94: Contact Improvisation and Bodywork (with Alicia Grayson)
Episode Transcript
Summary: Til interviews Alicia Grayson, an expert practitioner and teacher of Contact Improvisation dance, about that form’s significance as an embodiment and movement practice. They explore its connection to other forms of movement and therapy, share their personal journeys, and discuss the similarities and differences between Contact Improv and hands-on bodywork, comparing methods and therapeutic goals. They also delve into topics such as the role of gravity, the benefits of touch sensitivity and human connection, as well as highlighting the joy and exploration involved in play.
- Til Luchau’s Advanced-Trainings.com
- Whitney Lowe’s Academy of Clinical Massage
Whitney Lowe:
Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner Podcast.
Til Luchau:
A podcast where we dig into the fascinating issues, conditions, and quandaries in the massage and manual therapy world today.
Whitney Lowe:
I’m Whitney Lowe.
Til Luchau:
And I’m Til Luchau.
Whitney Lowe:
Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner.
Til Luchau:
Welcome to the Thinking Practitioner.
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Alicia, it’s so good to have this time with you. Thanks for joining me here on the podcast. Welcome.
Alicia Grayson:
I’m happy to. Thanks for inviting me.
Til Luchau:
I’m going to go ahead and read your bio, and then I want to talk to you some more about what you do about contact improvisation, what I’ve learned from it, how it relates to bodywork, that kind of things.
Alicia Grayson:
Sounds good.
Til Luchau:
Your popular contact improvisation classes… We’ll talk about what that is in a second… Have been supporting the local and international dance community for almost three decades. You live here in Boulder, Colorado, like I do. You are known for your clear and accessible instructional style, and you teach embodiment through forms such as contact improvisation, yoga, Pilates, and authentic movement. You are a transformational guide via practices like life coaching, somatic psychotherapy, biodynamic breath work, and trauma release. We’ll go ahead and put up some more information about your site, et cetera, in the show notes, but is there anything else you want our listeners to know about you as we start our conversation?
Alicia Grayson:
Let’s see. Well, I’m sitting outside and I live actually not in Boulder. I live outside of Boulder up in the mountains, and that’s a big part of my life is being close to nature in various ways.
Til Luchau:
That’s great. That’s great. No, you live up in a spectacular heart of the environment outside of Boulder, the other side of Boulder than me. I lived eight miles or so east. You live west. [inaudible 00:02:38]. It’s good to be talking across this place we live. So let’s just get a little context before we get into the meat of it. What is contact improvisation?
Alicia Grayson:
Well, it has never been defined like with a codified define, so each person’s going to have a slightly different definition. So I’ll share my definition, which is two or more people in physical contact with one another in improvising and using the physical forces of gravity and momentum. A lot of listening is happening in the moment through what’s called the point of contact where the touch is happening. Could be as small as a fingertip, or it could be somebody’s body is supporting another person’s body’s weight fully, entirely on their back or their shoulder. And so you’re using the physical forces to improvise.
Til Luchau:
And it’s a dance form, is that fair to say?
Alicia Grayson:
Yes. It’s a dance form, yes.
Til Luchau:
Okay. Is it a performance dance form or a personal practice or a mindfulness practice or all of the above? Where does it-
Alicia Grayson:
All of the above. Some people perform and some people never perform and do it just as a personal practice. For some people, it’s a really a physical practice. Others, it’s a practice to interact with other people. For some, it’s more of a meditative practice or a combination of any of those. For me, it’s all of them, and it’s a lot of fun too.
Til Luchau:
It’s a lot of fun too. I think the hands-on bodywork isn’t a performance modality in most cases, although I feel like that sometimes when I’m teaching. But the rest of what you said, I think has some pretty clear analogies in what we do with our [inaudible 00:04:58] like that, and so that’s what I’m interested in talking about. But before we get into that, what’s your journey around this? How did you get into this? What about it spoke to you? How did you get involved with it?
