Contact Improvisation and Ball Work, Dieter Heitkamp
| About masterclass: | Simple Contact Improvisation exercises like „Rolling Point of Contact“, practicing „Being upside down“ or „Triowork“ are very enyoyable and easy to explore in working with balls. Since 1993 I have been developing methods of teaching CI on three different kind of inflatable balls: Over Balls (26 cm), Pezzi Balls (60 cm) and Physio Balls (90 cm).
Each of these balls creates a world of ist own and corresponds to a specific level of partner work, namely FLOOR, BENCH, and TABLE position.
The dancers can immediately apply the experiences they gained to working with a partner. Working on balls makes people dance more round and soft.
An exploration that works well with balls is experiencing punctual support at all parts of the body and expanding into space from this base of support, i.e. increasing the body’s volume rather than to collapse.
Another interesting aspect of working with the balls is observing the interplay between PERIPHERY AND CENTER. When resting on the ball with the hips or stomach and initiating movements starting from the center, the movement spreads to the periphery - the extremities, the head, and the tailbone.
On the other hand, pushing and pulling movements of the extremities influence the movements at the center. | | About Dieter Heitkamp: | Dieter Heitkamp is Professor for Contemporary dance, Director of the Department for Contemporary and Classical Dance and Dean for Performing Arts at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main(Germany)(www.hfmdk-frankfurt.de). From 1978 to 1995 he has been one of the artistic directors of Tanzfabrik Berlin. Since 1977 he has been deeply involved with studying, teaching and performing CI. His choreographies for Tanzfabrik have been presented througout Germany, 12 european countries, canada, the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Brasil, Letvia and Russia.He has also choreographed for Ballet Frankfurt, Ballet of the State Opera Berlin and for Theater and TV.
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