BIO
Kaisa Kukkonen (1986) is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher based in Finland. She works with the poetry of movement, politics of touch, and somatic practices. In CI she is interested in multidirectionality, subtle but powerful consent, and relationality.
Kaisa has been dancing CI since 2005, and teaching since 2010 in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Iceland. Her CI home is Berlin, where she learned from Joerg Hassmann, Daniel Werner, Christine Mauch, and Gesine Daniels among others. Later her teachers and/or co-dancers have been for example Katja Mustonen, Anya Cloud, Iiris Raipala, Terhi Rasilo, and Nita Little.
Kaisa finished her studies at Iceland University of Arts in the MFA of Performing Arts programme (2021-2022) in September 2022 with a performance project “Take This Touch Inside Your Body”. She graduated from the MACoDE program at HfMDK in Frankfurt with a master thesis “Noticing Power Relations in Teaching Touch in Contact Improvisation” (2021). For the thesis she interviewed fourteen Contact Improvisation teachers, collected their strategies and thoughts on how to teach touch. Website: https://kaisakukkonen.wordpress.com/
Leaning and Listening – Basics of CI
Contact Improvisation Class: Leaning and Listening – Basics of Contact Improvisation
Teacher: Kaisa Kukkonen
Level: Open Level, suitable for beginners and experienced
Class Description: What do we need to make Contact Improvisation enjoyable, fun, interesting, and safe enough? We will explore the principles of contact through clearly guided exercises, as well as through freer inquiry and experimentation. Each body and each dance is different, and from the very beginning, we learn by doing, exploring, and practicing.
Leaning – working with weight, exploring shared axis and directions
Finding and maintaining your own movement and dance, even when moving with others
Moving through different levels
Rolling and sliding contact points with a partner and alone
Regulating weight through muscle tone and relaxation
Grounding in your own body and movement, and from there connecting to others and the space
Practicing boundaries: saying yes and no, entering and leaving dances, being clear with your own intention, and listening to others
Taking care that the body-mind is open and warm for dancing
Jam skills – What is a jam? How do you participate and find dancing within it?