everyBODYmoves Festival March 25-27 Northampton, MA

A documentary focused on the  Northampton, Massachusetts contact improvisation subculture, an intimate dance, will premiere at the Academy of Music on March 26, 2016.  Get Tickets. The film, six years in production in the Pioneer Valley, illuminates the hidden world of contact improvisation, a dance form that merges the playfulness of social dance forms like tango with the body-mind skills of meditation and martial arts. 

The film follows three Valley residents whose lives are transformed through dance. A skeptical beginner, Albert is drawn to the embodied presence and connection of contact.  Contact catapults dancer Rythea Lee on a journey of self-discovery and healing. Inspired by the athleticism of contact, Eugene stretches physical and social limits from his wheelchair. Get Tickets.

 As part of the celebration and excitement around the film’s completion, we are planning an exciting dance festival weekend in Northampton.everyBODYmoves, A festival of mindful movement, dance and curiosity for every body  will be an exciting weekend long series of dance events,  an opportunity for  all kinds of people to test their edge, whether that edge is physical ability, healing and emotional safety, or the role of of acculturation ( race, class, gender and sexual preferences) in  movement practices. The weekend will be a living laboratory on the theme of inclusiveness  in movement and dance practices.

The everyBODYmoves festival will provide a living laboratory for participants to explore three different forms of inclusion in dance: physical ability, emotional safety, and the role of acculturation in movement practices. The festival will unite longtime dancers and newcomers. Registration grants access to numerous events in several area dance studios. Register Now.

Events Planned As of January 19, 2016 (Subject to change, and definitely will GROW)

• Friday night kickoff party with performances, dancing, and surprises. Gather and meet the diverse participants in the weekend!

•  Two of the leading characters in the documentary an intimate dance, Eugene Williams and Rythea Lee, will kick off the Saturday morning with sessions focused on diversity of physical abilities (Eugene) and healing through movement and dance (Rythea).

• An array of workshops will take place in several downtown dance studios ( Studio Helix, Upstairs Studio, SCDT and the new Pole and Barre studio off of King St.) Among the other classes expected during the weekend will be Contact Tango with Daniel Trenner,” Authentic movement and Otherness” with Kent Alexander, improvisation games with Lani Nahele, Glenn Smith and Su Eaton, beginner’s contact improvisation, and making contact in daily life with Beth Dennison.

• Dance Spirit on Sunday morning with master cellist and improviser Steven Katz.

•  Panel discussion about the film. Sunday after Dance Spirit there will be a panel discussion among the many participants in the film. If you were part of the film, we hope you will actively participate in this lunch time chat!

•  Music and dance improvisation jam  Sunday afternoon will be part of the final sendoff.

Schedule is preliminary and will gain additional details and events closer to the date of the event.

Register early for lowest registration prices.

The premiere and festival also celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Earthdance, where much of the film was produced, and the 40th Anniversary of the Northampton-based magazine, Contact Quarterly. A portion of any net proceeds will support efforts for inclusiveness, accessibility, diversity and trauma-informed movement practices at these two dance organizations, as well as the city’s new School for Contemporary Dance and Thought.

everyBODYmoves Festival Participant Principles

Mindfulness: curiosity, attentiveness, observing sensation, observing emotion, suspending expectations, recognizing that witnessing IS participating.

We are each responsible for our own physical and emotional safety, including taking more than adequate time to rest on our own and to integrate/ digest experiences

We are also each responsible for respecting others – the diversity of culture and life experiences, and rigorous attention to collaboration and consent.

Reversing/suspending traditional expectations about dance: we are always free to enter or leave an interaction on the dance floor.

PARTICIPATE!

• OUTREACH – Are you part of a group that would appreciate or benefit from the film’s message and experience of mindful movement and dance as a transformative and inclusive practice? Are you a college professor or student who can encourage others to attend? Independent living, disabilities rights, Holyoke, Northampton and Amherst-area arts groups emphasizing diversity and accessibility, and men’s and women’s empowerment and healing organizations?

•  TEACHING AND PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES – Let us know of interest. We are holding off on setting additional workshops and performances until we see the how registration and interest in the weekend evolves.

• DISPLAY ADS – The premiere and weekend festival program will have display advertising opportunities. See rate chart at http://bitly/nohodancefilm

•  WORK EXCHANGE – Numerous work exchange opportunities in lieu of, or to further reduce registration fees.

•  MEDIA CONTACTS – Do you personally know reporters that would be excited about the film and the weekend? Would you like to pitch them our story?

• HOUSING Thanks to Tom Murray and Joann Lutz, a housing website for the weekend is already operational. We expect many out-of-town guests.

