Long Beach Contact Improvisation Festival
Join us for a 5-day celebration of Contact Improvisation in sunny Long Beach!
Enjoy classes & jams with world class teachers from California and across the country.
January 2-5, 2025 on the beautiful California State University Long Beach campus.
Stay for a post-fest training January 6-11 with Chris Aiken & Angie Hauser.
Early sign ups are encouraged as it will sell out.
Registration is now open!
Scott Wells (San Francisco)
From Zero to Flying
A somatic based approach to contact and flying. We will start with contact practices in which sensation and proprioception lead to refined skills. We will work with physics and somatics that support freedom of flight and expression.
Angela Heyun (Las Vegas, NV)
The Moments In Between
When it feels like a “gap,” what underlying connections remain? We’ll explore our relationship to ourselves, who we’re with, and where we are - playing and dancing with our awareness, breath, imagination, eyes, face, presence, and the space in between.
Ezra LeBank (Long Beach)
Heels Over Head
We will play with skills to expand our possibilities upside down, on our hands, and in moments of disorientation. Once we establish a few fundamental skills, we will apply the concepts into delightful upside down dancing scores.
Jen Hong (Venice)
Breath. Bones. Earth. Sky.
Drawing on anatomy in motion and Newtonian physics (tools from The Axis Syllabus), and Daoist philosophy of opposites and constant change, this workshop will focus on both physical and energetic principles of movement.
Marie Osterman (Los Angeles)
Play/Ground
This workshop will focus on CI essential skills such as falling, support, and disorientation in a playful and curious atmosphere! Basically: we'll play. We'll ground. We'll dance!
Nhu Nguyen (San Diego)
Let the Groove Get In
Through grooving, we will discover our potentials for multi-directionality, in order to clarify the “yes” relationship with others. We will rock, bounce, slide, wave, and roll our way through playful and (hopefully) exciting dances.
Jess Humphrey (San Diego)
Trioness
Slow, heart-softening warmup, differentiation and dissolving of trio “roles”, and some trio tricks, all guided by Steve Paxton’s adage: “The dancing does the teaching, the teacher points to that.”
Alicia Grayson (Nederland, CO)
Full Body Awareness
We will cultivate full body awareness so that the instrument of our body can be ready and responsive for anything to happen. As we listen to ourselves and our partner we can be present in the unfolding improvisation.
Land Acknowledgement
CSULB is located on the sacred site of Puvungna. We acknowledge that we are on the land of the Tongva/Gabrieleño and the Acjachemen/Juaneño Nations who have lived and continue to live here. We recognize the Tongva and Acjachemen Nations and their spiritual connection as the first stewards and the traditional caretakers of this land. We thank them for their strength, perseverance and resistance.