Contact JamOUT
On Break till March...

WHERE: 1519 Mission (at 11th), San Francisco, CA 94103
WHEN: Sundays Contact Class is from 12 -1:30 pm....Jam is From 1:30-4pm
COST: $10 for Class $15 for both.
Instructor: Jen Chien
Tea and Fruit included in class fee.

Mama is proud to announce her much awaited Sunday Noontime Contact Jam. Bring the weekend to a close with friends old and new.

Class Description:
Preparations for open, focused, engaging, fun dances. Refining sensory awareness, practicing specific skills and training body and mind to be both alert and relaxed. Focusing on the interplay between taking in information and taking action. How can we keep our consciousness and decision-making-mind active and still remain open to and aware of sensation? Choose and surrender, suggest and respond, assert and
listen. Mixed level. All welcome, especially beginners. Comfortable clothing a must, kneepads highly recommended.

Contact Improvisation:
Contact improvisation is a way of dancing playfully with a partner, grounded in physical sensation, which investigates how to play through sharing touch with the earth, with gravity and momentum, and with others or simply the awareness of space.There are no "moves" to learn, it's more like a moving puzzle. It has been variously described as "an artsport", "a game or two with two winners" and "a physical conversation". Contact dances can range from the quietly meditative to the exuberantly acrobatic, from using little or light touch to sending weight through a partner's body to fly. The language of the body is sensations and in contact improvisation our sensation is always our guide in giving weight and receiving support, making and breaking contact, rolling and sliding, steering momentum, taking control of and resolving falls, lifting and being lifted...
Dancing contact is like having a physical conversation. Doing it both requires and nurtures a relaxed, open and curious state. People with a professional or personal interest in being 'in their bodies' ˆ from professional to community dancers, doctors to movement therapists, actors to musicians, sighted to blind, young and old ˆ find it a way to explore what that means. And it's fun too!

--quote from
Malcolm Manning, teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner.

Jennifer Chien has been practicing Contact Improvisation since 1994. She has studied with and been greatly influenced by Nancy Stark Smith, Danny Lepkoff, Chris Aiken, and everyone she has ever danced with. Her classes are informed by her experience as a dancer, improvisor, and bodyworker. She currently teaches at New College of California and performs with the Erika Shuch Performance Project.