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Irmela Stone

Improvisation and Contact Improvisation

Dance

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Faculty of Dance
Laban Building
Creekside
London SE8 3DZ

Email: irmelastone@gmail.com

Area of Work

Contact Improvisation

Biography

Irmela Stone has worked and performed as a violinist before changing gear and diving passionately into training in Contemporary Dance. Having discovered her love for the art of improvisation she then went on to specialise and train in depth with the pioneers of Contact / Improvisation such as Steve Paxton, Mary Fulkerson, KJ Holmes, Howard Sonenklar, Nancy Stark-Smith, Benoit LaChambre and Eva Karczag (to name just a few).

Irmela has been involved in exploring and performing Contact / Improvisation, spanning over a period of 27 years and teaching it for 20 years. She has performed in choreographic works by Michel Vienot, Helmi Vent, Susanne Rebholz, Sally Silvers, Mary Overlie, Lene Bol and Tadashi Endo (among others), some of these works touring to Paris, Salzburg (Austria), Munster, Düsseldorf, Göttingen (Germany) and Arnhem (the Netherlands).

Having moved to London in 1998 she performed in numerous collaborative works, including Kirsty Simson, KJ Holmes, Gaby Agis, ESP, Rick Nodine, Jovair Longo, the performance collective SOFT and in a production for the BBC. Irmela has taught for a variety of educational settings, both internationally and in the UK, guiding actors, dancers and circus artists in their training as well as inspiring senior citizens and children.

Teaching Experience

In London, Irmela has been employed to teach her approach to Contact / Improvisation at Trinity Laban, London Contemporary Dance School, The City Lit, Circus Space, Mount View Academy, Middlesex, Goldsmith, Southbank University and Morley College where she is currently teaching open Contact Improvisation classes. At Trinity Laban she teaches Improvisation for the degree course. Irmela continues to research body based meditation practices as a tool for combining clarity and heart within in an engaged teaching style.