BIO
Iiris Raipala is dance artist, performer and teacher based in Helsinki. She graduated in 2004 as Master of Arts in dance from the Theatre Academy of Finland. She also has Master in Art Pedagogy. She been working closely with improvisation and contact improvisation in several performing groups and has performed in the choreographies of many internationally acknowledged choreographers like Tomi Paasonen, Rosalind Crisp, Mirva Mäkinen, Lisa Nelson and Nancy Stark Smith. She is part of artistic-scientific Liminal Art -collective working in the field of improvisation and ritual art. (www.liminalart.fi). She has been practicing, teaching and performing CI for over 20 years, and she is one of the founders of Goa contact Festival and Skiing on Skin Festival.
ROOTING EARTH & REACHING SKY
4 classes with Iiris Raipala & Vega Luukkonen
These sessions are focused on offering skills and tools for contact improvisation, and understanding it´s underlying physical principles. As well as widening our perspective of choices by explorative research of contact. We also approach CI as a larger phenomenon of improvisation, incorporating solo and group composition in the work.
We will flow in and out of contact, viewing the dance as a playful dialogue, which breathes freely in time and space. We will explore the state of improvisation and creativity, to emphasize the courage to play and investigate the unknown.
This exploration is based on in-depth somatic education pouring from axis syllabus, anatomical study of safe and functional movement, and of course the principles of contact improvisation.
We will play with gravity, momentum, and suspension in order to create effortless flow in our movement. Falling and flying, using body´s natural spirals to move us in different levels, and catching the rides like a wind !
Join us for fun, danceful and explorative learning and unlearning experience !