This session of the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago’s What Is Contemporary? Symposium centers dance and movement experiences that are rooted in one’s own unique environment. Elizabeth Shea’s approach readies the bodymind to receive information, awaken feeling and kinetic empathy, to explore the wide range of movement possibilities available to 21st Century movers. Maggie Bridger and Deborah Goodman’s research on 20th Century American Modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey, reframes Humphrey’s experiences of pain as essential to the development of her technique. (Note: this session is concurrent with CONTEXT + IMPACT.)