Contact Improv Tango - Delicate Emptiness Full of Possibilities
weekend 4 – 5 January 2025
Movement and dance workshop offering a unique experience on multiple levels of perception.
A workshop where you’ll experience the essence of contact improvisation and tango, this time focusing on the magical significance of empty spaces „in between“ that transform movement into dance. The space between dancers, between objects, the stillness between two movements, the silence between tones – this is emptiness overflowing with possibilities. We’ll learn to discover these spaces in dance, dwell in them longer, and listen to allow them to draw in our entire consciousness and let us capture and feel what may or must happen next.
We’ll practice the art of extending pauses to lure attention into them, we’ll exercise how to stop suddenly between movements to change our plan, we’ll learn how to create space between partners that opens a world of possibilities, and we’ll discover the space between stimulus and response where our power of choice and freedom lies.
When we listen with every cell, our body gradually becomes part of the irresistible flow of dance. It’s a return to the body that is created for movement, passion, and diversity. You’ll discover that movements and figures don’t need to be known or learned, that they arise from natural simple impulses, and soon you find yourself in a flow of dance that brings you everything you’ve been missing. We’ll create a richer and more liberating way of dance: an open physical expression that activates natural movement possibilities and is free from superficial rules.
From tango, we’ll use: clarity of axis and use of spirals, mutual balancing and use of counterweight, rhythm and melody. From contact improvisation, we’ll study: falls, standing up, connection with the ground, rising, conscious use of centripetal and centrifugal forces, relationship of the free body to the ground. We learn to create a shared movement composition that transcends each of us while belonging to us both. We both influence it and initially allow our proposals to overlap without order. Only gradually do we arrive at harmony.
Contact improvisation and tango represent a range of diverse movements that are neither routine nor monotonous and are vital for our well-being. They also provide an opportunity to use touch as a tool of communication. They expand the perception of oneself and the other. They allow us to be creative, playful, and grounded while seeking a path to agreement. Instead of control, we focus on sensory perception that guides us precisely and infallibly, allows us to adapt, and evokes pleasure from movement.
This workshop is intended for anyone interested in movement and movement creation as a path to knowledge, healing, communication, and enrichment of their life experience.
Javier Cura (Argentina)
Javier Cura is a teacher, visual artist, theater director and movement trainer who has admirably made a name for himself in the field of movement and dance. He has created many performances in Argentina, Colombia, USA, Italy, Germany and Indonesia. At the international level, he teaches contact tango, physical theater and contact improvisation. He is a great dancer who awakens an irresistible desire to move, dance and express with movement.
As a visionary and movement activist, he encourages all who are willing to listen to him to take care of their own vital movement needs. He believes that the all-round diverse movement we reintegrate into our lives has a huge impact on our emotional, physical and mental health, as well as on the ecology of the planet. He is currently working on the „Ecological Body“ project in collaboration with a UN environmental researcher.
“The main goal of my work is to encourage the student to find connections between: an objective view of the body; (physical elements, body scheme: axis, lines of force, center of gravity, anatomy, etc.) subjective understanding of the body (emotional, expressive, creative consciousness and self-perceived body image) and the body in relation to the other; (its community, social and spiritual nature). In each workshop, participants are able to link learned physical activities with their personal creative expression and re-own them. Whatever the participants perceive and experience in the transient context of the workshop can be and often is transferred to the outside world, to their personal social context. It enriches the dance of everyday life. „
The workshop takes place in Prague.
The workshop is intensive: Saturday and Sunday 9:30 – 17:30, and is open to everyone regardless of age or prior movement experience.
Price 179 EUR. To reserve a place the deposit of 59 EUR must be paid in advance.
