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Parent Category: History

Category: 2014

6th International Festival for Contact Improvisation
inviting Contemporary Dance
18.-24. August 2014 - in Göttingen, Germany

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Contact Meets Contemporary Dance Festival from Katelyn Stiles on Vimeo.

A Contact Festival where Contact Improvisation meets Contemporary Dance

 

We are very much looking forward to this year's festival! It has developed really well throughout the last years. There is a lot of focus on learning and dancing, pretty calm and clear energy, not pushy but awake. And as always we will try out a few new things to keep it fresh.

The Intensives are with...

Kira Kirsch (Kanada/ Germany): Axis Syllabus

Tim O`Donnell (USA): Clarity in the Unknown

Katarina Eriksson (USA): Accidental Excellence

'contact meets contemporary' wants to inform, support and inspire Contact Improvisation by the knowledge of contemporary dance. The last years we were focussing on movement technique and compositional awareness as a source of support for CI. An underlying focus for this year's festival will the phrase 'being present - making choices'.  It is a very basic definition for improvisation that we would love to be an inspirarion for more selfresponsibility especially in learning situations, but also in jamming or in the socializing aspects of an event like this.
To counterbalance the improvisational side we intend to bring in some somatic work to inform the dancing body. And of course basic CI technique will appear.

Happy to meet you in the summer

Your Festival Team
Jörg Hassmann, Daniel Werner, Gabi Neumann and Nadja Schwarzenbach

 

PS: For people who come directly - but still a little late - from the Contact Festival Freiburg we have special offers, due to the fact that it was impossible to not let both festivals overlap. We are sorry for this!

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Parent Category: History

Category: 2014

ContactFestival: Timetable

This timetable is still in a dynamic process but can give you a first taste.

 

Â	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7:45-8:45	Â	Yoga	Yoga	Yoga	Yoga	Yoga	Yoga
9:15-9:45	Â	Singing	Singing	Singing	Singing	Singing	Singing
8.30-9.30	    Â	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast
10-12.30		Intensive	Intensives	Jam	  Intensives Â	Intensives	Silent Jam   closing
12.30-13		reflection	reflection		reflection	reflection
13-14.15		  Lunch Â	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	  Lunch Â
15-17	  Arrival	Classes	  Classes Â	CI-essentials & one2ones	Classes	classes	Clean up party
17-17.30
		mini-break	mini-break	Do what you need or action & reflection Â	Do what you need	mini break	Going home
17.30-18.30		Action & reflection	action & reflection			action & refelction
18.30-19:30	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Â	Â
20.30-	Opening circle & Jam	Jam-Session   Â	Group score	Open-Jam Â	Favorite bits presentation	Jam   Â
			Silent Jam		Party!   Â

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Parent Category: History

Category: 2014

Program structure 2014

 

As you can see on the schedule, this festival offers various frames to learn, practice and to share the dance...

Intensives

 

Tim O`Donnell (USA): Clarity in the Unknown

Katarina Eriksson (USA/ Sweden): Accidental Excellence

Kira Kirsch (Canada/ Germany): Axis Syllabus

 

The intensives give a sense of continuation - happening every day in the morning with the same teacher and the same group. Tim's  intensive will give a certain personal mixture of CI and Contemporary Dance Technique, Kira's Intensive will have the strongest focus on movement technique while Katarina will work the most directly on CI principles. But they will all 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.

Supported Practice

'Supported practice' is inspired by the common festival format called one2ones. People dance and teachers are available for feed back - as a request or offer. It is a way to have the dance as the motor for individual labbing. We will have one afternoon for this format and are willing to develop it further.

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.

Soothing mind & Body

We usually won't have a guided warm up for the Jam. But half an hour before the Jam starts differnet teachers will offer a simple practice to sooth the body and to calm and clear the mind. So the Jams will begin with a un-pressured focussed energy, where people easily take on responsibility for their own journey through the Jam. We were super happy with this approach last year.

Dance Score

Once or twice the Jam will be started by a dance score - a set of rules or a clear comon focus - and will create a different flavour for the jam.

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. 

Reflection with Action

As last years we will keep the 30 minute time slots after each intensive session for reflection - not only through talking. And in the afternoons we'll have a one hour format, that wants to  stimulate the mind to look at familiar practices and attitudes from a new perspective. Three times it will be an interactive lecture, once a new format called 'talking one2ones' where many teachers are available for individual 10 minute talks. And once we'll have a silent lab, which includes the option to dance with one partner for the whole hour.

Do what you need

As we are back to a week long festival we put our 'do what you need' slogan three times 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

Details

Parent Category: History

Category: 2014

Intensives 2014

 

Tim O`Donnell (USA): Clarity in the Unknown

Katarina Eriksson (USA/ Sweden): Accidental Excellence

Kira Kirsch (Canada/ Germany): The Art of Tensegrity

 

 

Tim O`Donnell (USA): Clarity in the Unknown

Tim is a New York based dance artist who teaches, and performs in both the United States and Europe. His exploration in dance, movement and improvisation is strongly rooted in deep physical listening while maintaining a sense of adventure. He has taught and performed for numerous organizations, universities and festivals most recently including the American Dance Festival, Arizona State University, Dance Ireland, Dance New Amsterdam and Movement Research. He holds an MFA in Dance and has maintained a private practice in therapeutic bodywork and somatic movement since 1995. Currently he is on faculty at Movement Research and is teaching and performing in NYC where he residesTim O'Donnel is a highly appreciated contact teacher in the states. After Paul Singh's intensive being a highlight from 2012 he recommonded Tim as his most important teacher for an intensive in 2013. Paul was assisting him a lot, now they research and co-teach together in the field of CI & contemporary dance

A note from us organizers: Tim taught a higly inspiring intensive last year bridging spatial awareness, Improvisation and CI skills in a very generous and detailed work accompanied by a gentle humor. We are very happy to have him back!

