Contact Improvisation Dance Ottawa/Gatineau

CI dancer and dear 15-year dance buddy Margie Johnson (of Guelph) chose MAID on Monday. https://wallcustance.com/acf-death-notices/margaret-margie-j-johnson/

Donate your eclipse glasses to Astronomers Without Borders. The American organization collects safety glasses for people in other areas of the world where there are upcoming eclipses, who may not otherwise have access to them. You can send your glasses to an Astronomers Without Borders collection partner in Canada:

Dance, Movement, and CI Events in Ottawa/Gatineau The events in this section recur weekly, with some exceptions. Check the official event page to make sure the event is scheduled on the day you want to attend.

"Dance With Me | A Public Blindfolded Dance Experiment"
https://vimeo.com/446958412

"Blindfolded Contact: Surrendering To Our Inner Sight"
https://www.blindfoldedcontact.com/

Blindfolded Contact Blindfolded Contact Dance is a slow and gentle experience—for both beginners and experienced dancers alike. The constraint of the blindfold invites dancers to explore other senses to find connection, expression, pleasure, and safety. These workshops take participants on a journey of somatic self-d...

Ian! is registered for the March 29 CI/Consent workshop with Moti in Montréal:

Contact Improvisation with Moti Zemelman in Montreal 🌟 Con-Sensual: Contact Improv & The Art of Consent 🌟Join us for an immersive exploration led by Moti Zemelman, a seasoned practitioner of Contact Improvisation with over three decades of experience.👣 Embodying Presence & Compassionate Connection 👣Date: March 29th - 31stLocation: ...

The Facebook has recently deleted, without explanation and without recourse, the accounts of several of my friends and of the Toronto Sunday Contact Improv Dance Jam. If you still use the facebook or Instagram for communication, please be ready to lose it all at a moment's notice. You are not a customer; you are the product being sold, and The Algorithm can drop you on a whim. Send me email; nobody has a monopoly on that.

If you're on Ian!s dance newsletter, you already know that the first CI event of the season is 11:15am today, September 9, at the usual ODD Studio "B" at Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue in Ottawa. This FREE CI Basics class is open to everyone!

Dance, Movement, and CI Events in Ottawa/Gatineau and Online Dancers who pursue graceful movement must practice being aware of their bodies and being aware of wordless communication. These skills are particularly important today, when we spend so much time sitting and in virtual realities. Our way of life has taken us further from our own physical experiences...

The Earthdance April Score newsletter is out:

Earthdance - April SCORE 2023 I hope our April Score finds you rested and joyful with the bubbling and budding of new life. The last few editions of our newsletter I asked a number of people who’ve had an impact on our community to write a few lines for us. This month I would like to use the opportunity to share a few thoughts...

The Earthdance March newsletter is out:

Earthdance - March SCORE 2023 This month I’m writing to you with both sadness and appreciation. Meta Bobbe, who has contributed so much to our community and organization and who has been serving on the Board of Directors as both secretary and treasurer for the last 3 years, has announced that she will be stepping away from her...

UPDATE: I've cancelled my registration for May 4.
If you've ever been curious about attending Touch&Play events, the "Discovery" weekends are lovely gentle introductions with less intensity than the full five-day events. Ian invites you to car-share with him and drive down to Touch&Play Discovery Weekend May 4-7 at the Earthdance retreat center. (Ian usually stays an extra overnight on Sunday and drives home to Ottawa in the daylight starting on Monday morning, May 8.)

Ian! is driving down to the three-day Earthdance Spring Contact Improvisation Dance Jam March 16-19 in western Massachusetts. He have space in the car for you. Contact him: [email protected] ROAD TRIP! https://www.earthdance.net/event/spring-jam-registration-is-now-open-with-hosts-rebecca-medina-elise-knudson/

I found this article on how a lifetime of saying "yes" to unwanted touch is hard to undo:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/magazine/consent.html

"I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want: A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it."

This is so relevant to the power issues of touch in dance, especially contact improv.

I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it.

The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay - March 28, 2021
Humans are hardwired to dance with others, says psychologist
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-57-the-sunday-magazine/clip/15834039-the-sunday-magazine-march-28-2021

The Sunday Magazine for March 28, 2021 | The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay | Live Radio | CBC Listen This week on The Sunday Magazine with host Piya Chattopadhyay: • Is there a new Cold War brewing? • How to 'futureproof' your job, life and all you hold dear • Humans are hardwired to dance with others, says psychologist • What's next for all those pandemic pets? • Word Processing: The mea...

Toronto's famous dance venue Dovercourt House is closing. https://www.blogto.com/city/2021/02/beloved-dance-hub-dovercourt-house-closing-people-toronto-devastated/

Beloved dance hub Dovercourt House is closing and people in Toronto are devastated The beloved dance hub housed in Toronto's historic Dovercourt House is no more. For nearly two decades, the brick structure at 805 Dovercourt Rd....

"I missed the groundedness only another human body can bring. The ache in my solar plexus that married these thoughts often caught me off guard."
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/24/lost-touch-how-a-year-without-hugs-affects-our-mental-health?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Lost touch: how a year without hugs affects our mental health Humans are designed to touch and be touched – which is why so many who live on their own have suffered during the pandemic. Will we ever fully recover?

Submit a proposal before February 15 for the upcoming April 23 conference on the future of Contact Improvisation Dance. In writing your proposal, respond to one or more of these central questions:

* Can CI grow to meet the present moment?
* How will it change?
* Who will continue practicing and who will leave?
* Should CI be abandoned to make room for new practices?
* What are the conversations we need to be having?

https://www.earthdance.net/node/1822

Future of CI: Call for Proposals | Earthdance ACCEPTING WORKSHOP PROPOSALS THROUGH FEBRUARY 15, 2021Visit HERE for conference description. In writing your proposal, respond to one or more of these central questions: Can CI grow to meet the present moment? How will it change? Who will continue practicing and who will leave? Should CI be abandone...

