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THE WORK OF STEVE PAXTON AND SOME ROOTS OF CONTACT IMPROVISATION
Steve Paxton started his personal work in dance from a big marvel and investigative curiosity about very basic and ordinary elements of body and movement, such as: the reflexive small dance of the skeleton constantly and autonomously adjusting to the vertical position; the spiral structure of walking; the connections between different fingers and the upper trunk; the complex way in which we perceive reality from very different information coming from different senses; the way that consciousness turn to itself and be conscious of being conscious; the intriguing possibility of conceiving the unknown and not yet experienced...
 

In this intensive, we will recall some of Steve’s provocations and questions, investigating them in our bodies, through different practical tools aiming to help us to work with and expand our perception, attention, and sensibility in motion, in dialogue with space, time, and other bodies.

To do so, we’ll also study and practice some of the most well-known forms and propositions developed or collected by Paxton, such as the Small Dance and Material for the Spine (including its warm-ups, undulations, motion puzzles, rolls, and, also, concepts and reflections).

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To do so, we’ll also study and practice some of the most well-known forms and propositions developed or collected by Paxton, such as the Small Dance and Material for the Spine (including its warm-ups, undulations, motion puzzles, rolls, and, also, concepts and reflections). It will be a pathway through different phases and elements of Paxton’s work, in order to help us to know, discover, revisit, investigate, reflect on, assess critically and recreate in our own bodies and from our own interests and terms some of the very stimulating contributions by this seminal artist who leaded the development of Contact Improvisation at its beginning in the seventies.
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Pedro Penuela
Teacher of CI and Movement research in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Israel. PhD in Performing Arts. Performer and Choreographer. Writer of articles and books about dance. Website
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