Ken Manheimer
Contact Improvisation Instructor
“What’s extraordinary about Contact Improvisation (and challenging) is the open range of interaction. We negotiate so many different elements – pacing, athleticism, whimsy, weight, serenity, so much more – to arrive at what suits each of us in the changing moment. In that we get opportunities to learn how to explore and discover with each person with whom we play.”
Ken comes at dance through movement improvisation, specifically movement cooperation game called Contact Improvisation (CI). He has studied with several of the CI’s central proponents, including Nancy Stark Smith (the Underscore), as well as Andrew Harwood, Martin Keogh, and many others. He has also studied a related movement and self-discovery practice, Authentic Movement with Susan Schell.
Ken has been an active organizer of various CI events, including the Washington, DC CI local jams, Underscore practice, the East Coast Jam. He has developed and maintained the DC jam website and other online facilities of the DC jam and the East Coast Jam (ECJ). Ken has considerably contributed to making CI a safe space by developing an essay addressing the importance of respecting boundaries. He has taught various CI class series and workshops of many different levels and sizes. In addition, he was a member of a local dance improvisation company, Nancy Havlik’s Dance Performance Group from 2007 to 2015, performing and helping to develop pieces, cultivating a combination of dance choreography and improvisation.
