Take it from Here

Constantly faced with ever changing environments, improvisation is all we can do. Given scores (tasks, games) for framing the endless possibilities of focusing our attention, we can build awareness of how we do what we do, why we choose what we choose. We can see and be intentional about how all these actions communicate something of ourselves to the world, to our partners, and to our own life. It’s on us to make it.

Karen (Chuki) Nelson rests playfully within dance improvisation and Buddhist study and practice. As explorer-collaborator, teacher, maker, touring performer, author/contributor to Dancing with Dharma and Contact Quarterly she has been a mutator of the form Contact Improvisation since 1977. She co-founded mixed-ability experiments Dance Ability and Diverse Dance Research Retreat and integrates Material for the Spine (Steve Paxton) and Tuning Scores (Lisa Nelson/Image Lab) into her physical-sensation based approach to dancing, along with investigating dominant cultural narratives and re-vers(ion)ing these fictions within her own embodiment and wider community.