Faces Of CI

🎙️ New Solo Episode ~ Aalia here. In this personal solo episode, I share about the complexities of community, healing, belonging, and navigating conflict within Contact Improvisation spaces. ✨ Community conflict & gatekeeping ✨ Belonging, and being "cancelled" ✨ “Healing spaces” vs real human behaviour ✨ Returning to self-trust & humanness 🎧 Instagram: @momentumcontact 🌍 Facilitator Training...

Our guest today is Caiomhe Day Rush, a graduate of our Momentum Contact Facilitator Training, recorded December 2025. Caiomhe reflects on their experience moving from practice into facilitation — sharing what felt supportive, what felt challenging, and how the training helped build confidence to hold space for others in Contact Improvisation. This episode offers a grounded glimpse into the facilit...

🎙️ New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation In this episode, I’m joined by my longtime friend and fellow Gemini, Ivan Guryanov — a dancer I’ve shared the floor with for years across Thailand and Bali. We sat down in Koh Phangan to speak about: ✨ Dancing with possibility — from technical Contact to Water Contact, Butoh, and Tango ✨ Letting performance arise from presence...

Our guest today is the multi-directional being Leilani Weis — Contact Improvisation teacher of 26 years. Originally from Chile, she helped develop CI scenes in Mexico and Italy, and now resides in Barcelona. In this episode, we discuss: ✨ Her decades-long mentorship with Martin Keough ✨ Dancing into impossible places ✨ Preparing the body-mind for Contact ✨ The dancer superpowers ✨ Our mutual...

🎙️ New Solo Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation It’s Aalia here. I’m opening up in a raw and real solo episode: ✨ Transitioning to Thailand ✨ The Art of the Pause ✨ Being vulnerably first in new CI communities ✨ ADHD, mold illness & concussion recovery ✨ Getting “cancelled” in community & the lessons that followed ✨ Trusting the unknown + moving forward with...

Today I’m joined by Sasha Bezrodnova (Russia), recorded in Koh Phangan, Thailand. ✨ Her work in the Ocean Dance community — where Contact meets Freediving and Aquatic Somatics ✨ Entering the world of the sea and learning from dolphins ✨ Creating the eco-political water dance film Aquas in Mexico ✨ Reflections on movement, water, and community connection Find out more about Sasha’s work: Instag...

New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation Today I’m joined by Andy Chen (USA / Portugal) — our newest graduate of the Momentum Contact Facilitator Training. ✨ Reflections on the magic of CI jams: "I really love the jams where I get to dance with a lot of bodies. Then I had a nice dance. That idea that it's always different, and I get to choose to have another chance of fee...

We’re coming to you live from one of our Momentum Beginners Contact Workshops — with a twist… our students are the guests! In this special episode, we hear their voices and insights on: ✨ What it means to move authentically ✨ How they see themselves as dancers ✨ The discoveries and surprises that happen in a Contact Improvisation class 🎧 Join Upcoming Trainings: www.momentum-contact.com 📸 Ins...

In this episode, we sit with our students in a Momentum Contact Workshop, reflecting on the questions: ✨ What is a dancer? ✨ What is flow in your body? I’m in awe of my students’ shares each time we do this exercise. (Names have been withheld for privacy.) 🎧 Join our upcoming Momentum Contact Workshops 📸 Instagram: @ momentumcontact #contactimprovisation #momentumcontact #contactdance #dancepo...

New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation Our guests today are Sunny Zheng (Beijing, China) and Janice Chen (Berkeley, USA) — new graduate facilitators from the first edition of Momentum Contact Facilitator Training. 🎧 Reflections from both graduates on: ✨ Learning CI history & culture ✨ Building facilitation skills for safety and creativity ✨ Gaining confidence to...

New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation Our guest today is Stuart Phillips — Contact teacher since the 1980s, joining us from Victoria, BC, Canada. From his wild roots at Bates College in the ’80s — all-day improvising and “contact as charades on steroids” — we explore: ✨ CI as weirdness, allowance, shadow work, and therapeutic relief from daily life ✨ His improvisation...

Peter Bingham is a force within the world of Contact Improvisation, teaching and creating performance works through his company EDAM Dance in Vancouver, Canada since 1980. In this episode we explore: ✨ Peter’s origin story in dance ✨ The physical mechanics of Contact in choreography ✨ His daily morning class for professional dancers ✨ Intone voice as a hypnotizing state ✨ Leading by following...

New Solo Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation It’s me, Aalia! In this episode, I ramble and reflect on: ✨ Cultivating joy, play, and weirdness in jams to reset and shake habits ✨ Comedy improv and Circling as supportive mirrors to Contact Improvisation ✨ What it means to be an embodied leader of Contact ✨ Navigating self-compassion within the dance of life 🎧 Follow Fa...

