Touch and Move: Improvising Contact, creating Community

This is a class for GBTQ men* with all levels of experience, from total newbies to advanced.
We meet and begin by checking in with each other, followed by a guided exploration moving from somatic practice to contact dance improvisation. This all culminates in opening the space for the free flow of dancing and explorations in duos, trios and as a group.
Bodywork will help us to warm down at the end and integrate what we experienced. Dance is our way to create a space for exploration: what happens when queer men’s bodies meet and get in touch without any expectations and intentions?
In Contact Improvisation, touch is the source of finding dance movements. It helps you to be open to the here and now, to surprises, to letting go of performing roles, meeting expectations, and following scripts. Any movement can be part of this dance, no matter how simple – we literally move any way we feel.
This creates a conversation without words, simply through our moving bodies. Feeling ourselves by sensing others can create nourishing bonds of community as much as it liberates us. We emphasise consensus, respect, diversity of people and energies, listening, and a non-judgmental space.

Jochen Kleres is a dance therapist, an alternative practitioner for psychotherapy and a sociologist. He is passionate about improvisational dance (Contact Improvisation, Instant Composition, Gaga) and plays the bassoon. In the Village he is also involved as facilitator of the monthly workshop Dealing with loneliness. Creating connections.

Zahiro Ji is originally coming from contemporary dance and moved on to work as a natural path (Heilpraktiker) and facilitator/teacher for movement and Thai Meridian Massage. As a certified Somatic Experiencing ® Practitioner he is now specialized in the field of trauma and stress resolution integrating his skills of bodywork and movement. He is one of the cofounders of the Contact Improvisation Class (Touch and Move) at the Village on Mondays and facilitated numerous bodywork workshops within the Village/Stretch community.