Aaron Jessup (USA)

"Become a PDP (Perfect Dance Partner)"

What do people love about their favorite dance partners? What special things do they do? Try on some of these tried and true crowd pleasers, all without losing your sense of self! (We'll list a few pet peeves while we're at it.) Never sit out another jam! Be the most popular dancer in the room! Act now!

Aaron Jessup: Originally coming from a circus and street performing background, Aaron has been a student of C.I. since 1990. He began teaching Contact in 1997, including a year at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy. His current passion: leading wilderness trips for his company, Institute for the Study of Awareness in Nature (www.isantrips.com <http://www.isantrips.com> ).

Lior Ophir (Israel) & Kabiro Scheller:

2 Workshops

One Beiing ­ Group improvisation as performance art (inside-outside project part I)

How can we fine-tune our body/mind for an improvisation performance? How can we enter together as a group into ³One Beiing" and build a joint awareness in which we feel/see/sense all members of the group and KNOW what is the right improvisational choice now (and now, and nowŠ)
In this workshop we will try to explore these themes. We will try to build
clarity in our movement, Awareness to the choices we make in every moment, and appreciation of our dance.
This workshop is "part I" of the inside-outside project (including also the
"awareness theatre in public spaces" workshop) and is intended for creating connection, intimacy and fine-tuning inside the group that will later work outside in public spaces.

"Awareness Theatre in Public Spaces (inside-outside project ­ part II)"

Is being in the middle of all-day life environments and situations with the
awareness of being not completely IN the situation BUT part of it.
So I know that I am playing with the environment and the situation but
others notŠ or they feel something going onŠ or they find it slightly
unusualŠ or they recognize you as a playful artistŠ
In this workshop we explore few aspects of group improvisation in different
public spaces such as street corners, train stations, department stores,
cafesŠ never predictable and always unique!
We shall explore the special awareness of the performer, and the contact
among the performers in the group. Welcome to play!
This workshop is "part II" of the inside-outside project (including also the
"into the bubble" workshop). For those considering this workshop ­ please
take also part I ("One Beiing"). Advance registration is required (number of
participants is limited).

Lior Ophir

Dancer, Improviser, Shiatsu therapist, Engineer, Student, Teacher.
Lives in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Practices various forms of movement, dance, body/mind and awareness,
including: Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, Butoh, Shiatsu Therapy,
Yoga, Vipassana Meditation, Tai-Qi.
Lior teaches, studies, and performs in different locations ­ Israel, Europe,
US, Japan.
Current interests are:
- Improvisation as performance art ­ how can I fill an empty space? How can
I fine-tune myself as performer to get closer to the "human-string" that
vibrates in all of us?
- Performance in public spaces
- The search for balance between my profession as an engineer and my passion
for dance, body-work, meditation

Kabiro Scheller

My dancing, moving , breathing nature dedicates her presents always into the opening of the moment...in Dance, Bodywork, Yoga and different other HeARTs.
Contact&danceImpro since 1994, over the last 5 yaers Teaching and learning different combinations of contact, danceImpro, theatre and Healing Rituell Hawaiin Massage .

Ulla Mäkinen

"Core contact"

This class is about exploring the core and finding alignment for effortless movement. With studying the central axis, breathing, and the pathways from the periphery into the center, we support ourselves and each other to find stronger and clearer contact to our own dance and relation to the other.
In other words, we work with looking at clarity, stability, borders and cores in life.
Ulla Mäkinen graduated as dancer in Outokumpu, Finland, 2004. Currently she lives in Frankfurt, Germany working on her MA in dance. She keeps on exploring and studying different dance forms and somatic methods worldwide and teaching dance and contact improv in festivals and communities. She is also a certified Pilates teacher, dedicated organizer and endlessly inspired by the richness and beauty of life.

Shivananda Heinz Ackermann

"painted liberty"

(takes place 4 times)

Every child knows the spontaneity and joy of painting. In this course we discover or rediscover this uncensored creativity with acrylic and other painting techniques.
We move in the worlds of forms and also in the formless abstract world where intuition and freedom are at home.

