CURRENT TEACHERS
Shura Baryshnikov
Dancer | Actor | Educator
Shura Baryshnikov is an interdisciplinary movement artist who works broadly as a dancer, actor, improvisor, movement designer, and somatic movement educator. She is a co-founding Artistic Director of Doppelgänger Dance Collective, a Providence-based dance company dedicated to the curation and commission of new contemporary works, and a founding member of the Contact Improvisation performance ensemble setGo. Shura is Head of Physical Theatre for the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program in the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University and has also instructed at MIT, Dean College, Rhode Island College, Salve Regina University, and Connecticut College. She has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association since 2016. www.shurabaryshnikov.com
Alicia Grayson
Dance Improvisation
Alicia Grayson has been passionately involved with dancing, teaching and performing CI for the past 30 years. She has taught contact improvisation as an adjunct faculty at George Washington University, University of Denver, Naropa University and Shenandoah University. She teaches CI, yoga and pilates classes in Boulder, Colorado and regularly travels nationally and internationally to teach. Her long time practices of authentic movement, yoga and pilates, and her love of nature are important influences on her dancing and teaching. She is a certified Hakomi therapist, certified perinatal somatic attachment therapist and certified Feminine Power Transformational Coach and Facilitator. She delights in exploring and discovering new depths to contact improvisation and related disciplines and is particularly interested in the intersection of physics and expression and the mind/body relationship. www.aliciagrayson.com
Bradley Teal Ellis
Dance Improvisation
Bradley Teal Ellis is a Brooklyn-based improviser. He has practiced Contact Improvisation for the past 30 years, and frequently collaborates in process and performances with other artists. In addition to offering workshops, Bradley teaches as faculty of Movement Research, as adjunct faculty at NYU/Tisch Experimental Theatre Wing and the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College/ SUNY
Tim O'Donnell
Contact Improvisation
Tim O’Donnell is a New York based dance artist who has been studying, teaching, and performing in both the United States and Europe. His exploration in dance and movement is strongly rooted in a deep physical listening and a sense of adventure. His classes range from the gentle and subtle to the acrobatic and fluidly athletic. He holds an MFA in Dance and has maintained a private practice in therapeutic bodywork and somatic movement since 1991. Currently he is on faculty at Movement Research and Arizona State University.
Sarah Konner
Dance Artist
Sarah Konner is a dance artist, improviser and somatic movement educator—interested in somatics as expression and the innate intelligence in our bodies. Sarah teaches, practices and performs improvisation in New York and elsewhere, as well as creates dance-theater work with her collaborator Austin Selden and others. sarahandaustindance.com
PAST TEACHERS
Martin Keogh
Contact Improvisation
Martin Keogh has taught and performed contact improvisation for over thirty-six years. For his contribution to the development of the form he is a Fulbright Senior Specialist and listed in Who’s Who in the World. Martin spent time traveling to monasteries in Japan and Korea and was the director of the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley before discovering the world of dance. He has taught in 32 countries on six continents and is the author of The Art of Waiting and As Much Time as it Takes, and the acclaimed: Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World. martinkeogh.com
Brad Stoller
Contact Improvisation
Brad Stoller has been teaching Contact Improvisation since 1983 and studied under the talented male dancers of “Mangrove,” a San Francisco based dance collective. He teaches CI at the University of Virginia and has taught in festivals in Europe, the United States, and Africa. Brad is also a regular host and teacher at the Moab Contact Improvisation Jam in Utah every spring. In addition to dance, Brad is a master teacher of the Alexander Technique, a black belt in Aikido, and a practitioner of “3 Principles,” a forum for guiding people to their innate well-being and health.
K.J. Holmes
Dance Improvisation
K.J. HOLMES Brooklyn NY based dance artist/actor/singer/teacher. Travels nationally and internationally teaching/performing/creating: collaborate extensively with Julie Carr, Simone Forti, Karen Nelson, Lisa Nelson/Image Lab, Steve Paxton: performed with Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Xavier Le Roy, Lance Gries, Mark Dendy, Melinda Ring, Karinne Keithley Syers: was cast in artist Matthew Barney’s film Redoubt and in performer/videographer Cristiane Bouger’s film The Quest for Joy; Collaborates with drummer Jeremy Carlstedt: in their Duet LIP (Vision Jazz Festivals, NY) teaches in NYC at NYU/ Experimental Theatre Wing, the Juilliard School and through Movement Research. A graduate of the School for Body-Mind Centering©, William Esper Studio (Meisner acting with Terry Knickerbocker), and Satya Yoga, K.J. is studying to become an Ayurvedic nutritional consultant and continues to develop her dance/theater/installation HIC SVNT DRACONES
Neige Christenson
Contact Improvisation
Neige Christenson has been an avid Contact Improviser since the mid-eighties, as a devoted jam facilitator, teacher and performer. Her teaching encourages opening the improvisational mind and body to full presence and connection with self and other. She has an MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University, and has taught CI in Germany, Canada, California and throughout New England. Her writing on CI has appeared in Contact Quarterly and <Proximity> magazines.