Kirstie Simson
Class description
The Poetry of Motion – Improvisation in the context of deep listening taught by Kirstie Simson and collaborators.
Kirstie will lead morning workshops in dance-improvisation, drawing from her knowledge of contact improvisation, dance techniques, aikido and her extensive experience of improvisation in performance.
The week of workshops will form part of a research project that Kirstie is facilitating with six international improvisers.
The focus will be on the collaborative exploration of the huge potential that the body manifests in response to the primal urge to move.
Inspired by deep energies released through human interaction, physical challenge and through the excitement of discovering new territory and a daring to go beyond inherent ideas of limitation, the classes will embody the spirit of challenge, empathy and generosity that exists within the practice of improvisation.
Classes will build from a foundation of simple physical principles allowing students to explore their experience of moving and to understand their own bodies more profoundly, which is often experienced as energetic liberation.
Kirstie has spent many years researching ways of moving which generate full and fearless dancing, and she enjoys the challenges of intense physicality. Her greatest joy is the process of collaborative work through improvisation. Some of her collaborators from the research project will be participating in guiding the classes.
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 did a three year dance training at the Laban Center, London. After completing college she became interested in pursuing contact improvisation and the art of improvisation in performance whilst working with the Rosemary Butcher Dance Company in 1979.
Over the course of the next twenty-five years she has worked extensively, performing and teaching throughout England, Europe and the USA. She has collaborated with many dancers and musicians who share a common interest in working with the freedom to explore ever new and exciting ways to go beyond limitation. These performers include Julyen Hamilton, with whom she worked in close partnership for some years, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Pauline de Groot, Alessandro Certini, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Katie Duck, Philip Hamilton, Peter Jones, Russell Maliphant and others.
She has been seen at the Dance Umbrella Festival in London, at DTW in New York City and many other performance venues worldwide. Kirstie has been a regular guest teacher at the School for New Dance Development Amsterdam, Dartington College England, the Laban Center London, P.A.R.T.S. School in Brussels, New York University, George Washington University Washington DC, Oberlin College Ohio, and Movement Research NYC. She has also been teaching dance companies all over the world, including Sasha Walz and Guests Berlin, Siobhan Davies Dance London, Felix Ruckert Company Berlin, and DV8 Physical Theater Company. She teaches classes and workshops at many other colleges and centres throughout the world.
Over the past 4 years Kirstie has worked collaboratively with dancer / choreographer Christian Burns who is a classically trained dancer from the US. They have presented their work in Europe and the US. Their research is bringing a synthesis of ballet and modern / postmodern dance through their mutual interest in improvisation, which they are interested in sharing with students from diverse dance backgrounds. Kirstie has just taken a job as an associate professor at the University of Illinois, USA. She will be working there full time from January 2008.
- Watch a clip of Kirstie teaching
Duration
1 minute 51 seconds
Filmed by Becky Edmunds