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Soft Arrivals: Touch, Presence, and Composition in Contact Improvisation
Join us for a full-day workshop with teacher Brandon Gonzalez on Saturday March 1st.
Contact improvisation is both exhilarating and uncertain, a practice of dancing with the unknown, a process of discovery. Like meditation, it invites us to continually shed whatever is holding us back and soften into the present moment. With this openness comes potential, but also the vulnerability of not knowing.
We might ask ourselves: How do I connect? What’s in the way? What feels fresh and alive right now?
This workshop explores contact improvisation beyond a physical and sensory practice to include an emergent, creative, and ritualistic experience.
Through contact exercises, witnessing, compositional explorations, and personal reflection, we will create space to fully arrive, allowing time to sink into the material with depth and presence.
Open to all dancers seeking to deepen their practice, this workshop is best suited for those with some experience in contact improvisation who are looking to expand their range.
Registration (limited space), fill out the form to confirm your spot: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfytgg5Jbkdq9MvM9I7q3c_KIj1AYH3VQSeQRZp2J4grLacog/viewform?usp=sharing
Time: Saturday March 1st, 10:30am-4:30pm with a brief lunch break
Location: Blue Lapis Light 10331 Old Manchaca Rd B, Austin, TX 78748
Cost:
Early bird $85-150 (sliding scale) before 2/23
Week of $100-165 (sliding scale) after 2/23
What to bring: Water bottle, knee-pads, journal, food/snack, blanket for sitting outside, comfortable clothing and long pants for dancing/sliding on the floor
Brandon Gonzalez is an interdisciplinary dance artist, choreographer, and educator based in Austin, Texas. He’s moved by the transformational power of dance as a ritual practice, using it as an experimental ground for investigating embodied human experience. Focusing on the capacities of the body as a resource for artistic practice, he develops works across a variety of media and performance modalities. He teaches Contact Improvisation nationally and internationally, and for over 15 years has produced dance events in Austin. Working as a co-organizing member, he helped establish the annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF). He is also the Artistic Director and an established DJ/facilitator at Ekstasis, a vibrant community ritual-dance event in Austin. Brandon is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance at TXST University. He holds a BFA in Studio Art from TXST and an MFA in Dramatic Arts from UC Davis.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Blue Lapis Light, 10335 Old Manchaca Rd, Austin, TX 78748-1270, United States,Manchaca, Texas
