Elisse Malafosse
France
Contacteuse, somataunote… In 2014, I was struck by a Contact Improvisation jam! Years of experience oriented towards/by movement and touch (studies of linguistics and semiology, dance, yoga, massage) facilitate my access to this practice, which leads me to encounter new bodily and somatic approaches ( BMC, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Rolfing, Axis Syllabus, Gaga, Playfight) and it is with BodyMind Centering that I have been traveling more deeply for 5 years. A natural continuation of the practice, transmission is now an integral part of my interest in movement and human beings. And at a time when the living is dying a little more every day on the planet, the somatic approach appears to me as a poetic and political commitment to recognizing the value of life in us and beyond! Somatic education was mainly passed on to me by Alex Guex (Le Cycle) and Anne Expert (Materials training), as well as infant sensory-motor development training with the organization of BMC Soma France (training in progress); and CI through numerous teachings (Alex Guex, Matthieu Godeau, Asaf Brachach, Stéphanie Auberville, Isabelle Uski, Nita Little, Charlie Morrissey, Mirva Makinen…).
Workshop proposal
SUPER-NATURAL BODY In Contact Improvisation, we want to meet each other beyond gender, age, nationality, religion or political ideology… focusing on what we have in common as human beings: cells, organs, bones, skin, blood… vitality, movement, sensations, curiosity, attention, feelings, desire, empathy, playfulness… Somatic sensitivity helps us to dive into the memory of this source where we all come from, to recognize ourselves as nature and to trust the animal body! Feeling at home and safe in our body-mind, rooted in our innocence and the primal force of gravity that connects us all, is the basis of freedom and courage to explore. From there, we can open up to each other to embody the dance, the fall, the fly…become ourselves in one collective body, flowing in space and time, rising in one continuous movement, an impulse, a pause, a momentum... The techniques will be there but will remain in the shadows to support our natural intelligence of movement, leaving the doing attuned to being and the form of Contact Improvisation emerging from feeling. Depending on what's happening in the summer and the festival, I'll adjust and clarify the proposal… maybe that'll take us somewhere else!