Where you are when you don’t know where you are is one of the most precious spots offered by improvisation. It is a place from which more directions are possible than anywhere else.
Nancy Stark Smith, Contact Quarterly Editor’s Note, 1987
Following is an interview with Nancy Hughes, co-founder Contact Improvisation Jam.
There is a performance on Friday, March 17 at 8:00 pm that is part of the Mission Improvable (MI) workshop. The performance is titled “Unknowing: An Evening of Dance Improvisation.” You can get tickets here.
Can you tell me what the history of Mission Improvable is? Who founded it, and when?
When I moved to Buffalo, NY at the end of 2009 there was no contact improvisation movement practice. I first started the Contact Improv Jam with Janet Werther. She left town and Sophia Roberts helped me for a few months. I began without having a class, but because most people never practiced CI before, we started offering classes as beginner teachers. I started a Contact Improv Jam because, before moving to Buffalo, NY I had made a promise to myself that I would have a regular contact improv practice. Contact Improvisation cannot be done alone. Before Covid-19 pandemic I stopped running the jam. It had gone from a twice a month 3-hour event on Sundays to an every-Sunday event still 3-hours long. It began at Verve Studios on Main Street and moved to Wasteland Studios closer to downtown. It was taken over by a group that formed a collective. At this point they are not running regular jams. They can be contacted here: Buffalo Contact Improv | Facebook (That is all about the contact improv regular class and jam)
Why was it started?
One reason I started Mission Improvable was because I was the main teacher of Contact Improvisation in Buffalo and I wanted to help people get more information. It is also quite illuminating to see my own practice reflected back to me in my students. The main causation of Mission Improvable happened when I was in London doing Underscore Lab with a performance with Nancy Stark Smith and Mike Vargas. My friends and colleagues Yanna and Yeong were there. Yanna and Yeong wanted to teach a workshop in Buffalo and we planned it during our time in England. Contact improvisation was created as a performance before it became a social practice. Which is one reason as to why there is a performance during each Mission Improvable. It was a successful event and I kept holding them. I could not do it without all the volunteers. Monica Karwan was the organizational manager for many years and this year it is Lindsay Daniels. We took a break from 2019 until present. During covid-19 pandemic Mission Improvable became a regular online CI-based practice on Fridays. Just like the in-person Mission Improvable, people attend from outside of Buffalo.
I still lead pop-up workshops and labs as well as a regular Friday online Mission Improvable through Zoom.
Is MI based in St. John’s Grace?
Mission Improvable is based at St. John’s Grace church. In the past it was usually held at Wasteland Studios.
Is there a strong improvisation community in Buffalo?
There are people who are dedicated to an improvisation practice. Keven Doyle and Alex Meade let me know that there are musicians who have an improvisation practice. PlayBack Theatre has a practice here and they do improvisation. Before Verve become a memory in Buffalo, there was a strong hip hop scene that was easily visible at Battle @ Buffalo and I know that many dancers are still holding strong in Buffalo. There are a few contemporary/modern dancers I know in Buffalo who have a dedicated practice of improvisation. From my perspective the contact improv scene is not very strong. There are not enough people who practice that will regularly fill a contact jam. Having said that, the regular jam did not make it through Covid-19. For me, to practice, I often leave town or I will gather people by leading or facilitating a workshop.
There is a regular Ecstatic Dance group in Buffalo that meets.
What are the aspirations for MI?
To learn how to move in new ways, meet new people and dance with them, reconnect to dancers that one has known for a while, to be challenged as a dance artist. Also it would be good if people were re-inspired to begin a regular CI practice that was open to the public again. Also it is very fabulous that Chris Aiken (lead image) is coming to Buffalo to teach us contact improvisation with a focus on dance improvisation as performance. He is really good at what he does and a super wonderful person to be around. I have experienced some very wild and extremely connected group improvisations that he facilitated us as a group of dancers into.
How can people get involved?
People can get involved by registering for the whole event but there is only 1 spot left. They can attend the performance on Friday, March 17 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are here. They can also attend The Fascial Matrix: A Foundation for Perception and Movement from 6-7:30 pm out of town guest teacher Chris Aiken will host a talk – this one is geared towards people who don’t want to dance.
I was thinking about something Chris Aiken talked about when I saw him last. About opening up our perception. “We are practicing perceiving during our improvised practice. Due to this practice of perceiving we are performing in the present.”
There are two open to all workshops led by Buffalonian dancers. The workshop on Thursday is led by an0th3r.l0p3z called Doing a Dangle in the Tangle. The movement workshop is from 6 pm-8:00 pm. Jacquie Cherry will be leading Stream of Somatic Expression on Saturday, March 18 from 6-7:30 pm. People can find out more info here: Buffalo Contact Improv | Facebook | They can also email us at missionimprovabledance@gmail.com.
There are also three jams/open movement practices for all. Wednesday, March 15 7:45 pm – 9:15 pm – Jeremy Spindler will be playing live music for the first portion. Thursday, March 16 from 8:00 pm – 8:30, and Saturday, March 18 from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm. People can find out more info here: Buffalo Contact Improv | Facebook
After a three year hiatus, Mission Improvable returns with its 2023 workshop: Degrees of Freedom, facilitated by internationally recognized dancer, performance artist, and teacher Chris Aiken. Currently teaching at Smith College, Chris explores collaborative interdisciplinary improvisation that emphasizes awareness of the many relationships that exist in a performance space between performers, witnesses, and all that surrounds them. Mission Improvable is an annual Contact Improvisation dance workshop that will run this year from March 15th to March 19th.
