Levels:
On the first day we will focus on Principles in Contact Improvisation.
We are not seperating the classes into levels. Please read the descriptions and respect your own limits. The classes are open to any experience in dance and movement. Just make your decision depending on the themes of the classes!
The intensives you will choose while registring, the classes you can choose sponaniously at the festival.

Intensives Classes       Musicians   Tuesday Wednesday Friday Saturday   Ray Chung Marina Rossi   Joshua Monten Eliana Bonard Andreas Hintermaier Karen Nelson Aaron Brandes   Dustin Haug Joey Lehrer Eduard Beyer Ilanit Tadmor Daniela Marini   Rebecca Bryant Sabine Parzer Florian Betz Jörg Hassmann Nicole Bindler Curt Haworth     Irene Sposetti   Ricardo Neves Ria Probst     Viola Einsiedel   Katri Luukkonen Markus Hoft
Get the schedule, biographies and descriptions from 2011 as pdf-file - with pictures/8 s. (420 KB)
last update 2nd of June 11
INTENSIVES
Ray Chung USA   Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, engineer, and artist who has a passion for dancing which he likes to share with other people. His main focus is improvisation and he has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979 as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement. Ray has worked with the leading proponents of Contact Improvisation and regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists. Riding The Curves of Spacetime: Falling & Flying   In physics, gravity can be seen as the curvature of space around massive objects, such as the earth. We evoke the image of riding these curves as a way of moving in the field of gravity, and playing in this field as a way to develop proficiency with the skills and approaches necessary for leaving the ground, moving through the air, and landing safely, in the context of Contact Improvisation (CI). Beginning with essentials of grounding, centering, intention, and moving support, we'll move onto weight modulation, creating levity, precision in locating centers, developing the optimum tonus and alignment for sudden weight shifts, and more. The emphasis will be on creating pathways and opportunities to move out of the floor and into the air, or onto your partner, instead of lifting and carrying. Catching and jumping as a way to initiate contact, and creating continuity through supporting the movement rather than the weight of one’s partner, will be one of the practices. Playing on the edge of what is possible for each participant, we will challenge one's self to really "go for it" in aerial movement and landing/catching strategies and techniques. How do I use someone’s weight and movement in a way that creates more choices for both of us? We’ll practice integrating our centers with another’s seamlessly as well as awkwardly. Crashing and bumping safely will also be part of the vocabulary we will develop. Integration of these practices into dancing will be a major focus of the workshop. Karen Nelson USA   Karen Nelson’s 34-year dance and performance practice has been directly influenced by Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson and their respective work in Contact Improvisation, Material for the Spine and Tuning Scores, and through collaboration with many others in venues around the world. She co-founded Joint Forces Dance Co, Breitenbush Jam, Dance Ability, Diverse Dance Research Retreat, and the performance group Image Lab among other projects. Videos edits such at “Chute”, “Soft Pallet”, and “Peripheral Vision” as well as writings published in Contact Quarterly have inspired her practice of Contact Improvisation. She is returning to the venue of teaching workshops after living and working for 8 years at a meditation retreat facility-under-construction in rural USA Touch and Release   Zooming in on the experience of touch is a juicy study. Practice will include awareness of reaching/receiving with the skin, muscle, bone, and center of gravity, and the awareness of change in our body state that follows initial contact with a partner. As we notice expectations forming in our mind and body, we can learn to drop them, and instead follow the present moment of dancing with another. In this state we can find dancing that opens, relaxes, deepens and surprises. We’ll start class with “essential images” of contact improvisation including skeletal balance, muscular release, momentum of rising and falling, sensory awareness and spirals in solo, duet and larger group modes Ilanit Tadmor Israel   Dancer, teacher, choreographer, artistic manager and founder of the dance school named "Play". In the last fourteen years she has created her own dance pieces, collaborating with other artists and companies, that were performed in the leading festivals in Europe and Israel. She is a member of the team that