Until we meet again: "Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost." "Discover the journey of Canadian-born dancer Stephanie Troyak as she follows her Muse—from her beginnings in Kitchener, Ontario, to Texas and New York, and finally to Wuppertal where she became a featured member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (TWPB), one of the world’s leading dance companies." https://nac-cna.ca/en/video/dance-portrait-de-danse-stephanie-troyak
💕

[Video] ▸ Dance Portrait: Stephanie Troyak Discover the journey of Canadian-born dancer Stephanie Troyak as she follows her Muse—from her beginnings in Kitchener, Ontario, to Texas and New York, and finally to Wuppertal where she became a featured member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (TWPB), one of the world’s leading dance c...

Dance New England one-day Virtual Dance Event: https://dne.org/news/registration-is-open-for-dnes-one-day-virtual-event-november-21-22/

Registration is open for DNE's one-day Virtual Event November 21-22! | DNE For this one day (28-hour) event, we are packing the schedule with lots of yummy opportunities for us to connect with ourselves and each other!

"Dance With Me | A Public Blindfolded Dance Experiment"

"I wanted to test out my belief that people are good, that despite being vulnerable, I would be safe. I wanted to test myself, was I really willing to dance with anyone, whoever they were, however they danced? Could the blindfolds help me to be truly blind to gender, age, race, economic status?

As many of us retreat further into our silos of our devices and our tribes, avoiding contact with strangers, I wanted to see if anyone would take me up on this invitation. I wanted to remind the world, but mostly myself, that extraordinary connections between strangers are possible and that the world can be as magical, safe, and free as we allow it to be.

Thank you to those who took me up on the offer. Thank you to those who whispered encouraging words. Thank you to the blindfolds for encouraging me to trust and surrender.

Thank you to Candice Holdorf for supporting me in this mad endeavor, and to Mar al Dao for your incredible eye for cinematography and presence. Editing by Adrian Stratulat. Music by Tolo.

See blindfoldedcontact.com to find out more about this modality."

https://vimeo.com/446958412

Dance With Me | A Public Blindfolded Dance Experiment I wanted to test out my belief that people are good, that despite being vulnerable, I would be safe. I wanted to test myself, was I really willing to dance with…

Our Bodies Remember (music video): https://www.facebook.com/rythea.lee.7/videos/10158806152699846/

"Even the slightest bit of touch can be very soothing and supportive."
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/how-touch-starvation-could-be-affecting-mental-health-184107557.html

How 'touch starvation' could be affecting your mental health during the pandemic "Research shows that even gentle touch from a stranger can make us feel more connected to the world around you," Jen Hartstein tells Yahoo Life.

Betty Martin's "Wheel of Consent" is a neat way of looking at consent around touch. She has a free set of videos online:
https://bettymartin.org/videos/

The Wheel of Consent | Betty Martin To heck with ’em. Here it is, and if you want me to email you when I offer classes (which I do) or when the book is published (next summer) – please, yes, give me your email!

How the loss of an intimate dance form affects a community. In this case, the community was Tango, but one could easily see how the CI community might feel the same way:
https://www.awakentango.com/blog2/survey-summary

Summary of findings & implications from Tango World COVID Survey — Awaken Tango Over two thousand voices of tango lovers from across the world spoke. We've spent a good part of the summer donating our time to try to make sense of a tsunami of data — which, we were told, it could easily take two years to fully analyze.  But what you shared was more than data;

https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/sns-nyt-how-to-hug-during-a-pandemic-20200605-2tg77zrb2zfcpn7rd3udcqvdry-story.html?outputType=amp

How to hug during a pandemic Of the many things we miss from our pre-pandemic lives, hugging may top the list. We asked scientists who study airborne viruses to teach us the safest way to hug.

"Skin hunger helps explain your desperate longing for human touch: Millions of people are being deprived of even the slightest physical contact during lockdown. And there’s a name for it: skin hunger" https://www.wired.co.uk/article/skin-hunger-coronavirus-human-touch

Skin hunger helps explain your desperate longing for human touch Millions of people are being deprived of even the slightest physical contact during lockdown. And there’s a name for it: skin hunger

https://andrewdance.org/contact-improvisation/dancing-contact-improvisation-with-contact-through/

Dancing contact improvisation with ‘contact-through’ – Andrew Dance Dancing contact improvisation with ‘contact-through’ In an age of coronavirus (July 2020) with the need to avoid bodies in contact, we can have some contact with each other through the use of artefacts like – balls, ropes, fabrics, sticks or poles. We can ‘contact-through’ them to other da...

UPDATE: In support of public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be cancelling all CI/Jams and classes starting this Saturday, March 14th until further notice.

We hope you remain safe and healthy during this time. Take care!

Safety Announcement update: Given that CI is a high contact activity, we wish to acknowledge the risks in light of the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). We will continue with CI jams/classes. However, we ask participants to respect the following:

1) Please do not attend a class/jam if you are experiencing any flu-like symptoms.

2) Please do not attend a class/jam if you or someone you live in close proximity to (e.g. cohabitate with) has travelled within the last two weeks internationally.

We will continue to monitor the situation based on public health information provided by Ottawa Public Health.

Wishing everybody a safe and happy holiday!

It's our last class and jam of the year today. Hope you can make it out!