I CAN OFFER housing for the weekend
I NEED HOUSING for the weekend

Inspired to help or want to share your feedback or excitement? Write to filmmaker Sanford Lewis sanfordlewis AT gmail.com or communications/outreach coordinator, Michaela Schwartz. michaela.schwartz216 AT gmail.com

Our Growing List of Event Sponsors and Partners

Amherst Arts Council

Las implicaciones políticas de la danza de contacto improvisación

Las implicaciones políticas de la danza de contacto improvisación

por Carol Douglass, Production Visionary

Un baile íntimo: Documental sobre el Contacto-Improvisacion

Traducción cortesía de Marcelo Cynovich del Uruguay

No hay nada oculto dentro de la burbuja del "espacio personal" –la kinesfera- cuando “rolo”  por el vientre vulnerable de un desconocido. Condicionados como estamos por la cultura dominante, intimidación y miedo es lo que puede surgir en las primeras exposiciones de un individuo a la forma de danza de contacto- improvisación.

Sin embargo, esto nos da una oportunidad para enfrentar nuestros temores  a la  cercanía, al contacto.

¿Pero..  acaso no es la cercanía una necesidad humana básica?

Históricamente es visto como una necesidad de asegurar nuestra supervivencia como especie.

Creo que esto es valido aun hoy, posiblemente incluso más cierto que nunca.

Me estoy  moviendo con alguien que nunca he visto antes.  Mientras inclina su peso en mi, quiero sentir el calor de su cuerpo, escuchar su respiración, mirar a sus ojos.  Veo el patrón en su Iris. Puedo oler el sudor; el suyo y el mio.  Siento la textura de los músculos, la ropa y la piel. Experimento la presión de nuestro peso en el transcurso del movimiento. Puedo conocer a esta persona sin palabras.

Puedo  saber cómo se siente, literalmente. Podríamos compartir una carcajada cuando pasa algo espontaneo y gracioso  o simplemente porque la danza se siente tan placentera. En algún momento, nuestra vivencia común se convierte en un sentido perceptible. Poco después, un sentimiento de amor puro  comienza a surgir. Después de suficiente bailes con diferentes compan#eros, el sentimiento se abre y abarca a todas las personas que están en el espacio.

Enamorarse (falling in love) de todas las personas que están en el espacio lleva consigo un sentimiento profundo de seguridad. Este "falling in love" con todo el mundo es una experiencia común en los bailarines de Contact. He escuchado a muchas personas hablar de este fenómeno. Las fronteras se convierten en más elásticas. Tejidos del cuerpo que mantienen la rigidez y el miedo se funden en alivio y relajación. El cuerpo se abre más, se siente más. Ahora la mente y el corazón siguen a lo que el cuerpo pide, lo que el cuerpo lidera.  

El grupo se convierte en una tribu, aunque sólo sea durante el tiempo que dure la practica.

¿Cómo afecta esta experiencia a una cultura que es profundamente compartimentada y fragmentada?

Donde el balance de poder está en manos de la parálisis inducida por la creencia popular que estamos  protegidos en la medida que estamos separados. La cultura que aceptamos como real nos ha hecho a todos parias de 'la tribu humana'.

Incapacitados  y en peligro de extinción por nuestra soledad. (aloneness)

Contact nos da un lugar para sentir físicamente  la protección de nuestra conexion natural.

Pone la norma cultural, en contraste a una alternativa accesible y sostenible. Cuando la gente se  escucha profundamente a sí mismo y entre sí, relaciones surgen desde ese terreno. Eso es poder.

Ponemos a prueba nuestras conclusiones en CI y cada vez más nos sentimos mas confiados sus aplicaciones como si estuviéramos bebiendo pequeñas dosis a lo largo del tiempo. La posibilidad de aceptar o rechazar cualquier experiencia es parte de  principios del Contact.

No estoy sugiriendo que esta forma de movimiento va a revolucionar la sociedad en forma repentina. Estoy sugiriendo que nos invita - como individuos y como grupo - a recuperar la inteligencia innata que nos protege  de la represión. Aprendemos a tomar decisiones que funcionan para nosotros,  en lugar de aceptar lo que alguien decide es bueno para nosotros. El Contact nos  da la oportunidad de  rechazar lo que no se siente bien para nosotros, de sentirnos seguros en la entrega  y protegidos por la reciprocidad.

Puede cambiar opiniones y, eventualmente, obviar la necesidad de las mismas.

El Contact es una tecnología para la transformación de la experiencia.

En una danza de contacto, las certeza se moldeara en curiosidad, el miedo se derrota y se entrega ante el  “trust”,  la confianza, las armaduras se derretirán  y un corazón re descubierto encontrará que tiene un lugar en este mundo.

the political implications of contact improvisation dance

Producer's Note: Today we begin the first of what we hope will be many posts by people involved in the production of our film, behind and in front of the cameras.  Our aim is to provoke your thoughts and engage your participation.  Today, Carol Douglass who has the  unorthodox title of Production Visionary for our film production shares her thoughts about the political implications of contact improv. We invite you to comment, on this page and on the Facebook page on whether these ideas ring true for you,  and whether and how your  own experience on the dance floor bears them out or contradicts them. We're looking forward to the conversation.


