Contact Improvisation Class + Jam

Join The Center SF for a playful evening of contact improvisation. Class will be from 7:30-9pm and then will flow directly into a jam until 10:30pm. In class, we’ll explore themes of weight-sharing, counterbalancing, signaling, listening, and everything in-between. The jam that follows is an opportunity to continue researching your movement & relational curiosities that sparked from class. First-timers and experienced dancers are all very welcome! Today's class will be taught by Marcus van Duren with live jam music by Craig Berletti :)

CI classes at The Center will be offered by a rotating mix of teachers every 2nd & 4th Wednesday evening. Check the calendar here for more contact improv across the bay area and to see who's teaching.

teacher/musical artist/host bios:

MARCUS | teacher. Marcus van Duren is a dancer, teacher and community organizer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has intensively studied movement and dance since his discovery of contact improvisation in 2012. He has been teaching classes and workshops locally in California since 2015, and seasonally travels internationally to teach contact improvisation and study as an active member of the international Axis Syllabus community. Marcus has had the pleasure of studying with Kira Kirsch, Frey Faust, Nuria Bowart, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Martin Keogh, Ray Chung, Nita Little, James Graham, Sarah Shelton Mann and many others. In addition to appreciating dance as a performing art, Marcus sees dance as a life practice. He is endlessly curious about how dance can reflect larger patterns in one's attention and serve as a laboratory to explore new ways of moving and being, both on and off the dance floor. Marcus holds an interdisciplinary BA from UC Berkeley with a focus in Theater, Dance & Performance and Psychology.

CRAIG | musical artist. Craig Berletti has been playing music for over 20 years. He specializes in trumpet, piano, and accordion. You can find Craig performing across the bay, teaching music, and tuning pianos. Reach out at https://www.berlettipiano.com/ & https://www.thebackdimplesband.com/ | venmo @craig-berletti

MERRICK | evening host. Merrick Jacob (she/her) is a lover of movement, continuously in awe of the body and its potential for unique expression, creativity, & authentic connection. Influenced by her practices of figure skating, acroyoga, hand balancing, and contact improvisation, she guides playful movement experiences as an opportunity for deep listening, exploration, and co-creation. She is a certified acroyoga instructor with AcroRevolution & AcroYoga Montréal. Merrick studied a variety of somatic movement therapy modalities with Dynamic Embodiment & The Moving On Center: School of Participatory Arts & Somatic Research, focusing on BodyMind Centering & Laban Movement Analysis. For more contact improvisation with Merrick, she hosts every 2nd & 4th Wednesday evening at The Center SF. Say hi to her here: https://merrickjacob.com/

Want to read more about CI? Here’s a good resource to start, and please make sure to review our class agreements before attending.

Looking forward to dancing & jamming together!

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Center SF, 548 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, United States