Spring Fall Dance Studio

contact improvisation - about Contact improv history, practice, resources, documentation, community.

New Contact Improv class starts this Friday May 8 for four weeks with Ava Maag:
Contact Improvisation from the Ground Up
Spring Fall Studio | 2547 Eighth St. Berkeley
Fridays | May 8, 15, 29, June 5 | 6:30-8pm (no class 5/22)
$100* for full course

Contact Improvisation from the Ground Up is a four-week dive into the foundations of this delightfully awkward relational dance form. We’ll build a shared vocabulary to roll, fall, and play together. We’ll practice simple forms to help us move with shared structures. Tuning into sensation to guide our choices, we’ll relax into action, finding dances that emerge from ease, curiosity, and listening. This series could be a gentle launch into jamming, a playground for somatic investigation, a deeper dive into the heart of CI as a dance form–whatever it is, we’ll discover it together.

Want to know more about Contact Improvisation? This is a good place to start: https://contactquarterly.com/contact-improvisation/about/

About the instructor: Ava Maag (they/she) was first introduced to Contact Improvisation in theatre school in 2013. After a few years off and a move to the Bay, casual jamming progressed to rigorous study and then to performing and teaching. Ava has had the gift of studying with many excellent teachers, taking particular influence from Nita Little, Shira Yaziv, Miriam Wolodarski, Sebastian Grubb, Scott Wells, and Sara Shelton Mann. Several other practices play into her particular flavor of CI, notably Modern dance, Musical Theatre, Clown, and Deep Listening.

Questions? Email [email protected]

*If this price doesn't work for you, put a note below and we'll work something else out.

contact improvisation - about Contact improv history, practice, resources, documentation, community.

asha f. passalacqua will teach Monday May 5 class 10:30am - 12:30pm Spring Fall Dance Studio 2547 8th Street, Berkeley in the Sawtooth Building between Dwight and Parker.
Classes are by donation $15-25, Notaflof (No one turned away for lack of funds)

Sessions will be a mixture of functional biomechanics, breath practices, floorwerk, playfight inspired practices, partnering, and improvisational scores.
Bring something that you are hoping to work on, that you are researching and/or are curious to develop in your movement practice. The intention is that this can be a space that adapts to the needs of the constellation that shows up each week.

Guided by asha f. passalacqua is a somatics practitioner, integrative bodyworker, aquatic therapist, facilitator and dancer with a somatic oriented approach to guiding the body into functional fluidity. He strives towards presencing ever deepening levels of embodiment and somatic freedom and integrity. As a dancer/mover, his movement practice has been shaped by many influences, but is predominantly informed by Axis Syllabus, Contact Improvisation, functional movement, contemporary dance, Playfight and aquatic dance.

Photo of Davis Saul by Movimiento Atlas

Rahul Madanahalli, Davis Saul, Kyle Filley and Tenei Nakahara tonight Sat Feb 22nd and Sun 23rd dance dance dance.

Dress rehearsal for shows this weekend. Created and facilitated by Kyle Filley with Davis Saul, Tenei Nakahara and Rahul Madanahalli.

Hello Beautiful Stranger is coming to Spring Fall Dance Studio this FRIDAY NOV. 1 at 7pm. This dance duet is a performance work in progress with Kriss Rulifson and Jess Yactine. They met in Berlin two years ago. They committed to meeting again. They have been visiting each other's homes in Berlin, Bordeaux and now Berkeley. This evening showing is an important step because the piece will premiere in May, 2025, in Bordeaux, France. Please show up and support this final push. Pay by donation $10-20. NOTALOF

This project is supported by partners between Europe and California including, Les Marches de l'été Les Avants Postes (France), Ponderosa (Germany), and locally by Finnish Hall and Spring Fall Studio. Collaborators here in the Bay: Lauren Szabo (costume design), Kevin Lo (sound design); and, Gizeh Muñiz and Iu-Hui Chua (outside eye support).

Heading to Spring Fall Dance Studio for the Monday morning Slow Jam to improv because it's good to move, build forts, vocalise and be awake. Anyone can join...11 to 1 every Monday.

To those in the know--this space is like butter. To those who have yet to know, imagine melting into this floor and letting all kinds of inspiration pour out. It has 40+ years of that energy. It's all of ours. Open to everyone on Monday mornings starting next week Sept. 9. https://www.facebook.com/events/511843461301276/511843514634604/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D