Contact Improvisation in Engelthal

Movement Contact Encounter It's like a small miracle, like being in Wonderland Communication with the environment, with oneself, with another human being It's fun I have become more open in meeting people and in perceiving of myself My everyday life has changed Sometimes it is as if two souls were touching each other Contact Improvisation is a dance form whose particularity is that the moving impulse comes from the contact between two people It brings us directly into the here and now We meet each other in a different, more direct way then normally, for example in a conversation My concern is to bring Contact Improvisation to contexts alien to dance Some time ago I interviewed a blind woman who had attended a workshop, and she told me: “I feel like a new woman” It showed me once again the huge potential of this dance form I imagine that a group of young people with Down's syndrome meets a group of experienced Contact dancers unafraid to get in touch with others It can be a reality: a place where everyone is invited to simply be as one is Engelthal, Nuremberg Heike and I took a walk and suddendly we stood in front of this building: an empty school A building with large rooms and two big gyms where we can dance or perform theatre There are many possibilities, but basically it's always about meeting each other and discovering something new That's why I think it's so incredibly important that people come to this place, and live here too, who are experienced in this dance form and who have faced their fear of contact so that they can prepare the ground for others and create a comfortable environment I have asked many institutions if they want to work with us including dance companies, institutions for the disabled and universities and everyone said “Yes, we support you, we will collaborate” It shows me once more that yes: it's time for this place Today we founded the association “Centre for Contact Improvisation and somatic learning” here in Engelthal, as a small symbolic action "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there" Rumi