CI Fundamentals Intensive

Join us for our third annual Contact Improvisation Fundamentals Intensive at Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center in the mountains of NC! Take a four-day immersive dive into the fundamental skills, concepts, and techniques of Contact Improvisation practice, and solidify your foundation for a lifetime of play. This is a safe and welcoming space for beginners, and it offers greater depth for those already engaged with the form.

Event Activities

The event is structured around five 2.5hr intensive classes led by Toni Craige of the Living Arts Collective and Tevyn East of Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center. Additional learning opportunities include watching videos of important practitioners, guided discussions, and jamming, which allow you to “take in” the form and deepen your understanding of its history and evolution. There will be plenty of space for rest, reflection, informal connection, and time with (and in!) the river (very nice at this time of year).

About Dreaming Stone

Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center is a new home for Contact Improvisation, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Rutherford County, NC. Joining institutions like Earthdance in Western Massachusetts and The Field Center in Vermont as a home for residential CI and related events. Founded by long-time CI dancer, performance artist, and activist, Tevyn East, Dreaming Stone also embodies a strong commitment to cultural organizing for a just and sustainable future with year-round programming for the local community, and special programs serving social and environmental movements for the larger community. Dreaming Stone features a large round studio with windows on all sides, beautiful common areas for cooking, eating, and connecting, and is the steward of 50+ acres of land, including a swimmable river with rocks for lounging~ very inviting during this late-summer time of the year!

Meals

All meals and snacks are included from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. We can accommodate your dietary preferences. Our meals are always a treasured part of this program as they are abundant, locally sourced, and delicious!

Sleeping

Camping is included in the event registration costs. Campers have access to showers and toilets at the Mothership. There are guest bedrooms in the Mothership and additional residential dwellings on the land that carry additional costs. A list of available beds on site, as well as other local options, is available at this link.

After registering, you will be immediately invited to reserve accommodations on site.

Work-trade and Accessibility

We are available to set up a payment plan, should that be needed. 

Work-trade is available for extra kitchen support and facilities clean up at $15/hour. 

We have a limited number of partial-scholarship awards, and you can view the scholarship application here. Scholarships are given on a rolling basis as funds allow and priority will be given to those who belong to groups that have been, or are currently, systemically marginalized, racialized, or underserved.

Please contact us at info@dreamingstone.org if you are interested in any of the above options.

Schedule

Thursday

• 3-6pm Arrival
• Opportunity for a tour of the land
• 6 – Dinner
• 7:30-9pm – Intro session

Friday

• 8 Breakfast
• 9:30am-12 Morning Session
• 12-3pm Lunch/Break – optional activities
• 3-5:30pm Afternoon Session
• 6 Dinner
• 7:30-9:30pm Structured Jam 

Saturday

• 8 Breakfast
• 9:30am-12pm Morning Session
• 12-3pm Lunch/Break – optional activities
• 3-5:30pm Afternoon Session
• 6 Dinner
• 8-10pm Open Jam with Guided Warm up

Sunday

• 8:30 Breakfast
• 10am-1pm Morning Session and closing circle
• 1-2pm Lunch
• 1:30-4pm – Goodbyes and Departure

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The Instructors

Toni Craige

Toni started practicing Contact Improvisation in 2006 and has been teaching regularly in the Triangle-area of North Carolina since 2012. She is dedicated to her work co-directing Living Art’s Collective’s Contact Improvisation and Somatics Program in Durham, NC, which serves over 80 students/week, generating opportunities for deep collaborative practice and personal and community evolution. As a contact dancer and teacher, she is most influenced by Nancy Stark Smith, Alicia Grayson, the Axis Syllabus, and her cherished dance partners in Durham, NC! She completed her MFA in Choreography and Performance at Smith College in 2020, her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at NCSU in 2016, and her BA in Dance at Wesleyan University in 2009. Toni works with clients 1:1 as a BODYWORK + MOVEMENT THERAPIST and SOMATIC COACH, specializing in individuals who struggle with physical pain, feel that it may be connected to current or past stressful experiences, and are looking for a holistic path towards pain relief and emotional healing. As a DANCE TEACHER she builds individual and community resilience through group movement classes. Her background as a DANCE ARTIST infuses all of her work with an appreciation for beauty, imagination, deep feeling, and creativity.

Tevyn East

Tevyn East graduated from Hollins University with a degree in dance and has taught, performed, and produced work around the country. She collaborated on 6 evening-length immersive dance theater productions with the Zen Monkey Project in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which the audience migrated through a world of movement, story, and image in and among sculpted installation pieces. She later produced, performed, and toured her one-woman show, Leaps and Bounds, a faith rooted tear down of global capitalism, reaching more than 150 audiences around the country between 2010 and 2012. Then, Tevyn directed the Carnival de Resistance- a traveling art carnival, village, and school for cultural transformation, that had 7 residencies in different locations around the country between 2013 and 2018.

Tevyn had the privilege of studying with Nancy Stark Smith for over 200 hours and has more than 25 years of practice. She has studied with many nationally recognized teachers, including Martin Keogh, Lisa Nelson, Brad Stoller, and Karl Frost, and has taught Contact Improvisation in Nevada City, CA, Charlottesville, VA, and Philadelphia, PA. She is now the director of Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center is and is overjoyed to host CI events in this space.