Contact Dance Improvisation (Community Workshop)
Led by Hailey McCloskey
February 1, 3:00 PM
Salloum Room at the Rotary Centre for the Arts
What is Contact Improvisation?
(CI) is an improvised dance form involving physical contact between two or more dancers. CI invites us to “listen” to our partner through a variety of surfaces on our torso and limbs. Communication comes through increasing our embodied awareness and by using shared skills such as Rolling Point of Contact and Sloughing / Sliding (terms that will be explained in class). Dances can range from the slow and meditative to the dynamic and acrobatic. Directions and possibilities can be invited via subtle changes of pressure at the skin surface. Playing with skeletal support structures, timing, and connectivity can invite shared weight, dynamic movements, and even the sense of flight.
Workshop Description:
Hailey teaches this practice with an emphasis on learning to move from the inside out. We mine our personal rhythms through solo improvisation that expands our range, and then play in dynamic exploration of the space and each other. This is where we practice staying true to our dance, while creating the dance with the other. The third thing. The magic of interdependent fusion.
This is a great movement modality to build body awareness, fitness, new neural pathways, and relational creativity – all leading to a satisfying art form, and ripe with skills that will serve you in many areas of life.
Wear comfortable clothes for dancing. Long pants, long sleeves, & knee pads recommended. No need to bring a partner.
About Hailey McCloskey:
Hailey McCloskey is a Registered Massage Therapist and dance artist in Kelowna. She received her formative training at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, the University of British Columbia (Anthropology), and OVCMT. She has been producing and teaching Contact Improvisation in Kelowna for the past year and a half, after training in the form for over 10 years. Most recently, Hailey performed “22 Rooms” at Living Things Festival 2025 with vocalist Jessie Rivest. Over the course of her career, she has had the pleasure of performing with Raven Spirit Dance, Compagni V’ni Dansi, Emmalena Fredriksson, Karl Frost, Nicole Dupuis and many others. She worked with Karen Jamieson Dance as a community engaged dance facilitator in the DTES and with the Arts and Health Project, and trained in the choreographic module at Ponderosa (Germany) courtesy of the BC Arts Council. She has presented and performed work in many venues and contexts in and around Vancouver and BC in general. As a facilitator, she has worked with youth at risk with Made in BC. In 2015, Hailey participated in the Canadian Wilderness Residency Mentorship Project on the Yukon River. As a writer, her work has been featured with VANDOCUMENT, Talk Performance, and Langscape.
