May You Live Well
Welcome to May You Live Well, where we share insights into the contemplative lives of inspiring individuals. May You Live Well features personal stories of real people from various backgrounds who share how they’ve been influenced by contemplative practices or ways of being, and how this has impacted their work, relationships, lifestyle, and worldview. Our guests are meditators, travelers, movers, creatives, homesteaders, and thought leaders. They lead by how they live and answer questions through their stories: How does the contemplative process change us? What are the benefits, and what challenges do we face along the way? What happens to our partnerships? When resistance arises, how do we work through it? What does it mean tap into our true potential? Listen well, leave inspired.
May You Live Well
Paul Singh on Contact Improvisation and Being Where You Are
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Alexa Owen
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Season 1
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Episode 3
In this episode, dancer, choreographer, and movement teacher Paul Singh joins us to share about his experiences in the movement form of contact improvisation (CI). Paul first studied dance at the University of Illinois and began dancing contact improv in New York City. He's taught CI around the world and led movement classes for Movement Research, Sarah Lawrence College, and Julliard. A creative force, Paul has deep and insightful shares about what it means to move and be moved, be totally and radically present in the moment, and create space for ourselves and others in the dance and in our lives.
In this episode we discuss:
- Paul's background and upbringing in Illinois
- Why Paul switched from a pre-med to music to dance track in college
- What contact improvisation (CI) is and why it's different from other movement forms
- Bringing identity into the dance and CI spaces
- The healing aspects of CI and renegotiating where you are in relationship to others at all times
- What it means to be "advanced" and what deep listening has to do with it
- The intersection of CI and queer studies
- Embodiment and being patient enough to fall into the body
- How CI teaches us about tuning into our needs and desires
- What RuPaul's Drag Race and Buddhist texts have in common
- Practical tools for embodiment in daily life
- Contact Improv and taking on the world
Links and Resources:
- Paul on IG: @paulsinghdance
- May You Live Well on IG: @mayyoulivewell
- Peaceable Barn Studio
- Leviathan Studio
- Paul dancing CI at the Judson Church