Alicia Grayson:
I was introduced to it in 1989, so 34 years ago. A friend of mine said, “Hey, there’s this thing.” I’d never heard of it. I took a class and anyway, that was the beginning and one thing unfolded to the next, and I still love it. 34 years later, I still love dancing and exploring, but that’s a little bit of my journey.
Til Luchau:
That’s great. And do you have other kinds of practices and work you do too like we mentioned in your bio? Does it inform those? Is there a continuity somehow between the contact and the other things you do?
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah, absolutely. In different ways, for example, the yoga, because it’s a solo practice, often I’ll work with a theme in my contact improvisation classes and apply that to yoga or vice versa. And then with more of the somatic psychotherapy or life coaching, that really shows up in contact because it’s a relational practice, the self and other awareness and the listening skills that happen can be directly applied to the somatic psychotherapy and life coaching and contact.
Til Luchau:
I reconnected with contact improv and with you just in the last year or so after not having done it since the eighties, basically. I had not done much of it since the eighties. When I came back and went to your classes, it reminded me how influential that was for me as a person, but also as a bodyworker, developing my own work and my own way of being. And it’s been a great touchdown to go back and just remember some of these fundamental concepts and how congruent they are with what we do on the table, and especially, stylistically for me personally, how influential they have been and how they keep appearing as well.
And as a teacher, you rightly have this reputation as a masterful teacher here in the area and internationally. And as another teacher just being in your classes, I just really wanted to appreciate and honor you and the space you hold and the way you construct and progress through things that are not always easy to sit down and teach or explain. But you manage to facilitate and create the container in the space for us to find those as your students.
Alicia Grayson:
Well, thank you. Yeah, it’s always an ongoing process, how to share things that really resonate for oneself and try to make it a way that’s tangible and accessible for other people.
Til Luchau:
Because it’s one thing to embody them when we’re working on ourselves, and then another thing to help, whether it’s our students or our clients, et cetera, find those things for themselves as well.
Right. Right.
Til Luchau:
Okay. So what do we mean by contact? Is that basically the touch? Is that the same as physical touch?
Alicia Grayson:
Well, in contact improvisation, I would say the physical contact is key, although you can have a contact improvisation dance where you might come out of physical contact. But I would say if you never come into contact with each other physically, it’s probably, I would call it dance improvisation, not contact improvisation.
Til Luchau:
Okay. So contact refers to the physical touching probably within that form. How is that significant, or how do you think about it as a teacher? Or what is there to know about the fact that we’re in physical contact in that context?
Alicia Grayson:
Well, there’s many things. One, it’s touch. Touch is a primary sense and touch is something that humans need from when we’re first born. And it’s a way of communicating that is different than communicating with words. So in this form, we learn to listen through touch and communicate through touch. That’s one of the aspects. [inaudible 00:09:58].
Til Luchau:
One of the interesting things for me as a student there has been to… We’re touching, and it’s a very different context, of course. It’s a dance context as opposed to a bodywork context. It’s a partnered context as opposed to a client therapist context. And the two-way piece, though, isn’t that different in some way? Because I still think of myself as listening to my client or listening to my partner. I’m still offering tangible kinesthetic or pressure ideas or suggestions, possibilities. I’m still listening to hear how they’re taken up or not [inaudible 00:10:51] interesting around that.
Alicia Grayson:
I imagine with bodywork, it’s more you are the one who touches and the other is receiving the touch.
Til Luchau:
There’s that.
Alicia Grayson:
Contact improvisation, it’s going both ways.
Til Luchau:
Which has been a great stretch for me as a mover and as a body and as a person. And it makes me reflect a lot on the one-way nature of the relationship and bodywork, how most of us want it to be more reciprocal. We want the two-way communication. And it’s given me a great laboratory to come in and actually play and practice with how is it when we are peers, moving partners moving together, how is it that that happens? What happens when I lean and try something? How do they respond? And it’s the context where my partner is moving from what feels right for them, hopefully purely opposed to trying to go with some therapeutic agenda, maybe is a very different one. And the other big difference, well, while we’re talking about touch, is that I’m not just using my hands in contact improvisation. Is it fair to say that contact improvisation is like soccer? You can’t touch the ball.
