PERFORMANCE

Dates and Venues: 
30 September h 8:00 PM Rawabet Theatre – Cairo 
FREE ENTRY – LIMITED SEATS
Invitations can be collected at the venues’ door starting 6:00 PM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTACT IMPROVISATION IN A FEW WORDS:

Contact Improvisation (CI) or contact dancing, is a form of improvised dancing characteristic of the postmodern dance movement which developed in the United States during the 1970s. The dance was notably brought to life by the innovations of Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, born from aesthetical, ethical, artistic and political reflection. 

This practice, which centers on one’s relation to the other, brings into play the physical contact points between two or more partners. It thus mobilizes all senses and perceptions (tactile, visual, auditory, kinesthetic…), as well as one’s relation to the environment (the ground, space, gravity…) and to the present moment (what is created in the present instant).

Thus contact improvisation probes the body’s capacity for adaptation in situations of support and of contact, by playing with gravity and with the relation between the dancers. Therefore, “giving-receiving weight” is central to the practice of Contact Improvisation.

This practice requires availability, attention, connection to the senses, and constant adaptation. The dance that emerges from this practice is comparable to a physical dialogue, built on continuous and reciprocate implication, mutual incitement, steady interaction throughout the process, and aesthetic relation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE ARTISTS:

PATRICIA KUYPERS (Belgium) is a key player in the transmission and development of Contact Improvisation in Europe. Trained among imminent choreographers and Postmodern Dance innovators (Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Trisha Brown), Patricia is a performer and an outstanding choreographer with a wide and varied repertoire of artistic collaborations (dancers, musicians, plastic artists, improvisers of all sorts, video artists) in the field of improvisation - and all her creations have gained international exposure.

Aside from being a unique choreographer and performer, Patricia Kuypers is also the author of a colossal repertoire of theoretical works of reference in the field of dance. Her works on the practice of improvisation as a form of live creation are notably gathered under the title La Partition Interieure (The Internal Partition) - a collection of texts, dancing conferences, and performances. She is also the founder of the Contredanse association (a center of documentation and information on dance, located in Brussels), where she worked as an artistic director for 20 years; as well as her work as an editor for the Nouvelles De Danse publication.