 

Clarity in the Unknown

Gravity is our first and constant partner. What is it like to not hold on in our dancing but to risk a constant state of adjustment to the forces acting upon us, with in us?

If we are always falling even just a tiny bit we will always have a little momentum to work with.  To always be surfing gravity, not fighting it and not totally yielding to it but to actively and deliberately be in dialogue with it.

As we gain a confidence and trust in our physical intelligence we can relax in our readiness, be more at ease, vulnerable and this open, vulnerable and ready place is where our creativity is unleashed.

To undo our belief that we need to brace or fix in order to be strong or stable.  Where, how and why do we fix, physically, intellectually, emotionally or creatively?

When we begin a dance we are giving birth to something though we do not know yet what it is.  Do we have the courage to wait, listen , get to know it, its logic, its essence?

 

 

Katarina Eriksson (USA/ Sweden): Accidental Excellence

Katarina has been involved with improvisational dance since 1989, collaborating with artists, such as Ray Chung, Cathie Caraker, and Karen Nelson, and as a member and co-founder of Swedish improvisation ensemble Floke.

She teaches Contact Improvisation and other improvisational forms in Europe and the US, and since 2000 she curates the performance series Moments Notice in Berkeley.

Katarina's traditional dance background includes graduation from The Balett Academy, Gothenburg and working at The Gothenburg State Theater and Opera, as well as with numerous choreographers and dance companies in Sweden.

Recent performance endeavors are; Artist in Residency at CounterPULSE, San Francisco, touring in Europe with Hoppalappa, co-creating a site-specific dance piece with Siljeholm/Christophersen in Beirut, performing as a clown at The Arc, San Francisco, and directing multi-disciplinary performances in Massachusetts and New York.

A note from us organizers: We know Katarina from many CI festivals and feel deep satisfaction to have her teach an intensive. We feel that her broad knowledge as a trained dancer, long term CI practitioner, teacher and performer might not have spread as much as it deserves to. Her freshness in improvising, her remarkable technique combined with a sweet humbleness are a gift we are happy to be part of our festival.

 

Accidental Excellence - Or The Joy of Stumbling into Contact

This class is inspired by a verbal misunderstanding. In a CI event that I was recently part of, an on-looker made a comment that I heard as "accident dances", when he really said "excellent dances".

I have noticed that, what can be perceived as mishaps in a dance often become an opening to deeper listening and awareness of the particularities of the dance I'm having right now. So, in this class we will cultivate our capacity of being "accident-prone" - to stop trying to get it right and instead becoming more and more curious about where the principles of contact improvisation can take us moment by moment.

We will study;

Falling (How does my body fall safely? Where is the edge of my comfort zone? What kinds of falls make me laugh?)

Rolling point/Sliding point/ In and out of contact (How can these concepts support my dance towards surprise and discovery? Can I shift from making it happen to watching it happen? Can I find joy in the moments of difficulty? )

Weigh exchange (How do I respect my own and my partner’s limitations without letting "politeness" dull the dance? What are all the micro-grades on my scale for giving and receiving weight?)

 

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something."  ~Ornette Coleman


 

 

Kira Kirsch (Canada/ Germany):  The Art of Tensegrity

Kira is a movement artist born in East-Berlin and currently traveling around the world with her little family. She is deeply invested into creating, questioning and improving spaces for people to experience,learn about and sensitize their mind-body-movement continuum. She has pioneered, taught and continuously researched through the lens of the Axis Syllabus (AS) for over a decade, is a co-organiser of the Nomadic College at Earthdance, leads teacher trainings and has build a platform for AS research in the Bay Area, California.

Kira has developed a reputation for being an inspiring and sensitive teacher.
As a performer she has danced in the works of David Szlasa (US), Sara Shelton Mann (US), Avy K. Productions (RU), Christine Bonansea (US/FR), Half Machine (DK), ABCdance collective/Frey Faust, Cie. Anna Tenta (AT) and in numerous collaborations with her peers. In 2009 she started collaborating with Montrealer Kelly Keenan and their creations "species - a moving body exposition" and "useless creatures" have been presented in the US, Canada and Austria.

http://www.corpiliquidi.com/

 

A note from us organizers: For quite a while we wished to have Axis as an input for our festival - one of the most profound contemporary movement techniques. We feel very privileged to have Kira sharing her deep knowledge this year with us. We find her desire to move and to share her knowledge very special and touching. Seeing her move make it obvious that Axis can be a great support for Contact Improvisation.

 

 

The Art of Tensegrity - axis syllabus for contact improvisors