Upcoming
Movement Research: Explorations in Mutuality
Through Living Arts Collective with Anna M Maynard
Wednesday evenings 7-9pm September 16th - October 21st 2026 | Durham NC
A six-week movement research series exploring attention, relationality, and collective improvisation practices. We will practice noticing what is Here and Now, cultivating exquisite attention to the ways we inhabit ourselves in relation to others. Sensation, tone, impulse, tension, ease, resistance, uncertainty, hope, distance, connection. These become material for our movement, reflection, and improvisation.
Practices may also draw from Emergent Improvisation, Authentic Relating, Focusing, Somatic Stress Release, the Wheel of Consent, Contact Improvisation, and other improvisational and somatic research.
GROUP SHAKE
FRIDAYS September 4th & October 2nd 7:00 pm | Eno Gathering House, 903 Eno Street, Hillsborough 27278
Group Shake is a collective solo durational practice. We come together to tend to our own bodies, in community. It offers an alternative to ecstatic dance for those interested in movement without touch or interaction with others. We shake and move to music over an extended period, focusing on shaking and rocking, allowing the body to move naturally—free from concerns about appearance, skill, or rhythm. While it may resemble dancing, the true intention is to release tension and energy. This practice promotes circulation, supports the nervous system, enhances overall health, and fosters a sense of community.
no registration required. arrive as you are.
Intro to Contact Improvisation
through Duke Arts Creates
Monday October 26 6:00PM | The Ark on Duke’s East Campus
In this workshop, we will practice foundational skills of Contact Improvisation, a dance form that engages with the natural laws of gravity, momentum, and inertia and invites physical contact between bodies. We will begin with guided solo improvisation to connect with our bodies and our relationship with gravity and the earth. As we come into awareness and contact with one another, we will practice embodied listening and dynamic responsiveness to allow the dance to emerge.Come ready to move and play. All skills levels and abilities are welcome! This practice is designed to adapt your body and energy as it is.
Free, open to Duke students and the wider Durham community
Past events
CI Lab: integrating our improvisation skills
May 13- June 23rd, 2026 | Durham NC
through Living Arts Collective with Anna Maynard & emily liptow
This 7-week CI Lab series is a collaborative container to practice fundamental skills, concepts, and techniques of Contact Improvisation. We will workshop, study, and play with one another to integrate the skills we’ve already been practicing in class and at jams.
Alongside some fundamental teachings, this series will be shaped around the questions and desires of the students in the room. There will be less specific instruction and more time to workshop and play with fellow classmates. A variety of options will be provided to meet folks where they are at, and there will be ample time for open improvisation.
Spirit & Technique of CI with emily liptow + Emma Little
Tuesday evenings 7:00 - 9:00pm February 3 – April 28 | Durham NC
This 12-week series provides an immersive dive into the fundamental skills, concepts, and techniques of Contact Improvisation, providing a solid foundation for a lifetime of play. It is a great opportunity to get your CI practice started for the first time or to deepen your engagement with the form.
Creative Rest Practice
Monday March 2nd 6:00pm | Durham, NC
In this workshop, we’ll practice creative ways to rest well together. Engaging with yoga, meditation, and deep rest practices, we will explore different strategies for relaxation. Each of us have different needs when it comes to rest, so this workshop is designed to offer multiply ways to settle into the present moment. Come ready to get cozy— napping is welcome!
(re)Learning How to Fall - CI FundamentalsWorkshop
Saturday, January 3rd 202 | 1:00-4:00pm CLEVELAND, OH
In this 3-hour workshop, we will cultivate trust in the body’s capacity to fall through CI fundamentals including practices like bonding with the earth (Underscore/Nancy Stark Smith), the small dance (Steve Paxton), pathways into and out of the ground, and weight sharing.
The workshop will include solo movement as well as partner and group explorations. Rooted in a culture of consent, we will practice verbal and non-verbal ways of navigating consent with fellow dancers.
Movement Research: Explorations in Mutuality with emily liptow + Anna Maynard
Tuesday evenings 7:00 - 9:00pm November 4 – December 16
A 6-week series, offered through Living Arts Collective, exploring themes of mutuality, interdependence and emergence through solo and ensemble improvisational practices. Rooted in the lineage of contact improvisation, we will draw from the intelligence of our connective tissue–a mycelial network between muscle, bone, and tendon, and explore its presence in community structure integral to our movements. We will draw from a few select texts throughout the six weeks to inform and shape our dancing. This includes engagement with reading and listening to materials outside of our studio time.
This emergent container in movement research and group improvisation will be facilitated by Anna Maynard and emily liptow and shaped by everyone in the room.
Shake it Up |November 11th 2025 | 12-1:30pm, EST, ONLINE
In this potent 90 minute workshop, we will literally Shake It Up— by moving through a set of practices designed to regulate our nervous system and cultivate presence and possibility. The practices we will share together include a Group Shake, automatic writing, and vagal toning (think humming).
The goal is to meet ourselves where we are at and move some energy around, so we can ground into our knowing and move forward with clarity. Drawing from somatics, Polyvagal theory and creative process, this workshop will introduce a set of practices that you can weave into your daily life.
Letting water Guide the Dance | Tuesday evenings 7:00 - 9:00pm September 16 – October 21, 2025
Water flows, falls, spills and sloshes. Water powerfully shapes our surroundings and is shaped by containers that attempt to hold it. A beach towel saturated with water becomes heavier to lift, and yet our bodies, boats, and ocean kin can float and defy gravity in open seas. Water is a master shapeshifter and a longtime teacher to contact improvisation dancers. In this 6-week series, we will practice letting water guide our dances. We will connect with the felt-experience of water in our bodies and the many ways it moves us. We will let water guide our embodied imagination, working with the rich metaphors and imagery that water offers for solo, partnered and group dancing. Offered through Living Arts Collective at the Shared Visions Retreat Center, Durham, NC
Long Shake | Saturday May 17, 2025 2:00-4:30PM
Hosted by Anna Maynard & emily liptow. We invite you to the beautiful Heartward Sanctuary to join us for our first long shake! Our afternoon will include a 90 minute shake with a curated playlist in a gorgeous dance barn and spacious arrival and cool down time with snacks. Consider it an afternoon retreat to connect with your body through movement– your shake may be gentle and subtle, vigorous and bouncy, or likely some combination of both.
Exploring touch as a mode of creative care | Wednesday Apr 23, 2025 at 5:15pm| Duke School of Medicine, Durham NC
We communicate so much through physical touch. From the smallest gestures with strangers to a lingering embrace with a loved one, touch can be a way of connecting with, communicating to, and caring for others. This workshop will be a playful exploration of touch as a creative mode of care. You will be invited to partake in simple embodiment practices that will support listening with the whole body. Together, we will practice navigating consent verbally and nonverbally through partner and group exercises. Open to all. No prior experience necessary. Info on Duke Arts website.