I have been practicing contact improvisation since 2016. Through contact improvisation, I sense and explore how the body is always in relationship and constantly changing from moment to moment. I run the Contact & Play community in Seoul, where I organize jams, workshops, and festivals. I am currently deepening my somatic movement practice through Body-Mind Centering. Through this practice, I am exploring a balance between sensory expansion cultivated through Body-Mind Centering and the physical dynamism of contact improvisation.
Our bodies carry water. Through the fluidity and liquidity of water, we will explore the quality of contact. We will listen to the flow of blood moving between the heart and the peripheries, to the fluids between the organs, and to the synovial fluid within the joints—discovering how the tone of the body shifts and transforms. In a field where we communicate and resonate as water, the body will breathe, vibrate, and come alive.
Mimi Lo @ MimiLOPADF (Mimi Lo Performing Arts Development Foundation) teaches contact improvisation at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She is a graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts modern dance program, majoring in choreography and dance directing. Mimi followed Nancy Stark Smith in 2016 and 2018 to practice CI at EarthDance in the US and undertook the Long Dance Research project at The Dragon's Egg Studio, also in the US. She completed her DanceAbility® Teacher Training in Helsinki, Finland and her ContaKids Teacher training in Arezzo, Italy. Her current focuses are on contact improvisation and somatic dance and movement.
In the practice of contact improvisation, the application of momentum is generally emphasized. When you can master timing and make good use of momentum, your movements would become easier and more comfortable. But what if momentum is removed from the equation? Will you be able to better understand the different resources available to your body and find new possibilities? And then use them to dance in and out of momentum freely?
Hanano Teshirogi is a dancer, contact improviser, actor, and teacher. She majored in dance at The Japan Women’s College of Physical Education. In 2008, together with Miki Hoei, she co-founded CI-bu, a dance company rooted in CI techniques. From 2008 to 2011, she was a member of CIco, where she performed, taught, organized festivals, and contributed to the development of CI communities across Japan and internationally. She was also a supporting artist at i-Dance Japan. Among the choreographers/directors she has worked with include Hideki Noda, John Caird and Iñaki Azpillaga. Recently, she played the character Bo-Mouse and was the puppet captain for the critically acclaimed UK production of Spirited Away. Alongside her performance career, she has developed community dance initiatives inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in her hometown of Matsushima. Currently, she teaches physical expression at the drama department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Senior High School of the Arts.
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