Wednesday Focus Jam Leipzig
Ongoing Contact Improvisation Practice and Exploration
- Wednesdays 20h – 22h
- a contact jam rooted in the classic contact improvisation of weight exchange and exploration of physics and interdependent body-mechanics
- at Fudoshin Aikido Dojo Josephstraße 45 in Plagwitz
- cost 7 – 15 euro sliding scale, No one turned away for lack of funds*
- sign up for Telegram group here (The Telegram group is used for regular updates on format and facilitators, as well as other community announcements)
Focus Jam runs with Karl Frost facilitating until 18 December.
No Jam 25 December.
Jam restarts with new formats and collective leadership 1 January 2025
Information on format through December 2024 below.
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The Focus Jam is neither a class nor a totally open space, but a lightly structured practice space for the “classic” contact improvisation art-sport of experimentation and play with shared weight, mutual support, physical listening, and dynamic, mechanically-interdependent movement. There is encouragement to embrace freedom and autonomy of exploration within the shared container of classic CI, a friendly space where we can safely assume that others there are enthusiastic for mutual initiation of exploration and have a sense of agency in their own exploration.
The structure…
- Arrive and warm-up on your own
- Initial facilitation introduces a classic theme or technique from contact improvisation …
- … Leading into an open jam …
- We close with a little feedback and discussion (as well as community announcements)
Experience expectations. All are assumed to have some familiarity and comfort with classic, physics-based CI explorations. Brave beginners are welcome, understanding it as a “do it yourself” space and expecting an adaptation to the norms of the space.
Please do read the “Ground Rules” if it is your first time coming, and particularly the “For Beginners” link if you are newer to CI.
We work on a padded Aikido floor to facilitate safer physical risk taking.
While different people mean and hold space for different things under the name “contact improvisation”, this weekly session is a space for movement and physics based explorations of classic contact improvisation. See the Fundamentals of Contact Improvisation page for more info on classic CI.
We aim for a friendly but focused physical practice space as one might find in a contemporary dance or martial arts class, with openness to explore with others sharing an interest in classic CI. Everyone coming should be ready for self-initiated, autonomous exploration, but also comfortable with some amount of direction and shared focus.
While sometimes there may be experiments with use of music, mostly sessions will be without music, facilitating focus on the physics of falling together and openness to unexpected flows unique to each dance.
Note: Again, meanings and interpretations of “contact improvisation” have diverged since the 1990s. Without getting into discussions of what CI “really” is, the frame here is that of art-making and physics, rather than relational intimacy. There is a kind of deep intimacy of mutual sensing, mechanically affecting and being affected, but we focus our attention on the physics and art rather than relational intimacy. This shift in focus is what allows the depth of exploration in CI, free from the constraints of relational intimacy. Reframing to physics and art-making allows for a more inclusive practice driven by curiosity in the body.
All should be comfortable working in close physical contact with others who share this frame of physics and body mechanics exploration, much as one would find in a martial arts class or bodywork session. It is a “do-it-yourself” space where all take responsibility for their own choices and for following their own curiosity.
*NOTAFLOF … like most Body Research events, the Wednesday Focus Jam is ” no one turned away for lack of funds”. That means if you are feeling particularly money-stressed and the 7 euros minimum would keep you away, come anyway and try it out, and don’t worry about it. If you want to keep coming and are money stressed, talk to Karl and we can work out some other non-monetary exchange.
