29 June – 3 July, 1-6pm, Palazzo Pereira 

Join Contact Improvisation Malta, choreographer Vanessa Grasse, and a group of international dance artists for a week of training and exploration of improvisation, partnering skills, and ensemble thinking through instant choreography.

During this five-day workshop we will explore some of MESH specific ensemble improvisation approaches through both outdoor and indoor practice which will end with two public sharings. The process will merge Vanessa’s choreographic, Contact Improvisation and urban walking practices. We will begin by moving between solo and group explorations, investigating how we can move with an awareness of a coexisting self and a group practice. We will focus on different species of experiential ‘edges’ and what types of perceptual, kinetic and sensorial investigations might allow us to experience permeability, entanglement, interconnectivity, and interdependence amongst each other, strangers, and the environment. We’ll explore and question how far we can extend our sense of ‘here’ and how our moving can be generous and outward looking. We’ll dynamically self-organize to channel, current, weave, and entangle our paths through different spaces as we challenge ourselves to nurture and sustain curiosity in group, collectivity, and interconnection. MESH sharings in Valletta are hosted by Contact Improvisation Malta. More about MESH: https://meshjournal.wixsite.com/mesh

Elements of Contact Improvisation will be explored to support different group contact dynamics and formations. We will then focus on practicing specific MESH performative scores in preparation of two outdoor final informal public sharings (3 & 6 July) which will be presented in Castille Square and surrounding area. Sharings will happen around the events of the Dance Studies Association annual conference taking place 5-8 July 2018. Workshop fee: €140; some scholarships are available. Contact Richard Sarco-Thomas at [email protected] to apply.

MESH is endorsed by the Valletta 2018 Foundation.