Alicia Grayson:
With your hands you mean?
Til Luchau:
With your hands.
Alicia Grayson:
Well, we do use our hands because our hands are so intelligent and sensitive and articulate. And here’s the dog falling off. I don’t know if that’s distracting.
Til Luchau:
No. He’s welcome.
Alicia Grayson:
All right. In contact improvisation, that kind of sensitivity that we have in our hands, we try to cultivate that in the entire body.
Til Luchau:
Okay. I haven’t heard you say that, but that’s what I am experiencing. That’s what I’m feeling.
Alicia Grayson:
So for most of us, we use our hands, we use our hand in every day to pick up things, to carry things, to touch people with our hands, but to learn how to wake up the touch receptors in the rest of our body, so to receive the touch, and then also to respond, to respond with movement, to respond or to ask questions, to be curious with other parts of our body.
Til Luchau:
So like the shoulder, for example, the shoulder might be a question or a suggestion or an idea that we present?
Alicia Grayson:
Right.
Til Luchau:
So we’re using our hands in bodywork. We’re using our bodies in contact improvisation. What are we feeling for in contact improvisation? Where’s our perception? What are we-
Alicia Grayson:
So one fundamental aspect of contact improvisation is that we’re feeling for the ground through our partner. So there’s ground and rebound, just like when we’re standing or walking. Otherwise, if there’s only ground we would collapse. But we use the support of the ground in order to open to space, to move through space, expand into space. We’re doing that all the time. You could sit in the chair and collapse where you reach down in order to sit up. So in contact improvisation, we’re using that same principle, but with another person so that we feel through our own skeleton, the ground, but we are also sharing the ability to sense ground through each other’s skeleton.
Til Luchau:
Okay. I’m nodding my head because I know what you mean, but that sounds really kind of esoteric and abstract.
Alicia Grayson:
So it’s actually very un-esoteric, even though it may sound like it is. It’s very concrete and [inaudible 00:15:33]. For example, I’m sitting in this chair and the chair is connected to the deck, which is connected to the ground. So that allows me to have support so I can rise up into it. I’m not just floating in the air. So if this were a partner, it’s the same thing. The skeleton of the chair is helping support me. So it’s very physically based, that level of awareness. So we’re always feeling through each other to feel the ground, but that amount of weight could be quite light. It could be a lot of weight or anything in between. And sometimes the weight comes more in a horizontal direction or an A-frame direction. Sometimes it can be vertical weight.
Til Luchau:
You’re showing us with your hands. So for the listeners, fingers touching, just tips or one hand resting on another, like a T. It could be either one of those models, huh?
Alicia Grayson:
Hm-hmm. Right.
Til Luchau:
As you were describing your chair there, I started to feel that in my own body, and I’m realizing we’re talking about this, but I think there’s an implicit invitation here to be feeling this too as we’re talking about it to the people listening. Well, you want to say anything about that? Can you give us a…
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. So when we’re solo, which I imagine most of the listeners are solo right now. You’re not touching somebody, but you are in contact with the earth always, whether you’re outside directly in contact with the earth or inside and laying on the floor or inside and sitting in a chair or a couch or whatever. Somehow, you’re getting support from the earth, either directly or through the building, through the floor, through the furniture. So we don’t think about it because it’s so fundamental to our existence, gravity is. We don’t have to think about it. In contact improvisation, we are paying attention to that because we’re being relational with another moving body. So two moving bodies in relationship to the earth. And the more that both people attend to the easy and fluid alignment of their body so that the physical forces of gravity move through the structure in the most easeful way and you’re doing that together, co-creating it together, that is using the forces of gravity as part of the play. But we’re not ignoring gravity, it’s an essential part of the practice.