Enthusiasm and joy at being creative are the objective of this painting workshop.

Children (minimum 8 years old, for younger ones please talk to me) are welcome.

Please bring suitable clothes for painting and an apron.

Shivananda Ackermann - was born 1948 in Switzerland. He's been traveling through the whole world as a graphic designer and learned painting, graphics and photography. He has been working worldwide as a painter, director of painting and graphics workshops, Art Director and photograph. He's been giving exhibitions in the last 30 years in South Africa, Australia, India, USA, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland.

"I'm painting out of the joy and gratitude that I'm alive and am able to share this unique moment in my pictures.
Art is for me the attend to express the magic of life."

Sebastian Garcia Ferro

"Composition and Performance"

We explore 4 different tools for composition and performance:
space-grid, center, side back, front, diagonals, focus
time-speed, quantity of movement for a certain amount of time, quantity of time for a certain movement, pause, silence, freeze
levels-how to use the 3 different levels in our dance
and layers in solo, duets and group situation using the contact improvisation like a base for spread, awake and ground our inner dance.

Sebastián García Ferro is a choreographer, dancer and Contact Improvisation performer. He studied Contact improvisation with Andrew Harwood, Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, Cathy Caraker, Patrick Crowley, Debra Blutt, Martín Keogh, Daniel Lepkoff, Scott Wells, Eckard Muller. His knowledge of Contemporary Dance come from Cristina Bosso, Gustavo Lezgart and Diana Szeimblum, Jordy Vidal, Ted Stoffer, Roberto Olivan, David Hernández, Peter Mika, Martin Kilvady, Akram Kham. He was part of the following dance groups in Argentina: “El Resbalón”, “Contragravedad”, “No se llama” and “Huellas”.

He is the Director of his own Dance company since 1999 and created 11 different dance pieces since then: "En redes", "Contragravedad", “Solamente Solo", "Fetich", "Vacio y Multitud", "Huellas 1", "On your Mark", “Mandrös”, “Something Out”, "Back" and “Tancat Attitude”. He also colaborate with several project as a improviser and performer. He currently lives in Barcelona (Spain).

The Company obtained several residencies throughout Europe during the last 3 years in Rosas P.A.R.T.S. for the Summer Studio Project directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Bains Connective (Brussels, Belgium), Teatro La fundición (Bilbao, Spain), Area Tangent and Centro Cívico Barceloneta (Barcelona, Spain).

Sebastián García Ferro won the 1rst price in the Mas Palomas Choreography contest in Canarian island and the 2do price in the XX Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid with his last piece “Back”, and also 2 residence in Espaco do Tempo (directed by Rui Horta) and 1 residence in the initiative D.A.N.C.E directed by William Forsythe for the 07 season

He also regularly teaches Contact Improvisation , Composition, since 1997 in different festivals, dance studies and educational institutions in Argentina, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal and Belgium. He is also a musician and composed all the original score of his dance pieces and also collaborates with many other Dance and Theatre companies.

Gabriele Neumann und Daniel Werner

"Joyride, ...or what is most enjoyable about

Contact Improvisation"

"There is no way to Joy, Joy is the way"

We will dance a lot or not, and meanwhile do research on personal and universal taste, on emotions and locomotions, on technical and physical skills, on mind and Mind, on wanting and letting go, on trying and forgetting, and most probably on other things also.

It is a chance to really find out for yourselves, and learn from and about others. It will also be allowed, not to enjoy.

Gabriele Neumann: What I enjoy most about CI is curiousity, presence, payfulness and surprise. For me technique and skills are often serving this essence, but can also get in the way. I started dancing CI in 1996.

Daniel Werner: I teach CI since´97, and love to continuously discover new dimensions of this amazing dance form on stage, in teaching and in the jam. I explore, train, perform and teach in the field of contemporary dance, dance theater and CI in productions and projects in Switzerland, Germany and Finland. Essential influences for my work come from Body-Mind Centering, Release-Techniques and Asian Movement Arts. Besides working as a dancer and choreograph, I study contemporary dance at North Karelia College in Finland.

