CI & Floorwork Fundamentals

This contact improvisation and technique workshop centres on foundational approaches to cultivating awareness, efficiency, and competence in dancing that takes us into and out of the floor. We will consider how building a modest repertoire of solo floorwork skills can expand our creative choices and reduce the likelihood of injury when dancing in contact—particularly through learning to absorb and redirect forces by organising the body to fall, roll, slide, and modulate muscular tone. Improvisations and set material will develop through somatic tuning, alongside complementary partner-based movement games that challenge balance, coordination, and mobility.

Times & Venue

Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th April from 10.30am to 4pm
Harberton Parish Hall, Totnes, TQ9 7SD
Open to all mover levels. Those new to contact improv are warmly welcome.

Structure

This is a 2-day workshop with an option to attend only for a single day. Each day will include time dedicated to combining a small number of learned floorwork manoeuvres into a short sequence. This work will be facilitated in small groups, with an emphasis on navigating mild disorientation and momentum rather than on learning and retaining choreography.

The structure of the practice will move fluidly between solo and contact work, guided improvisation, and set movement material across the two days. The final hour of each day will lead into a jam, offering an opportunity to practice loosening our reliance on learned technique and patterns, and to move into relational dancing that is more personal, responsive, and unpredictable.

Your teacher

Born and raised in Dartington, Lewis completed his professional training at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS) from 2006 to 2009 and has since worked as a performer, collaborator, and rehearsal director with a range of choreographers and companies. His credits include Jean Abreu, Richard Alston, Riccardo Buscarini, Bregenzer Festspiele, Tom Dale, Stéphanie Dufresne, the National Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Joel O’Donoghue, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Dance Theatre, Lea Tirabasso, and TrashDollys.

Teaching since 2014, Lewis specialises in contact, ensemble, and solo improvisation, as well as in floorwork and soft acrobatic techniques. In 2022, he completed an MA in Dance in Education at London Studio Centre. Lewis has taught at contact improvisation festivals, and for Agitart Figueres es Mou, B12 Berlin, DV8 Physical Theatre, National Dance Company Wales, and Scottish Dance Theatre. He regularly teaches at LCDS, Nuova Officina della Danza, and the University of Limerick, and has previously worked at London Studio Centre, Middlesex University, Rambert School, and University of Roehampton. As a teacher, Lewis is committed to a progressive, learner-centred pedagogy, creating inclusive, supportive and focused environments where creativity and playfulness can thrive.

Queries

For more information or any queries, please contact the organizer:

toropainen.laura@gmail.com

Ticket Exchanges / Refunds

To exchange tickets, email the organizer with the name changeover.
Refunds can be issued with a £10 admin fee up to six weeks prior to the event.