Axolotl Participatory Performance

July 12-26 The 2 week San Francisco Contact Intensive

August 8 to 10 The Dancing Wilderness Project

August 19 to 24 Body Research Contact Festival at Sierra Hot Springs, CA

August 25 to Sep 1 Contact Camp at Burning Man

August 19 - 24, 2008

plus teacher's conference August 18/19

at Sierraville Hot Springs, CA, 3.5 hours east of San Francisco, 1 hour west of Reno, NV

• 2 outdoor studios and one indoor studio, hot springs and saunas, plus miles of hiking trails through mountain forests.
• 5 days of exploration in Contact Improvisation geared towards experienced contactors, familiar with fundamental skills and investigations of CI...
• classes, labs, discussions, performances, jams, and alternative jam structures
• 12 presenter/instuctors from around Western Canada and US seeding the investigations with classes
• 70 dancers altogether coming together to create a festival oriented around sharing work in and emerging out of the practice of Contact Improvisation.

While both the performative and the experiential wings of the contact world are intended to be represented at the festival, the unifying principle will be an invitation to those invested in the artistic and intellectual exploration of contact, regardless of perspective.

The festival is geared towards sharing research. Invited presenters represent some of those engaged in active teaching and new research in contact, either taking contact explorations in new directions or taking it deeper into old ones.

It will be assumed that participants already have experience in contact and won't be meant as an "intro to contact".

In addition to classes, there will be regular time made available for labs which emerge from the curiosity of the participant body. Outside of the official class times, the distinction between teachers and other participants dissapears and all are invited to propose research topics and join others with affinities of interest for investigation.

The aim is for a contact festival which is geared to the desires of experienced and professional contactors and in which there is a high degree of dialogue, active physical and intellectual investigation, and autonomous pursuit of curiosity around the possibiliities presented by contact improvisation..

More Details...

The Schedule: twice daily contact classes, daily lab and discussion times, evening space for jams, performances, and structures. for more info, goto Schedule

Presenter/Instructors: a number of experienced practitioners in contact, both from the world of performance and the world of experiential exploration, have been invited to share some of their current curiosities through classes. The classes will expect a certain amount of established understanding of contact skills as well as the focus of those interested in exploring new directions in contact, whether it be following a fine point or tangent outside of contact's core explorations or taking fundamental explorations deeper or into new twists and turns. There will always be one space open for labs or jamming, independent of the classes.

Presenters include Ellane Kresser(Berkeley, CA/Lasqueti Island, BC), Alicia Grayson (Boulder, CO), Kelly East (Charlottesville, VA/Nevada City, CA), Brad Stollar (Charlottesville, VA), Mizu Desierto (Portland, OR), Cathie Caraker, Karl Frost, Scott Wells (San Francisco, CA), Aaron Schwartzman, Alia Swersky, Cyrus Khambatta (Seattle, WA), Delia Brett (Vancouver, BC). Others possibly TBA.

For presenter bios and class descriptions, goto Presenters

Experience requirements: All participants will be expected to be experienced contactors... intermediate to advanced contactors who have a solid grasp of contact fundamentals. Those coming should have basic understanding of concepts like rolling point of contact, weight sharing, use of alignment and structure for support, physical listening. While considerations will be made for alternately able-bodied dancers, all participants should otherwise have basic working skills with the aforementioned concepts plus moving in and out of the floor with weight and readiness to take care of oneself generally and coming in and out of lifts. Feel free to write with any questions about what we are asking of participants, as there are multiple ways of framing the same basic concepts and we aren't attached to any one. generally speaking, we just want to make sure that everyone who is coming already has an investment in contact exploration and some time under their belt in skill development.

