This 3.5 day Training Workshop in Somatic research is meant to instill specific research skills for participants intending to study the physicality of Somatic Communication through Improvisational Ensemble Practices by means of methodologies established by Nita Little* for the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (ISSC).

The ISSC seeks to develop Relational Intelligence and other transferable skills of Somatic Communication in dancers, affiliate researchers, and ultimately everyday humans for the benefit of peoples in all walks of life. This Training Workshop is meant for dancers to extend their research beyond choreographic choice-making to find that Somatic Communication offers emergent relations of immediate coordination and surprise. Outcomes will include a deeper understanding of the potentials for Co-Creative Practices where new knowledge and data might emerge, as well as access to establishing CoLab research groups under the resource umbrella of the ISSC.

The workshop format will involve theoretical and practical work, including training that involves listening, moving, reading, and practicing research interview techniques with one another. We will investigate the language of embodied states that support somatic communication within contact improvisation and ensemble practices, offering dancers a shared language base from which to anchor their research inquiry.