Sexual energy in Contact Improvisation
For an outside eye watching contact improvisation is usually very irritating. How can people touch each other in this way without sexual intentions?
Entries by Joerg Hassmann
Workshops for experienced Contacters only – How exclusive should we be?
CI workshops for advanced contacters. Intensives on a CI festival – level: intermediate/ advanced. To follow this workshop a basic knowledge of Contact improvisation is required … How open are we in this heartfelt and open Contact Community? Is it ok to have those exclusive events, dividing the practitioners into beginners, intermediate and advanced contacters? […]
I hate warm ups – thoughts about jamming
For many years I was struggling with warm ups for jams, more under cover than really consciously or even outspoken. To understand myself I find it helpful to remind me about the experiences with Jams I grew up with.
Travelling on floor level and in standing
Thoughts for preparing an intermediate/advanced CI workshop in Warsaw In my teaching I usually focus a lot on how to keep the shared weight moving while dancing through all spacial levels. How do we lift each other and how do we get smoothly and safely to the floor are core questions? In this workshop I […]
Fear and fun in making choices – Improvisation (not only) in CI
When the fear begins we almost automatically fall into established habits. For improvising, learning and growing personally we need to be able to notice the upcomming fear, we need to look for the discomfort and research alternative options – which can be actually fun.
Worum geht’s eigentlich? – Gedanken zu Körpertherapie und Tanz
Soeben hatte ich bei einer recht bewegenden Grinberg Sitzung plötzlich einen Moment von Klarheit und ich sagte: „Deshalb tanze ich wahrscheinlich!“
The art of waiting – suspension in the skin and beyond
I am constantly amazed about the impact that the focus on the sensations under the skin has in my work. So often it becomes the turning point from ‘having a good time and learning a lot’ to ‘something is really happening’. It just happened again on the 7th Madrid Contact Festival and I was surprised […]
Fascination Fascia – Why do I jump on the fascia hype?
At the moment everyone seems to love the fascia, the revolution. Something – that was always neglected or at least underestimated in its importance – becomes the all connecting hero, the salvation for everything, like back pain, headaches, the immune system, more functional movements….
Performing Improvisation – What are we doing here?
I have big doubts about beforming Improvisation, especially Contact Improvisation. Under the pressure of satisfying the audience’s needs we easily fall back into our fear patterns and start doing childish or selfish things nobody really needs to see. I am grateful when I have the opportunity to understand more deeply, the motivations and traps in […]
Head & tale – Why not simply ‘spine’?
This text is part of my preparation for a Contact Workshop I taught in Marseille (January 25/26 2014). I wanted to focus on something that helps exploring the basics (spine) but that included something more specific and also challenging for my own teaching (head & tale).
