Kirstie Simson
Class description
Delve Deeper intensive - 4-6 January 2013
Improvisation - The art of listening within the context of improvised performance
Kirstie’s teaching draws from her knowledge of contact improvisation, dance techniques, Aikido, meditation and her extensive experience of improvisation in performance.
The focus of this workshop will be on exploring uninhibitedly the huge potential of the body’s response to the primal urge to move, inspired by the energy released through human interaction, physical challenge and the excitement of discovering new territory, new sensations and a daring to go beyond inherent ideas of limitation.
The morning sessions will be built on very simple physical principles allowing participants to explore their experience of moving and understanding their own bodies more profoundly, which is often experienced as joyful and liberating. Participants will be absorbing the skills of dancing in partnership with others and improvising with greater sensitivity to each other and the environment.
Kirstie has spent many years researching ways of moving which generate full and fearless dancing. In the afternoons Kirstie will share her discoveries on how to take that fearlessness into improvised performance practice whilst simultaneously holding a full focused concentration on listening.
In recent years Kirstie’s focus has been directed towards the art of deep listening within her practice of improvisation. During this workshop she will share her insights and understanding of the essential quality of listening within the art of improvisation, and how this pertains to her experience of improvisation in performance.
Biography
Kirstie Simson is one of the legends of British dance and one of the greatest exponents of Contact Improvisation - Time Out Magazine, London
Kirstie Simson has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. She is an award-winning dancer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London.
For the past thirty years Kirstie has collaborated with many dancers and musicians who share a common interest in improvisation, including Julyen Hamilton, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Andrew Harwood, Russell Maliphant, Michael Schumacher, Adam Benjamin and Le Quan Ninh.
In January 2008 Kirstie joined the faculty of the Dance Department at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, USA, where she is a full-time teacher of Dance Improvisation.
- Watch a clip of Kirstie teaching
Duration
1 minute 51 seconds
Filmed by Becky Edmunds