MORNING CLASS

Monday to Friday | 10am - 12pm

• Mondays: Peter Bingham
  *No Class: Sept 30th, Oct 14th, Nov 11th

• Tuesdays: Peter Bingham

• Wednesdays: Olivia Shaffer

• Thursdays: Peter Bingham

• Fridays: Anne Cooper

Morning class is for professional dancers and experienced Contact Improvisation practitioners. Permission of the instructor is required. If you are new to this class and curious about joining us, please email us at info@edamdance.org.

Class format: After arrival, participants begin with a self-directed warm up to settle, tune to the space and their individual needs. The teacher offers prompts to guide attention and practice with an emphasis on expanding awareness and skill development. Warm-up organically leads into open contact duets or more structured explorations. Class usually concludes with an ensemble score. Facilitated opportunities for conversation and questions occur halfway and/or at the end of class.

Drop-ins and Class Cards welcome.

THURSDAYS | FOUNDATIONS IN CONTACT

Thursdays
6-week series, weekly on Thursday evenings:

• Series 1 w Francesca Frewer — begins Sept 5

• Series 2 w Hayley Gawthrop — begins Oct 17

• Series 3 w Arash Khakpour — begins Nov 28

  • Thurs, Nov 28th Dec 5th, Dec 12th from 7 - 8:30pm

  • Thurs, Jan 9th, 16th, 23rd from 6 - 7:30pm

This class is beginner-friendly (around 0 to 3 years of experience) and will focus on Contact basics. All levels are welcome to join, supporting our ongoing research of CI skills. We will practice listening with our many senses, while working with presence and possibility in our dancing.

Each teacher will lead a 6-week series shaped by their current interests and curiosities within CI. You are welcome to drop-in for any class. While the series are not specifically designed to be progressive, material from previous weeks may be drawn upon in class. Read our teacher’s bios below.

Class format: Class begins with a facilitated warm-up, moving into CI skills and techniques in the form of individual, partnered, and/or group exercises. We may explore a variety of fundamental CI principles including rolling point of contact, sloughing (sliding), meeting pressure (continuity of connection), weight sharing, and under-dancing (offering mobile support). We typically close with a round-robin or score; an opportunity to put our skills into practice and dance together.

There is space to shape your experience within the class; you may participate at your own comfort level in as much or as little as you like. Witnessing is an active form of participation and a welcomed learning method.

Questions about attending? Please contact us at info@edamdance.org.

Drop-ins and Class Cards welcome.

SUNDAYS | CONTACT CLASS

Sundays | 12:30 - 2:30pm
Weekly from Sunday, September 8th to Sunday, December 15th.
w Anne Cooper

Open level.

Anne Cooper has been teaching Contact Improvisation at EDAM for over 20 years. She brings her extensive experience and continuous inquiry to this class, meeting participants where they are at in their dancing and offering ways to dig deeper into the practice.

Class format: A guided warm-up leads into a facilitated exploration of CI skills and techniques. This may include individual, partnered, and/or group exercises. Class usually closes with an opportunity to dance together in a round-robin or score.

Drop-ins and Class Cards welcome.

BIPOC | FOUNDATIONS IN CONTACT

Sundays 3:30 - 5pm
6-week series running from Sunday, October 27 to Sunday, December 1st
w Natalie Tin Yin Gan (顏婷妍)

• Sun, Oct 27 | 3:30 - 5pm — Class

• Sun, Nov 3 | 3:30 - 5pm — Class

• Sun, Nov 10 | 3:30 - 5:30pm — Class + Jam

• Sun, Nov 17 | 3:30 - 5pm — Class

• Sun, Nov 24 | 3:30 - 5pm — Class

• Sun, Dec 1 | 3:30 - 5pm — Class + Jam

For BIPOC dancers and movers — beginner-friendly (around 0 to 3 years of practice). All levels are welcome to join, supporting our ongoing research of CI skills.

Natalie holds a welcoming space for BIPOC movers to learn Contact Improvisation fundamentals. A facilitated warm-up will lead us into exercises that introduce Contact basics. Tuning to gravity and sensing with our whole selves, we will improvise with our many dance partners: the floor, the room, ourselves, and our fellow dancers. This class is an invitation to be in inquiry and creativity together.

You are welcome to drop-in for any class. While this series is not specifically designed to be progressive, material from previous weeks may be drawn upon in class.

Questions about attending? Please contact us at info@edamdance.org.

Drop-ins and Class Cards welcome.

No on turned away for lack of funds. Please email us at info@edamdance.org.

