FILMS & ONLINE PEFORMANCES
WHILE LIVE PERFORMANCES ARE STILL ON HOLD, IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A SERIES OF ONLINE EXPERIENCES FROM DANCE FILMS, TO 360 SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE AND LIVE-STREAMED PERFORMANCES!
ALL PERFORMANCES ARE FREE!
Contact
Improvisation
Intensive
2022
Date
02.12.22 - 04.12.22
Time
02.12 // 19:30 - 22:00
03 & 04.12 // 16:30 - 19:00
Venue
Sigma Collective Space
10 Raeburn Park, #03-10A, Singapore 088702
In this photo: Yong Wen with the late Nancy Stark, founding participant in contact improvisation.
Led by Yong Wen Lee
Join veteran Yeong Wen Lee as he shares his extensive knowledge of contact improvisation through a 3-day intensive workshop. Prepare to be introduced or re-introduced to this amazing system of movement both as a communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact, along with their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion; as well as an open-ended exploration of the kinesthetic possibilities of bodies moving through contact.
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Yeong Wen Lee began his dance training in ballet, followed by contemporary dance, in Singapore, which led him to further his studies of movement in Arizona State University (ASU). Since graduating from ASU in 2010 with an Outstanding Graduate Student Creative Work Award and a Distinguished Teacher Award, he has continued his practice and sharing of dance/movement in diverse environments.

Yeong has also facilitated dance/movement workshops at King’s Academy, Jordan (2009), Arizona Dance Education Organization, Phoenix, Arizona (2010), America College Dance Festival, Tempe, Arizona (2010), International Dance Festival in Ilan, Taiwan (2011), Contact Festival, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2012, 2013), Mission Improvable Festival, Buffalo, New York (2012), Beijing Dance Academy (2015), and Toronto (2016).

In Singapore, Yeong also conducts dance/movement workshops at O’Joy Care Center (part of the Health Oriented Ageing programme), Memories Café (Project by Alzheimer’s Disease Association), Greentree Montessori (a Creative Movement Class) and Nanyang Academy Of Fine Arts (Teaching Improvisation and Contact Improvisation). Yeong occasionally organizes and facilitates intensive workshops to deepen his research and study of dance/movement.
What is Contact Improvisation?
There are many ways of defining the dance form Contact Improvisation. Here are two:
Contact Improvisation is an evolving system of movement initiated in 1972 by American choreographer Steve Paxton. The improvised dance form is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open to these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner. Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one's basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened. — early definition by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, 
from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979
Contact Improvisation is an open-ended exploration of the kinaesthetic possibilities of bodies moving through contact. Sometimes wild and athletic, sometimes quiet and meditative, it is a form open to all bodies and enquiring minds. — from Ray Chung workshop announcement, London, 2009
Fees
Early bird (Now - 13.11): $125
13.11 onwards: $150
Criteria
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This intensive is open to all levels, no prior dance experience is required.
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You have to be in Singapore throughout the duration of the intensive.
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Full attendance of the Intensive will be highly recommended. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis. Email info@sigmadance.co to enquire.
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