Til Luchau:
As I listen to you, you’re making me aware of how I’m leaning on my elbow here on my desk and feeling the desk, but also feeling the ground, the floor, the support of that from underneath. And then you’re talking about alignment and easier ways, helps me remember that it can be different if I find, for example, my sit bones and feel into the chair and feel down to the floor. And you’re saying in contact improv, we’re doing it with and through a partner as well.
Alicia Grayson:
Yes. Yes.
Til Luchau:
And the truth is, in hands-on manual therapy, we’re doing that with our client as well. We have our own base of support. And a lot of, let’s say the body use suggestions I make to people during a training have to do with their relationship to the floor, and ground and support. And we’re touching another body. And whether it’s a firm pressure or really light pressure, there is a connection through them to whatever they’re lying on, et cetera. And so how to organize ourselves around that point of contact and the transmission of mechanical, physical gravity through that other body is a big part of the body use puzzle as well.
Alicia Grayson:
Right. And I like the word puzzle because the way we’re talking about it might sound kind of dry and mechanical, but it’s the basis for creativity because you create safety, it creates a feeling of connection, and then the nervous system can relax enough and then the creative aspects can open, like what’s possible in this puzzle, this infinite puzzle?
Til Luchau:
That’s right. And some of the ways that you’ve broken it down for us, and your classes have been really exciting for me as a bodyworker, when the point, one of your phrases was, I’m going to paraphrase it, was when the point of contact moves, your support moves too.
Alicia Grayson:
Yes.
Til Luchau:
If something, your weight, your relationship, your spot on the floor changes this as well, [inaudible 00:21:03] example. And that is such a great practice sitting with a client or working with a client, standing with a client, whatever it is, when we’re working on just think, “If my hands are going to move, my base needs to accommodate that.” So it’s not just all arms or all upper body, the planted base in one spot.
Alicia Grayson:
Then it’s like the whole body then is supporting and participating instead of just one part doing a lot of work where the other part is having to brace. If you think it on a macro level, if there’s a community and there’s only three workers and there’s 300 slackers, those three workers are going to have to work really hard and there’s going to be some strain. Whereas if everybody participates, the community’s going to work better. So it’s the same with the body. If you let the whole body participate, so the point of contact or that touch is how the whole body is participating, not just this part at the touch point.
Til Luchau:
Point of contact. How the whole body is supporting that, connecting to that may help,
Alicia Grayson:
In relationship to gravity, in relationship to the earth,
Til Luchau:
In relationship to the gravity in the floor. All right. So that’s some of the contact part of it. What about the improv part?
Alicia Grayson:
The improv, I always think improvisation is, if you just have complete freedom, it’s really hard to improvise. It’s just there isn’t enough of a container. So the container in contact improvisation is this relationship to gravity and to the earth and in the way I understand it and experience it. And so that’s one thing that both people can keep attending to. But then out of that, it’s really play. It’s just co-creating because as soon as one person moves, that has an effect on the other person through the touch. And we’re talking about when that touchpoint moves, then the whole body reorganizes in relationship to gravity, in relationship to your partner. So both people are co-creating through moving.
Til Luchau:
Nice. And through play.
Alicia Grayson:
Through play. Yeah.
Til Luchau:
At some point, I exaggerate a little bit, but about 15 years into working, I was so burned out that I needed to quit. I was just seeing so many clients and spending so much energy and time and focused on it that I got really just fed up and had a kind of motivational crisis around it. Again, the joke is that I did, I quit working so hard, I quit pushing and just started playing, just started doing it for fun, and I’ve been doing it 40 years now. So at that point, it became a lot more interesting just to play, just to find out what was interesting and fun and felt good to both of us, and how to let that unfold and encourage that.
Alicia Grayson:
If you’re not having fun, it’s not worth it. Really. Because enjoyment, it gives you energy and it’s the curiosity, the exploration, the unfolding, the unknown. If I was doing the same thing over and over in contact and improvisation, I would’ve quit ages ago.
