Sasha Bezrodnova • Ocean Dance, Aquatic Somatics & Eco-Activism

Welcome to Faces of CI - Conversations in Contact Improvisation. Today's guest is Sasha Bezrodnova (Russia) in Koh Phangan, Thailand. We discuss her work in "Ocean Dance" community, where Contact meets Freediving and Aquatic Somatics. Entering the world of the sea and learning from dolphins. Her eco-political water dance film Aquas in Mexico. Find out more about her work on Instagram @theoceandance and find us @momentumcontact

Welcome to Faces of CI - the podcast of conversations in Contact Improvisation. We are joined today by our newest graduate of our Momentum Contact Facilitator Training - Andy Chen (USA / Portugal) ● From the episode "I really love the jams where I get to dance with a lot of bodies. There's a little feeling of "ok, I had a dance and it wasn't that great" But I still went back in. Then I had a nice dance. That idea that it's always different, and I get to choose to have another chance of feeling joy. For me that's a big change in my mindset. Where in other forms of activities, I might just leave and not come back. For some reason with contact, I keep wanting to go back. That's what it's about." ● Join our next trainings online and in person at www.momentum-contact.com Find Andy on Instagram @casa_eira and @charlopants and us @facesofci Dance later, Aalia

Welcome to Faces of CI - the podcast of conversations in Contact Improvisation. We are joined live from one of our Momentum Beginners Contact Workshops with.. our students! Yes, I wanted to share their voices and insights on the practice about what it means to "move authentically" and "be a dancer". Tune in to find out more. ● ONLINE  www.momentum-contact.com & Instagram @facesofci Dance later, Aalia

In this episode we sit with our students in Momentum Contact Workshop, reflecting upon the questions "What is a dancer?" And "What is flow in your body?". I am in awe of my student's shares each time we do this exercise. Names have been withheld for privacy. • Join us for next upcoming Momentum Contact Workshops https://msha.ke/momentumworkshop Find us on Instagram @facesofci - Aalia

Welcome to Faces of CI - the podcast of conversations in Contact Improvisation. Our guests today are our new graduate facilitators from the first edition of Momentum Contact Facilitator Training - Sunny Zheng (Beijing, China) and Janice Chen (Berkeley, USA) /// Sunny : "I just completed the 10 day training with so many takeaways. It’s a journey about exploring my inner self and expanding the boundaries of my world. We learned the history and culture of CI, contact skills, as well as useful and practical skills to not be injured and dance safely. Not just dance but beyond the dance, helping us to become independent facilitators. Before this, I was not sure if I could make it, because maybe I don’t know how to communicate, but it happened naturally in the teaching, because of all that we learned here - with Aalia’s trust and guidance. This is more than knowledge, but confidence and support. I’m so lucky to be a part of this. I can’t wait to share this in my China Contact Community. If you want to be a facilitator, come and join us - it’s so worthwhile!"  // Join our next Momentum Contact Facilitator Training Feb 10 - 19, 2024 in Bali  www.momentum-contact.com And find us on Instagram @facesofci Dance later, Aalia

Welcome to Faces of CI - conversations in Contact Improvisation. Our guest today is Stuart Phillips, Contact Teacher since 1980's joining us from Victoria, BC, Canada. From his wild roots at Bates College in the 1980's all day improvising to contact as charades on steriods. We chat about CI as weirdness, allowance, shadowwork, and therapeutic relief from our everyday lives. His style of improvisational contact, empahisis on the improvising, internal choice first over flow. Depatterning and deconditioning our "contact moves." "When I'm getting what I need in a dance, its shifting me - so it makes me more open to the world. It takes so much patience. It's such a mystery." Find out more on www.stulips.org Join our upcoming Momentum Contact Facilitator Training Feb 10 - 19, 2024 in Bali www.momentum-contact.com And find us on Instagram @facesofci Dance later, Aalia

Welcome to Faces of CI - conversations in Contact. Peter Bingham is a force within the world of Contact Improvisation, teaching and creating performance works through his company EDAM Dance in Vancouver, Canada since 1980. In this episode we discuss his origin story in dance, the physical mechanics of Contact in terms of choreography, his daily morning class for professional dancers, intone voice as hypnotizing state, leading by following, and changes for him with Parkinson's disease. "EDAM is a place for Contact. And Contact has a place at EDAM. And hopefully that will go on - ad nauseum." EDAM Dance has been a nest held by Peter, a thread holding a big part of the contact world. It's floors hold "Contact energy" having been graced by Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Nita Little, and many other high level dancers for decades. // Find EDAM's Schedule at www.edamdance.org // Faces of CI and Aalia online // Instagram @facesofci  https://linktree.com/facesofci

Hey, it me Aalia! Hopping on the ramble about : cultivating joy, play, and weirdness in jams to reset and shake habits. Comedy improv and circling as supportive mirrors to contact improvisation. What it means to be an embodied leader of contact. Navigating self compassion within the dance of life. // Follow Faces of CI & Aalia online Instagram @facesofci Upcoming workshops https://linktree.com/facesofci

Welcome to Faces of CI ~ conversations in Contact Improvisation. I am delighted to be joined by my first contact teacher, Olivia Shaffer, dancer and assistant director at EDAM Dance Company. In this episode, we chat about her journey from ballet to Europe to contact to finding her voice, correcting "doing" in contact, staying curious when injured with scores of limitation, pilates and Feldenkrais, dancing as a contact company performance artist, moving grief into art through her choreography work, and wrestling and flying in childhood as precusors to contact. Find out more about her classes and work at www.oliviashaffer.ca and edamdance.org // Follow Faces of CI online // Instagram @facesofci Upcoming workshops by Aalia https://linktree.com/facesofci Photo by Hilary Maxwell. This episode was recorded at EDAM Dance in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

Welcome to Faces of CI - The podcast on conversations in Contact Improvisation. Our guest today is the legendary Contact teacher Andrew Harwood (Montreal). Since 1975 Andrew has been instrumental in spreading Contact Improvisation across Canada. We discuss the roots of his beginnings with Nancy Stark Smith, performance and ensemble in CI, contemplative dance, aging in the dancing body, and the secret Contact meeting of first gen CI teachers in Vermont. This episode was recorded for Saltspring Islandd Contact Festival 2023. Find Faces of CI online // Instagram @facesofci https://linktree.com/facesofci And info on Momentum Facilitator Training : https://aaliahashem.my.canva.site/momentumfacilitator