honoring intuition // contact improvisation- Colleen Thomas w/Adriane Fang

This is a workshop in exploration- the exploration of weight, sensation, individuality, and collaboration. Utilizing improvisation, while working with an underlying line and grounded technique. With contact partnering, we will sense what stirs our bodies as we explore individual and group partnering. honoring intuition // contact improvisation is available to all levels of ability.

NOTE: Sister Bay Village Hall floor can be sticky when humid. Please bring comfortable footwear or socks with you.

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About the artists...

​Colleen Thomas is a 2021 Bessie nominated New York based choreographer and performing artist. Her work as a choreographer and dancer has been presented internationally in Hong Kong, Estonia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, and in New York at venues including Danspace Project, La MaMa Theater, DTW, New York Live Arts, The Miller Theater, Danny K. Playhouse, The Harkness Center at the 92nd Street Y, and The Kumble Arts Center. She has worked with renowned contemporary choreographers such as Nina Wiener Dance Company, Donald Byrd/The Group, Bebe Miller Dance Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company among others. In 2008, she founded Colleen Thomas Dance where she serves as artistic director, executive director, choreographer, and performer. She is also co-director, choreographer, and performer with Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co, and the co-director and co-curator of the LIT (loft into theater) series at 100 Grand, which supports innovative and experimental work by both emerging and established artists in an up-close and personal setting. She is currently Chair and Professor of Professional Practice in Dance at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her recent research includes: a new work with artists from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and USA (premiered at La MaMa Theater in May 2019), a recent published scientific study looking at brain activity in contact improvisers (Goldman, A., Thomas, C., & Sajda, P. (2019). Contact improvisation dance practice predicts greater mu rhythm desynchronization during action observation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000255.), and light and desire a premiere in September 2021 at New York Live Arts that looks at women artists during fascist times. She is currently the Chair and a Professor of Professional Practice in Dance at Barnard College of Columbia University.

Adriane Fang is a dancer, teacher and choreographer with a keen interest in multi-disciplinary collaboration. She was a member of the internationally renowned dance company, Doug Varone and Dancers, from 1996-2006 and has worked with several other choreographers including Colleen Thomas, Wally Cardona, Elizabeth Shea, Bill Young, Bebe Miller, Keith Johnson, and Kendra Portier.Current projects include DANCExDANCE, an interactive dance duet between a dancer and Calico, a wearable robot that uses sensors and actuators to move around the dancer's body. She has been a guest teacher at Taller Nacional de Danza – San José, Costa Rica, Indiana University and the Damansara Performing Arts Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has taught and staged the works of Doug Varone for various universities and companies, including North Carolina School of the Arts, CityDance Ensemble, BalletMet Columbus, Juilliard School of the Arts, Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota. She was on faculty at George Mason University from 2006-2009 and at the DOVA Summer Workshops from 2000-07, 2015-16 and 2020-21. She has choreographed operas for Annapolis Opera and Maryland Opera Studio and dances for groups such as Compañia Ceibadanza in Ecuador, Shendandoah University, James Madison University. She was awarded a 2014 Local Dance Commissioning Project Award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to present her full-length work, Grains.Currently on faculty at the University of Maryland, Adriane is the recipient of a 2007 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for her performance with Doug Varone and Dancers.

Photo- Allison Evans at Wild Nest Photography, Design- Charlie Stephens

Photos- Colleen Thomas (Julia Discenza), Yi-Chun Wu (Adriane Fang)