2012
Program structure 2012
As you can see on the schedule, this festival offers various frames to learn, practice and to share the dance...
Intensives
Paul Singh (USA) - Moving Mind meets Thinking Body
Ruslan Santah (Ukraine) - Choice and spontaneous space play ... not only in CI
Ka Rustler (Germany) - Tensegrity Structures - Finding a connective network
The intensives give a sense of continuation - happening every day with the same teacher and the same group, mainly in the morning. Each teacher will give a certain personal mixture of CI and Contemporary Dance Technique with a main emphasize on one side. All three intensives will focus on fundamental principles, in a way that is accessable for people with basic skills but at the same time provides opportunity for the more advanced dancers to deepen their knowledge.
Classes
The other classes are single classes with one specific focus. Each time there will be one class focussing on fundamental principles in CI. The teachers will share what they found to be essential and still inspiring. The other two classes will be more specific or advanced and create links between CI and contemporary dance technique. A focus on Improvisation and the desire to give tools and inspirations to be tried out in the Jam Session and the performative frames will be the link between all classes.
One2ones
One session will be dedicated to this wonderful and efficient way of individual learning in a big group. The original idea is that each participant will get a 20 minutes private lesson with a teacher. But we want to mainly use this structure as a starting point for different ways to learn together and from each other.
Jam session
We imagine a space, where CI can be practiced and contemporary dance can be actually danced (instead of being only a preparation for the dance on the stage). We are curios how the classes, performative frames and the personal reflections will inform the jams sessions.
Performative frames
The traditional performance night is re-defined as the 'favorite bits presentation', where we want to create space to share dance connections, physical questiones or other revelationes that arose on this festival. A group score at another night will provide a low pressure frame to support the dance by witnessing. We'd wish to keep ego issues out of this space as good as we can.
Action & reflection
This years festival will have an extra focus on reflecting what we are doing. For that we will provide 30 minutes time after each intensive session and a daily one hour long format called 'action & reflection'. We want to create space for not just going from one experience to the next but to give our body-mind systems moments of digestion. We also wish for some stimulation for the mind that inspires us to look at familiar practices and attitudes from a new perspective – like lecture demonstrations or formats that combine listening, questioning and 'doing'. We want to give a light spirit to it that supports the rather focussed but light-hearted atmosphere of our festival.
Do what you need
This years festival is a day shorter than usual. We only put our 'do what you need' slogan once into the schedule to remind us, that this should be the main attitude for the individual journey through this festival.
Experience level
We designed this festival for people who have at least a good basic knowledge in CI and/or contemporary technique with a sense for improvisational work. Our experience is that complete beginners get easily overwhelmed by the amount of new information and the mass of people.
ContactFestival: Timetable 6.-11.8.2012
This timetable is still in a dynamic process but can give you a first taste.
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
7:45-8:45 |
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Yoga |
Yoga |
Yoga |
Yoga |
Yoga |
9:15-9:45 |
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Singing |
Singing |
Singing |
Singing |
Singing |
8.30-9.30 |
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breakfast |
breakfast |
breakfast |
breakfast |
breakfast |
10-12.30 |
Intensive |
Intensives |
Intensives |
Intensives |
Silent Jam
closing |
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12.30-13 |
reflection |
reflection |
Into Jam |
reflection |
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13-14.15 |
Lunch
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lunch |
lunch |
lunch |
Lunch
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15-17 |
Arrival |
Classes |
Classes
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CI essentials & one2ones |
Classes |
Clean up party |
17-17.30 |
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mini-break |
mini-break |
Do what you need or action&reflection
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Do what you need |
Going home |
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17.30-18.30 |
Action & reflection |
action & reflection |
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18.30-19:30 |
Dinner |
Dinner |
Dinner |
Dinner |
Dinner |
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20.30- |
Opening circle & Jam |
Jam-Session
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Group score |
Silent Jam
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Favorite bits presentation |
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Jam-Session |
open-Jam
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Classes 2012
Each day - mainly in the afternoon - there will be three or four classes happen parallel. One of them is focusing on fundamental principles of CI. This class is meant to be a support for CI new comers but also for everyone who takes CI as their main focus for the personal journey through this festival. The other two or three classes will offer some diversity, partly targeting more experienced participants. Some will give more advanced material for pure contact dances. CI based partnering will be offered. Some give personal approaches to connect CI and contemporary dance. Movement and improv technique that support solo dances and group awareness is another theme we are happy to include as well as researching the presence in watching and being watched.
