What if relating could feel more like a dance? Join us for a special Fall Eastside Contact Improvisation (CI) workshop + jam designed for beginners and seasoned movers alike to connect, play, and discover new ways of relating through movement. This is a welcome space for queer, femme, and trans folx, centering body agency, consent, and choice.
What is Contact Improvisation?
Contact Improvisation is a movement practice rooted in touch, weight-sharing, and listening through the body. CI offers powerful lessons for relationships and community: it teaches us how to deepen intimacy, cultivate resilience, and expand the ways we relate. There’s no choreography and no dance experience needed…just curiosity. CI offers practices that translate directly into everyday life and relationships such as:
❤️Attunement & listening beyond words
🧡Nervous system regulation & co-regulation
💛Welcoming tension and conflict as part of the dance
💚Finding ease and less effort through mutuality
💜Trusting intuition and adapting to change
🎟️ sliding TICKET OPTIONS:
Advance tickets are recommended to guarantee your spot. Door sales will be available at $35/person via venmo or exact cash. On-line ticket sales close 2 hours before start time
📍 Lincoln Heights | 90031 | Location given with ticket purchase
💛 Giving Back
10% of proceeds from our events are contributed to the Eaton Fire Relief and Recovery Fund as well as GoFundMe Campaigns for those who have lost their homes/displaced by the Altadena fires. Supporting our events continues to help us make a difference!
what to expect
All levels are welcome and no experience is needed. Each workshop begins with a guided class led by an experienced CI teacher and then flows into a “jam” - a supportive container to explore at your own pace. Move with others, solo, or simply rest and witness. All levels are welcome and no experience is needed.
WHAT TO WEAR AND BRING
Dress for ease of movement - soft, flexible clothing (long sleeves/pants) keeps you comfortable while rolling, leaning, and sharing weight.
Shoes will be taken off at the door. Being barefoot is recommended & safer - it helps prevent slips and supports safer, grounded movement.
GUIDELINES
Please arrive sober so that you can give consent
Personal hygiene is important - be squeaky clean and minty fresh.
No perfumes, cologne, or essential oils
No cigarette smoke prior to arriving
YOUR FACILITATOR
Marie Osterman (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist working to unearth community and curiosity through theatre, devised performance, improvisation, and movement. Marie’s generative art combines their classically-trained background in theatre making and their contact improvisation practice with the mission of facilitating intimate, playful spaces. They are based in Los Angeles, working as a performer, movement director, and teaching artist. Follow Marie here
YOUR HOST
Stella Stardust (she/they) is a somatic guide, intimacy alchemist, and sacred mischief-maker devoted to creating spaces where people can soften, feel, and remember who they are beneath the noise. She’s passionate about bringing community together by facilitating events with the purpose of creating more authentic connection and meaningful dialogue. Read more about Stella here