WORKSHOPS

Before attending a workshop, please review the Important Info below, including what to wear/bring, FAQ’s, and accessibility info.

Building Entry: Buzz ‘02’ ONLY for entry. Please arrive 5 to 10 min before class to change and settle. Entry to the building is only granted 15 min before and 15 min after an activity starts.

For more information about our workshops, please contact us at info@edamdance.org.

In this workshop, we explore how our practice of Contact Improvisation can grow when we connect our physical intelligence and poetic sensibilities. Our perceptual skills connect us to ourselves, others, and the environment as we meet the physical, emotional, and creative demands of the moment. In this workshop, we engage our compositional minds considering timing, proximity, effort, stillness, and the syntax of our movements. We keep the physical principles of contact improvisation at the center of our work – how we move and find support and possibilities through improvisation. We explore ways the event of touch and the ebb and flow of weight exchange can invigorate our dance practice. We seek to create containers for focused dancing that bring energy, care, strength, and resilience.

Chris and Angie are sought-after teachers of Contact Improvisation and other contemporary dance practices. For more than thirty years they have offered workshops and training intensives internationally including featured artists at the Freiburg International Festival, Impulstanz (AUS), Movement Research (NYC), Salt Spring CI Festival (CAN), Earthdance (USA), iDance (Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan), American Dance Festival (USA) and many others. They are known for their collaborative spirit, technical skill, and generous teaching.

IMPORTANT INFO

Membership

• To participate in workshops at EDAM, you must be a member.

• If you are new to EDAM, please purchase a membership when you register.

• EDAM Membership is a lifetime membership (one-time $5 membership fee).

Waivers

• All EDAM participants (every person who attends an EDAM class, workshop or jam) must read and agree to: EDAM Waiver and EDAM Safety, Consent and Inclusion Policy before coming to the studio.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

• Admin Fee: There is a non-refundable $10 admin fee for all workshop cancellations. This helps us cover the cost of managing cancellations.

• Cancellations made at least 4 working days (Monday to Friday) in advance of the workshop start date are 100% refundable, minus the admin fee. Please email us.

• Cancellations made 48 hours in advance of the workshop start date are 50% refundable minus the admin fee. Please email us.

• Cancellations made less than 48 hours in advance of the workshop date are non-refundable.

• If you know you will not be attending the workshop (for any reason) you may give your spot to a friend. Please email us.

• Sick Policy: We understand and respect that sickness happens unexpectedly. Cancellations made due to illness are 50% refundable minus the admin fee. Please email us.

• EDAM reserves the right to cancel the workshop for any reason. Registered participants will be contacted and full refunds will be issued.

• EDAM reserves the right to change the teacher if the booked teacher can no longer attend. Registered participants will be contacted and may request a refund if they no longer wish to attend the workshop with the new teacher.

What to Bring/Wear

• Wear comfortable clothes that you can move and slide in (we recommend long sleeves and full-length pants, as they are helpful for sliding on the floor), wear minimal jewellery, and bring knee-pads (optional/personal preference).

• We sell knee-pads for CI practice ($35) at the studio. Ask your teacher or email us at: info@edamdance.org.

• Bring a bottle of water.

• EDAM is a scent-reduced space, please help us keep our studio odour-free.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a difference between a class and a workshop? A class is a short focused session. A workshop is a longer session (with small breaks at the teacher’s discretion). Both are facilitated around the teacher’s interests and knowledge.

• What is a Contact Jam? Jams are leaderless practice environments in which dancers practice CI with whoever gathers — friends, strangers, experienced dancers, newcomers. In our Open Jams, an EDAM teacher will hold the space, however, there is no instruction.

• I have never done Contact Improvisation. Can I join any class or workshop? If you have never done Contact Improvisation, please sign up to a Thursday evening class our our Fundamentals Workshop, to acquire some skills and tools. Depending on your experience and previous training, you may request to join our advanced Morning Classes. Our teachers can support you in this journey.

Accessibility Info

• Read our accessibility info here.

EDAM respectfully acknowledges that our activities and events take place on the ancestral and unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.