Kat has been teaching dance for youth and hosting all ages Contact jams since 2012 at various venues including Trout Lake Community Center, the Roundhouse and recently EDAM Dance. She wholey believes in the importance of including youth and all ages in the instruction of dance and especially improvisation which young people are so good at naturally.

Sarah is a bilingual (english/french) settler of European descent, born in Montréal and raised all over North America, who now lives on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, in the Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood of so-called Vancouver. Sarah’s main art practice is in improvisation and dance. Her other work is in movement facilitation for people of all ages. Her journey in Contact Dance started with the Scholarship program at EDAM in 2010. Since then, she has danced her way through raising 2 kids while performing, creating, producing and facilitating. She currently performs and hosts dance experiences for the very young and their favourite people through her work with dance company Foolish Operations. She’s excited to explore the possibilities of Contact Dance between caregivers and children; be prepared to move through functional movement pathways, hug and clap, make up Art Sport games, and have fun dancing.

Indulging | the pleasure of basic principles in Contact Improvisation

In this class, we will bring the value of playfulness and curiosity to work on the mechanics of rolling point, sloughing, surfacing, bridging, yielding, anchoring, and pressure modulation in contact to share a sense of the basic principles that I understand in my own body. We will dance in different duets to explore how letting go of tension and expectation can lead to flourishing creativity within each dance. We will engage in short improvisational duets to sense how we can exchange information non-verbally and with full body dexterity then transition into improvising with the group to cultivate our skill and pleasure of reading the partners in the room.

About the Teacher:
Arash Khakpour (آرش خاکپور) is a dancer and choreographer from Tehran and based in colonially known as Vancouver. Arash has been practicing dance and performance for the past 14 years and has been a company member of the EDAM ensemble since 2017. He tends to invest in the nuances of prejudices in the body as a way of inviting the unconscious to the conscious, and as a doorway to confront unknown emotions. He sees dance as a process of physical, emotional and spiritual discovery and a mode of transformation. He works with dance as a language that researches the human condition through mythical, historical, social, political and existential interpretations. As a first-generation immigrant, he continuously considers what healing he can bring to the land and communities he works with. He is building a culture of relationality and reciprocity that celebrates the multiplicity of presences and approaches. Arash is the co-founder and artistic director of the dance-theatre-film company The Biting School (alongside his brother Aryo Khakpour).

Born and reared in Semiahmoo territory (South Surrey) Hayley Gawthrop It an independent, artist residing in the unseeded ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (so-called Vancouver).

Hayley leapt into the world of dance from a young age. After following through with extensive training in Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary dance, their love of movement, virtuosity and rigour found conflict with the hegemonic rigidity of these “classical” dance forms.

Hayley’s dance practice has mutated and adapted to celebrate the things they love about dance/(the world) and to challenge the things they question or want to change.
Hayley is privileged to have worked and danced for many people they admire, including: Emmalena Fredriksson, Arash Khakpour (Biting School), Antonio Somera Jr, Fight With a Stick, Dumb Instrument Dance, Omer Keinan, Kelly Mc'Innes, The Response, MACHiNENOiSEY Dance Society, and has worked as a dramaturg/outside eye for Emmalena Fredriksson, Kelly McInnes and Marissa Wong.

Hayley has been studying Contact Improv under the tutelage of Peter Bingham since 2015 and has been dancing professionally with EDAM since 2021.

Contact Improv has provided Hayley with a score to follow their questions about dance/(the world) down as many rabbit holes as necessary. Some of their most pressing questions are: how to take care, how to listen when to disrupt, how to hold, how to float, and how to fly.

Hayley is passionate about gentleness, bodily autonomy and deep listening. Their class balances practical skill-building with time to explore one’s own questions and desires.

They hope these classes will help you feel thoughtful, brave and confident in the unknown.

Francesca Frewer is a contemporary dance artist who has been studying Contact Improvisation for 11 years. Her teaching is heavily influenced by training and dancing with Peter Bingham and the EDAM company, and her classes also draw on principles of the Feldenkrais Method, a somatic movement practice she teaches and of which she is an ongoing student. With a particular interest in efficiency, precision, and refined awareness, Francesca offers technical skill-building towards the end goal of finding ever more options within the moment to moment choice-making that is improvisation.

Francesca creates and performs in her own work, frequently in collaboration with Erika Mitsuhashi. She has also worked with Company 605, Emmalena Fredriksson, Company Saint Genet, Future Leisure, and Evann Siebens, among others. She is a co-producer and organizer of the interdisciplinary art series Here For Now, and the DIY performance space Boombox.

Olivia is a professional dance artist based in Vancouver, where she performs with EDAM Dance Company and in special projects led by herself and a range of collaborators. In addition to Contact Improvisation, Olivia has extensive training in contemporary dance, improvisation, Pilates, Feldenkrais, and other somatic movement approaches. She regularly teaches at EDAM and is adjunct faculty at UBC’s BFA program.

Anne Cooper has been a company member of EDAM since 1994 and has also danced with Chick Snipper, Helen Walkley, Mascall Dance, and many other companies as well as creating and producing her own work. She has researched and performed in Nancy Stark Smith’s (one of the founders of Contact Improvisation) ‘Glimpse’ projects. She has taught CI since 2001 at EDAM, in Vancouver and other locales. Anne has trained with many CI teachers including Peter Bingham, Jaci Metivier, Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, Andrew Harwood, and others as well as some study with Steve Paxton (the instigator of Contact Improvisation/1972, and of Material for the Spine.)

Natalie Tin Yin Gan (顏婷妍) is an independent dance artist, writer, and teacher based in so-called Vancouver, on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her practice squats (120 lb) at the intersection of spirit, somatics, and technology-induced melancholy. Natalie is the Co-Artistic Director of company Hong Kong Exile that explores the historical and contemporary politic of the Chinese diaspora. She is also the smaller half of vulva clown duo, Pulsive Party. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio and a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Natalie is a late sleeper, a late riser, a late bloomer, a latecomer, and a late-night snacker. nataliegan.com