Kirstie Simson
photo Luka Kito
3th-8th July 2010
Contact improvisation, solo and improvisation scores toward performance
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 at Casina in 2006, during the research project
See the documentary "Energy sculpting"
Made by Katrina McPherson, and Simon Fildes. Sound recording by Fred Parsons. Supported by University of Dundee and Goat Media
http://vimeo.com/2851084
KIRSTIE SIMSON
Kirstie Simson
(UK) has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene,
bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in
moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called "a force of
nature" by the New York Times, she is an award-winning dancer and
teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of
New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London.
Simson’s
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.
For the past
thirty years Kirstie has collaborated with many dancers and musicians
who share a common interest in Improvisation, including Julyen
Hamilton, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Andrew
Harwood, Chris Aiken, Russell Malliphant, Le Quan Ninh and Christian
Burns.
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
She was awarded
a London Time Out ‘Dance and Performance Award’ as "a
unique figure in the dance world” and 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".
She is renowned
today as an excellent teacher and captivating performer who is a
leading light in the field of dance improvisation and she is currently
involved in making a film about Dance Improvisation with filmmaker
Katrina McPherson.
In January 2008
Kirstie joined the faculty of the Dance Department at the University of
Illinois in Urbana Champaign. http://dance.uiuc.edu/people/1045
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