Visibly Unstable

C o n t a c t I m p r o v i s a t i o n I n t e n s i v e

Kirstie Simson and Laura Doehler

We call upon an embodied sense making that will allow us to collectively affirm instability and change as choice. The practice of contact improvisation and improvisation as life practice will be led by a wonderful co-teaching team, Kirstie and Laura, to allow us to meet one another openly as we negotiate definitions and beliefs about ourselves that are stored in body and mind. We invest in trust, intuition and a vast experience of CI to share how one might confidently navigate both, life and dancing. Together we increase our capability to move, learn and grow as dancers and human beings that contribute meaningfully towards a fair and symbiotic togetherness.

08. - 14.June 2026

Dordogne, France

Saint Pierre de Frugie

Dating back as far as 2004, Kirstie has been Laura's teacher. Laura sees Kirstie as wildly alive, full hearted and passionately involved, with great depth of genuine care and attention to not ever pretend, anything. Kirstie, besides being a most astounding improviser and teacher, links CI to life and treats the practice as a way to make sense of all our environments and entanglements.

Over more than 20 years Laura has, with and beyond Exit Map, embarked on a similar journey by nurturing aliveness in our connections with people and the more-than-human through a variety of movement techniques such as CI and LMA - to remain true to what is and open up what may be.

Led by a curiosity of social and ecological patterns, we come together to inspire explorations and connections on how we may live with what becomes undone - ideas, places, people, the more-than-human and our very self.

We ask, how can we aid the undoing by embracing our human fragility?

This Intensive offers studio based practices, outdoor practices, conversations and holistic collaborative life integrations. Processes are guided as well as shared for personal and collective agency to serve as foundation to co-sense directionalities and intentions.

Together we will take care of food and spaces. Our chef will orchestrate the preparation of delicious organic regional vegan and vegetarian food that we will make and enjoy together, making this event affordable and rich.

Set in the beautiful Dordogne with a lake and river to swim in only a walking distance away, we take time to be in and with nature as a way of life. We will be about 30 people that will stay in rooms, dorms or camp outside.

And so we dance