​​​

 

Berlin New Year's Jam

December 29, 2025 - January 1, 2026

 

Listening/Flowing/Improvising with Andrew Wass on December 30 and 31 from 10:00 -12:30

​

We will attune into ourselves, gravity, partners, and the space around using simple, yet rich, practical and conceptual triads. Listening first to our somatic sensations, we will reach outwards with these sensations, connecting with the space around us and the other kinespheres in the room. Entering the second stage, we will flow between stillness and movement, different levels, ranges of muscle tone, and partnering constellations. In the third stage we will attempt to align intention and attention, improvising with and in contact.

 

for more info and registration follow this link

​

 

Spiral and Root: Professional CI training 2026

with Nina Martin

@ Earthdance, Plainfield, MA

January 8-14, 2026

​

For more information and registration follow this link

​​​​​​​

​

The Somatics of Space

Contact Improvisation and Ensemble Thinking™ with Andrew Wass

January 17 and 18, 2026 in Warsaw, Poland

Ensemble Thinking™ (ET) is a system of collaborative group performance practices that refine the individual’s ability to perceive, initiate, and support collective action. Contact Improvisation is the simultaneous exploration, experimentation, and execution of the location, duration, and operation of surface(s) between two or more bodies. ET and CI can be seen as two poles of a spectrum, wherein lies much potential. Starting with technical solo material, this workshop will oscillate between ET and CI scores. One goal of this workshop is to uncover the ensemble within the solo and the duet. Another goal is investigate how the duet and the solo can give focus to the ensemble. Through this oscillation, we will blur the boundaries of composition, somatics, performance, and observation.

​

register here - https://www.sytuacje.com.pl/warsztaty/somatics-of-space/​

​

 

The Big Picture​

An Alexander Technique + Ensemble Thinking™ Lab with Shelley Senter + Margaret Sunghe Paek

January 30 – February 1, 2026

​

How can your perspective change everything?

How do your individual habits affect the whole?

How can our physical choices create dynamic shifts?

How do we build community through practice and play?

​

In this weekend lab together, we will dive into two techniques – Alexander Technique and Ensemble Thinking™ – that will help us explore how our perspective and choices affect our experience and creativity. Using individual and ensemble dance improvisations, we’ll compose, question, and play with possibilities! The Alexander Technique is an approach to understanding human learning and development through conscious awareness and kinesthetic intelligence. It begins with identifying unconscious patterns – habits that can reveal deep creative insights as well as those that may interfere with our ability to be truly present. Experimenting  with principles such as (un)learning and self-observation (in relation to others) will create support efficient and conscious presence in our dancing, which we will then take into the compositional, improvisational scores of Ensemble Thinking™. Ensemble Thinking™ is a system of collaborative, improvisational scores that build group attunement towards increasing capacity for collective action. Through experimenting with foundational scores, we explore relational space and creative power. 

Schedule:

Friday, 1/30 at 5:30 PM – Sunday, 2/1 at 2:00 PM

The workshop also includes:

• Healthy, delicious meals

• A gorgeous, buttery, radiant heat dance floor

• Accommodations for overnight stay

• An outside bonfire, woods for walking, and birds for watching

​

Workshop Cost

$325 – pay-it-forward price: this helps folks attend the workshop for whom the regular price would be a hardship

$300 – regular price: fully covers the teacher’s fees and overhead expenses

$250 – 3 spots available at this rate

​

Please note – We will not be offering partial participation, as it is our intention to create a container for participants to join us for the whole learning journey. If you need to have a further conversation about finances, we welcome you to reach out!

​

Registration:

Email peaceablebarnstudio@gmail.com or complete the fields below to register or inquire about the workshop.

Upon registering, a $75 deposit is required to reserve your spot.

​

Workshop Location:
The Peaceable Barn
90 Peaceable Street
Redding, CT 06896
(203) 240-4742
*from NYC: MTA to Branchville. We will pick you up!