Jagat Frenzel und Daniel Werner

"Fasciadance - Osteopathy and Contact Improvisation"

Dieser Kurs eröffnet neue Räume.
Osteopathie ist eine Kunst, die Räume und Membrane des Körpers in seiner faszinierenden Ganzheit wahrzunehmen und zu behandeln. Die Faszie als „Organ der Form“ ist eine netzartige Struktur, die alle „Bauelemente“ unseres Körpers umhüllt. Spielerisch erforschen wir, wie diese faszinierenden Strukturen in uns wirken, alles zusammen halten und alles trennen. Vielleicht kennst du das Gefühl von verklebten oder verknoteten Faszien. Es fühlt sich ziemlich eng und hinderlich an, der Bewegungsfluss stockt und dein „Raum“ Körper erscheint dir als ein Gefängnis. Lernen passiert in diesem Kurs auf einer sehr zellulären Ebene. So wirst du nicht mit einem neuen Therapiekonzept gefüttert; unsere Zellen erfahren ein tieferes Verständnis oder besser ein „Erfühlniss“ vom Wesen der Faszien und daraus folgen ganz natürlich „Techniken“, die befreiend und lösend wirken.

In der Contactimprovisation fließen Körperbewusstheit, die Saftigkeit von Gewicht und Kontakt, und der kreative Bewegungsausdruck zusammen. Freie, bewegliche und elastische Faszien ermöglichen klare Verbindungen vom Ich zum Du, wodurch die Entscheidung für das Wir im Tanz erleichtert wird. Für die Bewegungs- und Lifttechniken im Contact ist ein tiefes Gefühl für die Faszien und auch andere Stütz- und Bindestrukturen im eigenen Körper und im Körper des Partners sehr hilfreich. Auf dieser Basis spielen wir mit dem Potential, welches in jedem Contactduett liegt, nämlich einer tief entspannenden, befreienden und belebenden KörperReise.

JAgato, Improvisationskünstler auf allen Ebenen und Körpertherapeut (Osteopathie, BMC, TCM, Qigong), Mitbegründer und Organisator des Osterimprofestivals. Meine therapeutisch/künstlerische Arbeit ist eine Synthese aus Tanz, Musik, Körperarbeit und Satsang ... Es gibt für mich sehr viele verschiedene Membrane oder Tore zu unserer Essenz. Wenn ich tanze, singe, musiziere oder behandle wird diese Membran durchlässiger, Tore öffnen sich sehr leicht und spielerisch… die Zellen erinnern sich einfach an ihre „originale“ Idee, zu kommunizieren, zu tanzen und zu tönen…

Daniel Werner: see above

KATRI LUUKKONEN

"BREATHING – SURRENDERING – SHARING"

This class is about breathing and finding sensitive state both bodywise and inside. Through breathing finding relaxed way to share weight and different qualitys of touching, and from this point finding dancing together, and letting you follow where your dance wants to take you.

From personal warming up with breathing, opening and softening your bodytissues and joints we get together and find common breathing with our partners. We are looking for a state of surrendering, trusting, accepting, being together. Letting your inner movements or emotions to be visible. Following your needs and wishes and accepting them.

KATRI LUUKKONEN: “I am 33-years old dancer, dance-teacher and theatremaker from Helsinki, Finland. I have been practicing different bodytechniques, like contact- and dance-improvisation, contemporary dance, aikido and yoga since my teenage years. On the moment I am finishing my masters studies in dance and theatre in the Theatre Academy of Finland.

My true love is contact, in it’s all forms. It has changed my life and given me so much joy and tears, love, sharing, friends and body-awerness… Contact-community is one of my homes, a place where I can feel my spirit, body and heart to be as one.

In my life and work I am interested to follow my and other’s true nature, what is my essence in every moment? It can change and flow, it is alive. Trying to be honest for the moment, with my fragility and strength.”

Heike Pourian

"Tall and small moving"

Starting from the duet as a basic principle, children can only bring one adult, please, and vice versa. I will be accompanied by my daughter Nomi (who recently said: I’m eight years old and I’ve been dancing for nine years”).

