Bringing together Authentic Movement with Contact Improvisation, this week-long immersion in dance introduces an extended vocabulary of touch and integrates it with the study of embodiment, being present, and moving from center. We will discover the communicative range of touch, and find that expanding this potential increases our physical abilities and creative capacity.

Our work will be both skill based and experiential. We will support slow and sensitive work as well as edgy expansive flight. Work with our senses will help us find the dimensions of our instinctual body and mind. While learning creative tools we will challenge you to evolve a home base from which freedom can flow.  We will be guiding you to taste your boundless nature within the physical and emotional safety of shared community.

Our Contact Improvisation practice will focus on the potentials available through various levels of touch.  We will learn how to be light and strong, as well as deep and weighted. As we explore physical communication both spatially and in touch and we will discover tools that simplify effort and bring us closer to an ideal of controlled abandon.

Through the practice of Improvisation we deepen and expand our qualities of expression in movement and become creative with our choices through an awareness of the possibilities that occur while we play in the unknown. We invite space for the wild and unexpected aspects that come up within your dance. We encourage a spirit of generosity and trust building so that you can take risks, welcome and enjoy what is revealed, and be present with your whole self.
Visualization, bodywork, hands-on work, improvisational scores, sharing and feedback are important tools in the workshop.

Our retreat will conclude with an informal performance. All together we will create the circumstances for it. It is a wonderful opportunity to extend your creativity onto a larger frame.  You may develop scores for individuals or groups and enjoy the play of refining them for presentation. Participation in the performance is not required, however, all are invited.

This will be an invaluable time to give yourself the space to connect with your creative self.  Within an environment of light, blue sea, ancient land and native culture, you will contact the richness of the potential within you. Come to this Cycladic island culture and let your body senses heighten, your mind freed to be lucid, and perhaps, your emotions brightened. Come to work with a rich and broad spectrum of practices, grow and find direction, and gain material to work on in your daily life for years to come.

I am passionate about assisting dancers to stretch their creative abilities and reach their artistic and technical goals in the realms of Contact Improvisation, improvised dancing, and the movement of both the body and the mind. I act to stimulate students’ emotional, expressive, physical, and creative range. My work with embodied mind greatly influences my vision and my ability to read the expressive power implicit in body language and each moving moment. I encourage the development of these skills while supporting dancers in getting delight and profound respect for the functional play of bodies surfing the physics of motion and the deep connections possible between people. I aim to clarify and enhance the meeting ground of expression and function. There is incredible communicative strength in that ground where the universal in us all meets personal experience. I share and explore structures which draw out dancers’ emotional and physical integrity while they embrace the dynamic interplay between inner and outer space. This workshop addresses each student’s cutting edge.

A booklet I’ve written, THE FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF CONTACT IMPROVISATION: MOVING, PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE, AND THE NATURE OF MIND will be available and can be used as a point of reference.

I am interested in the meditative aspect of movement- dance and Contact Improvisation in particular where sensation and the delight of being in a flow, meet the creative mind, imagination and human communication. In my view, the form of CI includes art, contemplation, therapy and athleticism in a very natural and complete way.

What is neutral space and how do we move from that state? When I teach I often encounter the issue where the dancer’s physicality and flow get blocked by the movement of his thinking patterns that activate certain emotions. Personality traits may interfere with his creativity. Through this practice, the mover can learn how to broaden the range of his choices using his idiosyncrasy with awareness in his responses. Thus I encourage training improvisers in the art of listening, developing an awakened, relaxed and sensible body as a base for deeper connection to the self and to the others. I always enjoy soft and strong, communicative dances where the movers recognize details that become the source of inspiration and affect their physical dialogue as a whole. How do we find freedom and fullness from an empty space? As dancers we engage ourselves to develop and enhance our skills in movement. We study about relationships creatively, we learn about support and trust through the process of being in the moment; the mystery of the unexpected is revealed to us when we let go of holding on to our thoughts, our energy and we let ourselves to being touched. Then we experience a feeling of expansion, the space becomes more silent and present.

For the past 30 years Nita Little has been performing, choreographing and teaching improvisational dance. Initially her emphasis was on the partnering form Contact Improvisation that she helped evolve with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and others. With them she collaborated in numerous performing companies introducing Contact Improvisation throughout the United States. She is considered a master teacher who now has former students all over the world who are themselves master dancers and teachers in the general field of dance and the specific field of Contact Improvisation.

Concomitant with CI has been her development of a body of work she teaches as “The Mind in Motion”. Evolving since 1980, “The Mind in Motion” trains the mindfulness aspect of moving, presence, and the principles that define Contact Improvisation as well as other improvisational forms. This work is enhanced by her studies of technologies of mind including hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic Programing.

