Colours in Contact: Advanced Lifts Workshop

Come explore lifts through momentum, timing, and flow with us!

On January 29 from 7–10 pm, we’ll dive into an embodied exploration of releasing control and catching momentum to access lighter, more fluid lifts that emerge naturally.

Together, we’ll explore how timing, responsiveness, and shared movement can create effortless elevations that feel dynamic, playful, and sustainable. You can expect to explore:

• Releasing control to allow lifts to arise organically
• Catching and redirecting momentum
• Timing, weight pathways, and leverage
• Effortless elevation through flow rather than force
• Playful, creative approaches to lifts

Whether contact improv is new to you or already part of your movement world, this workshop offers practical tools and a fresh perspective on how lifts can feel lighter, more fun, and more alive.

✨ Who is this for?
This workshop is for movers who already feel comfortable going upside down and can safely practice inversions. You’re welcome to come from any movement background - contact improv, other dance styles, acrobatics, yoga, or beyond. In fact, coming from another form is encouraged as this will bring fresh perspectives on momentum, timing, and how lifts can happen with less effort.

*** To avoid the Eventbrite fee, feel free to send payment of $70 directly through etransfer to [email protected]).
Sign up today! We can’t wait to move with you!

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About the Facilitators:

Emma and Pablo co-founded Colours in Contact in 2023 with a shared vision: to build a warm, culturally diverse, beginner-friendly contact improv space in Toronto where people can move, explore, and express themselves freely.

Emma grew up dancing, spending many years in ballet before falling in love with the freedom, play, and expressive possibilities of contact improv. She’s passionate about bringing people together, creating supportive spaces, and helping movers grow in confidence and creativity.

Pablo draws on his deep Guatemalan roots that thrive in shared presense and curiosuity with any given moment along with an affection for the organic quality that raw self expression provides in any creative space. He brings a rich background in contact improv through muay thai, tai chi, yoga, partner dance, and authentic movement. His teaching is grounded in curiosity, play, and care, and presense inviting dancers to explore what movement, support, and expression can mean for them.

Together, they cultivate classes and jams that are beginner-friendly, inclusive, and rooted in the belief that everyone has a creative, expressive body waiting to be discovered.
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About Contact Improv:

Contact Improvisation (CI) is a partner/solo/group-improvised dance style that arose from collective research into weight, touch, and gravity in the early 1970s, initiated by Steve Paxton and developed through experimentation with a group of dancers including Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Daniel Lepkoff, Curt Siddall, David Woodberry, Mary Fulkerson, Nina Martin, Karen Radler. Due to the open-ended nature of the dance, each new dancer can add to this pot of creativity. This has lead to various influences weaving in and out of the form. Some of those influences include but are not limited to Tango, Zen, Zouk, Contemporary, Ballet, Hip Hop, Qi Gong, Capoeira, Ballroom, Salsa and the list goes on. This is the beauty of CI: it can offer such an open fertile ground for exploration in expression and movement. Your voice in this dance is what will drive the creative freedom possible at Colours in Contact.

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Special Considerations:

- Since Colours in Contact events involve a rolling point of contact and sliding, clothing that have zippers and buttons as well as jewellery are not permitted. Sleeveless shirts, shorts, skirts and slippery clothing are also not recommended.

- Only non-glass water bottles are allowed in the studio as we dance barefoot.

- Please avoid wearing perfumes or scented body care products in consideration for people with chemical sensitivities.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Black Box, 1110 Dupont Street, Toronto, Canada

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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