Women’s Touch- June 15th
Women’s Touch 4th edition: Refining Nonverbal Communication in Contact Improvisation
Co-facilitated by Claudia Richli
June 15th, 10am-4pm / Siobhan Davies Studio /£35-45
Booking here
Embodiment – Safe space – Community Gain tools and confidence – Be in touch – Share impressions and experiences
After a very successful and fully booked Women’s Touch event on Mother’s Day last March, there was a clear demand for another workshop.
Each edition is different. This fourth edition with Claudia Richli and Marie Chabert focuses on exploring the intersections between Laban Movement Analysis and Contact Improvisation.
Our intention to foster a safe and supportive environment, where women and non-binary participants feel safe to take risks, be vulnerable, and share their humanity, free from the pressure of dominant dynamics.
Cultivating such spaces requires trust, shared language, and mutual care. It allows us not just to survive, but to thrive in connection.
Who is this for?
Those who identify as women and non-binary, whether you have taken part in the first workshop or not you are welcome.
It welcomes all levels and can be applied to other practices than Contact Improvisation. In the past people were able to apply it to dance therapy, theatre, psychology…
What is the content?
We cover material from Laban Movement Analysis in relationship to touch and being in touch, and apply it to Contact Improvisation.
Throughout the event we cultivate affirming boundaries, feeling safe and we invite questioning where we are in relationship to consent and how to put it into practice.
We will gain tools that are both theoretical and embodied in order to feel confident being in and out of touch.
We will cover the concepts of Relationship structure (see What is LMA hereunder) and have time to reflect, share with others in small groups.
This will be followed by a jam in the big rooftop studio with some guided entry points and explorations.
There will be clear frameworks, structures and scores to explore safely and deepen our research in a playful engaging way.
Schedule (may slightly change)
10-10.30am: landing time, tea and intro in the kitchen/lounge area. Including a landing space to accommodate access needs and neuro-diversity
10.30am-1.30pm group agreement and workshop facilitated by Claudia Richli in the research studio (includes writing and sharing)
1.30-2.30pm: lunch break (food sharing)
2.30-4pm: Contact Jam facilitated by Marie Chabert in the rooftop studio
What is Women’s Touch?
Women’s touch is an event curated by Marie Chabert, that offers a space for those who identify as women and non-binary to explore movement practices that are mainly based on touch (Contact Improvisation, somatic practices, improvisation) in a safe environment. It aims to empower women to claim their space and redefine it within a framework that challenges prevailing patriarchal norms. It offers both a place to embody and share our experiences verbally.
What is Laban Movement Analysis (LMA)?
Developed by Rudolf Laban, a choreographer, dancer, and movement theorist, Laban Movement Analysis is a comprehensive system for observing, describing, and interpreting human movement.
Claudia Richli will introduce us to concepts focusing on how movement affects interpersonal dynamics. We will explore the Structural Model of Human Movement which offers a comprehensive and accessible framework for understanding and analysing movement. We will particularly focus on the relationship structure .
Relationship Structure: We will examine different ways of interrelating through movement—such as different types of touch and proximity without contact—to develop greater awareness of how physical interaction influences perception and communication.
Through this training, dancers will refine their ability to navigate nonverbal communication with greater consciousness, fostering more respectful and mindful physical engagements in contact improvisation.
Biographies
Claudia Richli
Co-Founder of The Life of Movement, Teacher and Trainer at Barre&Baby, Claudia Richli is a mother, movement poet, Tanztheater dancer and a firm believer in the power of movement as an expression of the inner self.
Experiencing early motherhood as an identity shift, full of emotional contradictions, Claudia found in movement the power to find her essence. She is now dedicated to exploring how movement, particularly through Laban Movement Analysis, can assist new mothers in expressing their personal journeys and achieving balance in their lives.
She went on to study Rudolf Laban’s movement theories at Trinity Laban, as well as created training programs that integrate the physical and emotional aspects of movement.
She believes in the power of movement to help us live in deeper harmony with ourselves, and with the world. This is why she is so devoted to movement education, not only for mothers but for everyBODY; not only for dancers, movement practitioners but for anyone who believes in a more embodied way of being.
Instagram : @move_your_emotions
Marie Chabert
Marie is a performer, choreographer, contact improviser, teacher and massage therapist.
She has been performing and creating work for the past 16 years in the UK, in Germany and in France. She has been invited to take part in collaborative residencies in Europe, Asia, Burkina Faso, Mexico and the USA.
Most of her work is collaborative and multidisciplinary. It places the question of identity as relational, and one’s perception of identity at the core of her artistic research.
She obtained a Bachelor of Art in contemporary dance from the London Contemporary Dance School and a Master of the Art (creative practice) from Trinity Laban and Independent Dance. She received the Gill Clark Bursary and the Leverhulme scholarship.
She regularly teaches improvisation, contact improvisation classes, workshops, labs, and professional training in various institutions and settings internationally (Tanznetz Freiburg, Tänzerdorf, London contemporary Dance School, the London Studio Centre, Tripspace, Winterthur, Konstanz Jam and University, CI Goldmiths, CI in Paradise)
Website: mariechabert.com
photo by Sol Ji Park