CONTACT IMPROVISATION CLASS & JAM

Kim Epifano's class builds from a live score setting using contact improvisation, physical action and some use of vocal skills to open the imagination and the body to every person's  potential. Students explore their individual creativity, rhythm, balance, and body awareness while learning to move in relation to themselves, the floor, and a partner. By sharing weight, strength, space, pulse and gravity, participants learn how to trust and be trusted while falling on and off the edges of their bodies. We will explore how the ending of one move is the beginning of another and how to utilize momentum to continue the progressive nature of the dance. Improvisation skills will be tuned and explored through interdisciplinary methods Epifano has developed. Be prepared to sweat, have fun! ALL LEVELS WELCOME!

Kim Epifano is a versatile award-winning performer, choreographer, director, educator, and community arts organizer with over 35 years of experience in the dance and performing arts world. Her professional workshops offer a safe and creative mind-body experience, enhancing artists’ development and potential. She is known for engaging students of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds through interdisciplinary programs that use performance arts as tools for learning, inquiry, skill-building, and community engagement. 

Kim's background include Modern Dance, Contact Improvisation/Improvisation (with Sara Shelton Mann, John LeFan, Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simms, KJ Holmes, Nina Martin, Ruth Zaporah and Remy Charlip), Capoeira (with Mestre Accordion for 9 years, winning first place in the women’s division of the 1983 Women’s International Capoeira Competition in Brazil), Ballet, Theater, Voice, Alexander Technique, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Haitian, Rumba (which she studied in Cuba), Aerial Dance and Kinetic Awareness. She was the founder of the popular San Francisco Trolley Dances for 21 years and was awarded by the San Francisco Weekly “ Best Transit Ballet”. Kim has performed and taught in Mexico, Tunisia, China, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Vietnam, India, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and more has been recognized for her innovative approach to site-specific and public performances.  

Pioneering didgeridoo master Stephen Kent is one of the most established contemporary players in the world. Born in the UK and raised in East Africa he shifted radically from classical and art-rock to world music when, already a recognized professional musician in Europe, he moved to Melbourne in 1981, as musical director of Circus Oz, Australia’s national contemporary circus. 

Inspired by the land and indigenous Aboriginal culture he first composed and orchestrated music utilizing western brass instruments played with didgeridoo techniques. Then, visiting Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, he asked for and was given permission to make contemporary music with the didgeridoo itself. He returned to Europe with a new musical direction. As well as his work with New Circus, as both a comic performer and music director. He worked with numbers of contemporary dance companies, including 4 years in Barcelona and touring Europe with La Dux and Maria Antonio Oliver. Arriving in the USA in 1991, based in the Bay Area, his scores for dance have also included work with Kim Epifano, Yolande Snaith, Knee Jerk Dance and Laurence Peck. 

In Europe, the United States, and all over the world, Stephen has carved out a stellar and influential career with over thirty album recordings of original genre-bending music featuring his didgeridoo playing, including eight solo works and multiple group projects. He has performed and toured to wide acclaim in five continents as a solo artist, with his various bands, and in many collaborations with world-class musicians, including Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter, R Carlos Nakai, Zakir Hussain, Airto Moreira, and many more, playing music in jazz, classical, world, dance, folk/rock genres. Over the past two decades he has worked interpreting the music of Australia’s Peter Sculthorpe, performing and recording with The Del Sol Quartet, and continuing to evolve more recently with Oregon’s Delgani Quartet and the BYU Philharmonic, Utah. He also works in radio and for 26 years was the host of “Music of the World” (Pacifica Radio’s KPFA fm.)

https://www.stephenkentdidgeridoo.com/

YouTube.com/@StephenKentDidgeridoo

Merrick Jacob is a lover of movement, continuously in awe of the body and its potential for delightful expression, wild creativity, & authentic connection. Influenced by her practices of contact improvisation, figure skating, acroyoga, and hand-balancing, she guides playful movement experiences as an opportunity for deep listening, research, and co-creation. Merrick teaches & hosts contact across the SF Bay Area and beyond.