Upcoming
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.
EMERGENCE: a Contact Improvisation Retreat
June 5-7th, 2026 | Western NC
Join us for “EMERGENCE”, a Contact Improvisation retreat on June 5 – 7th, at Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center, in the mountains of NC! During this open-level retreat weekend, we will practice rooting into ground and our own centers to cultivate the capacity to emerge, fly, expand, and connect with others.
Workshops led by Michele T. Hower and emily liptow will be themed around questions of emergence in contact improvisation practice, such as– How do we access presence and ground amidst the complexity of improvisational dance? Can we stay with a sensation or choice just long enough to see/feel what is emerging in our personal and collective dance? What are strategies for radical responsiveness to the ever-evolving nature of CI?
Past events
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 Fundamentals Workshop
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.
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.