Fundamentals Workshop w/ Olivia Shaffer

*Our next Fundamentals Workshop will be held in Sept 2024. Please email us if you would like to be notified when registration opens.

This workshop is for beginners.

If you are new to Contact, this workshop is for you! This workshop will introduce Contact Improvisation basics, and will provide you with the fundamentals to begin your practice.

Class will begin with a guided warm-up to deepen awareness of ourselves in relation to gravity. We will practice moving in and out of the floor with ease and efficiency. As we begin to dance together, we will deepen foundational skills of Contact dance, such as rolling point of contact, sloughing (sliding), meeting pressure (continuity of connection), weight sharing, and underdancing (offering mobile support).

What is Contact Improvisation? It is an improvised social dance, involving non-verbal communication between bodies moving through physical contact. It is a meditation on presence and body awareness, as well as a play of physics using gravity, momentum, and inertia to inspire dancing together. Every moment is a collaboration with a focus on “listening” through the skin surface at the physical point of contact.

Olivia takes a sincere approach to safety and communication. She facilitates fun, invigorating, and physically empathetic dancing. You are welcome to attend and participate as much or as little as you feel comfortable. No need to bring a partner. Wear comfortable clothing - long sleeves & kneepads are recommended.

Please email director@edamdance.org if you have any questions about attending this workshop.

*Please review our workshop registration and cancellation policy at the bottom of this page.

Contact Improvisation Workshop for Dance Artists w/ Olivia Shaffer

May 11 | 1 - 4PM

EARLY BIRD: $35 when you register by April 26th
REGULAR: $45

This workshop is for professional and pre-professional dance artists.

Are you interested in attending Morning Class at EDAM but want to practice a few skills first? Did you used to come to Morning Class but want a refresher of foundational principles with some options first? This workshop is for you!

We will sense the play between tension and suppleness in our body. We will deepen awareness of ourselves in relation to gravity. We will explore falling and ways of moving in and out of the floor with ease and efficiency.



Dancing together — working with rolling point, sloughing, meeting pressure, weight sharing, and underdancing; we will develop a deeper understanding of Contact by digging into concepts through practice, self-reflection and inquiry.

Who is a dance artist? Someone working or intending to work as a dancer in the professional sphere; for example post secondary dance student (or equivalent), emerging professional, or established professional dancer.

Please email director@edamdance.org if you have any questions about attending this workshop.

*Please review our workshop registration and cancellation policy at the bottom of this page.

Intermediate Workshop w Anne Cooper
Spontaneous inspiration from researched responsibility

June 1 | 1 - 5:30PM

EARLY BIRD: $60 when you register by May 17th
REGULAR: $70

For experienced practitioners of CI.

We meet in the vibration of the dance between us, sharing weight responsively, reflexively and responsibly from a shared understanding through studying and improvising together. We engage ourselves with our partner, the environment and the dance evolving between us. Inviting levity and supportive follow-through into the dancing, we will develop reading our readiness and timing. Playing from the depth of presence and patience we flow into the quiet and active less-known and its textures.

Please arrive at 12:45PM to allow enough time to settle into the studio before the start of the workshop.

Register in advance to show your interest. We need a minimum of participants registered in advance to hold this workshop. Additional participants may come the day-of and pay cash, e-transfer or register online providing we have enough participants registered to commit to holding the workshop.

Please email info@edamdance.org if you have any questions about attending.

*Please review our workshop registration and cancellation policy at the bottom of this page.

About Anne:
Anne has danced with EDAM since 1994, studying Contact Improvisation with Peter Bingham and performing in EDAM's work, both structured improvisations and choreography. She has researched and performed with Nancy Stark Smith through Nancy's 'Glimpse Performance Installations' in the U.S.A. Anne has taught/facillitated CI since 2001 in Vancouver and other locales through classes, Jams and workshops. She has created and performed her own work and has danced with many Canadian companies/choreographers. Anne has trained in contemporary dance and CI; her CI teachers include Peter Bingham, Nancy Stark Smith, Jaci Metivier, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung and others and some study with Steve Paxton (Material For the Spine) and recently, Nora Hajos (Material For the Spine). Anne is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, BC, on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsliel-Waututh First Nations.

The Underscore w Anne Cooper

talk-through | TBD
Global Underscore non-synchronous full-score practice | June 22, 12:30 - 4:30PM

THE TALK THROUGH: $5 (refreshers are FREE)
THE PRACTICE: $25

The Underscore is a spacious and engaging experience shared by the participants that can spark surprising kinesthetic and compositional improvised dance and Contact Improvisation within a defined framework.

Participants must attend a talk-through prior to attending the practice.

> talk-through

The ‘talk-through’ gives us the ‘what we are going to engage in’ or ‘game-plan’ for a long session of dance improvisation and Contact Improvisation. Participants must attend (or have already attended) a 1-hr talk-through to attend the Underscore practice and must already have some experience in Contact Improvisation. For those who have already attended a talk-through, and would like a “refresher”, refreshers are FREE.

> the practice

The Underscore is a framework for practising and researching dance improvisation and Contact Improvisation developed in the 90’s by Nancy Stark Smith. The Underscore is a score that guides dancers through a series of “changing states“; from solo deepening/releasing and sensitizing to gravity and support; through group circulation and interaction, Contact Improvisation engagements, opening out to full group improvisation with compositional awareness, and back to rest and reflection. (Caught Falling)

The Underscore is generally not led by verbal cues; the idea is that people “know” it and come together to share the practice. It is for those who have some experience in Contact Improvisation. It is generally practiced without music, and without social conversation during the practice itself; snacking and exiting/reentering to the washrooms as needed are part of the score!

> the Global Underscore

Dance The Underscore simultaneously around the globe! The GLOBAL UNDERSCORE (GUS) centers on a yearly dance event in which dancers all over the world practice the Underscore simultaneously for a 4-hour period. GUS typically takes place on the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Read more about the format, find your time zone, see where others are practising, view The Harvest, and more here: globalunderscore.com

Please email info@edamdance.org if you have any questions about attending.

*This activity is a special offering, not a workshop.

Lab/Jam w Anne Cooper

Fri, Mar 22 | 6:45 - 9PM
Fri, Apr 26 | 6:45 - 9PM
Fri, May 24 | 6:45 - 9PM
Fri, Jun 7 | 6:45 - 9PM

We will 'Lab' and we will 'Jam'.

A facilitated warm-up brings us to a time of practice and inquiry into our contact improvising, facilitated by Anne with inquiries or interests coming from the group (or Anne).

We will engage with 1 (or 2) inquiries, ('Lab') and then Jam for an hour. If you have never done Contact, come to a few CI classes prior to this.

*This activity is a special offering, not a workshop.

About Olivia:
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. www.oliviashaffer.ca

About Anne:
Anne has danced with EDAM since 1994, studying Contact Improvisation with Peter Bingham and performing in EDAM's work, both structured improvisations and choreography. She has researched and performed with Nancy Stark Smith through Nancy's 'Glimpse Performance Installations' in the U.S.A. Anne has taught/facillitated CI since 2001 in Vancouver and other locales through classes, Jams and workshops. She has created and performed her own work and has danced with many Canadian companies/choreographers. Anne has trained in contemporary dance and CI; her CI teachers include Peter Bingham, Nancy Stark Smith, Jaci Metivier, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung and others and some study with Steve Paxton (Material For the Spine) and recently, Nora Hajos (Material For the Spine). Anne is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, BC, on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsliel-Waututh First Nations.