Listening to the Dance
A 1-day Contact Improvisation workshop in Zurich for movers, dancers, and body-curious explorers
Join us for a day of exploring subtle listening and tuning practices that deepen your capacity to sense, respond, and move with freedom in Contact Improvisation. Whether you’re new to CI or an experienced mover, this workshop offers tools and experiences to expand your movement vocabulary, heighten your awareness, and build trust in your instincts, impulses, and intuition.
We’ll explore core principles that bring ease, availability, and playfulness into the body—building a functional understanding of CI’s underlying structures while inviting a fuller, freer physicality. Exercises will shift between solo and partner work, giving space to connect with your own body, your dance partners, and the group as a whole.
We’ll play with ideas of momentum, suspension, inertia, falling, and swinging—balancing dynamic movement with moments of stillness. By slowing down, breathing, and tuning in, we’ll notice the quiet cues: the gentle sliding of fascia indicating direction, the rhythm of a partner’s breath revealing intention, the stillness from which movement naturally emerges.
This patient, attentive space allows for more honest connection—within ourselves, with each
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Listening to the Dance
A 1-day Contact Improvisation workshop in Zurich for movers, dancers, and body-curious explorers
Join us for a day of exploring subtle listening and tuning practices that deepen your capacity to sense, respond, and move with freedom in Contact Improvisation. Whether you’re new to CI or an experienced mover, this workshop offers tools and experiences to expand your movement vocabulary, heighten your awareness, and build trust in your instincts, impulses, and intuition.
We’ll explore core principles that bring ease, availability, and playfulness into the body—building a functional understanding of CI’s underlying structures while inviting a fuller, freer physicality. Exercises will shift between solo and partner work, giving space to connect with your own body, your dance partners, and the group as a whole.
We’ll play with ideas of momentum, suspension, inertia, falling, and swinging—balancing dynamic movement with moments of stillness. By slowing down, breathing, and tuning in, we’ll notice the quiet cues: the gentle sliding of fascia indicating direction, the rhythm of a partner’s breath revealing intention, the stillness from which movement naturally emerges.
This patient, attentive space allows for more honest connection—within ourselves, with each other, and with the dance itself. From here, dances can become both more grounded and more physically alive, supported by a fine-tuned attunement to shared movement.
About Hugh
Hugh Stanier is a movement educator and facilitator with over 20 years of experience in Contact Improvisation, Somatic Movement, and Floorwork. He discovered CI while searching for a deeper connection to dance and movement—connection to himself, to others, and to the joy of moving. For Hugh, Contact Improvisation is a continually evolving playground where safety and curiosity meet. His workshops invite participants into a space of exploration, presence, and shared discovery.
https://www.hughmanmoves.com/
Important Note:
After the workshop sessions there will be a 1 hour break followed by an open 2 hour jam from 7 - 9pm, where non participants of the afternoon classes can join as well. The jam is optional altough highly recomended and free for participants of the workshop :)
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