Til Luchau:
Play sounds like a fun way to do anything, but it’s even taking a place for me as a therapeutic goal. That’s almost the point. Maybe it is the point. I remember one of my teachers, Arne Mendel was getting really pressed by somebody on saying… He was a psychotherapist, but he was saying, “What is your therapeutic goal?” And he thought for a while, he says, “Actually, it’s to get…” What he called positive feedback from my client and myself. [inaudible 00:25:41] unpack what that meant. It meant, the energy goes up, they get more interested, they’re more engaged, and they’re more with him and more with themselves in that process. And honestly, I haven’t thought of a better way to describe what feels right as that is as well.
Alicia Grayson:
The way you’re describing makes me think it’s like a mutual exploration that creates discovery over and over and over again in that part of… I think when we’re in that place of play, we’re open to life in a way more three-dimensional way than when we’re in a linear, we’ve got a goal, we’ve got to get it done. That narrow focus can limit us in a lot of ways. And when we’re in the playful place, again, I think it’s very much more three-dimensional. Anything’s possible here.
Til Luchau:
I’m free associating a little bit, and I know that I’m just thinking of some of my adventures in theater improv with say, Ruth Zaporah or other teachers teaching that form. This isn’t exactly what’s meant in contact improv, but her thing, and it’s not just her thing, was that we’re looking for the yes.
Alicia Grayson:
Yes, yes, yes.
Til Luchau:
In the [inaudible 00:27:19].
Alicia Grayson:
Right. Right.
Til Luchau:
And we’re looking to evoke that and find that and investigate that in ourselves as well as our partner.
Alicia Grayson:
Right. And a basic foundation of any improvisation, whether it’s theater or dance is the yes and.
Til Luchau:
Yes and.
Alicia Grayson:
So you embrace whatever is, whatever’s showing up in the moment, whether it’s an offer from your partner or you say yes in your energy, you embrace it. And the and is, then you allow what is coming through you to come through you. So that’s how the back and forth happens. Yes and. Yes and.
Til Luchau:
Yes and the present moment. It’s happening in the present moment.
Alicia Grayson:
Yes.
Til Luchau:
Which is foundational and fundamental, so clear when we’re there, and so clear when we’re not. Did I catch my partner’s, my client’s yeses when I’m in the present moment. Or I find my own, as opposed to thinking ahead, remembering backwards. I suspect that the present moment has a place in your thinking or in the form you teach. Is that true?
Alicia Grayson:
Oh, absolutely. I think that’s why people do anything that they love. It’s because it brings them into the present moment, and that is what is satisfying. Being in the present moment is incredibly satisfying. That’s what we’re all looking for, I think on some level is how to be really present. And so conduct improvisation is one way, and I think that’s a big reason why many people choose to practice it.
Til Luchau:
Last night in class, we were working with the top of the head, and you said something at some point about, “If you’re in your head, you’re in the past or in the future.” I don’t even know I heard you. Was it something like that?
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. I usually say things because I’m looking around and I’m seeing what’s happening.
Til Luchau:
Were you looking at me, but what?
Alicia Grayson:
No, I wasn’t looking at you. But we can be in our thinking and planning part of our brain, which is important at times, but not so helpful when we’re wanting to be in the moment and respond and be available to what’s happening in the moment. So this invitation last night, we were working with the crown of the head as rather being in the planning or the reminiscing about the past to actually be in the sensation at the very top of the head and in our imagination of, if that part of our physical being could listen like our ears, but could listen to the mystery of what’s unfolding in the moment.
Til Luchau:
Your statement brought me into my own senses and my own sensation. It also started me on a little mental riff about the fact that the brain itself doesn’t have sensation, that the brain doesn’t feel touch, pressure, temperature, any of that. It’s only tissues around it that do.
Alicia Grayson:
No.
Til Luchau:
Brain tissue has no sensation. So I’m thinking, “Yeah, maybe what the brain is doing is all about something else.” But the way we find the present moment is through those sensory signals, sensory experiences are coming from elsewhere.
