WORKSHOP POSTPONED!

Workshop Description

We come from the ocean, where our fins guided our undulations through the water. As we emerged onto land, those fins evolved into mammal limbs as we creeped, crawled, climbed, swung and eventually walked. Now, as bipedal creatures, we enjoy incredibly mobile and articulate upper limbs with which we can do miraculous things - like knitting sweaters for trees, styling our hair, throwing balls and dancing! 

In this workshop we’ll explore the embodied anatomy of the shoulder girdle, while revisiting the evolutionary and developmental origins of our movement. We’ll move from hands-on bodywork into solo movement explorations and Contact Improvisation. We’ll practice inversions, finding support and ease in being upside-down. We’ll take a special look at the inter-skeletal relationships between the hands and scapula, while finding support from the fluids, organs and nerves. We’ll play with yielding and pushing, reaching and pulling, counterbalancing and more, through CI skills and scores. 

Dates: Sat, Nov 23 - Sun, Nov 24, 2024

Times: 10:30am - 4:30pm

Location: Wildcat Studio in the Sawtooth Building (2525 Eighth St, Berkeley, CA 94710)

Cathie Caraker is a renowned dance artist and somatic movement educator. Her teaching work integrates her extensive background in post-modern dance practices and somatics, including Contact Improvisation and Body-Mind Centering®. 

She has taught at dance institutes and festivals including wcciJAM, Moving On Center, the New York Improvisation Festival, the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Contact Festival Freiburg, the Barcelona Contact Festival, Contredance Brussels and many others. 

She worked extensively with the founders of Contact Improvisation, including Nancy Stark Smith and Steve Paxton, and has been profoundly influenced by their research. She has collaborated with dance artists including Rosemary Hannon, Katarina Eriksson, Gonnie Heggen, Daniel Lepkoff, Nancy Stark Smith and Meredith Monk.  

Cathie holds an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and is a Body-Mind Centering® teacher, a registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist, a somatic movement coach and a Pilates and Gyrotonic instructor. She has a private practice in San Francisco, where she supports her clients and students in becoming more fully embodied.  www.cathiecaraker.com

photos below by Lasse Lynchnell 

Questions about logistics or tickets? Contact Merrick via the contact form on this website (She's organizing this event).

Questions about the workshop content? Reach out directly to Cathie here