Sanford Lewis, Producer

An Intimate Dance: A feature documentary on contact improvisation

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the political implications of contact improvisation dance

by Carol Douglass, Production Visionary

An Intimate Dance: A feature documentary on contact improvisation

There is no hiding inside the bubble of “personal space” when rolling over the vulnerable belly of a perfect stranger. Conditioned as we are by the dominant culture, intimidation and fear can arise early in an individual’s exposure to the dance form of contact improvisation. This gives an opportunity to face our fear of closeness. But isn’t closeness a basic human need? Historically seen as a need that ensured our survival as a species. I think that’s just as true today, possibly even more true.

I’m moving with someone I have never met. As they lean their weight into me, I feel their body warmth, hear their breath, look into their eyes… I see the pattern in their irises.  I can smell sweat, theirs and mine. I feel the texture of muscles, clothing and skin. I experience the pressure of our mutual weight in the course of our movement. I am getting to know this person without words.

I’m getting to know how they feel, literally. We might share a laugh when something goofy happens spontaneously or just because the dance feels so darn good. At some point, our common humanity becomes a felt sense. Soon after that, a feeling of uncomplicated love begins to arise. After enough dances with different partners, the feeling opens and encompasses all the people who are in the room.

Falling in love with an entire room of people carries with it a deep sense of safety.  This “falling in love” with everyone is a common experience with contact dancers. I have heard many people talk of this phenomenon. Boundaries become more elastic…Body tissues that hold rigidity and fear melt into relief and relaxation. The body opens more, feels more. The mind and heart follow the body’s lead. The group becomes a tribe, even if just for the length of the evening.

How does this experience affect a culture that is deeply compartmentalized and fragmented? Where the balance of power is held by the paralysis induced by people’s belief that they are protected by their separation from each other. The culture that we accept as real has made us all outcasts from ‘the human tribe’. Disempowered and endangered by our aloneness. 

Contact gives us a place to feel the protection of our natural connection, physically.  Puts the present cultural norm in sharp contrast to an accessible, sustainable alternative. When people listen deeply to themselves and each other, relationships arise from that ground. That is power.

We test our findings in CI and become increasingly confident in its applications as we imbibe small doses over time. The opportunity to accept or reject any experience is built into the principles of contact.

I am not suggesting that this movement form will suddenly revolutionize society. I am suggesting that it invites us to reclaim the innate intelligence that protects us, as individuals and as a group from oppression. We become empowered to make choices that work for us rather than accepting what someone else decides is good for us. Contact gives the opportunity to both reject what doesn’t feel good to us, to feel protected by mutuality and to feel safe in surrender. It can change opinions and, eventually, obviate the need for them. It is technology for the transformation of experience.

In a contact dance, certainty will soften to curiosity, fear will surrender to trust, armor will melt and a newly awakened heart will find it has a place in the world.

 # # #

new year, new blog

Awake: 3 AM
Awakening at 3 AM on the first day of the new year, I realize it's time to start a blog on our film production process. The last month of 2011, with its audience fundraising drive, was quite a ride: transformative, magical, stressful at times, and a learning experience.

In this blog we will update you on the progress of our film, en route to completion in 2012, and aim to provoke and involve you in our thinking process.

World Changing?
On the way to a New Years party last night, I had a powerful conversation with my partner, “J”. Although she is supportive of and impressed by our production, she is not a contact improv dancer. She confessed skepticism about my insistence that this film will be “world changing.” How, she asks, can a film about dance really be world changing?

At first the question sounded slightly hostile. But then, rather than becoming reactive, it really got me thinking anew. I found the question to be really helpful, and worthy of deeper consideration.

I know for myself that dance changes and rearranges my own inner world, my experience of myself and of my relationship to others. I experience a seismic shift, a healing, and a recovery of something fundamental about what it means to be a human being. This is what drives me to want to make a film about it.

Over the last month I have heard from numerous supporters of our production, that they feel we are doing something important, and that the world needs what our film will have to offer.

What if our film "just" brings more happiness into the world? What if it "only" brings more healing and recovery? Will it change the world more than that? I strongly believe, “yes." But we'll explore this in this blog, and in our film. I won't dare attempt an answer all at once.

This intimate dance blog
There is so much more I want to write about. But I know I should keep these posts short. This blog will also feature writing by some of my favorite people - including the associate producers and others related to the film. I hope to include writings by some of the people you will meet in front of the camera. And this being a film blog, from time to time we'll post some video clips.

What shall we call the blog? At the moment, I am thinking it should be called Awake at Three. But maybe that is a bad idea, since being awake at three happens to me all too often, but it is not particularly a habit I want to encourage or institutionalize.

For now, we are just going to call this "an intimate dance blog." Other suggestions welcome.

Welcome to the New Year, and to our blogging on the journey toward completion of our film. We are looking forward to traveling this road with you.

Dancing forward into the new year,

Sanford
Producer/Director
Contact Improvisation: An Intimate Dance