Alicia Grayson:
But of course, our scalp has sensations.
Til Luchau:
The scalp has lots of sensations.
Alicia Grayson:
So often, people can do this right now, you can maybe do a math problem and just notice if you were to identify where do you feel that happening in your head, versus if you bring your awareness of sensation to the very top of the head.
Til Luchau:
The math problem is somewhere between my ears, for sure. I don’t know how much of that is concept and how much that experience, but the top of the head shifts it more like you were saying to the scalp or to some [inaudible 00:32:20] there.
Alicia Grayson:
And then of course, if our awareness is in the back of the head, that’s also, where at the very base of the skull, that’s a very different place in our brain. When our attention goes to a different place up our head, it uses a different part of our brain too.
Til Luchau:
Well, there’s so much to the back of anything because we’re so frontally oriented that anytime I feel backwards, it can open up a whole room back there. You open up a whole dimension of experience that I’m usually not paying attention to.
Alicia Grayson:
Right. Right.
Til Luchau:
Especially on Zoom.
Alicia Grayson:
Yes, that’s for sure. That’s for sure.
Til Luchau:
People get so frontally and camera oriented.
Alicia Grayson:
I know.
Til Luchau:
Or screen oriented, whatever it is we’re doing. But just to feel the back of my neck right now, it’s just a great reminder.
Okay. You mentioned it, but I just wanted to underline it too. And that is the physical nourishment of touch, just the human experience of being in contact with someone else and how big a part of the manual therapy, massage therapy, bodywork affects that is how much of it comes from just the physical contact.
Alicia Grayson:
Well, we’re creatures, we’re animals. We’re mammals. We’re social creatures that need touch. It’s a basic need. I can’t remember what the experiment is with the monkey that didn’t get touched and the-
Til Luchau:
[inaudible 00:34:06].
Alicia Grayson:
So I think it’s just a very basic need.
Til Luchau:
Vitamin in our diet.
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. And yet it’s… I don’t know, again, people do conduct improvisation for different reasons. For me it’s the co-creation that I do it for primarily, the improvisation. I don’t do it as like, “Oh, I need some touch. I’m going to go do contact.” Yes, it’s like a wonderful part of it, but it’s not like I do it just for getting touch, because I think there’s some people who do that, and that’s their reason for doing this form and not really the dance part.
Til Luchau:
As a personal practice we should say.
Alicia Grayson:
As a personal practice. And for me, it is a practice that is beyond… There’s a personal, and then there’s a transpersonal aspect about contact improvisation is when you’re in that creative zone where personalities dissolve and you’re just in the flow of creation. And so it’s not about getting your personal needs touch met.
Til Luchau:
Needs met. Right. No, we have the same richness and may be the same considerations as practitioners of bodywork because it’s certainly an important ingredient in my diet, touch. But it’s not the place I look for my touch needs to be met, for example. And the humanness of what I offer is a big part of it, but again, it’s not enough for all of what someone needs in their life as well. Lovely.
Okay. Anything else you want to say about contact improvisation, audio work perhaps, anything else before we wrap it up?
Alicia Grayson:
Well, I’m excited about this workshop we’re going to do in July.
Til Luchau:
You and I are going to do a collaboration. Going to try a dialogue, a conversation about how… Correct me if you see it differently… About how hands-on bodywork and contact improvisation might inform each other for people who do either or both.
Alicia Grayson:
Right. And it will be very experiential. I’m just feeling into it right now. I’m really, really curious and excited to see what unfolds from it. For this workshop that we’re talking about, we’re going to focus on the legs, which for most of us, most of the time is our connection to the ground and to the earth. So of course, it affects all other parts of our body.
Til Luchau:
It does. And the legs, there’s so much there. And in terms of what I hope to glean from my conversation with you, there is so much about the connection piece through the legs and the ways that feeling the earth with their legs or feeling through someone else’s body through their legs is there. We’ll see what I get. From my side, there’s so much technical detail too that could help us understand how that happens or joint mechanics, say, or basic shapes of the body anatomically help participate in the function that legs give. And then, how to use our hands or movement cues and suggestions into leading someone into a different relationship with their legs, whether their legs are comfortable or hurting, et cetera. [inaudible 00:38:37] actually be able to have a different relationship with their legs and with a connection to the earth through those.