Teachers
- Alyssa Lynes (USA)
- Christine Mauch (Berlin)
- Christoph Schuetz (Goettingen)
- Guenter Klingler (Freiburg)
- Johan Nilson (Sweden)
- Katri Luukkonen (Finland)
- Markus Hoft (Bremen)
- Nina Wehnert (Berlin)
- Sabine Parzer (Austria)
- Ulla Mäkinen (Finland)
Guest teachers
- Barbara Pfundt (Hildesheim)
- Ekaterina Andreeva (Ukraine)
- Johanna Wyss (Switzerland)
- Kim Lasdon (UK)
- Lea Kieffer (France)
- Roland Nordeck (Hildesheim)
- Tara Brandel (UK)
- Zack Bernstein (USA)
Sabine Parzer (Austria)From The Inside Out - Holistic Dance TechniqueMy particular style of dancing is blend of all the techniques and experiences that have formed and inspired me as a dancer over 25 years. This includes: release technique, Limon, the Feldenkrais Method® (ATM and functional integration), Kleintechnique, martial arts, and contemporary and contact improvisation. In the warm up we will focus on the underlying muscles, on the „moving from the bones“, on the breathing and the connections we find between body mass and gravity. Individual alignment can be recognized and easily changed through focus, breath and the attention of staying within boundaries. Bodywork creates a physical understanding of our anatomy, the connections between the skeleton, muscles and connective tissue, it allows us to let go of patterns and moves us into detailed body awareness. The choreography part consists of release-based, organic movement material in which we keep the focus on the radiating qualities of the center: „from the inside out“. Sliding and falling, setting accents and going for the „flow“ of momentum. Gravity provides a springboard to move vertically and horizontally. Floor work „happens“ as a result. All of this is enlivened by a bit of improvisation to keep the creative juices flowing. BiographySabine Parzer (Fabie) is a dancer, choreographer, holistic dance- and movement teacher and works in a dance therapeutic setting. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, she spent ten years abroad (USA and Germany). In Chicago she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance and danced professionally a.o. in Mordine & Company Dance Theatre and many independent productions. Sabine has taught people from the age of 2 till 92 in improvisation, release/ holistic dance technique, contact improvisation and authentic movement. Since 1999 she has been teaching dance and movement at a rehabilitation centre in Austria for people after work/ traffic accidents and neurological diseases. Sabine is a practitioner of Systemische und Integrative Bewegungslehre® (an extended Feldenkrais method) and ZenBodytherapy® in her private practice. She has also been the organizer of the Greifenstein Contact Jam in Lower Austria and Co-Organizer of KulturLANDschaffen, Symposium for Sustainability.The Institute of Holistic Dance- and Movementpedagogy was founded in 2010 by Sabine, to offer long term Teachers Training Programs, further education for doctors, therapists, artists and pedagogues, and as a platform for networking the field of holistic dance. www.sabfab.com www.holistic-dance.at |
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Nina Wehnert (D)
Lungs /Heart - Upper BodyThe lungs are not only for breathing and distributing oxygen into the blood and through the blood into the cells, they can also be helpful as a support for the arms and upper body. We will have an anatomical look at this beautiful and important organ and it's neighbour, the heart. Through Partnerwork we give them presence, fullness, and subtlety. An upper body which is alive, moveable and strong creates a lot of possibilties to react to your partner in contact dances. We will examine the connection from lungs/heart to arms and hands and how to distribute the weight onto them whenever we touch the floor in upsidedown movements. Through teaching Yoga I'm constantly in negotiation with the connection of breath and mind. We will do excercises which not only support and activate your upper body but also calm the mind and help to relax the nervous system- might be nice during the turmoil of a festival!
