Clever hands, Manuela Blanchard
| About masterclass: | Hands can be a very playful instrument in CI, as long as we use them consciously, and not for grabbing our partners, trying to control the movement’s flow. From gentle manipulations to dynamic counterbalances or juicy touches, the hands can offer nice ways to enrich our dance.
In this class you will begin with the practice of leaving your hands completely off your partner, using them only for your own support, in relation to the floor. You will learn to follow the moving wave with your whole body, your arms and hands being just one part of it.
After learning and enjoying this new freedom, we will focus on how to use our hands intentionally and to be aware of their quality. When you know how to connect with your partner through your centers without using your hands for security, suddenly both your hands and arms become free for playing, balancing, sensing, making offers and much more !
The purpose of this training is to give new perspectives and different options for your hands, and to bring more awareness into the use of them.
| | About Manuela Blanchard: | Manuela Blanchard has taught contact improvisation and new dance in Switzerland for the past 3 years, after having trained intensively and performed in dance, physical theatre and clown for the past 18 years. Discovering improvised dance touched a very profound core in her, and led her to meet great teachers, such as N. Stark Smith, K. Simson, S. Paxton, M. Keogh and A. Harwood. She organises a regular jam and is a member of several improvisation groups. Manuela is also a water body therapist, trained in “water dance” and “healing dance”. Her love for contact improvisation and aquatic bodywork has brought her to regularly teach contact dance in water.
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