Contact improvisation immersion: collaborative composition

3-day CI Immersion

This workshop is part of a 3-day immersion in contact improvisation in Ghent from May 29 to 31.

You can register for the whole CI-immersion or for separate activities.

The mornings will focus on movement research from different angles.

In the afternoons, two facilitators co-teach. They exchange their movement language and approaches with each other and the group.

After the afternoon session, there is room for integration and experiment:

• JAM on Thursday
• conversation table on Friday
• performance evening on Saturday

Collaborative Composition

"Ce qui touche je l’ai appris, et c’est une dimension importante de l’écologie des sentir, demande relais, reprise : ce qui nous touche relève de l’écologie du viral ; fautes d’hôtes, ce qui nous touche s’étiole, et ne pourra plus toucher personne. Ce qui nous touche nous requiert."

Vinciane Despret

“What touches us, I've learned, and this is an important dimension of the ecology of feeling, needs to be relayed and taken up again: what touches us is part of the ecology of the viral; without hosts, what touches us withers away, and can no longer touch anyone. What touches us requires us.”

Vinciane Despret

This workshop proposes to explore contact improvisation through the lens of the Tuning Score, to bring them into dialogue, to move from one to the other, to let things inform and transform our practice.

The Tuning Score developed by artist Lisa Nelson emphasizes collaborative processes rooted in sensory awareness and the fluid boundaries between practice and observation, between seeing and imagining. Our eyes touch, our skin sees, and our listening becomes tactile and kinaesthetic. These modes of perception guide our attention, often filling us with a sense of wonder.

What happens when we blend the approach of the Tuning Score into our journey of contact improvisation? This workshop seeks to bridge these worlds—rooted in the physical forces of movement and the imaginal realms. It invites us to let our physical experiences and our imaginations converse, perhaps even letting ourselves be amazed by the pull of gravity.

The day begins with a focus on breath as both a physical process and a gateway to deeper layers of the body. We will explore the subtlety of touch—ranging from the lightness of skin-to-skin contact to a more expansive listening to the body's masses, whether through flesh or bones. It develops into breathing as a way of tuning with our partner and what surrounds us, creating spaces, offering volumes and dynamics, sharing weight gently, establishing a soft support in movement.

As we cultivate these ways of listening and being present, we will begin to integrate the processes of the Tuning Score into our dance, allowing it to unfold naturally and inform our movement.

Information on Lisa Nelson and the Tuning Scores can be found here (in French & English).

Stéphanie Auberville is an improvisor and choreographer based in Brussels.

Since the early 90s, she has been involved in the practice of improvisation. She has been influenced by the teaching of artists such as Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Simone Forti, Nancy Stark Smith. In 2002, she met Nita Little and became her assistant between 2005 and 2009. Since 1995, she has been facilitating research labs, jams at Tic Tac Art centre, and workshops with Nita Little, Frey Faust, Ralf Jaroschinski and more. She has been teaching CI and improvisation since 2003, in the form of weekly classes (in Paris from 2004 to 2012) and several workshops. She has been invited to teach in many places in France and Belgium and in dance festivals around the world. Her teaching is based on work on perceptions and often takes the form of research that she shares with the participants.