BiographyNina Wehnert works as a dancer and yogateacher in and outside of Berlin. She is currently very much inspired by her BMC&Yoga and BMC SME Training. Next to set material she is perfoming dance improvisation and CI on stage. She is organizing CI gatherings in different formats in Berlin and from 2008-2010 co-hosted with Christine Mauch the CI festival "satellites' return" at Ponderosa/Stolzenhagen. Very happy to be here at the festival again! |
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Katri Luukkonen (Finland)Contact Improvisation - LIQUID FLOW ... Moving like water
In this class I want to bring in some basic principles and qualities, which I love in contact-improvisation. Soft waves in the spine, spine connected to the center. Connection with the earth and gravity, and within that playing with the body tone - how the body needs to organize itself in each situation? Effortless, organic movement, soft strength, principles of the joints... Spirals and momentum, mobile underdancing, moving in and out from contact... These qualities are bringing me into the state of dancing, which I love - center to center easily following each other... Playful, spontaneous, creative state of being within shared language of contact improvisation!
BiographyKatri Luukkonen is a dancer and danceteacher 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-Contact Festival" in India and "InTouch"-festival in Berlin&Goa. Besides contactimprovisation, contemporary dance and theatre, she has been practicing aikido and yoga, OSHO's active meditations and authentic movement. |
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Christoph Schütz (Göttingen)
"Physical Stories" - Working on Solo and Duet -Dance is about telling a story in a physical way. To give meaning into motion we have to open up ourselves toward what is going on inside of us, physically, mentally and emotionally, toward what is happening right now behind the obvious... This class is about the essence of your dance. What is your body about to tell us? Let's go beyond techniques and tricks to see how your Solo or Duet can make the difference. We will develop different aspects of solo and duet work, whether you come from performing, dancing, acting, teaching...we work with elements of improvisation, scores and maybe even your personal dance material you bring with you. Lecture: 'Presence' (Tuesday afternoon)Presence in its origin describes the “ Moment of Now”… but the term “presence” is used in different meanings:
Wikipedia puts presence in the context of time, space, marking out and availability. Especially in the context of stage we should ask us about presence. What is it that makes someone more present (on stage)? What are the inner and outer aspects of presence? I invite you to listen, to talk and to explore more about presence…
BiographyCristoph Schütz, Jg 1964, seit 1985 Tänzer, Choreograph, Pädagoge, hat sich als Künstler besonders der Improvisation zugewandt und begegnet in seinen Projekten gerne Musikern und der bildnerischen Kunst. Ihn interessieren besonders die Zwischenwelten von unterschiedlichen Disziplinen und festgelegten Begriffen. Unterschiedliche Stilrichtungen haben seine Ausdrucksweise beeinflusst, wie der Ausdruckstanz, das Bewegungstheater, Butoh, zeitgenössischer Tanz, Life/ Art Process (Anna Halprin) und nicht zuletzt die Contact Improvisation, die er mit Leidenschaft unterrichtet. Langjährige Erfahrung im Inszenieren und Bespielen von Site Specific Art in unterschiedlichen Umgebungen, z.B. Wattenmeer, Industriegelände, Hotel, Ausstellungen... Er unterrichtet und leitet seit vielen Jahren Schultanz und –theater Projekte im Rahmen seiner Kompagnie Engagements und mit der musa, Göttingen. |
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Günter Klingler (Freiburg) & Alyssa Lynes (USA)
Acrobatic PartneringWe will use principles of Contactimprovisation to research acrobatic partnering elements. We will focus on energy flow, leading from the center and the practice of maintaining “easy joints“. Contemporary dance technics will help us to stay alive and attentive in the repetition of fixed partnering phrases. By exploring the combination of acrobatics, CI principals and Contemporary phrase-work, we prepare ourselves to be available and creative in new and challenging situations.
