‘Look-Touch-Move-Talk’ - Contact. Improvisation,
Authentic Movement
Workshop led by Yael Barkai and Aharona Israel

During the workshop we will engage in various movement practices: authentic movement,
improvisation, and contact improvisation. We’ll explore authentic and open presence while
moving with each of these practices, and how they each contribute to one another.
Questions that will guide us are:
how an improvisation based warm up opens in us a channel to a deeper listening to
ourselves?
How authentic movement allows us to become open and present and engage deeper in our
dance with a partner and with the group?
how we can maintain a live presence and internal attention even when more information
enters our personal field, and when communication is based on listening to the other via
different modes, such as observation, participation, and touch.
We will examine different possibilities, both revealed and hidden, of movement within a safe
space. We’ll observe the subtle changes within us while moving with our eyes closed to with
our eyes open, in moving with a partner without touch and with physical touch, in going from
moving alone into moving with a partner and as part of a group, and between practicing
movement and witnessing.
We’ll relate to our need for a compassionate gaze, and how it can strengthen our awareness
and give us a sense of security, enabling our body to express itself precisely. We’ll become
familiar with the talk between the mover and the witness which cultivates qualities of
communication based on speaking in the present tense, respect, attention and presence.
We’ll practice different modes of ‘witnessing’ and observe it from different perspectives: with
a single mover and with more complex models as 'contact' and group improvisations.
We’ll enlarge our tool box for attentive communication, verbally and physically, towards an
accepting and strengthening experience with ourselves and with others in daily life.
Finally, We’ll get interested in and play with the idea of Differentiation and assembly of the
basic elements in the framework of authentic movement: ‘observation’-‘movement’-‘talk’, and
replace them playfully in various structures and ‘scores’ of improvisation; considering touch,
working as a group and creating instant composition together.