Touch and Play: The Elemental Alchemy Experiment
(versión en ESPAÑOL debajo)
We invite you to be active in this evolution of dance by exploring the ways in which our verbal and non-verbal communication enhances our connections. Learn to articulate your intentions, boundaries and desires in the dance more clearly and honestly to deepen our connections with ourselves, our partners and our community.
Touch & Play festivals have a history of exploring the edges of what Contact Improvisation can be and are known as events in which personal and communal celebration and growth reach new levels.
We will be bringing elements from Contact Improvisation, Thai Massage, Tantra, Kink, Astrology, Monkey Chanting, Improv games, and much more!
Dates 6-14 January 2017
Location: The Golden Temple, San Marcos La Laguna, Solola, Guatemaya!
Daily Schedule
07:00 morning ritual, yoga/thai chi/wake and stretch
08:42 breakfast
09:30 morning class
12:32 lunch
13:32 lecture/sound healing/siesta
16:00 evening class
18:46 dinner
19:30 night activity
21:01 sleep, or not
Program Schedule
6 January, Day 1
14:00 arrival
16:00 registration
18:00 dinner
19:00 opening circle
7 January, Day 2
EARTH. Through Thai Massage and slow Contact Improvisational Dance, we will look into how to move with our bodies so we can find a stable foundation to build a strong base for ourselves and the people around us-- the basis from which trust comes from!
We will also look into the movement of the planets, and an introduction class to Astrology through a world creation story and a dinner party analogy! In this class we will learn about the qualities of the house's signs and planets and their elemental qualities.
8 January, Day 3
WATER. We will liquify in our body through song and movement. Voice activation will set us up for a heart opening as we let our emotions release slowly into the ocean of love where we will bathe each other with our vibrations. The movement part will look at how liquid moves- we will dance flow in and out of contact as we notice how our water's inherent need is to connect!
9 January, Day 4
FIRE. We will embrace the fire that moves us, all sharing what we are passionate about! This day will include a hot herbal sauna to cleanse us from our fears. When we are clean we will go into our night sesion where we will get to experience liquid love with warm oil will be provided. Nakedness is welcomed but definitely not required!!
10 January, Day 5
Free day- go on adventure or stay and relax.
11 January, Day 6
AIR. This ilusive and invisable element will show us its power through temptation teasing and fantasy. We air out our fantasies and dreams with each other with the wind of communication. And maybe just maybe find a common string to it and if the air permits- we will be able to bring it to life!
12 January, Day 7
ETHER. We will explore how the different elements interact with each other and bring us into a symphony of the senses into interconectedness, that will unite us in order to fully experience the gift of life!
13 January, Day 8
PLAY. This day will be dedicated to the experiment that the group will conjure in the days before and a sacred temple of play will be CREATED!
14 January, Day 9
Morining Cycle, Brunch and Good Bye Jam.
Special Activities: Liquid Love (oil jam), Sound Healing, Astrology, Kirtan, Cacau Ceremony, Sauna, Lake Adventure, Bone Fire, Ecstatic Dance and a Touch & Play Party!
Some of the techniques we will be learning: Contact Improvisation, Thai Massage, Astrology, Voice Empowerment, Clowning,…
The Touch & Play Project started in 2010 as a platform to challenge the practice of Contact Improvisation (CI) as it existed at that time. Through a first festival in Berlin teachers of CI and a range of other body-based practices were invited to explore the ‘Chemistry in Contact’ by inviting in participants’ emotions, sexuality, aggression, politics and everything else often kept out of our dances. The event was a success and the material reverberated around the European and N. American contact communities raising discussions on the boundaries of our practice and the perceived (un)safety of our attempts to exclude our chemistry from our dances.
Successive T&P events have focussed on the exploration of the ‘Edges of Contact’ by working one specific frontier (e.g. the Contact community, children and families) or by providing spaces where all edges are equally welcome. The T&P Project is run as a disseminated network of interested researchers, teachers and practitioners whereby any individual or group is encouraged to voice their own questions or concerns and to create a safe space to have them addressed in an authentic and playful manner.
This year’s theme of Communication takes us into a deepening of the dance through verbal and nonverbal communication techniques, styles, skills and approaches. We aim to bring, explore, and open all of ourselves: the communicator, the sensual, the sexy, the playful, the curious, the powerful, the receptive. Through this wide lens we continue to question the relationship of Chemistry and Physics in this vast expanse of dance we call Contact Improvisation.
About the Facilitators:
Niss Bach, creative director of the yoga forest. After continuing his studies with Thai massage and water treatments in Mexico Laos and Thailand, Niss has returned back to his home in San Marcos with The Yoga Forest. Niss is a world traveler since the age of 20. Originally from Jerusalem, he has been exploring different communities and experiences in order to decide what kind of community he would like to be involved in and help create. He became involved with The Yoga Forest in 2011 and his investments of energy have helped create the beautiful Yoga Shala.
Niss is an artist. He began studying dance in high school and moved into Circus Arts in 2003, where he studied in Israel and Madrid. After 8 years of performing on stage, on the streets and in festivals, he fused his knowledge of movement into the healing arts of Thai Massage and Yoga Therapy. Niss has many gifts to share: he speaks four languages and is a dynamic problem solver within communities. He offers group forming camps and workshops as well as astrology readings.