BiographiesGünter Klingler is a dancer, circus artist, choreographer and teacher. After graduating from the movement-theatre-school “Scuola Teatro Dimitri“ he worked in “Circus Monti” in Switzerland as a Clown. At the “Kuopion Conservatory for Music and Dance” in Finland he deepened his dance abilities and performed afterwards in various companies (Compagnia Vitale/ Artistiktheater Mixtura Unica/ Trivial Dance Theatre). Since 1999 he is touring with his own solo artist comedy program as “Heinz Herrmann“ and teaches contemporary dance, creative juggling and acrobatics at different universities and education programs. In 2006 he founded his own Company for New Circus, Dance and Theatre, “HeadFeedHands”, which continues to tour internationally with 3 productions. The methods of Gestalt-Therapy influence his teaching work and have become more and more important while he choreographs for the stage. Günter has been practising and teaching CI for the last 15 years and is especially interested in how CI enters into the performing arts. www.headfeedhands.de, www.heinz-herrmann.com
Alyssa Lynes (USA) is a dancer, performer, and teacher. She grew up in Boston, Massachussets dancing Jazz, Horton, Limon, Rhythm Tap, and Musical Theater. She then moved to NYC for ten years where she received a BA in Contemporary dance, a MS in childhood education, where she free-lanced as a dancer in a number of companies and projects, and overworked herself as a bilingual primary school teacher. Her focus on Contact improvisation with great teachers (known and less known) finally led her to train with Nancy Stark Smith and this experience catapulted her off on a CI devoted trip to Europe with no end date. She has been in Europe now since 2010 and trains and works as a free-lance dancer and teacher of Contact Improvisation, Contemporary Dance, children, and English. In 2011 she performed in a work by Juha Marsalo, and in a production by Thomas Mettler (CH). In her research and choreography she explores the overlaps of techniques she has trained in that range from Contact Improvisation & Release technique to Salsa and Tango. The link in all her work recently is a focus in partner dance forms and communication. |
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Markus Hoft (Bremen)Contactimprovisation Performance Project - Into the Blue
BiographyMarkus Hoft, dancer, choreographer, yoga/pilates teacher, and leader of the theater kreatür (actiontheater based physical theater). Studied new dance at Moving Arts Köln and contemporary dance at SCCD Scotland. Also influenced from Capoeira Angola. Dancing contactimprovisation since 1995, teaching since 1999. Focused on performing contactimprovisation in public places on a professional level. Organizer of the Potsdam Jam and Contact Jam Festival Bremen. More infos at www.fooldance.de, www.jam-festival-bremen.de. |
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Ulla Mäkinen (Finland)Minor RevolutionsExperiential anatomy into movement
Diving into the details of our bodies; finding pathways, release, alignment, space. Learning and unlearning by using imagery and touch. From the anatomy, we bring ourselves into movement and into dancing, letting ourselves be curious of the small details, causing possibly big changes…
Ulla Mäkinen is a dancer and teacher based in Helsinki, Finland. She has taught movement in educations, schools, festivals and communities in Europe, Asia and USA since eight years. She has graduated as MA in contemporary dance pedagogy and has studied numerous somatic practices. In her work she emphasizes gentle discipline, curiosity and open-minded presence. www.ullamakinen.com |
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Johan Nilson (Sweden)Contact Improvisation - Images InsideLetting our eyes look inside. Sensing through the inner vision. For my own dancing and learning I use inner pictures, or maybe rather visualisations, were I give myself certain tasks or new ways to percieve the information that journeys from outside to inside. set up these different scores to challenge me and to discover new pathways for my awarenss when in journeys in my inner landscape. I love to read and enhance my partners dance in contact. In this class I will work with awaken the reading that comes from touch. Letting our eyes rest and sometimes even be blind. I will give different images and imaginary tools that I find useful for my own dancing and especially for my own learning about my partners structure, movement and choices. Letting our awareness travel inside gives us an experienced map of our inside, letting our awarness travel into our partner makes our map bigger. Through touch and shared weight we appear as a new being with more limps, more surfaces and our joined bodies form a bigger landscape and gives us more movement possibilities. We will explore this through very clear structures of sharing weight, hands-on reading of movements, coming in and out of contact. For people new to contact the exercises will be structured and on a lower level, for more experienced I want to encourage higher levels and a deeper research. To enhance; to be a moving support, to initiate from above, giving support while falling, h does the touch start – reaching out with your awareness.