organizes the International Contact Improvisation Festival in Israel. In 2000 she was awarded a prize in the "Shades of Dance" choreography competition for her solo "Walk My Talk." In 2001 she won the scholarship called Excellent Artist of Taiwan. In Taiwan she created two full evening pieces for the "Taipei Dance Circle." In 2004 she opened "Play", her own dance studio school in Tel Aviv. "Play" focuses on the art of improvisation and contact. It is open to all levels of experience and for people who want to learn dance, performing art and self-development work through dance. Today she is performing a leading role in a dance theatre piece based on the play "Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf." She graduated from the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem and the Hebrew University. Center Calling Earth   The ability to stay connected to our center both physically and emotionally allows the body to be more free. Allowing ourselves to experience different encounters with other people becomes easier. In this workshop we will learn some of the different ways to work from the center .We will practice enlarging the center relaxing or gathering our center inward. All that will relate to the gravitational force of the earth. We will learn to catch the moments when we have emotionally "lost" our center and to learn ways that can lead us back to that inner connection. Being in and out at the same time, enlarging our language in the dance and extending our being allows us to perceive reality from more than one perception. Jörg Hassmann Germany   For 20 years now I see myself in a slow but steady learning process with CI (as the center of my dance practice and profession) and I am amazed about the depth and complexity that is still unfolding. My work is influenced by anatomy based movement explorations, contemporary dance, ideas from BMC, Capoeira, play and the urge and joy of discovery. Teaching and performing has always been essential for me on this journey and I have been fortunate enough to teach all over the world. Five years ago I started teaching CI training intensive programmes in Berlin together with Daniel Werner, where we developed our systematic approach to contact technique (www.dancecontact.de). I am also involved as the artistic director in the annual Contact Festival “contact-meets-contemporary” in Goettingen/ Germany (www.contact-meets-contemporary.de). Lightness & Fullness of Weight   Due to gravity our bodies have weight. But the way we experience it is often not that closely linked to the involved number of Kilos. We can experience even a rather light dance partner as remarkably heavy. A large person can feel confusingly not-there if he or she is scared to give weight. However, when it works there can be almost simultaneously a juicy connection fed by the fullness of weight, and an amazing lightness in moments of common flow or little lifts. We will try to understand when and how full weight can actually bring more ease into movement. On the other hand we'll look for the least necessary weight we need to give while staying present and committed in the physical connection – particularly required for changing levels. Underlying core topics of this work are the center-limbs-connection and the modulation of body tone - a wonderfully deep and complex field. I imagine this as a treasure for the more experienced participants. We will work with tools which support momentum, slowness, softness, reach, open hipjoints, and readability of movements accompanied by a few lifts - and dance as much as possible.
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CLASSES
TUESDAY
Marina Rossi Italy   Marina Rossi started to study contemporary dance, improvisation and C.I. in Italy. She continued in France, where she graduated in contemporary dance "Corps et Arts", choregraphic creation at the University R. Descartes- Paris V. She has performed as a dancer both in Italy and France. From 1999 to 2011 she teaches Contact Improvisation in workshops and jams in several Italian cities. She is C.I.teacher for children in compulsory schools. From 2003 to 2007 she was artistic director of Jump'n'Jam- Festival of C.I. in Brescia with international artists. She teaches dance as integration to her choreographic activity. Duet relation from Martial Arts to C.I. Principles In our teaching we connect C.I. with martial arts like karate, aikido, tai chi and kung-fu. Our lesson involves an intensive body preparation. We will work on practicing levers, catches and falls between C.I and Martial Arts, where improvisation leads the dancers to short choreographic composition. Brando (Aaron Brandes) USA   Brando – M.ED Smith College; Enchanted Circle Theater teaching artist/performer. Brando has been teaching movement practices for over 10 years… He