The Dance
Where Contact Improvisation meets Collaborative Vocal Improvisation
A residential immersion with Rick Nodine and Briony Greenhill
Rick Nodine
Vocal improvisation artists and contact improvisation artists are invited to come together, to follow the cord of aliveness between music and movement.
Rick Nodine is a leading teacher of Contact Improvisation (CI), based in London. This is a rare opportunity to have an immersive 4 day residential drop in with Rick.
Briony is “one of the world’s leading proponents of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation - CVI” - The Guardian. She helps students to co-create beautiful, powerful, tender, surprising vocal music in the moment; overcoming barriers to being present with the music and each other, and letting the music flow - musically. She became inspired for this collaboration after having a very lovely time singing while Rick danced with Pipaluk Supernova.
The meeting of dancers and singers can provide rich creative opportunities for the more experienced practitioner, while support for beginners is intended.
To work with Briony, you need to be able to sing in tune, keep a beat, and want an adventure.
To work with Rick, you need to have a body and be able to focus your attention on it.
How it works
It’s a 4 day residential intensive. We begin at 2pm on Monday 28th October and leave after lunch on Friday 1st November. Embercombe is a beautiful site with woods, grassy slopes, a swimming lake, space, no wifi, peace and quiet, expansiveness; great spaces for embodied creative practice, and luxury yurts to stay in. If the weather is kind to us, we may work outside sometimes.
Mornings 10-1
Do an intensive for the week with either Rick or Briony. Go deep.
Sometimes one teacher will lead the warm up for all and then we’ll split.
Afternoons 2.30 - 4.30
Briony and Rick will each lead 2h drop-in workshops in the afternoons: you self-select.
Rick will introduce participants to his form of solo somatic embodiment for clear movement awareness and the cultivation of pleasure in learning and skill development. Individual work on taking ownership of our moving bodies will transition into studying the basics of CI through relational practices of physical listening.
Briony will support participants’ ongoing journeys deepening into their ability to vocally improvise collaboratively. Depending on folks present, these classes may be divided into beginner / intermediate / advanced.
4.30pm Free Jam Space. Center Fire, the main movement space, will be open for movers and sounders to jam.
Evenings 8-10
We’ll come together for lab, jam, performance, scores, that highlight the relation between bodies and voices in space and time. We will cultivate a spacious attention that includes what we do as individuals as well as its relationship to other sounds and bodies.
Singers will provide the improvised soundtrack for the evening dance jams in ensemble sizes of small, medium, large and solo.
Folks will move between sounding and moving, we hope.
This will be a container for long form improvisation; a held space of non verbal co-presence where our artistry deepens in relation to one another. The dance informs the music; the music informs the dance.
Is it that every music form has its paired dance form? Does CVI pair with CI?
You can come and dance all week; you can come and sing all week; and, you’re invited to mix it up a little. A shared improvisational philosophy underlies both artforms. Movers; you’re invited to bring your voices out. Singers; you’re invited to soften and move the body; connect through conscious touch and the improvisational journey of the dance; explore the beautiful, challenging, sibling artform of CI.
About the Teachers
Rick Nodine
My dancing began socially as a teenager and the first technical form to channel my enthusiasm was Contact Improvisation. After some modern dance training I performed through the 90's for British contemporary dance companies.
As a choreographer and Improvisational performer, I have made work for many contexts, including major Opera houses, small theatres, art galleries, touring dance companies and warehouse parties.
My choreographic practice has followed and sometimes led the development of my teaching. I started teaching CI in 1996 and gradually expanded the scope of my pedagogy to include performance improvisation, solo dancing and somatic exploration, ensemble composition and voice/movement techniques.
For 20 years I taught Composition and Improvisation at London Contemporary Dance School. I have taught workshops in 12 different countries and more than 40 cities. I have been a guest teacher in many institutions, companies and festivals such as CNDC Anger (France), National Taiwan University of Arts, Hong Kong APA, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Freiburg Festival, The Royal Ballet School, Punchdrunk, DV8 and Rambert Dance Company.
In the last few years, in collaboration with Emilie Darlet, I have been developing an ecosystem for CI in London which centres around providing regular classes, workshops and pedagogical progressions for all levels of study within CI.
Ricknodine.com
Briony Greenhill is “one of the world’s leading proponents of collaborative vocal improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian. CVI is the art of co-creating vocal music in the moment. Here is a short film about Briony’s teaching, which has evolved from the lineage of Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, Joey Blake and others. Briony is a founding member of The Well Global Vocal Improvisation Network and the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival.
She has released 4 entirely improvised albums. Her debut studio album Crossing the Ocean took improvisations and reproduced them adding instrumentation; it was featured in The Guardian, Mojo, Radio 3, and Woman’s Hour.
Briony teaches vocal musicianship from beginner to advanced levels, while also honouring the spiritual, ritual and therapeutic application of CVI. She is a qualified SomaSource Leader; a “psycho-spiritual educator, artist, activist and healer who has an integrated understanding of how to creatively work in developmentally attuned ways with diverse people throughout life’s cycles.” Briony has been teaching vocal improvisation internationally since 2013.
Price
We are using the Green Bottle model, with 3 Tiers of pricing. You are invited to select the price indicated for your tier, we trust your integrity in this matter.
Prices include all tuition, accommodation in luxury yurts, and all food (fresh, healthy, partly organic - cooked for you and cleared away, 3 meals daily + simple snacks. We may need to do our own dishes.)
Tier 1 · £975
Tier 2 · £745
Tier 3 · £645
2 Assistant spots · £525
If numbers allow, we aim to provide Tier 1 folks with a private yurt, Tier 2 with a twin yurt, and Tier 3 and assistants would be 3 to a yurt. Due to limited yurts and unknown numbers, there may need to be adjustments to this.
We begin at 2pm on Monday 28th October and end after lunch on Friday 1st November.
Travel Advice
The nearest train station is Exeter (25 mins). The nearest airports are Bristol and London; Exeter is 2-3h from London by train. We could organise taxi shares from Exeter St David’s station at 12.30. Book train tickets well in advance for cheaper fares at thetrainline.com and let us know your travel plans at info@brionygreenhill.com.
Questions?
Contact info@brionygreenhill.com