BiographyI am exploring and working with natural sciences and art. I am a trained gardener and teacher in Biodynamic farming. In dance and improvisation I experience the same fascination as when I was achild playing in the forest, in contact with nature, in a world full of imagination and playfulness. My interest in movement deepend when I discovered Contact Improvisation 2004. Before my movement history includes sports, capoeira, african dance, worlddance and fire spinning. Since I started with Contact Improvisation my main inspiration comes from Måns Erlandsson and Malin Anclair, Stockholm. The last years I have been participating as teacher and performer in several projects,festivals and dance events in Europe. Since five years I teach classes and organize CI events in Järna and Stockholm. I am inspired by how physical, emotional and intellectual levels can be simultaneously contained and expressed in contact improvisation... and I definitely love to take a certain amount of risk. |
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Christine MauchInvestigating Self and Environment: Scores for Moving with Closed EyesImprovised movement is instructed by many circumstances, conditions and decisions; these two hours we are focussing on variations of a simple proposal: Where do our movement choices, our timing, our interest take us, when our eyes are closed in solo, duet and group constellations? Since a lot of my dancing and teaching these days revolves around the issue of relaxing while staying engaged, or - in other words: not forcing things without giving up, this attitude will provide another baseline for our time together.
BiographyChristine Mauch came to dancing as a young adult. She studied extensively with Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Kirstie Simson, is a graduated Zen Shiatsu practitioner, and dances, teaches and performs in various forms of collaborations. Together with Andrew Morrish und Andrea Keiz she was artist in residence for "improvised solo performance" at fabrik potsdam. From 2008 to 2010 she was co-organizing the CI Satellites’ Return Weeks at Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen. |
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Guest teachers
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A taste from last year - Classes 2011
Teachers
- Robert Anderson (UK)
- Ulla Mäkinen (Finland)
- Tímea Györke (Hungary)
- Eniko Szilágyi (Hungary)
- Juha Viitamaki (Finland)
- Vera Lapitskaya (Russia/ Finland)
- Katri Luukkonen (Finland)
- Iiris Raipala (Finland)
- Roland Nordeck (Germany)
- Paul Singh (USA)
- Trinidad Martinez
- Mokshia Roland Frenzel (Germany)
- Monika Gallardo Rosell (Ibiza)
Guest teachers
Intensives 2012
- Ka Rustler (Germany)
- Ruslan Santah (Ukraine)
- Paul Singh (USA)
Musicians 2012
We are very happy to have four pretty different musicians on our festival. All of them are also teaching some kind of movement, dance or performance work. They are all deeply connected to Contact Improvisation, which gives them a good understanding of the musical needs of Jams and dance classes.
In different constellations they will support the Jam sessions on our festival (apart from one or two silent jams) with Barnaby as our main musician. Also some of the classes will have life music.
Mokshia Frenzel will facilitate some singing in the morning for people who like to start their day in a group with music and voice.
Barnaby TreeBarnaby is a musican (cello, piano) and singer trained in the physical displines of improvised performance practises, dance, yoga and chi kung. He has developed solo and collaborative work in experimental performance, dance and music. He has produced 4 albums, Ravine(’94), Loose(’99), Like nothing ever before(07)amd Easily(09), and regularly performs songs for cello and voice. He is based between Berlin, Scotland and Barcelona. More under www.barnabytree.com |
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Dino Spiri
Dino Spiri studied Jazz (Drums) in the Netherlands. As he started to create music for dance performances he was intrigued by the diversity that working with electronic music offers. By playing for a festival like CmC he is interested in creating a soft supportive frame that stimulates but doesn't disturb the dance. He currently lives in Berlin where he works as a freelance musician. |
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Anir LebenI'm a musical oriented dancer and a dancing oriented musician and vocalist. When I dance, even without any sound, I get impulses for movement from inner melody or rhythm and from principles that I experience through music. There is loud and quiet, soft and rough, stillness and dynamic flow, pauses, up and down, contrast, harmony, dissonance, co-existence and and and... I study dance, performance and improvisation at TIP and I teach Contact Improvisation in Freiburg. I was studying Jazz-singing in Berlin for a while, when I fell in love with CI. That gave me a seeming change of direction, which, as it turns out to be, is not totally correct. Combining music with dance is as old as mankind, is breathing earthly air. To connect CI with sound however, is somehow quite different. It has taken my interest for a few years now and I feel a nurturing richness in both improv-forms, music and dance, being able to feed each other with different kinds of tasty delicious bits of gwummmmdschiimmmmdjammm :) |
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Mokshia Roland Frenzel... more information soon ... |
neue version