del amor y el mar | Ashley Mae Johnston

Ashley Mae Johnston and Samuel Samways view the human body not just as an instrument for technique, but as a vessel for power, liberation, and an authentic connection to the psyche. In ‘del amor y el mar,’ witness a poetic meditation on intimacy, harnessing the ocean as a metaphor for the unpredictable nature of eroticism. 

In this work-in-progress duet, Ashley Mae Johnson and Samuel Samways fuse their distinct partnering backgrounds to create an emotionally raw physical dialogue. Blending Samway’s expertise in Contact Improvisation, Tango, and Brazilian Zouk with Johnston’s fluid somatic contemporary movement, their partner work becomes a living embodiment of the tides of intimacy. Moving beyond traditional choreography, Johnson and Samways manipulate axis, weight, and momentum to mirror the ocean's fluid dynamics. Their partnership shifts seamlessly from buoyant, effortless suspension to heavy, tumultuous entanglement, capturing the volatile highs and deep undercurrents of human connection.

 

This presentation is not suitable for children. For more info, please email marketing@springboardperformance.com

Content Warnings:

• 18 +
• Presence of Nudity
• Depictions of: Sexual relationship, simulated sex
• Themes of: intimacy, vulnerability, sexuality and human connection. 

Note: This duet was created in collaboration with a Certified Intimacy Director using established consent and boundary protocols.

Ashley Mae Johnston 미리 is a contemporary dance artist based in Calgary, Alberta, collaborating in live performance, figure modelling and film-based projects, with a special interest in floorwork and partnering techniques. Her solo practice as a performer and choreographer is rooted in the female body as a source of power and celebrates female sexuality and pleasure as necessary to the full human experience. 

 

Samuel Samways is a Brazilian artist known for his partner dancing research. His research extends to acrobatic movements, floorwork, capoeira, contemporary dance, contact improvisation and the fusion of Latin American social dances, with an emphasis in Brazilian Zouk, Tango, Forró and Samba. He is the creator of Mutual Leading, an improvisational technique in partner dances that challenges the hierarchical structures traditionally associated with gender roles in social dance.

 

 

 

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