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  contactfestival Freiburg 2011
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  Germany August 8–14, 2011 by Nicole Bindler (N.B.) and Joey Lehrer (J.L.)
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The Circle
After four days of the teachers meeting with 40–50 participants, another 200 arrived for the 12th annual Contact Festival Freiburg 2011. At the opening circle we spent 25 minutes watching everyone stand, announce their name and hometown, then sit again. It was an electric moment in which the sheer number of people in the room heightened every detail of how people stood and vocalized. Some declared their hometown in English and others in their native language. Some spoke with pride and others with self-consciousness. The voices echoed in the large hall, and the spaces between each announcement were ripe with anticipation, vulnerability, and a sense of global connection. (N.B.)

Understanding and Language
Over 250 people came from over 30 countries for a week of CI. The opening circle—just our names and where we come from—takes over 20 minutes. As a way to lessen the overload, we then break into smaller groups based on languages, and just those that have a minimum of ten or so speakers; the rest default to English. Whilst classes are taught in English, there is always the whispered ripple effect of confusion, translation, comprehension. And the question that pops into your head just before you join someone at meal times, “Will we be able to understand each other?” But just as we are ever aware of the many ways we may not understand each other, each day reveals another way we do. Beyond the language of touch, weight, and momentum that is ground for so many of us, the language of laughter and joy also unites us. So too does the voracious appetite we have after many hours of moving; the appreciation of an infant looking for her mother, “Mama? Mama? Mama!” and then finding her; the shared experience of witnessing a duet unfold before us; the delight of the sun breaking through the clouds to warm our weary bodies and dry our smelly dance clothes. (J.L.)

Simultaneity
There is space for every facet of CI here: Art. Community. Composition. Play. Exploration. Experimentation. Somatic Research. Therapeutic Touch. Social Dance. In many contact events I have felt a strong leaning toward one aspect of CI or another, excluding many people’s interests. At Freiburg, I feel that there is space for all the aspects of CI to reside. For example, one evening Karen Nelson gave a history talk in Studio 3 while the marimba warmed up the jam in Studio 1 while a video on CI from Belarus was screened in the kitchen. (N.B.)

Deepening and Extending
CI festivals can be about so many things, but in the specific context of my CI practice, they seem to be about deepening and extending. The deepening comes from having so many continuous days to dance, to sink in further to my movement instincts, responses, and understandings. The extending comes from the opportunity to dance with so many different individuals, and at Freiburg there certainly are a lot. Being my first time at Freiburg, this possibility for extending in my dance feels ever-present. Back home, I pretty much know all the dancers, even when we have our national festival. So, I realize that whenever I am about to start a dance with someone, I usually have some idea of what his or her dance is like, even though I’m staying open to another possibility of what may occur. Here, at Freiburg, there is the constant opportunity to not know what dance you are about to have—to dance with a person you have never danced with before, to see what is interesting and emerging in this particular dance, to have to take the time to get to know someone in the dance and where we might be going together. It also makes me wonder: Does knowing everyone I dance with pigeon-hole my dance, or do I feel more free to do whatever I want with those I know and trust? Does dancing with a room of 260 new bodies give me more freedom, or am I beholden to a desire to prove myself or be interesting? (J.L.)

Notes Written in the Bathrooms
How long can I wear this shirt before it smells too bad? Can you have a rolling point of contact for the next 24 hours? Did you call your mother today? (N.B.)

Dancing with a Lab State of Mind
At the teachers meeting, we had several lab sessions. One of them, initiated by Jörg Hassmann, was a self-directed lab, where we all danced in the space and discovered our lab questions from within the dance rather than from a predetermined plan. As the dance unfolded, we all investigated our own unspoken questions together. What developed was a committed, focused, shared dance space, where we researched our personal interests of the moment. Trusting that everyone was following their own interest enabled me to delve into my desires and questions completely, without hesitation or doubt. The door to the studio was open, and several people witnessed. One of them asked the other, “What are they doing?” and the other replied, “I think they’re doing a dance about inclusiveness.” (N.B.)

