback. C.I. Technique can be viewed from many directions. Often delivered through exploring ‘Principles’, such as connecting to the Earth through your partner, rolling point of contact, or becoming one body. Another approach is to offer a ‘moment’ of set material that encompasses a few different principles and gives the body space to learn something ‘tried and tested’. These approaches offer different ways to access and integrate new pathways to move through and with. Throughout the residences we will offer a variety of approaches to technique to open space for as much learning as possible. 

- Improv & Performance: Improvisation performance, in these workshops, is about how we witness each other with generosity and support. It is about how we connect our way of seeing others to how we feel about being seen. It is about creating a relationship between audience and performer which is connected, interested and safe enough to try new things.

- 3 day Jam: a weekend of Jamming, labs, bodywork, movement research and celebration of Contact Improvisation. Curated and facilitated by Rick Nodine, Vega Luukkonen & Hugh Stanier, this extended framework will give you plenty of time to integrate new material, take risks in fine tuning your artistic expression or just have fun and will hold space for movement labs and bodywork exchange. The jam weekend will have a more open frame to find how a group can tune to each other and interweave creative space. 

Workshops’ themes will include: 

  • Somatic exploration to let go of tension and feel safe in the body

  • C.I technique to learn new skills

  • Exploration space to find and discover your own way of movement and dancing.

  • Spiraling, falling, catching, 

  • Listening to feel timing and breath with others.  

Time off will allow space to contemplate, follow your needs, breath, rest and enjoy nature and trips to the beach

Quinta Braz (more info about our venue here) is wonderful farmland in the South of Portugal, with fig- and orange trees, a geodesic dome, a swimming pool, open kitchen, fire-pit, camping possibility and a comfortable house with all utilities.

The residency includes:

* Inspiring workshops and classes

* Daily jams

* Beautiful outdoor dance space in nature

* Space for personal movement investigations

* Opportunities to dance on the beach and in the ocean

* Delicious, local food

* Live Music

* Swimming Pool

In this space, you will find a community that supports a journey of discovery and expression. Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself in the vibrant world of Contact Improvisation!

Intensives

Home In The Body, Hugh Stanier & Vega Luukkonen, 26-29 April 2025


What does home mean to you?

How do we create a sense of home within ourselves?

Throughout this module we weave together Somatics, Contact Improvisation & presence practices to invite ourselves to feel deeply at home in the body and in movement. Studying C.I. technique & explorations – tools and exercises to find your dance & tuning to move together with other bodies. Giving space to presence practices – meditative principles and opening perception exercises – to bring more awareness to our interconnected whole as we move together. Home brings a sense of safety. When we feel safe, we have space and capacity to explore and to connect to others. From this place real integrative learning can happen.

We will also focus on taking the time to delve into what is most present for the group at the time. In this way we wish to hold a space that serves the wishes and needs that arise and move fluidly with the journey, and find home within ourselves and our dance. Throughout this journey we will offer explorative exercises, as well as clear technical tools and pathways to understand underlying physical principles of contact improvisation. We’ll spend time with the floor, sensing gravity, studying how our bodies function.

What makes our movement effortless and efficient ? How do we align our bones to create support and ease in our movement ? Becoming comfortable with not knowing. Working with ideas and images of softness & liquidity, and how developing multidirectional availability opens more possibilities in our movement. Sharing weight and finding the subtle details and articulation of our shared architectures, that brings us into moving together through levels, through the space & in and out of contact. Using our breath in finding synchronicity helps us to ‘tune’ together.

We will flow in and out of contact, viewing the dance as a playful dialogue, which breathes freely in time and space. Composing the dance, composing the contact. Material alternates between contact- and solo tasks, towards trios and group-scores.

Seeing Sensation, Rick Nodine, 06-10 May 2025


Somatics, CI technique and Performance

Somatic openings: each session will begin with inward seeing through the functional language of anatomy and the poetic language of space and time.

We will inhibit visual perceptions through eyes-closed exercises that help us see what vision is hiding from us. Opening the doors to movement that emerges from internal sensation and clearing space in our attention to navigate our connection to the outside world through our skin.

These exploratory sessions are for developing personal dances that are finely tuned to both internal (sensation and anatomy) and external (gravity, surface, space) forces and connect us to our natural coordination. Mixing somatic and improvisational approaches with rising kinetic energies will articulate the soft athletics and multidirectional awareness of CI in solo movement. Deep solo movement practice will be the base from which we begin to connect with how our dance is influenced by, and influences, another person’s dance.

CI technique sessions will be about seeing the form and pattern in partnering exercises. Learning patterns that involve weight exchange at all levels and progress gradually in complexity and difficulty will be the core of these sessions. We will study the precision mechanics of making yourself light (flying) through shape, timing and intention, coupled with the study of support (under dancing) through following, suggesting, anchoring and an efficient use of force through rhythm and alignment. Observation, feedback, improvisation and repetition will be our tools for improving and building new vocabulary into your CI dancing.

Improvisation Performance sessions are about being seen and seeing. The focus will not be on looking good or perfecting our CI patterns for an audience, but instead, about the way that being seen supports us in seeing ourselves. We will work on including sensation and emotions while maintaining CI as a language within our improvisations.

We will develop CI practice into a larger space of whole group awareness and include witnessing each other dance as an expanded way of connecting. We will work on relating to multiple partners at the same time. We will work on how to get in and out of contact with a partner while maintaining the integrity of our own dance.

Difficult issues or blocks to our creativity related to fear, failure, taking space and confusion will be welcomed into our dances and conversations will feed our practice and our path forward.

This work is about integrating somatic awareness and CI skills into a broader sense of our artistry as dancers and it is about including our imperfect and glorious humanity.

Ticket Infos & Booking

Prices include all teachings and jams, food & accommodation in your own tent/camper van. Check the registration form for prices of different accommodations.

Detailed program, teacher bios, accommodation descriptions and booking HERE!

  • FULL PROGRAM TWO WEEKS/ 1250€

  • ONE INTENSIVE PLUS 3 DAY JAM/ 775€

  • ONE INTENSIVE/ 550€

  • 3 DAY JAM ONLY/ 250€