has taught and performed CI throughout the USA, Europe, Israel, Guatemala and teaches master classes at Springfield College and Smith College. He has been published in CQ and was a curator for CI36. Brando has facilitated several major festivals, jams, symposiums, and events at Earthdance Dance Retreat Center. Soft Power Principles I am fascinated with how every level of a CI dance - from resting on the floor to falling and flying - can be deeply nourishing to the body. I believe that articulation of the pelvis is a key component to a fluid and grounded dance. Once we have awareness of this power center – we can utilize it for easy lifting, acrobatic movement, and soft landings. In this class, through exploring our anatomy, we will experiment with the balance between release in our muscle tone and integrity in our structure – Thereby moving through space with ease, efficiency, and elegance. Daniela Marina CHILE   Contemporary dancer and choreographer. She teaches dance and improvisation for dancers and actors at different Universities in Santiago de Chile. From 1992 on she worked in the La Vitrina art collective as a performer and creating space for the dissemination of different ways of thinking the body. Since many years she is involved in C.I. practicing and teaching, thanks to Florencia Martinelli, Nikola Bhanna, Eckhard Müller and Daniela Schwartz. Going into the touch Principles The touch confirms that we exist. It allows us to sense our body, the space that we inhabit, the history that lives in our bones. We need the other body as a confirmation of our body’s existence. From here we will begin a small dance waiting that our bodies will expand, in a deep and simple connection with our first action of recognition, touching.
Nicole Bindler USA   Nicole Bindler, is a choreographer, improviser, and somatic movement educator, inspired by her studies of new dance, theater, contact improvisation, and butoh. She collaborates promiscuously with avant-garde musicians and is fascinated by the relationship of movement and sound. Currently, she is delving into Embodied Anatomy Yoga at the School for Body-Mind Centering. Blood, Sea: salty, fluid dances Principles This class delves into the spiralic, rhythmic, oceanic nature of the blood to find momentum, gravity and flow within our contact dances. Tuning in to the fluid movement within, we will expand our dances beyond the musculo-skeletal body and we will dance with heart. Ricardo Neves Brasil   Is dancer, actor, aikido practitioner and artistic director of the Encontro Internacional de Contato Improvisação de São Paulo.. He studied Contact Improvisation with: Tica Lemos, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, Andrew Harwood, Cristina Turdo, Martin Keogh, Gustavo Lecce, Daniel Lepkoff, among others and performed with many of them. Riccardo is teaching CI since 2001 f.e. on International Contact Improvisation Festivals in Argentina, Uruguay, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Natal, Porto Alegre and Florianopolis. He creates and performes his own solo improvisations. Listening to the pre-movement Principles The intention premeditates our action. Everything we feel or think, creates motion. Energy follows intention and follows the body’s energy. We will develop a sense of movement before it occurs physically. Feeling the pathway of energy within your body, all what approaches, you also feel. We will practice relaxation exercises and breathing movements and some application based on the principles of Aikido and contact improvisation. Katri Luukkonen Finland   is a dancer from Helsinki, Finland. She graduated from Theatre Academy of Finland 2008 (MA). She has been teaching at various contact- and dancefestivals all over Europe, Russia, India and Finland. As well as ”SkiingOnSkin” the finnish contactfestival, she is also one of the organizers of GOA-ContactFestival in India. Besides contactimprovisation, contemporary dance and theatre, she has been practicing yoga and aikido, OSHO's active meditations and authentic movement. Center - Following the Honey-flow Principles Center is the base of my dance. It is the strong point, where all the movements are related. When we are connected to our center, we can easily move with different dynamics, roll and slide on the floor organic way. Mobile center ables us to change levels and fly effortlessly. All this requires also the other parts and elements of the body to be organized as needed to support the economical movement. Soft alive spine, breathing open joints, released muscles... Relaxation in movement brings us the ability to react fast in the changing situations. When we are relaxed, we are able to adapt the tone of our body in each moment – we are able to sense the small, delicate details in weightshift, tonus and quality of the touch.
