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Home / Teachers

Nita Little

Nita Little

Nita Little investigates embodied attention within movement practices with a concentration on the technicities of both creative and relational practices. Through ensemble dance improvisation practice and performance she works toward a future that recognizes our environmental entanglements and values many forms of embodied communication. A dance researcher, theorist/artist, and one of the founding developers of Contact Improvisation (CI) she teaches around the globe, guiding one of its forward leading edges. She began 50 years ago, working with Steve Paxton on materials that became CI (1972) and was a participant in the earliest performances and teaching that helped it to become significant within dance and dance communities. Within CI’s first year she developed a curiosity about the relationship of the (physical) mind and relational events. Now, she investigates ecological actions of embodied attention, particularly with respect to somatic communication between humans and beyond.

Nita received her PhD in Performance Studies with a focus on the articulation of presence and creative actions of attention (2014). Her life work is inclusive of mindbody training, performing, choreographing, researching and writing about the ethics, politics and entanglement of somatic relations. With a world-wide audience for her teaching, dance making, and lecturing, she is an activist for relational intelligence and an advocate for dancers as embodied researchers. She looks forward to returning to direct the internationally active Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (ISSC, 2016), a network of laboratories populated by dancer researchers and associate research experts from diverse fields. She lives near Seattle, in the USA. During the years of worldwide retreat she initiated online classes of “Relational Intelligence” and “Composing Emergence” as well as private coaching which continue. Currently she tours throughout the year and may be found on 6 continents. She invites you to get her monthly newsletter available by signing up at: www.nitalitte.com

 

Upcoming Teaching at Dechen Chöling

Programmes
Category Programme Date
  • Meditation

Practicing Relational Presence: Improvisation and Movement Meditation 5–11 October
 
 

Blog

  • 15 May 2025

    Shambhala Sun Camp : A Week of Discovery, Joy and Authentic Presence

     
  • 3 May 2025

    Ringu Tulku Rinpoche will be teaching in Dechen Chöling this summer

     
  • 30 December 2024

    Moments of Magic: Our 2024 Journey at Dechen Chöling

     
  • 23 December 2024

    From Stillness to Action

     
  • 5 November 2024

    The Evolution of our Pond

     
 

Upcoming programmes

  • Diamond Sky Dancer – Vajrayogini Retreat

    23 May 2025 – 1 June 2025

    With: Sarah Coleman, Lama Brian Hilliard

    A 10-day retreat for advanced Vajrayana practitioners (see prerequisites below).

     
  • This Sacred Earth: An Engaged Eco-Dharma Gathering

    26 June 2025 – 3 July 2025

    With: Adam Lobel, Alex Swain, Ilaj Zaremba, Gee Guhyapati

    Honouring the creative tension between self transformation and ecological engagement as a catalyst for liberation.

     
  • Buddhist Foundational Studies: A Buddhist Studies Retreat

    5 July 2025 – 12 July 2025

    With: Otto Pichlhoefer, Tessa Racine

    The mind is the working basis for meditative practice. This one-week retreat introduces fundamental Buddhist teachings on mind, consciousness, and the development of wisdom through meditation and study.

     

All programmes ›

 
 
 

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Centre Shambhala Dechen Chöling
Le Mas Marvent
Rue du Château 640
87700 Saint-Yrieix-sous-Aixe
France

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