Contact Improvisation is a specialized form of post-modern dance relying heavily on our relationship to gravity and movement conversations often in touch with one or more fellow dancers. The highly collaborative form, named by Steve Paxton and inspired by his background in Aikido, has become a popular underground social dance practice. Mission Improvable: Degrees of Freedom will integrate aspects of movement training, composition, and performance through improvisation. This workshop will encourage an appreciation for the dynamic relationships between movement, perception, and imagination, culminating in an evening length performance.
This culminating performance, titled Unknowing: An Evening of Dance Improvisation will take place on Friday, March 17th at 8:00 pm at St. John’s Grace in Buffalo, NY. Unknowing: An Evening of Dance Improvisation, will feature live music and multiple structured improvisational scores that provide an opportunity for both performers and viewers to engage with the dynamics of their role as a maker, a collaborator, or a witness.
For information about the workshop, to become a collaborator and sponsor or to learn more about the Buffalo contact improvisation community, visit buffaloci.weebly.com.
Ticket information for the performance:
Unknowing: An Evening of Dance Improvisation Friday, March 17, 2023 at 8:00 pm
Location: St. John’s Grace, 51 Colonial Cr., Buffalo, NY 14222
Tickets: $5-$10 in advance, $15-$20 at the door
Workshop Facilitators and Teachers
Chris Aiken is an internationally recognized performer and teacher of dance improvisation and contact improvisation. His approach has been guided by the effort to link one’s poetic sensibilities with the capacity to engage ecologically through perception, action, and imagination. In this sense, ecology includes the self as an animated organism, non-human beings, and the world. It includes culture and human artifacts. Chris has performed and collaborated with many renowned dance artists including Patrick Scully, Angie Hauser, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Peter Bingham, Andrew Harwood, Ray Chung and Steve Paxton. His work has been shaped by years of practice in the Alexander Technique, Gyrokinesis, ideokinesis, yoga, and fascial body work and movement training. He is a Professor of Dance at Smith College.
Nancy Hughes co-founded the Buffalo, New York, Contact Improvisation Jam in 2010, which led to her teaching regular CI labs and classes. In addition she coordinated the Global Underscore for 8 years and recently taught CI as an adjunct professor at Brockport College. Since 2020 she has produced the weekly online Mission Improvable series. She has received grants from NYS DanceForce, Arts Services Initiative (ASI) and most recently received the New York State Council for the Arts’ Support for Artists – Choreography Commission. For the latter award she will be collaborating with co-sponsor Burchfield Penney Art Center located in the city of Buffalo, NY. Her commitment to Buffalo is also expressed throughout the year as Nancy consistently produces events since 2012 like Mission Improvable: Contact Improvisation (CI) Intensive in-person which includes 2 performances in which she collaborates with local and international dance makers and the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts Youth Performance Workshop. Residing in Buffalo, NY she performs in museums, homes, and silos.
Jeremy Spindler is a French-American self-taught accordionist who grew up in France and Brazil and now lives in Western New York. Charismatic and playful, his love of Brazilian and French musette music is evident in his melodic style. His improvisational approach reveals his deep love of jazz. Whether in the studio or in performance, his blending of different styles, including Balkan and other traditional musical forms, and willingness to go beyond conventional boundaries strike listeners as instinctive and unique. He has performed with French Manouche guitarist Stephane Wrembel (author of “Bistro Fada” featured in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning film “Midnight in Paris”), Flamenco cross over international singer songwriter Mar Salá, and worked with Grammy Award winning violinist, singer, actor and composer Lisa Gutkin (Klezmatics member). He currently plays in Machine Dream, Birds on a Wire (w/ Jazz award winning guitarist Bernard Kunz), and the trio Comienzos (w/ Jamie Sunshine on Marimba & Brian De Jesus on Bass). In 2019 he recorded the French ConéXion album as a tribute to French Musette and Brazilian music from the 1930’s, which features two of his compositions (Ellis and Jequié). His latest album Machine Dream released this year with Paul Kozlowski contains seven original compositions for two accordions that showcase the wide range of tonalities and textures of the instrument. Jeremy is quickly becoming recognized as an upcoming artist, whose disposition to break genre boundaries and whose intuitive approach allows him to bring a multi-faceted, creative brilliance to his performances and recordings.
Jacquie Cherry earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Theater at Buffalo State College. Cherry started dance training at Miss Barbara’s School of Dance and Buffalo Inner City Ballet. Cherry acted in various plays at Alleyway Theatre, Paul Robeson Theater, and Ujima Co. Cherry received a Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the University at Buffalo where she received an award for Academic Excellence and was accepted into UB’s Social Impact Fellowship program. Because of her interest in Critical Race Theory, Black Feminist Thought, Sociology, Performance Theory, and activism through art, Cherry is inspired to create compelling works and uplift her community. You can find her work by going to linktr.ee/jacqwae.
an0th3rl0p3z is a performing artist in Western New York. They maintain their practice in the company of Laurie Macfarlane, Ruben Ornelas and The Others, led by Charlie Finan. They are currently working on a collaborative project exploring the theme of entanglements: ecological, quantum, social and otherwise. And they are in cahoots with Nancy Hughes to make all manner of improvisational dance happen in Buffalo.
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