Faces Of CI

Our guest today is the multi-directional being Leilani Weis — Contact Improvisation teacher of 26 years. Originally from Chile, she helped develop CI scenes in Mexico and Italy, and now resides in Barcelona.

In this episode, we discuss:

✨ Her decades-long mentorship with Martin Keough

✨ Dancing into impossible places

✨ Preparing the body-mind for Contact

✨ The dancer superpowers

✨ Our mutual love of falling

📍 Recorded during Saltspring Contact Festival 2023, on the unceeded Coast Salish Territory in British Columbia, Canada.

🎙️ New Solo Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation

It’s Aalia here. I’m opening up in a raw and real solo episode:

✨ Transitioning to Thailand

✨ The Art of the Pause

✨ Being vulnerably first in new CI communities

✨ ADHD, mold illness & concussion recovery

✨ Getting “cancelled” in community & the lessons that followed

✨ Trusting the unknown + moving forward with grace

This one’s close to my heart.

Today I’m joined by Sasha Bezrodnova (Russia), recorded in Koh Phangan, Thailand.

✨ Her work in the Ocean Dance community — where Contact meets Freediving and Aquatic Somatics

✨ Entering the world of the sea and learning from dolphins

✨ Creating the eco-political water dance film Aquas in Mexico

✨ Reflections on movement, water, and community connection

New Episode ~ Faces of CI: Conversations on Contact Improvisation

Today I’m joined by Andy Chen (USA / Portugal) — our newest graduate of the Momentum Contact Facilitator Training.

✨ Reflections on the magic of CI jams:

"I really love the jams where I get to dance with a lot of bodies. Then I had a nice dance. That idea that it's always different, and I get to choose to have another chance of feeling joy. For me that's a big change in my mindset. Where in other forms of activities, I might just leave and not come back. For some reason with contact, I keep wanting to go back. That's what it's about."

✨ The mindset shift that keeps him returning to the dance floor

✨ The role of joy and choice in movement practice

✨ Lessons learned from facilitator training and beyond

🪩 Find Andy on Instagram in Portugal: @casa_eira