Collaborative Contact: From Classical to Contemporary
Physical/practical workshop by Autumn Eckman - Assistant Professor of Dance, The University of Arizona (Arizona, USA) and Robbie Cook - Assistant Professor of Dance at Hofstra University (New York, USA).

Autumn Eckman (MFA, University of Iowa) is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Arizona and former Resident Choreographer of Giordano Dance Chicago. In her professional career, she had privilege to dance with companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, State Street Ballet and Luna Negra Dance Theater. With an integrated approach of classical and contemporary movement modalities, her creative work aims to draw a deeper 

understanding of the daily life and the social fabrics of choreography. 

Robbie Cook is a Brooklyn-based dance artist working as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Hofstra University in New York, also teaching at American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival during the summer.

He has taught through Japan Contemporary Dance Network as a member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Sapporo, Japan; The i-Dance Festival in Hong Kong, Chadwick International School in Incheon, South Korea and twice set choreography on the students at Universidad de Las Américas in Puebla, México. He holds an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

The spirit of our collaborative aesthetic is gleaned from the knowledge and our collective years of performing experience in traditional pas de deux partnering from the ballet idiom. We have also worked with various choreographers across the spectrum of processes that range from modern and postmodern dance to contemporary, dance theater and the avant garde. Another thread of our experience that we bring into our process is the work we have done with Contact Improvisation. During the summers we have worked and performed alongside Nancy Stark Smith, one of the leaders and innovators in the Contact lineage. From Nancy we have learned that within a structure there is great freedom to explore and to innovate. Within the framework of the workshops that we will offer at IUGTE will be to explore a solo embodied warmup using anatomical images inside of a led improvisational experience. We will then use tasks to explore our relationship to another body and to develop a shared language for which to explore the matrix of partnering modalities from pas de deux to contact improvisation.

The participants will then enter a laboratory setting to create their own score or short choreography based upon the tools we offer. Lastly, Autumn and Robbie will present a short piece based upon the topic explored with the workshop participants in the form of an informal showing to conclude the session.