the 7th annual Thanksgiving weekend

Contact Intensive

with Karl Frost

Friday-Sunday

November 27-29

Noon to 6PM daily

8th Street Studio Complex

Berkeley, California

 

This yearly workshop for experienced contactors is Karl’s most “improvised”workshop of the year, offering new experiments based on recent work and curiosities. Over the days, we meander through an organic mix of technique and poetic exploration of the physical encounter with other.

The technical work cultivates efficiency, kinesthetic pleasure, and physical safety in contact as well as fluid speed and power. A recurring theme is the ability to calmly sense with more somatic detail in more “frames per second”… to sense and to be able to act creatively and functionally on what is sensed.

Art and felt meaning in the dance are the subjects of physical poetics.

While our path will be discovered as we go, you can expect…

• contact vocabulary: novel lifts and mechanical details

• a balance of study and abandon, tight investigations and open questions

• Explorations of release technique and the “passive sequencing” work

• Simple kinesthetics balanced with a more complex sense of ‘meaning’

• States-based explorations, allowing states of awareness and mind/body relationship to guide our exploration

• Contrasts of Speed, Slowness, and Stillness explored as part of the artistic palette and as doorways to perception

A special focus, coming out of Karl's current investigations will be on "States work" in contact ... working from mind-body states to generate powerful and personal provacative dances... dances of very specific qualities, whether for personal investigation or performance.

 

Body work, Mind work, pleasure, intellect, and a fair bit of sweat.

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Karl Frost has been teaching andperforming contact and related work in body-based creative process for the last 20 years. He is known internationally for his dynamic and articulate movement style, his rigor in physical research and teaching, and for the edge-pushing nature of his work in both practice and performance. His work, influenced by studies in contemporary release technique, Alexander technique, and martial arts, has been showcased across the states, Canada, Europe, South America, and Israel. His performances take the body and emotionally and physically felt experience as their reference points.

Some of his recent projects have included the Dancing Wilderness Project, the blindfolded participatory performance work AXOLOTL, and Contact Camp at Burning Man.

Of his performance work...

utterly compelling!
Brett Fetzer, The Stranger, Seattle, April 04
extremely interesting.
Ann Wagner, The Stranger, Seattle, Sep 04
the most surprising performance experience i've ever had and ... one of the most rewarding.
Brendan Kiley, The Stranger, Seattle Oct 05
’something startling but strangely beautiful to behold.
Molly Rhodes, SF Weekly, San Francisco, August 07

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Workshop Logistics

Where: Friday - 8th Street Studio, Saturday/Sunday - Western Sky Studio
             both at 8th & Dwight in Berkeley
When: Fri-Su Nov 27-29, 12p to 6p.  We will have a short snack break , but it is expected that people will have already eaten lunch.

Fees:

	Regular Fees	Early Registration		"at the door"
deposit in by	November 26	October 31	November 13	-
sliding scale	$210 - $400	$150+	$180+	$240+

Registration – send $50 deposit to karl or paypal to info@bodyresearch.org

Space is limited, so early registration is recommended. Priority is for those who can attend the full 3 days.

This workshop is for those who have already had an introduction to the practice of contact improvisation.

For more info, contact Karl at (206) 790 1645, info@bodyresearch.org