Fluids of nature
A residency dedicated to open embodied research and shared discovery in the evolving landscape of Contact Improvisation
What shapes this residency
The residency’s underlying intention is to foster a dedicated space for practice, sharing, learning, and open experimentation within the field of Contact Improvisation (CI). It nurtures and supports personal and collective learning, bringing depth to both our individual and shared relational ground, while resonating profoundly within both our artistic practices and our everyday lives.
It offers us, as practitioners across early and experienced phases of engagement, an opportunity to enter a shared process of learning, risk-taking, and the expansion of both newly emerging and ongoing inquiries. CI is approached as a form that challenges conventional perspectives, inviting us to question our ways of existing, our relationship to what is present, and our capacities beyond fixed bodily forms.
Conceived as a living intersection of evocative and provocative philosophies and life-affirming practices, the residency engages CI as a questioning force—creating conditions for challenging certainty, inviting risk, and opening a vast field of experiential possibilities, where our attention continuously returns to experience as the heart of the journey.
About title
”The title of the workshop arises from the felt sense that we are not separate from earth, but earth itself — a fluid extension , embodying the elements of earth and beyond.”
“The dance between body and ground—
the body as an extended ground,
meeting another extension of it.
An experience of mutual discovery:
of life, of the body's inherent intelligence,
its adaptability, and creative power.”
Creative Process and Focused Material
During the workshop, each session and creative exploration will be inspired by the principles, forces, and intelligence of nature. This is an invitation to connect with a profound sense of unity—within ourselves, with others, and with the space that holds us. Through investigating the body—contemplating, improvising, and listening—landscapes of inner intelligence are revealed.
These inner landscapes hold valuable elements for growth and transformation.
This residency program invites those interested in embodied experimentation in Contact Improvisation, rooted in inspirations from its form and formlessness. The process journeys through experiential research and embodied inquiry, interweaving foundational, somatic, philosophical, abstract, poetic, sensorial, and physical elements into open investigation—inviting questioning, contemplation, remembering, connecting, realizing, witnessing, and integrating.
This space of inquiry invites learning through making space for learning to take place in the body—with curiosity to discover itself.
“emptying the vessel to be clear in its presence—listening to what is present with profound clarity.”
We believe that a committed and dedicated environment for in-depth learning is sustained through mutual responsibility and care.
Program Outline
Learning, creating, and sharing will journey through morning practice sessions and evening classes that transition into open jams. Collective reflective spaces will support integration through writing, drawing, and sharing circles. The program will also include contemplative and score-based practices in nature, conversation on the past, present, and emerging futures of CI in its historical, social context, film screenings, and sharing the dance as an emergent performative space.
Extended text
A fluid and expansive process inviting bodies into a journey of realizing and attuning to what lies within—listening to the forces of the ground beneath, the sky above, and the more-than-human space that surrounds us. Questioning, re—imagining/defining, restoring, and experimenting with our relationship to the living ecology, acknowledging the interconnectedness of this interdependent system.
Learning from the reciprocal and sustaining ways of nature.
Remembering and deepening our relationship with the supports already present in and around us—to breathe here, to live, and to experience the mysteries of life.
The continuously developing and evolving practice of Contact Improvisation offers a challenging and transformative environment for the body. It reveals inherent intelligences—physical, intuitive, and relational—and invites us to expand beyond the habitual and socially conditioned body.