The Hot Springs: The Sierra Hot Springs retreat center is a moderately rustic hot springs retreat center bordering on the Tahoe National Forest in the Sierra Nevadas, just outside of the small town of Sierraville, CA. the grounds are expansive with plenty of space for camping. The primary hot springs include a large warm pool appropriate for (quiet) watsu/water dance, a smaller hot pool and cold plunges, plus a sauna. On the other end ofthe property is the smaller Meditation pool, for silent soaking. The general atmosphere of the place is quiet, with rules of no alchohol and no pets. children are welcome with "appropriate guidance" for a quiet atmposphere. We will have use of their studio/workshop room and will also be setting up our own outdoor dance studios, usingthe infrastructure from Contact Camp at Burning Man. For more information on the hot springs, visit their site at www.sierrahotsprings.org . Also, please do read over the Guest Agreements before registering.

The Dance Spaces: outdoors -- 2 60 foot diameter parachute tents with floors of recycled vinyl billboard over carpet (the effect is of a very slightly padded marly). indoors - a 700 sq ft studio with hardwood floor

Lodging: standard lodging will be camping. You will be expected to have your own gear. RVs and camper vans are welcome. There is also limitted availability of rooms through Sierra Hot Springs, but these would be arranged separately through the hot springs (see Fees, below)

Fees

Festival Fee

The first 35 who registered paid $240 - $340 sliding scale --- already past...

The second 35 to register pay $280 - $380 sliding scale

Lodging Fee (Tuesday through Sunday)

Camping (car, rv, or tent) is $110, paid through Body Research. There is ample space for car camping, and if you wish to tent it, the propery itself is huge and in fact borders on National Forest, so you can spread out as far afield as you like. If you are camping, you do not need to register seperately with Sierraville (and they would prefer that you didn't, for simplicity's sake). An extra night on either end is $28.

Rooms range from $39 to $83 per night (depending on day of the week and dorm vs double vs single) and are arranged directly through Sierraville Hot Springs. If you choose to rent a room or dorm spot, mention to Sierraville that you are with the Contact Festival and as you register with us, and let us know that you are renting a room.

Work Exchange: We definitely will need people to do work exchange. We are looking for a crew of gung ho people who are willing to come two days early and stay a day later for set up and take down in exchange for both lodging and festival fees. Interested people should be willing to do a lot of physical work in the days of set up and break down. To apply and to get more info, write to info@bodyresearch.org.

Food

There is not an official food program for the Festival. A few options exist.

1)Some folks are thinking to set up an affordable dinner/breakfast service independently. Details on this will be posted here as we get closer, including how to register for it ahead of time.

2)We will have an outdoor kitchen set up where you can collaborate with others on cooking your own food. If you have your own camping stove, you can set it up in our outdoor kitchen, particularly if you are willing to make it available for others. (No fires, even camping stoves, outside of our kitchen area, due to the current dryness and fire situation in California.) There is also a group kitchen at Sierraville

3)On the weekend, there is a restaurant open at the hot springs which serves breakfast and dinner. There is also a restaurant in the town of Sierraville..

Registration

The festival is limitted to 70 participants, all of whom are expected to be self-motivated in terms of focus and physical study/research and already have a solid grasp of contact fundamentals (see experience requirements, above, for details on what this means.).

At this point (late June) the festival is half full.

To register, send an e-mail with your intent to register to info@bodyresearch.org AND send a $75 deposit. You can get the deposit in in one of several ways...

• send checks to Karl Frost, 6547 Whitney St, Oakland, CA 94609. If sending a check, also e-mail info@bodyresearch.org to let us know it's in the mail.
• hand cash or check to Karl (or other organizer) in person.
• paypal to info@bodyresearch.org (to use paypal, visit paypal.com, sign up for an account, and use it to send money with credit card. note that paypal takes a 3.5% fee off of money sent. For the deposit, don't worry about the fee, but if sending in the whole fee with paypal, please add 3.5% for paypal fees..

Carpool/Rideshare

Sometime mid July, as we are nearer to the festival, we'll work on arranging rideshares and carpooling. Note, for folks flying in Reno is about 55 minutes drive from Sierraville, where Oakland is about 3.5 hours. However, more people will be coming from or passing through the bay area, so easier to find a carpool. an interesting option, however, would be for a few people to fly into and out of Reno and rent a car together.