Kirstie Simson
9-14 Luglio 2007
Contact improvisation, solo e strutture di improvvisazione di gruppo
Improvisation and Contact Improvisation to enhance a healthy relationship with our bodies, our minds and each other :
Kirstie uses her extensive knowledge of Dance Technique, Open Improvisation, Contact Improvisation and Ki-Aikido to lead students into a state of mind from which dancing arises effortlessly and spontaneously.
Students have found an immediate improvement of their technical ability through her open and sensitive approach to the body. Correct alignment and posture arise automatically from the emphasis Kirstie places on the activity of locating, listening to and allowing dance to be expressed through the body, combined with the learning of simple technical and sensory expanding skills. She will guide people to be able to access and work with the powerful energy of Ki within their bodies, training a concentration that excites and loosens the body's natural hunger to express itself through full and vibrant dancing. More and more students are finding that Kirstie's approach to dance is allowing them to discover a much greater depth, enjoyment and freedom in their moving, by pushing them to go beyond the limitations of any technique that the body has been trained to perform. In these classes there will be a strong emphasis on developing the skills of sustaining and extending one’s range of improvised solo dancing working with musical accompaniment. We will take this into duet and ensemble dancing without compromising ones own process of choice and creativity whilst being at one with a partner(s) dancing.
Kirstie studied ballet and modern dance at the Laban Center, London. She became interested in pursuing Contact Improvisation and the art of Improvisation in Performance whilst working with the Rosemary Butcher Dance Company in 1979, after having completed her formal training.
Over the course of the next twenty years she has worked extensively, performing and teaching throughout England, Europe and the USA. She has collaborated with many dancers and musicians who share a common interest in working with the freedom to explore ever new and exciting ways to go beyond limitation. These performers include Julyen Hamilton (with whom she worked in close partnership for years), Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Pauline de Groot, Alessandro Certini, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Katie Duck, Philip Hamilton, Peter Jones, Russell Malliphant and many others. She has been seen at the Dance Umbrella Festival in London, at DTW in New York City and many other performance venues worldwide. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times said of her dancing, "Kirstie Simson is justly celebrated in Britain for exquisite, sensuous dancing that seems to come from some simple force of nature".
Kirstie is a regular teacher at the School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam, Dartington College, England, New York University, George Washington University, Washington DC and Oberlin College. She teaches classes and workshops at many other colleges and centers throughout the world. A major influence in Kirstie's dancing has been her ongoing study of the Japanese martial Art Aikido and other spiritual practices. She often teaches through Movement Research in New York City, where she is now living.
In '88 before she left England to live in America she was given a London Dance and Performance Award, and Time Out Magazine called her "a unique figure in the dance world, Kirstie Simson is a soloist of exceptional and compelling skills. She is an independent performer whose work over the past decade has immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance".
She is renowned today as an excellent teacher and captivating performer who is a leading light in the field of dance improvisation. Her eternal subject is freedom, as she dares to go beyond the boundaries of form and structure to create movement out of the rhythm of life itself.