The Latest Research in Play
My father-in-law calls CI, with affection, that “runny-jumpy-fally-down thing you do.” Play is fun, but play can also be serious, and CI, for me, is a form of serious play. Towards the end of the teachers’ meeting, we had a harvest from the lab sessions we did throughout our time together. Two hours of hearing the latest developments that we had discovered in our runny-jumpy-fally-down. It was kind of funny, yet incredibly touching, to be presenting the findings of our rigorous research into rolling around with such commitment. At how many other research conferences do the presenters wear sweatpants and kneepads as they talk to a lounging circle of their peers? (J.L.)

Seeing Inside the Dance
As I write this now, I am sitting in the office adjacent to the studio. Through the window I see two people dancing with large, yellow handles capped to their heads. There are tiny cameras inside recording their faces as they dance. This is a project developed by one of the videographers, who wants to make a video of the danced face because so much of the enjoyment of CI is personal and subjective and not necessarily evident in the movement of the body. (N.B.)

Spontaneous Performance
Günter Klingler, a teacher, interrupted this 250-person circle dressed in some traditional German small-town attire: big tie, suspenders, and hair slicked to the side. He introduced himself as Heinz. The organizers, taken aback, allowed him to speak. Heinz said that he had seen contact for the first time at Freiburg last year and was fascinated but had no one to practice with (he lived alone with his grandmother and surely couldn’t tell her). So he took a book out from the library and practiced the principles with a punching bag. He pulled out the bag and demonstrated rolling point, counterbalance, the small dance, and even flying. Then he announced that although he was late to register, he would like to attend the festival, pro-rated, and would like to begin by having a one-minute dance with everyone, which would take at least three or four hours. He would begin with Jörg, who had no idea this was planned. They proceeded to dance all the principles of contact in one frenzied minute, which culminated in Jörg spinning Günter on his head like a helicopter propeller and, of course, a ferocious wave of laughter and applause. (N.B.)

The Room Settles
In After many days of jamming, many days of dancing, people tire and drop away, leaving just one dancer answering the call of the musicians. Each spiral of his solo weaves another thread of focus to the room. A calm settles, a watching, a listening. He goes and goes and goes, cross-hatching the room with more threads of focus, drawing the room in. Then he tosses the thread to another. A new solo, unique to this dancer, as was the previous. The musicians are with him; we are all with him. He finishes, dropping to the side, leaving the space open, inviting….Who will take up his invitation? An unwilling solo is enticed into a duet. Playful, funny, cheeky. The musicians are there, swirling the aroma of cheekiness. Another settling point as the space clears once more, but this one catches everyone. We all know, we all answer this new call, as the musicians bring us along, from slow bum-bounces to the full-blown explosion of the room. (J.L.)

Freedom and Responsibility
The organizers invite the teachers to initiate projects. They invite us to give feedback and are transparent about their working methods and decisions. With this freedom comes the responsibility to manifest our ideas rather than expect someone else to do it for us. This can be as simple as creating an idea for a study lab, or as complex as making changes to the structure of the schedule or the arrangement of the space. Everyone must agree to go ahead with the plan or be ready to work hard for changes. This feedback mechanism—the constant meetings, circles, check-ins—can be tedious but ultimately empowers everyone to feel like a part of the festival creation. The leadership style of Barbara Stahlberger, Benno Enderlein, Eckhard Müller, and Daniela Schwartz is not too tight, not too loose. We enjoy freedom and also the underlying wisdom that they have acquired from their 12 years of making Freiburg a home for CI. (N.B.)
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  Nicole (US) and Joey (AU) were both teachers at the Contact Festival Freiburg 2011. It was the first time either of them had made it to the festival.
[Nicole Bindler, Philadelphia, PA; nicolebindler@gmail.com; www.nicolebindler.com, nicolebindler.blogspot.com; Joey Lehrer, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; lehrerjoey@gmail.com; www.joeylehrer.com, kineticthoughts.wordpress.com]

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