Explorations in Mutuality

Rooted in the lineage of contact improvisation, we will draw from the intelligence of our connective tissue–a mycelial network between muscle, bone, and tendon, and explore its presence in community structure integral to our movements.

Six-week movement class series

Tuesday nights 7-9PM

November 4 - December 16

in Durham, NC

Registration

A movement-based study in relational awareness, shared attention, and collective composition. We explore how resonance moves between bodies — through proximity, rhythm, and felt sense — and how awareness itself becomes a medium for connection.

Through guided scores, attunement practices, and ensemble improvisation, participants develop sensitivity to the relational field and to the subtle ways bodies organize together. We practice turning toward and away, following the emergent image, and noticing what arises between us.

Who is this for?

This series is designed for folks with competency with basic contact improvisation technique, including moving in and out of the floor in solo and with other bodies, navigating boundaries and physical/emotional safety in CI, and have basic weight sharing skills.
This class is emergent and will be shaped by everyone in the space. Multiple ways to engage will be offered.
If you have concerns about the level of the series, please email us to ask if it seems like a good fit before signing up~ ci@livingartscollective.com

Working Definitions

The ongoing, reciprocal process through which bodies sense, regulate and orient with one another in shared space. It operates through tone, touch, attention and perception, constituting both the basics of individual self-regulation and the ecology of collective presence.

Somatic Mutuality suggests that perception itself is mutual regulation.

My sensing of you affects your nervous system
Your movement reorients my proprioception
Attention is both an autonomous and shared organ.

At the center is reciprocal sensing– not empathy as imagination, but perception as participation.

“To be with you, I am first with what is in me.”

Somatic Mutuality

The continuous state of readiness in the body — a subtle balance between tension and release. Tone is what holds form without fixing it, the background field that allows movement, perception, and emotion to arise. It reflects both muscular engagement and emotional state, linking physiology and affect through moment-to-moment adjustment.

Tone

The practice of bringing attention into resonance with another person, group, or environment. Attunement is not merging; it is staying connected while maintaining self-awareness.

Attunement

(after Sara Ahmed)

The directional and relational patterning of attention, affect, and desire. To orient is to turn toward or away, shaping what is near or far in both perceptual and social fields.