Kirstie draws from her extensive experience of Contact Improvisation, dance techniques, the Alexander technique, Aikido, meditation, and her broad knowledge of improvisation in performance. She shares her work through facilitated exercises, open time for play and exploration, movement scores, observations, discussion, and humour. Much of the work is experienced through partnering and connection with others, balanced with solo time for processing and reflection. There is deep inspiration and rigor in a practice of improvisation that posits vulnerability at its heart. Developing the skills to be able to care for, engage, respect, and respond to that state of openness in oneself, others and our environment generates creative work that is powerful and transformative. Learning from a place of interconnectedness can give us the resilience and insight to face life's challenges and complexities. In this workshop Kirstie shares the movement practices and underlying philosophies she has developed over forty years of her committed involvement with dance improvisation as a ‘life-practice’ that has helped her negotiate life’s ups and downs, including a life-threatening illness in 2020. Integral with the physical practices she will elucidate how she sees embodied practices as vitally important for developing the resilience to face into and respond to the challenging times we are living through. This workshop will give participants the opportunity to delve deeply into the wisdom embedded within embodied practices, both in the studio space, as well as exploring movement scores in the outstanding natural environment surrounding the space (weather permitting). Kirstie will facilitate the work, guided by her own depth of body-knowledge gleaned over the years in which she has pursued a dedicated practice of listening, inquiry and belief in the importance of life- affirming embodied knowledge. BIO Kirstie Simson (UK) has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called "a force of nature" by the New York Times, she is an award-winning performer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London. Kirstie is internationally renowned today as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer, and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation, with a dance practice that spans over four decades. From 2008 – 2020 Kirstie held a position as a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois. In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to share her work around the globe. She is currently involved with the Black Mountains College in Wales, helping to design an innovative degree course of planet-centric education towards building a better future incorporating the arts & sciences. The BA in Ecological Futures will launch in September 2022. Kirstie is beginning to frame her work now, in the light of our uncertain future, as practices that can help us develop resilience in the face of challenge. She uses her own experience of facing a life-threatening health issue in 2020 as a foundation for her ongoing research into the power of embodied intelligence. www.kirstiesimson.com