Heike Pourian
To me Contact Improvisation is an essence of what I want to explore and embody: being attentive, open and soft, being connected to the earth. Playing and sensing, drawing from the power of this very moment. Being.
When I teach I thoroughly enjoy going with the learning and discovering processes of the groups and individuals, which continuously reveals new aspects to me.
My teaching started in 1992 with a DanceAbility project and has touched very different contexts since: weekly adult classes, community dance, kindergarten groups, pregnant women, parents and their children, deaf adolescents, girls with eating disorders as well as training units for professional ballet companies or actors.
I am also involved in children’s theatre: writing, directing, dancing. And: I am a mother of two.

Daniela Burkhardt

"The space between you and me – acting workshop"

Having a focus on physical aspects in the field of dancing, this workshop emphasises the emotional sensation.
It’s about the ability to express and experience calm and subtle feelings, atmospheres and conditions and also to balance your own limits, i.e. to show and try oneself in extremes.
With different exercises of awareness raising, and perception we will focus primarily on our own inner life and then go to express the experienced inner life with specific acting exercises
Working on presence, emotional flexibility, authenticity, will and contact will be elements of this course.
Number of participants: max. 40

Daniela Burkhardt (born 1973) is an actress and educationalist for acting.
The spark to get an education as an actress was the “Tschechow course of studies”, a nine month long course of instruction after the teachings of Tschewow, led by Jobst Langhans and inspired by Franz Braunhaus. After that (1997-2000) she passed her regular education of acting at the Drama School Mainz, Germany.
She began working as an educationalist for acting in 1998. In the beginning she worked mostly in adult education, but now her range now covers all age groups and thus kindergartens, schools, youthgroups and adult education is her field of activity.

Since 2000 Daniela Burkhardt has been seen in a large variety of roles on different stages in Germany. Most recently she has been swirling through Rottweil, Tübingen, Stuttgart... and rumour has it, that she has been spotted on the OsterImproFestival.

Anat Lumbroso (Israel)

"Improvisation and Meditation;

presence and openness"

Trough movement and vocal improvisation and meditation, we will explore the relations between whole presence and authentic and creative expression. We'll have the space to recognize the freedom that we all are and simply enjoy.

Anat Lumbroso teaches and explores the space of improvisation and meditation in Israel, India and US. She is graduated of the Music and Dance Academy in Jerusalem and Shiatsu Practioners School, practices and deeply involved for the last 7 years with meditation and with "Great Freedom Teaching", which is non-dual teaching, for the last year.
She works with 2 improvisation groups who explore trough movement, voice and meditation the space of presence, expression, relations and performing. Her work is inspired also of buto and yoga that she regularly dance and practice.

Carlo Mausini

"Freedom of the voice"

We're listening to the sound from deep inside. The sound leads us to move.
We communicate with sound, movement and stillness, leaded by our ear. We're
listening relaxed while they arising and passing. We're imprivising and
paying with the colors and sounds of our voices. We communicate with sound,
movement and stillness.

Carlo Mausini: Clown, author, sound-practitioner, creativ-trainer, 14 years trained by international vocal teachers; Certified Instructor in
Vocal-Power-Technic, Vocal Power Academie, Los Angeles

www.klingende-therme.de

2 times

Heike Wintz

"just be – yoga"

pranayama asana meditation
movement, silence & awareness
for
the moment & all that is here & now
breath, soul, body & mind
love, joy & thankfulness for this life
just be - yoga

heike wintz: nature-, dance-, art- & partneryoga-loving yoga-teacher from cologne, germany
the “abc” of my work: a alignment asana awareness
b breath body balance
c contact communication consciousness
happily looking forward to give space to start the day with just being yoga

J. Lemmer Schmid

“Re - Searching for the Flow”

What is the Flow?
Flow is a mental state in which a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.
Applied to the field of dancing being in the Flow stops the self-reflecting, ruminating thoughts, where you constantly are evaluating everything you do. Your mind, your body and hence your movement create a perfect harmony with the present moment. Even tough you are improvising everything that happens seems to be just right and expected. As if your dance was following an inner logic. You simply get lost in your and your partners movement, while time flies by…