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WEDNESDAY
Curt Haworth USA   Curt Haworth is an expat-Californian who lived in NYC for 20 years before moving to Philadelphia in 2009. He has been practicing CI since his days in Santa Cruz, and enjoys creating dance works, improvising and teaching. He has an eclectic movement background ranging from athletics to modern and postmodern dance forms, to yoga, contact improvisation and ballet. Curt performed with David Dorfman Dance from 1990 to 2002. He has taught regularly at The American Dance Festival, Movement Research and DNA. In 2010 Curt founded Philly PARD and teaches CI and other forms at UArts. Tools, Forms and Freedom   In this class, melding the physics of dancing with perception, you will find yourself in contact with another person or the environment using shared weight, momentum and gravity… moving closely, touching, supporting, lifting, flying. We will explore such skills as rolling, falling, and sharing weight through easy compression and counter balance. Expect to use all of your senses and the compositional mind in encounters with the floor, other dancers, and the world around you as we evolve into open movement improvisations. Ria Probst Austria   is practicing Contact Improvisation more than 15 years and teaching the form on a regular bases since 2000 (Europe, USA, Kanada,). She studied dance at the A. B. Dance Department Linz / Austria as well as Participatory Arts and Somatic Research at Moving On Center San Franzisco / USA. Since 1999 she is an independent dance artist performing for various companies and collectives such as ”Mayu Kan”, ”Oya Production”, ”hilde rennt” and others, as well as she is performing her own solo works. Since 2009 she is a certified Tuina practitioner. marRia Probst is based in Vienna / Austria. Your Dance Remixed   During this class we will surrender completely, dance in a way we desire most, be familiar with what we already know, ride the contact wave and fulfill a couple other tasks. We will bring our previous experience in dancing CI in, get to know some of the components a little bit better and let the remix of the day show up. Markus Hoft Germany   I am dancing contactimprovisation since 1995 and also trained in contemporary dance techniques in London and Scotland. As a freelance dancer I also perform and choreograph often using contact/partnering as an important tool. I like to deepen my journey into physical playful dances. I like to try the impossible! That’s how my body is learning his full range of possibilities. (More details at: www.fooldance.de) Out of Balance - Learn to fly!   To loose my balance –I need to be sure that I can get back to it at any moment. Then I am ready to play with it! Balance/ out of balance is also key for momentum (acceleration), surprise and softness in my contact dances. The head is our central ball to play with: The end of the spine and sense of balance. I want to encourage expanding your personal play with balance. This will help you to fly (flow) in your next contact dance.
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FRIDAY
Joshua Monten CH/USA   Joshua Monten has been dancing contact since 1997 and presently works as a freelance choreographer, dancer, acrobat, and teacher. He has performed in the Stadttheaters of Bern, Heidelberg and Freiburg, and with the aerial dance group Öff Öff Productions. His choreography for dancers, singers, actors, and community groups has been shown throughout Europe and the US. The rolling point of cheekiness   The rolling point of cheekiness involves creating safe surprises and playful cruelties. It can be a thrilling wake-up call from the lull of too much listening, releasing, and respect. How can being ”bad” to our partner bring us closer together? What nourishment can cause our personal boundaries to soften and grow? What wisdom can be learned from dogs playing in a park? Dustin Haug USA   Dustin Haug lives in Minneapolis, MN. He teaches modern dance and improvisation technique as well as chemistry at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. He is on faculty at Zenon Dance School and organizes the weekly CI Jam in Minneapolis. Dustin has taught at various festivals throughout the United States, including SEEDS and CI Ground Research at Earthdance, MA; Mazopalooza and GLACIER in Wisconsin; and WCCIF in Berkeley, CA. Trace Elements   This class focuses on authenticity rather than tricks, allowing you to transcend skill and discover the unique voice rising out of each dance. By allowing a small element of movement to always exist in the past, you paint the trail of your journey so others can find you with ease and effortlessness. Expect to trace, pull, and push yourself through differing tones of touch as you acclimate to disorientation through intentional risk of your balance. Expect to remain anchored to the beacon of your partner as you pour weight and propel yourself through space. All the while, you will allow yourself to be followed, to be engulfed, to maintain connective threads as you weave through the fabric of the entire room. Rebecca Bryant USA   Artist/educator Rebecca Bryant specializes in improvisation and interdisciplinary performance. She collaborates with visual artists, poets, actors and musicians in works that combine text, technology and dance. She is a member of the Lower Left Performance Collective (dance) and co-founder of PMPD (music/dance/theater). Gaze and Ensemble CI   Short description of class: Are you interested in performing CI? Do you want to keep a connection to a larger group while you dive into juicy contact dancing? We will bring the often ”internal” gaze of CI out into our surroundings, cultivating an awareness of the inner-workings of our bodies while interacting with the environment outside our bodies.
