Annie Brook has practiced and taught Contact Improvisation for over 45 years. She is a playful and skilled guide and passionate about sharing the tools that help people heal and thrive.

Annie will teach Body-mind Centering based skills including:  Living Anatomy, developmental movement, educative touch, play, and Contact improvisation. Annie is a certified Body-Mind Centering teacher,  somatic psychotherapist (4 decades of experience), and founder of The Brook Institute, where she trains therapists and offers online classes. Her training program is certified through ISMETA (International Movement Education Therapy Association), and is now available in Russian and Spanish translation. Annie has presented at conferences and retreats all over the world. 

Annie is a highly regarded Somatic Educator and author, with over 9 books and numerous ebooks. Her passion is integration of body awareness, neuroscience, kinetic science, and the art of staying relational.

Her writings are practical and experiential, and she shares this work generously in her free you tube and facebook/instagram offerings.

Annie has worked with infants through adults, couples, children, and has an entire online somatic coaching/therapy program in sharing the tools that heal, and making learning accessible for families, educators, and individuals.

 Alicia is a beloved teacher of Contact Improvisation around the world. "My passion and calling is to live a life of embodying my essense and supporting others in embodying theirs. I believe at the core of our being we have an infinite capacity for love and creativity. It is our opportunity as humans to embody this while living within a finite human existence." 

 Alicia has worked with individuals and groups for 29 years, in many countries around the globe, and served as a tranformational guide. She is a graduate of the Brook Institute 2 year practitioner training, and utilizes the practices of somatic psychotherapy, life coaching, Biodynamic Breathwork, and Trauma Release. Alicia is a teacher of embodiment via the forms of yoga, contact improvisation, pilates, and authentic movement. 

"Experiences that have impacted me deeply have been: growing up on a farm, living and working in other cultures, working with and exploring the natural world, and passionately practicing movement and improvisation. A devastating heartbreak was the catalyst for my own heroine's journey and pivotal in my commitment to supporting others in theirs. The potency of my own metamorphosis has given me absolute faith in anyone's ability to transform pain into a powerful alignment with one's most essential self. "

Steve came to CI in 1996 with a background in a variety of dance forms, as well as mime, gymnastics, martial arts, and aerial dance. He is a professional visual artist and dedicated student and teacher of CI. Steve is particularly skilled in explaining techniques and imagery for expansive dancing.

Embody resilience, joy, and adaptability as you learn to move your body in new, creative, and challenging ways. 

With ten years of experience as a personal trainer and fitness instructor, and a certification in clinical hypnotherapy, I have a great appreciation for the undeniable connection between mind & body. I draw on my knowledge of the physical body, the nervous system, and the magic of the mind to deliver a whole-system approach that will help you align with more joyful ways to serve not only your movement practice, but your everyday life. 

I look forward to moving with you!

Damian has a love of community which he has pursued and has a group household in Longmont. Damian transformed his own life using body-mind Brook Institute tools, visceral manipulation, and contact improv. He blends his love of movement and nature, and guides nature movement retreats.

Damian overcame social anxiety and the awkwardness that is sometimes attributed to Aspergers  syndrome. A stutterer as a child, Damian knows what it takes to grow beyond personal challenges and has dedicated his life to community ideals and philosophy.

Damian is a movement educator, and a personal counselor with the Brook Institute. He also leads groups for the Brook Institute and will be teaching the water classes during this retreat. 

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Gwen Ritchie is a dance artist specializing in contact improvisation, ensemble improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration based out of Boulder, Colorado, USA. She has danced and toured internationally in several contemporary dance companies, including her own, LABCO dance and has had the privilege of teaching at several universities including Slippery Rock University, Chatham University, CU Boulder, and Naropa University. 

Movement studies over the last thirty years have spanned contact improvisation, contemporary dance, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, yoga, alexander technique, body-mind centering, pilates, and recently movement studies at ApeCo (formerly boulder movement collective). She currently teaches at Naropa University, directs an improvisational performance ensemble, and also teaches in a variety of settings both in and outside of her community.

The cultivation of awareness, presence, and finding freedom in the unknown while co-creating keeps her fascinated and passionate about her research in contact improvisation. Gwen looks forward to continuing to find ways to share that inquiry with others.

Significant teachers: Dr. Nina Martin, Alicia Grayson, KJ Holmes, and Nita Little.

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Sue Lauther has 35+ years of experience practicing & teaching Contact Improvisation all over the US & internationally. Her first teachers were in Eugene, Oregon in the late ‘80’s: Karen Nelson and Alito Alessi. She studied with the initiator of Contact Improv, Steve Paxon, and Nancy Stark Smith - one of the founding participants of Contact - as well as Chris Aiken, Kim Epifano & Olivier Besson among others.

Sue has been facilitating jams & teaching Contact Improv around the world since 1991 in places such as: Earthdance in Plainfield, MA; the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY; Utah State University in Logan, UT; Taiwan; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Amman, Jordan; Nelson, New Zealand; San José, Costa Rica, and at the Body Mind Centering Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY and now at Colorado College and Ormao Dance Company.

Pushing herself to expand dynamic range and clarify technical concepts, Sue created a curriculum combining Laban’s efforts with Contact Improvisation technique and fleshed out much of this material while she was a featured teacher in Buenos Aires.

Larry Stephenson

Larry Stephenson has been an avid mover since finding the joy of skateboarding as a kid. He discovered Contact Improv (CI) in 1990 at The Naropa Institute and immediately felt a sense of having accidentally found something magical that he had always been looking for, just like a fairy tale!

He started teaching CI in the Boulder area after retiring from teaching Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, in 2011. Larry has been fortunate to study with a few luminaries in the CI world such as Nita Little, Martin Keogh, Kim Epifano, Jess Curtis. His journey has also been influenced by the work of Barabara Dilley, Steve Paxton, Russell Maliphant, and Contraband.

Larry brings his passion for movement and improvisation to his approach to teaching Contact Improv. He blends the creative and spontaneous elements of improvisation with a focused approach to the physical technique that helps create safe and expressive dances.

Dance & movement are an innate and essential part of our being. It is an unfolding art that we nurture through play, practice and curiosity. By listening to our bodies' intelligence we are empowered to move towards healing, regulation, and connection.

How do we expand our capacity to listen and communicate through our bodies in relationship to our self, environment, and community?

How can we create an ecology of play and curiosity?

My expertise is creating a space that explores these questions. While providing tools for cultivating our attention and equanimity. Refining our attention and equanimity will allow us to thrive with the inevitable hardships of life. This process nurtures comfort in discomfort to develop and deepen our senses in curiosity and play. This practice is also conducive to creating a sense of belonging and confidence- enhancing our skill for connection, adaptation and improvisation.