New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation I’m delighted to be joined by my first Contact teacher, Olivia Shaffer — dancer and Assistant Director at EDAM Dance Company. In this episode, we chat about: ✨ Her journey from ballet to Europe to Contact Improvisation ✨ Correcting “doing” in Contact ✨ Staying curious when injured with scores of limitation ✨ Pilates and Feldenkr...

Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation Our guest today is the legendary Contact teacher Andrew Harwood (Montreal). Since 1975, Andrew has been instrumental in spreading Contact Improvisation across Canada. In this episode, we discuss: ✨ His beginnings with Nancy Stark Smith ✨ Performance and ensemble work in CI ✨ Contemplative dance ✨ Aging in the dancing body ✨ The secret Contac...

Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation In this episode, I share details about an exciting new training I’ll be hosting in Bali: Momentum Contact Improvisation Facilitator Training 📅 November 4–13, 2023 | Bali This 10-day training will change the way you see yourself, the body, and the world around you — an initiation into leading the Contact Improvisation movement. We’ll deep dive in...

Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation Our guests today are Selena Lo Brooy & Manuel Rochette — hosts of Saltspring Contact Festival. We danced together for 10 inspiring days of Contact Improvisation at Rhizome Springs — a dancer’s and nature lover’s dream on the hillside of Mt. Tuam, featuring panoramic eagle’s-eye views and a hive-shaped geodesic dome/spaceship, ready for lift-o...

In this episode, I share more about my own dance journey: ✨ Discovering Contact Improvisation at a fusion festival ✨ The four dance styles I notice at jams ✨ Wisdom from Nancy Stark Smith ✨ Reflections on my background and influences 📄 Nancy Stark Smith’s Mini Solo Underscore: https://bit.ly/3i0ftNk ✍️ Upcoming Workshops by Aalia 📸 Follow along on Instagram: @ momentumcontact #contactimprovi...

Our guests today are the dancing teaching duo Christina Dohr (Germany) & Santiago Ortiz Heredia (Spain) — in this bi-lingual episode (Spanish with translation) we explore: ✨ Architecture & Aikido in dance ✨ Touching in both directions ✨ Embodying being seen ✨ Psychomagic storytelling ✨ Cross-cultural Contact pollination 📍 Recorded in Chiang Dao, Thailand for Towards CI51 Conference w...

Our guest today is Tu Le (Vietnam) — independent movement artist and teacher of Contact Improvisation, with a background in contemporary dance and ballet. In 2017, Tu founded Contact Improv Hanoi and has been sharing the essence of the practice ever since. For him, dance improvisation is a tool to nurture mindfulness and creativity. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Learning Contact from YouTube ✨...

Our guest today is Nitipat “Ong” Ong Polchai (Thailand) — performer, community builder, and long-time organizer of the Bangkok Contact jam scene. Ong’s journey began in San Francisco’s experimental-contact-art scene, training in Berkeley with Karl Frost. His work spans creative collaborations with other bi-cultural Contact performers for Pride in Thailand, teaching Physics by day, and championing...

Our guest today is Yasukichi Sazuki (Japan) — a pioneer of Contact Improvisation in Tokyo, sharing the form for over two decades and introducing it to her country. In this episode, we explore: ✨ Trusting the environment & culture of caring in Japan ✨ Staying rooted in CI fundamentals — gravity, fall, expansion, breath ✨ Offering space for authentic encounter ✨ “Simple is the strongest.” 📘...

Our guest today is Kirstie Simson — legendary improviser, award-winning dancer, and teacher of Contact Improvisation for over 40 years, described by The New York Times as “a force of nature.” In this deeply personal conversation, recorded during her 3-week Chiang Dao residency Resilience and Support in Difficult Times, we explore: ✨ Navigating cancer with grace and resilience ✨ Environmental phi...

Live from Towards CI50 Conference, we welcome Damla Özçelik — Contact Improvisation facilitator from Turkey. In this conversation, we explore: ✨ Teaching CI to blind dancers ✨ Body–self–empowerment workshops for teenage girls ✨ Navigating consent in CI ✨ Fusing tango with contact improvisation 🌐 More about Damla: Instagram 🎧 Faces of CI online: @ momentumcontact 🔗 Upcoming Contact Workshops...

Recorded in the mountains of Chiang Dao, Thailand at a mystical monastery during Part 2 of the Towards 50th CI Anniversary Conference. For 10 days, 35 contact dancers lived together beside a hot springs “Heaven.” Our guests are CI teachers and dear friends Francisco Borges (Portugal) & Geraldine Acevedo Espansa (Colombia) — facilitators of Ocean Dance, water contact, and CI in Koh Pha Ngan. In...