Summer CI workshop with
Mirva Mäkinen
June 10–15, 2019

Welcome to a six-day CI workshop with Mirva Mäkinen! The workshop includes +30 hours of CI, accommodation and lots of extra-curricular activities. It takes place in the heart of Finland, in the city of Tampere. Mirva is a professional dancer, teacher and has a doctoral degree on dance.

Theme

Contact improvisation is based on communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact, and their combined relationship to gravity, momentum and inertia. To feel these sensations, the body learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of wilfulness. This allows us to experience the natural flow of movement. We will approach this state of not knowing, by tuning in and listening to our inner space and, from there, releasing into the spherical space.

This workshop will include rolling, falling, being upside down, following the point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner. We will aim softly towards moving support and gentle flying technique. Bodywork and somatic study will also be part of the course.

We offer this workshop for people who are already familiar with the basics of contact improvisation. This means around two years of experience in dancing CI, or less if you’ve some previous experience in similar forms of movement. If you are uncertain if this is for you, do contact us!

Where?

The workshop takes place in the easy-going city of Tampere. We have a big gym hall in a beautiful school and for sleeping, there’s a separate classroom. Across the street is an old church, a park and the school yard is a sheltered, green space to hang out in the sun. The school is right next to the city center, just shy of half a kilometer from the railway station.

There are plenty of restaurants nearby and you’ll have no trouble in finding vegetarian or vegan meals. Supermarkets are everywhere, the closest no further than 300 m away. Some of them are open until 23:00 or even 24:00.

The city is situated between two big lakes, there’s a forest nearby and, of course, the city center provides it’s own sights and activities. In Finland, the nights are rather bright and by themselves might offer you a new experience if you’re coming from far away.

The name of the school is Juhannuskylän koulu and the street address is Rautatienkatu 3–5, Tampere.

Preliminary Schedule

Monday 10.6. The first session begins at 14:30, but you can arrive half an hour early. If you’re travelling from a distance, we hope that the late start makes things a little easier for you. We ask you respectfully to be on time during the whole workshop. After dinner, we wish to give everyone a warm welcome in the form of a jam!

Tuesday 11.6. After a day of dancing, we’ll head for the Rauhaniemi sauna, two kilometers away. It’s a nice walk or you can take a bus. The sauna is on the lakeshore with a stunning vista so bring your camera, dip in the water, or just relax on the shore. And no, it’s not one of those bloody hot Finnish saunas in which you go naked. Instead, you wear a swimsuit!

(As a way to thank you for your participation, we’ll cover the cost of the sauna!)

Wednesday 12.6. The studio is available for your own practice. In the evening, if the weather permits, we might organise a jam outdoors.

Thursday 13.6. This day we take a pause from the classes and invite you to do whatever nourishes you. The gym hall is open in case you want to have a dance date, do your own practice, bodywork or — if we want — to throw a jam! In the evening, we can gather in Onda’s place which is 10 minutes from the school by foot. There’s a big yard and a communal building to hang out, cook dinner and there’s also an option to enjoy a sauna (without the lake this time).

Friday 14.6. Again, during the evening (and weather permitting), we might throw jam outside in a nearby park. The studio is also open.

Saturday 15.6. All good things come to an end. But at least we can enjoy it by dancing! After the workshop there’s a three hour jam. After the jam? Well, it’s still relatively early and the nights are bright…

About Mirva

Mirva Mäkinen graduated as a Doctor of Dance from University of Arts in Helsinki in 2018. Her doctoral research is about Somaesthetics of Contact Improvisation. She graduated (MA) from the Dance Department from the University of Arts, Finland in 2000, before that she did masters of Physical Education from University of Jyväskylä. 

From 2000 onwards she has been a dance teacher, choreographer and lecturer for dance at the Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts. She has been teaching in several international dance and contact improvisation festivals. Mirva has been working with with many different dance companies and choreographers, here few of them: Dance company Karttunen Kollektiv (choreographer Jyrki Karttunen), New Circus Company Circo Aereo, choreographer Joona Halonen, Echo Echo dance company (Ireland), collaboration with Frey Faust and collaboration with Joerg Hassmann. At the moment she is working with Finnish choreographer Valtteri Raekallio.

In dance I am interested in the feeling of flow and soft movement. I love to investigate movement, its rhythm and different ways of inhabiting the body. A feeling of dancing is created by being able to switch the body from total relaxation to extreme intensity and tension. I call this the body’s ability to breathe and create movement.

Mirva’s doctoral thesis about CI is available here: www.actascenica.teak.fi/makinen-mirva

Price

We want to encourage participation for people in different situations, financially and geographically. If you’re travelling from abroad, we want to make the workshop accessible for you and support the global CI–community by giving you a 30 € discount.

Kindly note that food is not included in the price.

• 170 €, for people in financially challenging situation (FULL, 0/5 spots left)
• 190 €, for the first ten signups (FULL, 0/10 spots left)
• 220 €, normal price
• 250 €, after 21.5. DISCONTINUED, normal price available until the beginning of the workshop
• 150 €, Part A: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
• 100 €, Part B: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

If you’re a member of our local association, TreKI, you’ll get 10 € discount. (You can join here for 10 €: treki.fi/liity and get discounts from weekly jams and other workshops.)

You’ll receive the payment info after you’re registered. It’s also visible on the registration form itself. Your registration is not valid until we have received the payment. If you can’t pay the full price straight away, get in touch and we’ll work something out together.

What we offer

• +30 hours of professional teaching and jamming
• Free accommodation in the school (checkout at Sunday)
• An evening in a traditional Finnish sauna by a lake
• Many extra-curricular activities
• Free snacks (some!)

Cancellation policy

If you need to cancel your participation before 20.5.2019 we’ll refund your payment minus 50 €. If you cancel 21.5.2019 or after, refunds only for medical reasons and we ask you to show a statement from your doctor.

If the event is cancelled by the organisers, you’ll receive a full refund of your payment.

Registration & Contact

Please fill the registration from here: https://goo.gl/forms/aiF9bYYOmOVKMgmh1
You’ll receive a confirmation email once you’re registered. If you don’t, send us an email.

If you have any questions, you can reach us at onda@treki.fi.
You can also send questions to the Facebook event.

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The workshop is organised by Onda Vaahtera & Mirva Mäkinen, together with Tampere Contact Improvisation association (TreKI ry).