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SATURDAY
Eliana Bonard Argentina   Eliana Bonard is a dancer, choreographer and teacher since 20 years, practicing CI since 1987. She danced and taught at many local and international festivals in Argentina, France and Brazil, organizes jams and collective street- and indoor performances. She continues her research in “Aberastury sources”, CI and observing movement of playing children. She co-organized EIMCILA in BsAs, an international CI teachers meeting in Latin America, first edition. Growing her son she is learning a lot from him. As water   In this class we will deeply immerse in the quality of water within our dances. Introducing the Fedora Aberastury Conscious System will allow energy to flow through our bodies. We will work on the awareness of the spine-eye- relationship. This will lead our spines in solo and duet dances … and will grow to trios with slides, falls and flights, supporting without effort and allowing dynamic exchange of weight up and down as waves. Joey Lehrer Australia   Joey Lehrer has been dancing most of his life. His explorations in Contact Improvisation (CI) have traveled him widely in Australia, New Zealand and beyond – dancing with State of Flux, Martin Hughes, Ray Chung, Joerg Hassmann, Gustavo Lecce. Joey is a key contributor to the CI community in Australia as an organizer of the Australian Contact Improvisation Convergence and co-editor of <proximity> magazine. As a respected teacher, writer and performer of the CI form, Joey draws on his other bodywork practices: Structural Integration, manual therapy and Pilates. Musings on Momentum   How do I deepen my sensitivity to my momentum? How do I keep finely attuned to that momentum and read, with clarity, my partner’s? In the interplay of our dance, can we ride the flow of our shared momentum further, beyond where I thought I might go? We will explore these questions with a sense of playful focus, in a space of exploration, where improvisation allows a deepening of concepts and skills. Sabine Parzer Austria   is head and founder of the Institute for Holistic Dance and Movementpedagogy. She trains people of various backgrounds in Contemporary Improvisation, Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation, Bodywork and Selfexploration. She is a dancer, choreographer, dancepedagogue, councellor and bodytherapist working professionally for over twenty years in the USA, Europa und Southamerika.. Going with the Flow   In the warm up we will take time to connect ourselves to our center and the floor, investigate our personal movement vocabulary and engage our flow between the earth and skyenergies. We continue to focus on inner and outer impulses to get our juices moving, finding a smooth way into and out of the connection to your partner. You get a chance to flow into the arms and backs and knees of your dance partners. We will develop ways to flow from a duet to trio to solo. And we dive into the flow of the space in our dance. I take my experience as a dancer, choreographer, contacter and bodyworker to travel with you through the great joy of going with the flow.
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MUSICIANS
Andreas Hintermaier	Germany
	Ever since assembling my first drum set as a child (cardboard boxes from a local supermarket) I have been fascinated by rhythm, sound and silence. Later when studying visual arts and media I did extensive research on the interrelation between visual media and sound. In my site specific video installations I worked with loops of voices and local street sounds. After having travelled extensively and having lived in Tokyo and Vancouver, I am now back in my Native Munich, Germany where I work as a teacher, coach, nature path and musician. I have been involved with CI on and off since the early 1990s. When accompanying, I use percussion on various things that sound, mainly cajon. To me both musicians and dancers are part of an evolving field that creates space and breath. In this field it seems (at least) as important to be silent and listen to the changes as it is to play.
