Forms that invite the Formless
Weekly Contact Improvisation Laboratory
Quinta Ten Chi | Sintra, Portugal
Saturdays 10AM - 12.30PM
Any Questions?
Email: reimar.wenshen@gmail.com
Forms that invite the Formless
Contact Improvisation Laboratory
Quinta Ten Chi | Sintra, Portugal
Saturday 10am - 12.30pm
Dragon Dojo
In this CI Laboratory we examine one main form each session. The forms are technically advanced CI movements or sequences. They often include dynamic, acrobatic partnering movements that assume some level of comfort with falling, readiness and spatial awareness.
The Laboratory will be made up of four parts:
1) Warm-Up in Solo with a particular invitation relevant to the form. e.g. Spinal Undulation, Crescent Rolls
2) Developing Principles relevant to the form in Partner e.g. Rolling Point of Contact, Spiralling, Backspace
3) Training the Form
4) The Formless: Improvisation around the form, the principles and beyond.
The laboratory is open for all levels but is not beginners-focussed. The forms will assume a basic comfort with falling, spatial awareness, dynamic weight-sharing. If we feel safety is at risk, we may ask you to observe instead of participating in the excercises.
Examples of past Forms
Venue
Photos of Quinta Ten Chi in Sintra, Portugal
Walk up the stairs from the carpark to get to the Dragon Dojo.
Early arrival encouraged for your self warm-up.
FACILITATOR
Reimar Wen Shen (DE/SG)
Contact Improvisation facilitator, Meditation teacher & Butoh performing artist.
Reimar’s passion lies in embodiment and improvisation. He is a dedicated Vipassana practitioner and the founder of vipassanathome.org. His background in martial arts — holding a Black Belt in Taekwondo and training in Aikido at Ryu Dojo, Japan — forms the ground of his movement practice. He also teaches OceanDance, a meeting of somatics, freediving, and Contact Improvisation.
He is interested in Contact Improvisation as a practice of integrating polarities: action & emptiness, silence & motion. For him, CI arises where embodied awareness (sati), felt energy (ki), and physics meet.
Collaborators:
Geraldin Acevedo Espana, Francisco Borges, Christos Litsiots, Natascha Golubtsova
Significant Teachers:
Dolores Dewhurst-Marks & Sasha Dodo, Katya Basalaeva, Kirstie Simson, Bari Kim, Sasha Brezrodnova
Header Image: Veronica Olariu, taken during Inspiral contact improvisaiton workshop organised by TOWARDS Institute, Thailand (2021).