Alicia Grayson:
I like the different relationship from both ends as a bodyworker, supporting somebody to have a different relationship with their legs. And then from a dancer perspective of how the details of bodywork, the specificity of feeling what you’re touching can also give a dancer a different relationship with their legs. Different in meaning more choices, more nuance, more specificity. It’s like having a whole array of tools instead of just one tool in your dance. So I feel excited about that.
Til Luchau:
Me too. And dancers are just really fun to work with. I’m just looking forward to playing and seeing what we discover, learn from each other as well as joy. So that’s July in Boulder. Maybe we’ll do more if we-
Alicia Grayson:
July 8th.
Til Luchau:
July 8th. Thank you.
Alicia Grayson:
Which is a Saturday in the afternoon, one to five. With [inaudible 00:39:57] circus.
Til Luchau:
Nice. Mountain time. Yes. Good. We’ll put links to that in the show notes. And again, hope to do more with you in the future, and certainly we’ll put links to how people can find out more about you. Do you want to say anything about your offerings or what people might want to know about that you’re doing?
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. So my website is AliciaGrayson.com, also embodyingessence.com. will get you there too. And let’s see, in a few days, I’m going to Europe. I’ll be teaching in Poland, France, and Spain, and then I’m back in Boulder to do some weekly classes, this workshop with Til. A workshop on my land with breath work and authentic movement. And then in the latter half of August, early September, I’ll be in British Columbia teaching on Salt Spring Island, a two-week embodiment training.
Til Luchau:
Incredible.
Alicia Grayson:
And then Nelson, British Columbia. I’ll be doing a couple workshops there. One for women, one contact improvisation.
Til Luchau:
Fantastic. That’s great. Well, like I said, we’ll put the links to all that on our show notes. Go check out what Alicia’s up to. Come see us in July if you can possibly make it. If people wanted to know more about contact improvisation resources in their area, what would they search for? Where would they look? Do you have any tips about that?
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. There’s a website called CI, that’s contact improvisation. CIglobalcalendar.net.
Til Luchau:
Oh.
Alicia Grayson:
And so that is a global resource for classes, workshops, jams, different offerings. You can also just Google contact improvisation and wherever you happen to be or live and see what comes up.
Til Luchau:
It’s one of the things I appreciate about it, it’s one of those forms that the fundamentals are relevant all the time. And there’s certainly different levels, but that there are such basic, important pieces there that someone who has very little experience can gain something from it just by exposing themself to it. Is that accurate? Am I…
Alicia Grayson:
Yeah. I would say, yeah. There’s some very basic principles that are applicable, whether you’ve never ever done any kind of dance or movement, versus somebody who’s been practicing for decades. So those same principles apply and they are accessible to really anyone who’s willing to tune into their body and be a creature on the earth that’s covered by gravity.
Til Luchau:
That’s us. Well, thanks for taking the time. Thanks for the conversation with us.
Alicia Grayson:
Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Til. Okay. Bye-bye.
Til Luchau:
Bye-bye.
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Thanks to all of our sponsors, and please stop by our sites for the video, the show notes, the transcripts and extras. Whitney’s site is academyofclinicalmassage.com. My site, advanced-trainings.com. If there are questions or things you’d like to hear us talk about, just email us at [email protected]. Or look for us on social media @TilLuchau or @WhitneyLowe. Please do throw us a rating on Apple Podcasts. It only takes a second. There’s a link on our show notes page. It does help other people find the show, and it helps the sponsors know that their money is well spent. Thanks to everyone who has left a review there. You can also hear us on Spotify, Stitcher, Audible, or wherever else you listen. And please do share the word and tell a friend. Thank you.