Peter Bingham is one of the pioneers of Contact Improvisation. The "touch and tumble" of Contact is a hallmark of much of Peter’s choreography, lending both athleticism and graceful elegance to his partnering and ensemble work. Bingham has created over 50 choreographed works and performed in hundreds of improvised performances in theatres, dance festivals and universities across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

Anne Cooper has danced with EDAM since 1994, studying Contact Improvisation with Peter Bingham and performing in EDAM's work, both structured improvisations and choreography. She has researched and performed with Nancy Stark Smith through Nancy's 'Glimpse Performance Installations' in the U.S.A. Anne has taught/facillitated CI since 2001 in Vancouver and other locales through classes, Jams and workshops. She has created and performed her own work and has danced with many Canadian companies/choreographers. Anne has trained in contemporary dance and CI; her CI teachers include Peter Bingham, Nancy Stark Smith, Jaci Metivier, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Ray Chung and others and some study with Steve Paxton (Material For the Spine) and recently, Nora Hajos (Material For the Spine). Anne is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, BC, on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsliel-Waututh First Nations.

Francesca Frewer is a contemporary dance artist who has been studying Contact Improvisation for 12 years. Her teaching is heavily influenced by training and dancing with Peter Bingham and the EDAM company, and her classes also draw on principles of the Feldenkrais Method, a somatic movement practice she teaches and of which she is an ongoing student. With a particular interest in efficiency, precision, and refined awareness, Francesca offers technical skill-building towards the end goal of finding ever more options within the moment to moment choice-making that is improvisation.


Francesca creates and performs in her own work, frequently in collaboration with Erika Mitsuhashi. She has also worked with Company 605, Emmalena Fredriksson, Company Saint Genet, Future Leisure, and Evann Siebens, among others. She is a co-producer and organizer of the interdisciplinary art series Here For Now, and the DIY performance space Boombox.

Born and reared in Semiahmoo territory (South Surrey) Hayley Gawthrop is an independent, artist residing in the unceded ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (so-called Vancouver). Hayley leapt into the world of dance from a young age. After following through with extensive training in Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary dance, their love of movement, virtuosity and rigour found conflict with the hegemonic rigidity of these “classical” dance forms.

Hayley’s dance practice has mutated and adapted to celebrate the things they love about dance/(the world) and to challenge the things they question or want to change. 
Hayley is privileged to have worked and danced for many people they admire, including: Emmalena Fredriksson, Arash Khakpour (Biting School), Antonio Somera Jr, Fight With a Stick, Dumb Instrument Dance, Omer Keinan, Kelly McInnes, The Response, MACHiNENOiSEY Dance Society, and has worked as a dramaturg/outside eye for Emmalena Fredriksson, Kelly McInnes and Marissa Wong.

Hayley has been studying Contact Improv under the tutelage of Peter Bingham since 2015 and has been dancing professionally with EDAM since 2021. Contact Improv has provided Hayley with a score to follow their questions about dance/(the world) down as many rabbit holes as necessary. Some of their most pressing questions are: how to take care, how to listen when to disrupt, how to hold, how to float, and how to fly. Hayley is passionate about gentleness, bodily autonomy and deep listening. Their class balances practical skill-building with time to explore one’s own questions and desires. They hope their classes will help you feel thoughtful, brave and confident in the unknown.

Arash Khakpour (آرش خاکپور) is a dancer and choreographer from Tehran and is privileged to be a dance artist based in the Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver). Arash has been practicing dance and performance for the past 15 years and has been a company member of the EDAM Contact Improvisation ensemble since 2017. He tends to invest in the nuances of prejudices in the body as a way of inviting the unconscious to the conscious, and as a doorway to confront unknown emotions. He sees dance as a process of physical, emotional and spiritual discovery and a mode of transformation. He works with dance as a language that researches the human condition through mythical, historical, social, political and existential interpretations. As a first-generation immigrant, he continuously considers what healing he can bring to the land and communities he works with. He is building a culture of relationality and reciprocity that celebrates the multiplicity of presences and approaches. Arash is the co-founder and artistic director of the dance-theatre-film company The Biting School (alongside his brother Aryo Khakpour).

Olivia Shaffer is EDAM's Associate Artistic Director, company dancer, and resident teacher of Contact Improvisation (CI). Following a BFA in contemporary dance from SFU, she dove into extensive training in CI, dance improvisation, performance practices, and somatic movement frameworks. Her pedagogy is upheld through long standing mentorships with local improvisation experts, Peter Bingham and Helen Walkley, while also influenced by many global CI leaders with whom she has pursued training: Alicia Grayson, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Angelika Doniy, Karen Nelson, among others. Olivia is an Adjunct Professor teaching movement for UBC's Theatre Department. She has taught and performed in Europe, the US, and Asia, and is a certified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method®. // oliviashaffer.ca

Natalie Tin Yin Gan (顏婷妍) is an independent dance artist, writer, and teacher based in so-called Vancouver, on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her practice squats (120 lb) at the intersection of spirit, somatics, and technology-induced melancholy. Natalie is the Co-Artistic Director of company Hong Kong Exile that explores the historical and contemporary politic of the Chinese diaspora. She is also the smaller half of vulva clown duo, Pulsive Party. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio and a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Natalie is a late sleeper, a late riser, a late bloomer, a latecomer, and a late-night snacker. nataliegan.com