Nita received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in choreography and was on the California Arts Council Touring Program. The latter award was to her solo dance company, NITA LITTLE DANCE THEATRE, which she began in 1984, continued through 1990, and reinstated in 2000. In 2002 Nita created Playing God, an hour-long dance opera that received funding through the Dance USA National College Choreography Initiative.

Over the years she has been both faculty and guest artists at numerous colleges and universities including New York University, California Institute for the Arts, Texas Christian University, Temple University, Tufts University, Scripps College and UC Santa Barbara. She teaches nationally and internationally throughout the year at dance festivals including, The Side Step Festival, Helsinki, ImPulsTanz, Vienna, The International Contact Festival, Freiburg and SFADI, Seattle. Nita lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

Christina Klissiouni is a dancer/performer trained in New Dance and Contemporary Dance, choreographer, movement teacher of Improvisation/Contact Improvisation for the pasr 20 years.

She has been trained in New York (1986-90) and other places in Europe She started teaching dance in 1987 and since then she has been offering classes and workshops continuously in Greece, in other places in Europe and the USA. She also works as a Body-Psychotherapist (Master cerificate in Vegetotherapy and in Gestalt) and as a Shiatsu practitioner.

Her work is based on Contact Improvisation that she has been exploring since 1987, Release techniques such as the Alexander technique, Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering, Contemporary Dance, Voice and meditation practices. She continuously investigates pathways towards the integration of body-mind-spirit through art and therapy. She has been teaching intensive workshops since 1993 combining Contact Improvisation with other forms of movement/performance exploration.

She has collaborated with Kirstie Simson, Ray Chung and Melissa Matson(USA), Ka Rustler and Nien Mari Chatz(Germany), Mary Prestidge(England), Katrine Hossenlopp (France), Suprapto Suryodarmo(Indonesia),, Shahar Dor(Israel) and others. This is the first time she co-teaches with Nita Little. Christina has taught workshops and has performed in Europe (London, Rome, Berlin, Freiburg, Oslo, Istanbul, Amsterdam, St.Petersburg) and NYC.

Alpha Bank in Athens-Greece, Hippokratous branch Christina Klissiouni

Account number: 353-002101-025504
Swift Code: CRBAGRAAXXX
IBAN: GR30 0140 3530 3530 0210 1025 504,
Bank expenses are paid by the participant only.

Another option until the 15th of June: Mail order check to : Christina Klissiouni, Eressou str, 10680 Athens, Greece .

Accommodation: The accommodation suggested by the organiser can be arranged in studio apartments with beautiful view over the sea 5 minutes on foot to go to Tripotamos village and the studio where we work. The participants can share with 2 or 3 people accordingly and the prices are 15Euro per person daily if shared with 3 people and 20 Euro if shared with 2 people. A single room costs 35 Euro. There is also an option for camping or other hotels that can be recommended by the organizer. Studio Apts Militsa Halari tel. 22830-23274, 22830-24507, 22830-21152

The studio:It has a beautiful wooden floor that used to be an elementary school. Eleftheria Deko turned it into a dance space in 1993. Since then it hosts international workshops oriented towards New Dance, performance work exploration and movement meditation practices.

Food: Participants can eat delicious cooked and grilled Greek food in the tavernas(the cost of the meal is around 12-15 euro per person approximately) unless they like to prepare their own food at the kitchen in the studio apartment where they can live. There is a variety of cooked vegetarian meals, however, the most common are meat and fish courses. Each person is responsible for his own meals. However, we often go out for dinner as a group and it is optional.

Transportation in the island: Sometimes participants rent cars or bikes to have easy access to the various beaches and villages. People share the cost among themselves so it can be cheap. The cost of renting a car would be around 30 euro per day for 4 people. The participants of the group often go out together and organize small trips for fun, dinner and relaxation time.

What to bring : Participants should bring their practice clothes, knee pads, towels, something warmer for the evenings that can be cooler and windy, bathing suit, and lots of sun protection!! Notepads, colours and pencils are also necessary while writing and/or drawing can be part of our creative process. Tripotamos village: It is an old medieval stone built Cycladic village, very quiet, only residential with no cars permitted to circulate inside the area. It is located 6kms away from the port, the main town. There are many sandy and rocky beaches a few kilometres away. Tinos has a long history, there are many small interesting picturesque villages to visit. The food is excellent and the people are very friendly.

Travelling from Athens: from Venizelos Athens airport one can take bus or taxi(about 25Euro) to go to Rafina port where there are many slow boats(3hours) and fast boats to Tinos. One can also travel from Piraeus port but it is closer from Rafina port.