Bryce Kasson, is an improvisor—dancer, clown, musician— and teacher who has lived and worked in the USA, Argentina and now Germany. For the past 30 years, the core practices of his dance research, performing and teaching have been Contact Improvisation and Tuning Scores. He has researched and performed Tuning Scores in small groups with Lisa Nelson and other international Tuners. He is keenly interested in the moment when an action becomes meaningful, either to the mover or the watcher—whether it’s a new experience of the body in the studio, or a powerful image found or constructed onstage.
His first CI teachers were Karen Nelson, Scott Smith, Carolyn Stuart and Patrick Gracewood. From 2002 – 2015 he was based in Buenos Aires, making improvised dance performance as well as teaching Contact Improvisation, Tuning Scores and Material for the Spine to dancers as well as clowns and actors. Continuing to teach and perform as a dance improvisor, he is also currently engaged in the teaching, creation and performance of theatre clowning with his company Fort Willy. He has been based in Cologne, Germany since 2016.
Contact Improvisation Festival - Classes
OMNIDIRECTIONAL NEGOTIATION
Often, while dancing, our awareness is dominated by one or two juicy points of contact, while many other touch events fly by unnoticed. In this class, we’ll experiment with ways to bring attention and curiosity to these “hidden” points of contact, and to engage with multiple points simultaneously. We will also experiment, in a playful way, with ways to hold different intentions than our partner(s) while still staying in contact and connection.
Approaching Contact Improvisation as a moving, open-ended question we’ll play with points of featherweight touch, points of short time duration, points which are ‘unnecessary’ for physical safety. At first glance those points of contact may not seem to have much to offer in function of doing something, but they can be a training ground for expanding an active attention, and an expanded attention has the possibility to lead us into unexpected movements and timings. Either way, this state of expanded, active attention is a particular pleasure for me and one of my main sources of joy in dancing Contact Improvisation.
Relaxing our goal orientation, we will look for the play and pleasure in small fulcrums, tiny resistances, physical disagreements and unexpected constellations of touch.