A dance form created from the 1960s hippy culture and informed by eastern philosophies, contact improvisation has resurfaced post-pandemic as a means to build community through touch. This non-competitive form invites participants to know each other deeply and approach each other openly without the burden of verbal communication. Gregory Catellier is a dancer, choreographer, lighting designer, and teacher. Catellier is active in the Atlanta dance scene as both a choreographer and as a lighting designer. Catellier has created several collaborative evening-length works that explore broad themes to reveal the personal and political. His choreography has been selected for American College Dance Festival gala concert, the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, the Florida Dance Festival, and the Bates Dance Festival. The award-winning dance films he has created with Seattle based media artist Jeff Curtis have been screened internationally. Catellier is the resident dance lighting designer for Emory University Dance At Emory, he teaches modern dance technique, choreography, lighting design for dance, principles of design, movement improvisation and contact improvisation.

Kristin O’Neal is a performer, teacher and choreographer residing in Atlanta, GA. She teaches varying levels of contemporary modern technique, movement improvisation and contact improvisation at Emory University and leads classes at Core Dance in Decatur for the professional Atlanta dance community. Kristin’s technique classes include a deep investigation into how one’s body operates within a movement framework that invites curiosity, discovery and always one’s relationship to space and time. She earned her MFA in Dance from Hollins University/ADF where she began her research of solo performance and character creation. These solos have been shared in varying venues in FL, GA, ME, and OH. Kristin is the Outreach Coordinator for National Water Dance (since 2011) and has been a proud affiliate of the Bates Dance Festival since 2007. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx