west coast contact improvisation JAM
Jess Hepin Huang
Single Class Teacher
Class Description
Water Knows draws inspiration from amphibian intelligence, they are beings that continuously adapt to shifting conditions of wet and dry, buoyancy and weight, land and tide. Through Contact Improvisation, we explore how bodies shapeshift in response to changing environments, gravity, and relational forces. Attention turns toward the waters within us, the directional intelligence, quiet wildness, and capacity to merge, separate, and flow with others. Breath becomes a tidal force, rising and falling through movement, guiding timing and choice. Through somatic explorations and partner work, we relate our water bodies to larger bodies of water, held by gravity and in constant motion.
Biography
Jess Hepin is a movement artist and freediving instructor from Taiwan, currently based in Bali,Indonesia, where her work unfolds between tides, breath, and gravity. She co-created Subtle Waters, an ocean-centered art and somatic residency rooted in ecological inquiry. Through teaching freediving and Contact Improvisation, Jess explores deep-water dance, non-gravity states, and relational movement shaped by pressure, buoyancy, and listening. Her practice draws from eco-somatics and deep ecology, attending to the intelligence of water within and around the body. She invites movement as a way of sensing environment, relationship, and belonging within living systems.