The Art of Improvisation: Annual Dance Intensive

Join Aeris Körper for our annual summer intensive workshop!

Dates | June 3 & 4, 2025

Time | 10am-2pm, both days with a 20-minute break

Place | Defining Movement Dance (624 Upper James St., Hamilton)

Fee | $40/day general rate, $20/day subsidized rate, $60/day pay-it-forward rate*

This two-day series is led by Artistic Director Mayumi Lashbrook with contributions from Artistic Associates LOR and Skye Rogers. We’ll be diving into exercises that ground us, ignite our improvisational creativity, break habitual patterning, and build our awareness, deepening our ability to make articulate and specific choices in movement.

This workshop sprung from the curiosity of finding presence within performance, whether during improvisation or set choreography. A skilled performer plays with our sense of time, often warping it to pass at unusual speeds. This stems from the performer’s heightened sensitivity and presence within their actions. We will seek to understand how to cultivate that level of presence and awareness - a kind of mindfulness that is supportive in our everyday lives.

This workshop is great for adults interested in mindfulness and improvisation. You are encouraged to explore within your own curiosity; you decide how physically active you would like to be within each exercise. No dance experience is required or necessary. We recommend you come in clothes you are comfortable moving in, and bring your own water, snacks, and lunch.

*As with all Aeris Körper events, we endeavour to offer sliding scale pricing. If the tiered pricing above does not fit your needs, please email info@aeriskorper.com and name the amount that works for you. This can be anywhere from $0 to the listed cost; your proposed rate will be accepted without question.

**Please note that our venue, Defining Movement Dance, is not a fully accessible location as it has stairs from the entrance way to the studio.

Meet Your Instructors

Mayumi Lashbrook (she/her) is a mixed race Japanese Canadian settler who seeks to expose, challenge, and rectify systems of oppression by creating innovative, introspective and inclusive dance theatre. She sees embodiment as at the crux of world making, creating opportunity for conscientious action and social change. Her practices span performance, choreography, curation, creative production and facilitation. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Theatre Performance Dance program on the Dean’s list, Mayumi has been working professionally for over 14 years. She has been working with Hamilton based Aeris Körper Contemporary Dance since its inception in 2014. Her role has grown alongside the company; from performer to artistic liaison, Co-Artistic Director and now, sole Artistic Director. In 2024, under her artistic direction the company received the 2024 Hamilton Arts Award, Creator Award. Aeris Körper has developed an annual dance festival that is the only professional, live, venued dance platform in the city, lowering barriers for choreographers to present their choreographic works. Mayumi is a nominee of the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Award and member of the CanDance Network.

LOR (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges film, performance, curation and facilitation, fostering connections through creativity, authenticity and care. Her recent productions in Ontario include a film with hArts Dance Film Series and a performance with In The Soil Festival. As a facilitator and space holder, LOR weaves ritual, fundamental movement, somatic practices and free-form dance to inspire self-exploration and community care. With training from GOODBODYFEEL, The 360 Emergence, Somatic Soul Coach School and Downward Dog Yoga Centre, her offerings are rooted in trauma awareness and designed to empower individuals—especially those from marginalized communities—to access their inherent wisdom and creativity. LOR’s approach nurtures curiosity, connection and compassion, while fostering a trusting relationship with the mind, body and soul. Through embodied practices, she invites participants to explore their unique potential and contribute to collective healing and transformation.

Skye Rogers (she/her) is a dance and theatre artist dearly devoted to making the body, community, and place feel like home. Based in Attiwandaronia (Hamilton), and St. Catharines, Skye is the co-Artistic Director of retrograde: dance in motion, a lead artist with Tapestry Theatre Collective, and an Artistic Associate with Aeris Körper Contemporary Dance.
Skye is making work that is embodied and wholehearted. Her practice spans performance, choreography, production, facilitation, and theatre creation. She is curious about building strong worlds and stories understood beyond language, and takes delight in wrapping around others’ visions, dreams, and hopes as a teacher and collaborator.
Select credits include Community Garden (Ontario Culture Days, Hamilton Fringe), Revenge of the Earnest (Wild and Light Studio), @profile (The Meaningful Movement, UKAI Projects), Broken, Not Beaten (Paradigm Studios), Summer Dances Mixed Bill (Frog in Hand Dance Theatre), SAMCA (Spindle Collective, Riot King), and ANATOMALIA (Stand Up Dance). She is an alumni of the RBC Apprentice Program with Musical Stage Co. (Choreographer, 2023-24), Brock University (Arts & Culture, 2022) and Randolph College for the Performing Arts (Triple Threat, 2019).
You can explore more of Skye’s range of work at www.skylightcollection.com, or on instagram @whatskyedoes.

THANK YOU

We’re excited to announce that we are recipient of a 2024 Creator Award by at the Hamilton Arts Award.! Congratulations to all the nominees; we celebrate the incredible talent our city holds

Thank you so much for this incredible honor. Reflecting on 10 years of dancing, choreographing, and performing in this vibrant city is truly amazing. Your support has been a beacon of encouragement and inspiration.

To the individuals, organizations, the City of Hamilton Enrichment Fund, and the patrons who have backed Aeris Korper over the years—you are the wind beneath our wings. To our family and friends, your unwavering support has given us momentum to keep pursuing our dance dreams. To our board and collaborators, you are the binding force within our small but mighty organization.

Now more than ever, we recognize that art and dance are not luxuries but essential contributors to our physical and mental well-being. Empowering ourselves through movement and physical expression allows us to fully experience the magnitude of our aliveness.

Your support has not only allowed us to create and perform but has also empowered us to foster spaces where embodiment contributes to our collective well-being. It is Aeris Korper’s honour to be one of the organizations championing the importance of dance for Hamiltonians.

Body Space Creation Place

with Dreamwalker Dance Company

Dreamwalker Dance Company invites you to join us in expanding and opening our bodies and minds through a series of free wellness movement experiences facilitated by skilled artists. These videos are created for you, and are available 24/7 for you to delight in the diversely creative approaches found in The Body Space Creation Place practice. Our video sessions are designed to be fun, relaxing, rejuvenating, calming and connecting.

You will be guided into: flowing gentle stretches, simple vocal play, image rich visualizations and movements. No experience is required, just bring a curiosity for exploring, sensing, feeling and moving in space. As you move with us through these videos, please move in ways which fully support what you know to be "safe and supportive to you" in the moment you are doing it. BSCP is designed for our community to share time: gaining experiences and practicing embodied knowing, with the intention to activate this practice beyond the parameters of the session time into lived experiences with family, friends and community.

Session 1

Guided by Sid Ryan Eilers with Shannon Kitchings and Mayumi Lashbrook.
Music from macrophone: aleatoric solo duets for electro-acoustic hurdy gurdy by Ben Grossman
Special thanks Henry Mak

Session 2

Guided by Mayumi Lashbrook with Shannon Kitchings and Sid Ryan Eilers.
Dance Music: Song for Slow Motion by Joshua Van Tassel
Special thanks Henry Mak