How can we search for the Flow?
Like it is impossible to fall asleep on command you also cannot force your self to be in the Flow. But still there are some principles we can learn, how to invite the Flow and to make its appearance more likely.
This class will introduce some of these principles. During a guided warm up, a short theoretical introduction of the “Flow-theory” will be given. From there we will focus in each exercise on different aspects of the Flow – phenomenon. We will work on the question: “What are my personal Flow-bringers and Flow-breakers?”
Here are some examples of dimension on which we might take a closer look during the class:
- Inner Verbal Dialog (Self Reflection vs. Dissolving Ego)
- Implicit and Explicit Goals
- Feeling of Control
- Window of Perception (Narrow vs. Wide)
- The Right Balance of Challenge and Skill

J. Lemmer Schmid studied psychology and movement (psychomotricity) at the Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Working as a cognitive-behavioural therapist he is combining movement and bodywork with psychotherapy. At the same time he is working on his PHD; collecting empirical data on how Contact – Improvisation and Flow-Experiences can influence the quality of life.
His dance is mostly influenced through four years of weekly classes of New Dance and Contact-Improvisation with Jörg Hassmann and later Sabine Simon. Since then he didn´t miss a chance to take intensives weeks with other well known teachers like Nancy Stark-Smith, Dieter Heitkamp and Angela Doni.
He started teaching classes himself four years ago. He currently is teaching at the Marburg University a weekly class called “Contact-Improvisation” At the ECITE 2006 he facilitated a work-lab about “Contact and Flow”. He recently introduced at an international research conference for psychomotricity in Germany (WVPM.org) a model on how mindfulness and being in the flow affects our well-being and the quality of life. This summer he taught at the “International Contact Improvisation and Performance Festival” in Moscow a three days class with 80 students called: “preparing the flow”.

Binahmo

"Dancing in white"

It's a dance celebreation with the spirit of the colour white.
We are opening up with a meditation through the spirit.
We are present in our body mind and soul. The spirit of the
colour white are guiding us through the dance.
We will receive.

BinahMO is a movement dance artist. She is performing in various ways for adults and children. She is offering dancetheatre workshops, clowNerie and healing sessions for adults and children.

Yaniv Mintzer

"A FEW NOTES, composition/improvisation with music"

this class will present the lines connecting the world of dance and music through the eyes of improvisation.

through exercises, scores and observation we will try to find the tools which connect these two complex worlds, such as- dynamic, rythem, harmony/melody relation, dissonances...and let them inform our dance, as we enrich our possibilities and learn to relate to music that is created in the moment.

can we lead when working with music, can we be led, can there be an equal dialog?

what the hell do we listen to? how do we say what we are missing in the music? what more we would like?

yaniv mintzer
musician, dancer and teacher Graduate of the "rimon" academy for music in Israel and "berklee" college of music in boston (B.m.) have been working with dancers and dance since 2003, where is started dancing myself. have been mainly creating live improvised music for dance, the direction being to create a dialogue of two languages, as equal partners, diving together into the unknown, where the only rule is to listen, and courage is a blessing. i also created pieces and worked with vocal training and improvisation with dancers and choreographers in Israel. teaching voice and vocal improvisation, privately and in "telma-yalin", the biggest art high school in Israel. Some Contact Improv&music work includes- *Ilanit Tadmor School for improvisation, regular workshops, 2007-08 *Bikurai ha'itim improvisation group- projects and perfomances, 2007 (where i also taught improvisation and CI for summer program) *Oktet improv group- co founder *Danya elraz- performances and workshops have been in charge of the musical side of the Israeli CI festival for 3 years now. worked internatinaly in- Paris, France- Olivier Besson's improvisation group Freiburg CI festival main instruments used- Guitar, voice, piano (when possible), sound sampler, misc' sound makers..
www.yanivmintzer.com www.myspace.com/yanivmintzer