CONTACT IMPROVISATION: practice and perFORMance 2025!
(SECOND EDITION)
A four-day event geared towards experienced CI dancers focusing on furthering movement research and practicing CI in performance. The weekend will consist of classes, labs, compositional scores, and structured witnessing.
JUNE 26TH - 29TH, 2025
CI: practice and perFORMance is organized and facilitated by Lilianna Kane and Anna Vomacka. The first edition was May of 2024. What transpired was so inspiring that we had to bring the project back for round two.
The event will take place at the beautiful GROUNDWORKS space, in Gardiner, NY.
GROUNDWORKS has private rooms, shared dorms, and camping grounds, not to mention a gorgeous 1200 sq ft open hall dance studio with a sprung wooden floor.
Registration to the event includes room and board (home cooked fresh food) morning espresso, tea, snacks, in addition to usage of all of Groundworks’ amenities (wood burning sauna, hot tub, hiking trails, etc.)
Join us!
PHOTO BY JONAH M. DAVID
MEET THE TEAM:
LILIANNA KANE (organizer, teacher) is an artist and chef, primarily invested in the dance practice of Contact Improvisation. She is committed to improvisation as a physical practice of asking questions, paying attention, patience and peace. She values the interplay of rigor, rest, discipline and play. She teaches and shares her practices nationally and internationally, as well as producing and organizing international CI gatherings and intensives. She is currently the head chef and a CI curator at The Field Center (center for performance, dance and multimedia art) in Bellows Falls, VT) where she has the privilege of regularly practicing, teaching, and researching Contact Improvisation. She is deeply indebted and inspired by all of her teachers, dance partners, and dance ancestors, who continually influence her practice. Website: www.liliannakane.com
ANNA VOMACKA (organizer, teacher) is a dance maker, educator and performer from Brooklyn, NY. Contact Improvisation has been a steady thread throughout her life. As a young dancer, CI was foundational in her dance. As an adult, Anna returned to CI in 2017, where she remains engaged with the practice, continuing to explore principles of weight, risk, intimacy, surprise, and listening. As a facilitator Anna’s interest lay within the interpersonal dynamics that have the opportunity to awaken and interplay in the dance.
CHRIS CAHOON (teacher) is an improviser, teacher and facilitator based in Brooklyn, New York. He embraces the “art-sport” approach to Contact Improvisation, where his movement background in team sports meets his early initiations in Authentic Movement and Skinner Releasing Technique. Chris is curious about the spherical body in space, observing reflexes, and playing with states of physicality. He is deeply influenced by his local teachers Paul Singh, Bradley Ellis, and Tim O’Donnell. Chris holds a BA in Rhetoric from Whitman College and was an Artist-in-Residence with the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation in 2019. Chris teaches CI classes and facilitates jams in New York City.
JULIANNE CARIÑO (teacher) is a multimedia artist and teacher, born and raised in Lenapehoking. They have been a student, spaceholder, teacher, and performer of Contact Improvisation since 2018. Julianne is an organizer and facilitator for the Brooklyn BIPOC Jam (since 2023) and has had the honor of teaching through the Bill Young Studio/100 Grand st. (NYC), Brooklyn Arts Exchange (Brooklyn), Ponderosa (Germany), Groundworks (Gardiner, NY), Dance North (Scotland), and The Field Center (Vermont).
Cariño advocates for a sense of communal care and respect through a praxis of listening, direct communication, and physical support. They’re research moves in and out of stability in constant motion and spiraling in “stillness”, rising multidirectionally in dialogue with gravity, and the potential for exquisite balance on this round earth.
