Class Description

A class for late autumn animal bodies. 

we will: 

Soften onto our supple readiness and practice listening with the skin of our hands, feet, and heads

Move from using  mind’s eye moving imagery  into dynamic, precise movement affected and affecting the space and the others in the room 

Receive touch-nourishment and movement patterning feedback through simple partner cues 

Fold, yield, fall, catch, spring and toss 

Move fast and slow while paying attention to ease and effort

Listen to really good music 

Leave pressure to do cool moves at the door (cool moves might emerge tho) 

This class is for you if you: 

want to come to dance class but have been avoiding it for one hundred possible reasons including the last 2.5 years changed how you want to engage with dance class 

want options for ways to participate 

want to find yourself dancing without having to have gotten yourself there  (aka a spell) 

It’s also for you if you have been gleefully dancing this whole pandemic, and wanna dance more :) 

Teacher Description:

I am a settler of European ancestry, a queer dancer, writer, choreographer, support worker and facilitator raised and living here on stolen Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh lands. My practice includes making dances, writing about dances, dancing, teaching, and community actions, often overlapping and blurring together. Dance is the practice through which I sense and engage with the world around me, build nervous-system resilience, and gather in creative resistance and joy with existing and emergent community. 

My training is based in Western-European contemporary dance technique, contact improvisation and somatic movement modalities. After graduating from Modus Operandi training program, I have continued my dance training as a dedicated student of Peter Bingham (contact improvisation) Helen Walkley (improvisation), and Stephanie Skura (Open Source Forms), and am in ongoing mentorship around creative practice and facilitation with Lee Su-Feh. As a teacher, I am committed to anti-oppressive frameworks, unlearning unhealthy relationships to obedience and power, and creating spaces where agency, rigorous play, and selfhood can flourish. 

Photographer Credits: Antonia Valentina