Eduard Beyer	Germany
	I have been playing saxophones (alto, soprano and tenor) for 25 years, mainly in Big Bands, my own Jazz band, but also in experimental projects ( with 8 saxophones and 8 Djembes), Art Vernisages, and lately more and more just doing solo improvisation with a tamboura machine, as I love oriental/ Indian soundscapes and philosophies. I played in various C.I. Jams (Glarisegg Jam, Black Forest Jam) and have been dancing C.I. actively for the last 8 years or so. My fascination is with the interrelation of body movement and music with silence: the interaction of the dancers with the musicians. I try to make open offerings with my music (sometimes actively lead when I consider it appropriate) and see myself as part of the entire composition of inner and outer movement, sounds and space. As an osteopath, body worker and musician I am interested in using sound, rhythm and atmospheres (within my therapy sessions, too). I love to accompany people in their individual processes, allowing natural states to arise without effort.
Florian Betz	Germany
	I started my musical education with classical violin and in children choirs with the age of six. As a teenager, I got a completely new entrance to music through improvisation. At first with the voice and the piano. During my year as an exchange student in the United States, I discovered the Marimba as my instrument. After school, I worked in a theater company for two years, before I studied elementary musical pedagogy in Nürnberg. Now I live as a professional musician. My most important scene is the street, but I also play and compose for theater, festivals, concerts or private settings and give classes in musical improvisation, body percussion, voice and rhythm. Dance and Contact Improvisation is my passion. Music is a very powerful input to the session, which leaves a great responsibility to the musicians and asks for high sensibility and awareness not only for the other musicians but for the whole setting. However if well tuned in, live music can make a Contact Jam to an unforgettable moment for everybody.
Irene Sposetti	Italy
	I started my musical studies in a conservatory in Italy learning flute, focusing in classical baroque music. There I was also part of a choir, for about 10 years I have enjoyed to discover and perform a vast repertory from middle age to contemporary polyphonic music. During the years spent in Barcelona I started to develop a specific exploration on Voice, Body, Movement and Improvisation. The voice has since then been part of my teachings and also performances, exploring and discovering new pathways that link voice and body in improvisation. Recently in India I have been studying classical Indian singing from Carnatic tradition. In the last seven years I have been exploring improvisation through organizing and guiding dance events, workshops and participating as dance teacher – musician in festivals all over Europe and in India. I love to play for dance impro meetings. I love to offer sound landscape and be always surprised of the incredibly creative dialog that unfolds between movers, musicians and space. I love to walk in all colours and intensities, shades and atmospheres that originate from sound and imagination.
Viola Einsiedel	Germany
	plays violin, viola, nyckelharpa and inspires dancers with Indian percussion instruments, kalimba, tampura, tenor-flute and her voice. Music and dance is a unfolding unity, which are creating a new art form in space. Improvisation develops out of her own authentic dance, the visible and invisible human elements and impulses in space and an invisible, divine energy, which is creating music. Basically I studied classical music as a violin player, playing in symphonic orchestras and string quartet for 10 years, then I transformed my music through travelling and playing music in South America and India. I play music on Contactimprovisation festivals since 4 years. In the middle of the nineties I was making music for different dance companies in Cologne and I was so fascinated how my music was influencing the dance that I started dancing myself. I continued my passion of CI, music and singing following the invitation as a musician on different Ci festivals all over the world (Freiburg CI festival, Ibiza ci festival, skiing on skin festival in Finland, Israel CI festival, Easterimprovisation festival in Göttingen; CI Festival Potsdam). I learned a lot about CI from the teachers on the festivals. The unity between music and dance I experienced in 4 years participating on CI festivals gave me the idea to teach my knowledge and experience and I started teaching contact improvisation in combination of my own inner music.
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