One year immersion into Contact Improvisation

Dates:
September 9-11, 2022 
February 3-5, 2023
June 2-4, 2023 
October 6-8, 2023 

2022 is the year where Contact Improvisation turns 50. I have purchased Contact Quarterly’s Sourcebook from 1975-1992 (print, pdf) and enjoy reading it immensely. I am kind of baffled that I haven’t been very interested in reading what dancers in the beginning of this form had to say. I am inspired by Steve Paxton’s 24 hour dance class, the amount of time students had to dive into explorations within themselves and with one another. I understand that many early CI dancers where interested much more in the subtleties of the body communicated through movement than I had thought. The underlying practice of this form requires an appetite for not knowing.

In that spirit, my one year offering is an investigation of the single moment. Everything else in a dance develops and falls into place around this moment. If it arises we experience an unfolding ever changing presence. A direct way to access that is our capability to feel sensation. I offer subtle and playful ways to deepen our felt sense of gravity shifting in space through touch. Experiential anatomy is another key orientation, familiarizing ourselves with the tone of our muscles, learning about tensegrity, finding pathways into accessing stillness, creativity and being a witness in a dance. We explore and take care of our animal self, and lastly by improvising perceptions instead of exercising form.

I am determined to find ways for students to avoid “trying hard” to emulate what they see and rather focus on an experience of learning along the edges of feeling comfortable – allowing trust in the unknown material that they may encounter. In my experience a skilled contact dancer orients around what they are sensing. The more orientation a body inhabits the more an ability of availability can arise – in a dance and life alike. Dancers new to the form and more experienced movers can benefit in that approach. This allows a deepening of subtlety into infinity.

I am already in conversation with a couple of friends that I consider to invite to inform our bodies.

Here are the details:
CI immersion starting in September 2022-October 2023.

Dates:

September 9-11, 2022 
February 3-5, 2023
June 2-4, 2023 
October 6-8, 2023 

Times:

Friday 2pm – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 5:30pm
Sunday 10am – 5pm

Location: 
Wildcat Studio, Berkeley

Exchange and registration:

Sliding scale $800 – $1200 for the whole year. If you experience financial hardship please reach out to me: mokaratta@gmail.com or 510-213-4007

There will be a rough curriculum and also an openness to the needs and interests of the group.

In anticipation and gratitude,

Carmen 

Bio

I am a dancer, mother and therapist. In the last 25 years I have been exploring and deepening my practice of embodiment. My guide is the dance. I consider Frey Faust, Sarah Shelton Mann and Mary Armentrout as my main influences. My studies in dance are expanding more into the somatics of sensations. For me (Contact) Improvisation is a practice of presence through the movement of attention.

During the last 5 years I have been practicing weekly moving and witnessing scores developing from the foundation of Authentic Movement. This shapes and fine tunes my understanding of improvisation and the witnessing of the mystical ways of existence.

I have recently finished my BCST (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy) training and started to dive into pre and perinatal work. Teaching Contact Improvisation, facilitating group processes in somatic movement explorations and giving private movement and BCST sessions is what I do for living. I live a simple life with my family in Bellingham, WA next to a beautiful creek.