Presence – Johan Nilsson
Details:
Contact Improvisation Ireland is so delighted to welcome back Johan Nilsson to Dublin for a weekend of presence, movement and play. This weekend is designed to meet the needs of those completely new to Contact Improv as well as inspire and challenge those experienced in dance, movement and improvisation.
The focus of this weekend workshop is to bring warmth and energy back to our community after the dark winter; enough to arouse the early Spring Daffodils, to follow the Crocuses, and proceed the Irises.
Planting autumnal bulbs for this weekend means we have time to plan for ourselves and so to welcome dancers from outside of The Pale. From Derry to Cork, England to France, let’s extend out our hands and open our hearts to expand our growing community. If you want to come and need help with organising transport/accommodation let us know, we can make it happen!
Practical things:
Where:
St Kevin’s community center, 45 Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 8
Times and dates:
Friday 23rd:
Workshop time: 18.00 – 20.30
Saturday 24th (Full day):
Workshop time: 10.00-18.00
(there will be a lunch break of about 1.5hrs)
Community Jam: 18.30 – 20.30
Sunday 25th (Full day):
Workshop time: 10.00 – 18.00
(there will be a lunch break of about 1.5hrs)
Investment:
Early Bird BEFORE January 1st: €90
Admission AFTER January 1st: €100
Friday evening only: €25
Saturday only OR Sunday only: €50
Payment can be made by bank transfer.
Message me, Yaeli Bellie, on the FacEbook mAChine or by email contactimprovireland@gmail
I will NOT be taking cash.
Given the success of attendance last year I suspect this year’s workshop will fill up and space will be limited. Only after lodgements have been made can your place be confirmed.
Accommodation:
We have few dancers from the CI community in Dublin who would happily host one or two dancer. Message me and I’ll put you in touch.
If you have other questions and the like you can message me, Yaeli Bellie or post on the Facebook page, I’ll do my best to help you.
About the workshop:
Presence of the past. Presence of the now. 
Presence of the future.
What about doing pleasurable work?
Working hard,
Technically investigating a pathway towards the present moment.
Using dance as a source?
Contact Improv as a source?
What about doing transformative work?
Dancing dancing dancing.
Challenging my habits,
Change change change.
With dance as a pathway.
Suggesting scores and structures of observation,
Through the vision of the eyes and the texture of the skin.
To be seen and to see the other.
To be danced and to be the dance.
Relating to our own dance through inhabiting our past.
Our habits and pleasures, our highways and known pathways.
Crafting them into consciously possible choices.
Use the presence of the now as a source of new possibilities.
To generate yet-unknown material and to journey into the unexplored.
Envision our future and consiously move into work of crafting new skills.
Working our way into new technical aspects or energetic modes.
About Johan:
Johan is an explorer of natural sciences and art. He’s a trained gardener and teacher in Biodynamic farming. This is a great source of inspiration for him due to its deep relationship with the natural world, alternative methods and plant forces. In dance and improvisation, he experiences the same fascination as when he was a child playing in the forest – in contact with nature – a world full of imagination and playfulness!
His movement background includes Capoeira, African Dance, World Dance and fire spinning, but his interest deepened when he first discovered Contact Improvisation in 2004, with his main inspiration coming from Måns Erlandsson and Malin Anclair, Stockholm. Since then, Johan has been participating as a teacher and performer in several projects, festivals and dance events throughout Europe. For the past seven years he has been teaching classes and organising CI events in Järna and Stockholm.
In his teaching, Johan likes to use imagination and fascination with small details as tools to create one’s own dance. With fire-spinning he developed a fascination with continuously traveling weight. In contact improvisation he likes to relate to shifts in weight and space and he definitely loves a certain amount of risk!
Photography 1,2,3: Abigail Denniston – Photogaphy 4: Tal Kulikovsky
