Entries & Exits Acro Contact Explorations

Move Workshop

Presenter: Miriam Marler and Jooske Honig

Suitable for: All ages

Find your softness, stillness, connect, release and flow through acro poses. Through a variety of approaches we will explore ways to enter and exit a balanced pose. Explorations will happen in pairs, threes and bigger groups to find ways to connect, support, listen, and observe. Some acro or contact experience useful.

We will begin by reviewing some of the foundational acro principles and poses, and will soon offer chances to experiment with your connection to the ground, the space around, and other people in the group. The aim is to find new ways of being in balances, and alternative exits and entries. We will invite you to draw on the familiar acro principles such as bone stacking to explore some principles used in Contact Improvisation such as awareness of somatic sensibilities and how this might enable a deeper tuning in and exploration of what your body can do while in contact with another.

Presenter Bio:

Jooske is a passionate Acroyogi who started her Acro journey in 2011 in Te Anau NZ. Taught by International Acroyoga instructors Jason and Chelsey Magness, co-founders of Yoga Slackers, Jooske’s love was awakened. Since then she has attended further training with them as well as other Acro teachers in Aotearoa, the US and in her native country of the Netherlands.
In January 2018 Jooske received her certificate in Acromastermind Teacher Training. Based in Dunedin, she teaches Acroyoga foundations and her teaching is a combination of different practices and styles of movement that Jooske has worked with over the years. Jooske is a mother of three boys and runs a therapeutic clinic from home, In-Spiral, which offers massage and energy work to support people reconnecting with their body, mind and spirit.

Miriam is an Aotearoa-based dance artist who hails from the deep south of Otepoti/Dunedin where she facilitates Contact Improv Dunedin. With a background in Contemporary Dance (Unitec 2004), she has shared her broad range of skills and passions with festivals, workshops, community groups, universities and birthday parties. Somatic movement, contact improvisation, contemporary dance, Body Weather and butoh, yoga, performance and Traditional Thai massage make up Miriam’s training. She has worked with many dancers and was recently immersed in the 2018 Australian Contact Improvisation Convergence. Miriam holds a Masters of Dance Studies from the University of Otago (distinction) where she currently acts as Teaching Fellow for Movement Education in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences.

Together Miriam and Jooske have been exploring the realms of CI and Acro for the past couple of years. The fascination between softness and connection in contrast with the strength needed for stacked poses, and the potential for fluidity between the two movement practices continues to attract their attention and fuels motivation for working together further.

Entries & Exits Acro Contact Explorations