​

​

R.I.S.E.

research into somatic ensembles

February 28 - March 1, 2026

Hamburg, Germany

with Andrew Wass and Christos Litsios

​

This performance lab examines how compositional intelligence emerges across solos, duets, and groups. Both Ensemble Thinking™ (ET) and Contact Improvisation (CI) originate from the same experimental tradition and share a central concern: composition in the moment. They approach this shared aim from different vantage points. ET considers the broader spatio-temporal dynamics of many bodies moving together, attending to patterns, relationships, and group decision-making. CI, in contrast, works from the tactile scale—tracking weight, momentum, shared surfaces, and the kinetic negotiation between two (and sometimes more) partners within shifting spatial contexts. Together, they offer complementary entry points into understanding how bodies co-create structure in real time.

 

In R.I.S.E., we will begin with precise solo tasks and move fluidly between ET- and CI-informed structures. Our inquiry will explore how ensemble awareness arises within solo and duet forms, and how the intimacy of partner work can sharpen the sensitivity and coherence of the larger group. By continually shifting scale—from the tactile to the panoramic—we loosen the boundaries between somatic attention, composition, performance, and witnessing.

 

Guiding questions for the lab include:

• How does observing another mover alter our own intention and action?

• Where do we sense the threshold between internal bodily experience and external spatial perception?

• What tacit hierarchies shape how we organize ourselves when dancing together?

 

This lab is designed for movers who already feel comfortable with foundational CI skills. Participants should expect to witness the dancing of others and to engage in being witnessed in return.

​

Register by clicking this link

 

​

Ensemble Thinking™ Lab

April 3-5 2026

facilitated by Nina Martin

Times:

Friday1-6pm / Saturday 10 - 6pm / Sunday 9 - 2pm

 

Location:

TCU SCCDance @ Lowe Hall

3000 South University Drive

Fort Worth, Texas 76109

 

Cost:

$250 early bird January 15

$300 to $400 sliding scale

​

Payment options:

Venmo: @Nina-Martin-9

Check: SCCDance/Nina Martin PO Box 297910, Fort Worth, Texas 76129

​

This performance lab qualifies for the Ensemble Thinking Certification prerequisites

​​

​​​

​

Swedish Contact Improvisation Festival

July 10-15, 2026

Ensemble Improvisation Intensive with Andrew Wass

​

for more information follow this link

​

​

​​Marfa Live Arts

presents

Ensemble Thinking™ Contact Improvisation ReWire Dancing States

@

Dance Ranch Marfa

​August 3-7, 2026

facilitated by Nina Martin, Margaret Paek, Andrew Wass

 

This performance lab is a rigorous investigation of the relationship between the self and the group in an art-making context. The workshop is intended to provide dedicated spaces for collective/individual learning and exploration. We use this time in Marfa to work, investigate, and collectively widen compositional, sensorial, and performance skills. Using Ensemble Thinking™, ReWire Movement States, and Contact Improvisation as points of departure, we will investigate the intra-relationships of the solo body, the weighted body and the ensemble. The days consist of two blocks of time in the studio. The performance lab will end with a performance that is open to the public.

 

Location: Marfa TX

USO Building, 302 S Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843, United States

 

Cost: $475 Pre-Registration Required 

Participant numbers are limited

Early Bird price: $400 by June 1, 2026

For local Tricounty participants: contact ninamartinperformance@gmail.com for discount information

 

Refund Policy: if you ask for a refund before July 18, we keep 50$ handling feebetween July 18-July 25, we keep half of the fee. After July 25, no refund, but you can find someone to take your place

 

Payment, whichever method works for you: 

Please include note on all payments: "Lower Left"

Venmo: Marfa Live Arts @MarfaLiveArts  

Paypal via Marfa Live Arts 

Check/Money Order to "Marfa Live Arts" PO Box 1365 Marfa TX 79843

 

Schedule (subject to change):

Morning sessions:10-12:30pm

Lunch: 12:30 - 2:00

Afternoon sessions: 2:00-5pm

Free pilates mat class mornings: 9-9:50, open to the public

Performance August 5 - 6 pm, open to the public

Performance August 7 - 6 pm open to public

​

​​

 

Ensemble Thinking™ Lab - The Big Picture

August 24th - 30th, 2026

with Karen Mikalsen, Nina Martin, Margaret Sunghe Paek

@ National Theatre School, Oslo, Norway

​

​​

Stay Tuned for more Info

​

​

​

​

​