Daniel Hayes is a Medical Doctor, public health scientist, eco-anarchist and practical idealist. He’s been playing, dancing, meditating and conversing CI for over a decade and actively sharing his curiosity and knowledge and doubts for the past eight years.. He is the founder of the Touch&Play Project, which explores the edges of Contact Improvisation by inviting our (al)chemical bodies into the dance. Through artistic and academic research he hopes to highlight the potential of CI as a tool to create authentic connections with oneself and the other by bringing it into play, communication, BDSM, therapy, education, sexuality, somatic mindfulness and more.
Andrea Scheel is a body-mind explorer, contact improv dancer and water being who likes sharing through collective experiences for creation and healing. Trained in contemporary dance and naturopathy, she has immersed herself in the artistic and healing paths both converging in energy work. Along with Tantra and water trips, she has been co creating several workshops and laboratories with Contact improvisation, as well as the Liquid Flow Festival in Mexico. For her, CI is a tool for communicating and creating new worlds and new realities to emerge.
Tatiana Toledo is passionate of the experience of life itself and curious even of death. She is a social educator, meditation lover along with dance and music. She performs Shamanic Reiki, sound healing and energetic surgery, she facilitates Psych-k, and has been a Pilates and Tibetan Yoga professor. She studied Tibetan Tantric Buddhism for 7 years now, and nowadays Tantra is her spiritual path. She became a sexual healer in Ronald Fuchs school and learned Tantric masotherapy in Kahula School. She worked in Espíritu Tantra and directed the Tantra Temple in Madrid. For her, Tantra is Life itself.
Daniel Hernandez. I am an itinerant mischief-maker exploring the ritual roots of performance. The deeper I have dived into teaching, performing, and living in this rich territory, the more I have seen archaic/ shamanic clown and trickster cosmologies become fascinating and colourful routes into individuation: containing a vast treasure-box of rituals, dance, liminal states, grotesque archetypes and clown-lore. My performances, projects, ceremonies and workshops draw upon a wide variety of related traditions: These include Dance, Clown, Bouffon, Butoh, Contact Improvisation, Tao/Tantra, Vodou, Mask, Psychomagic, Art, Sacred Sexuality and Breathwork. I am continually researching and developing my practice through trainings, readings, writings, ceremonies, experiments, and mistakes. My first love was music. I don’t claim to be a master of anything.
For more info and registration contact niss: contact@touchandplay.org
Tuition: $475. Early bird $375 before December 6.
Payment can be made to Paypal: nisspay@gmail.com
Price includes: Food, Camping and all Activities.
Beds are available for $50 extra.
Space is limited to 20 participants.
VERSION ESPAÑOL
Unete a esta evolución de la danza al explorar las maneras como nuestra comunicación verbal y no verbal incrementa nuestra conciencia. Aprende a articular tus intenciones, fronteras y deseos a través del movimiento. Así profundizaremos en la conexión con nuestros mundos internos y mundos externos.
Los festivales Touch and Play tienen una historia en la exploración de las fronteras del Contact improvisación donde el crecimiento personal y comunitario pueden alcanzar nuevos niveles.
Compartiremos elementos del Contact Improvisación, masaje Tailandés, Tantra, Kink, Astrología, Juegos de improvisación, cantos de monos y mucho más.
Fechas Enero 6-14 2017
Lugar : El templo Dorado
Horario diario
7:00 sesion mañanera (yoga, tai chi, estiramientos matutinos)
8:42 desayuno
9:30 clase de mañana
12:32 almuerzo
13:32 lectura/sanación de sonido/siesta
16:00 clase de tarde
18: 46 cena
19:30 actividad nocturna
21:01 dormir, quien quiera…
Programación del festival
Enero 6, Día 1
14:00 llegada
16:00 registro
18:00 cena
19:00 círculo de apertura
Enero 7, Día 2
TIERRA.
Con el masaje tailandés y la danza contact improvisación nos adentraremos en el movimiento de nuestros cuerpos para encontrar un base estable en la propia danza y con los demás— esta base sólida que genera confianza! Seguirá con una sesión introductoria a la astrología con una historia de la creación del universo. En esta clase se aprenderán las cualidades elementales de los planetas y de los signos de cada casa.
Enero 8, Día 3
AGUA.
Nos sumergiremos en el cuerpo líquido con el canto y el movimiento. La activación de la voz nos llevará a la apertura de corazón que permite liberar nuestras emociones suavemente al mar de amor donde todo fluye. La exploración de movimiento nos llevará a sentir cómo los líquidos se mueven dentro de nuestros cuerpos— danzando así fluidamente dentro y fuera del contacto, la necesidad del agua es de conectar!
Enero 9, Día 4
FUEGO.
Abrazaremos el fuego que nos mueve, compartiendo lo que más nos apasiona e inquieta. Este día comienza por un sauna herbal para limpiarnos de nuestros miedos, para seguir con una sesión de Liquid Love, donde compartiremos piel con piel, la desnudez es bienvenida pero no obligatoria!!
Enero 10, Día 5
Día libre — día de aventuras, o de quedarse y relajarse.
Enero 11, Día 6
AIRE.
Este elemento invisible nos mostrará su poder a través del juego, la fantasía y la tentación. Nuestros sueños y fantasías entre cada uno pueden airearse con el viento de la comunicación.
Enero 12, Día 7
ETER.
Exploraremos cómo los diferentes elementos interactúan entre ellos y nos llevan a una sinfonía de sensaciones hacia la interconexión, que nos unirá hacia la experiencia completa de la vida!
Enero 13, Día 8
JUEGO.
Este día será dedicado a experimentar con el juego que el grupo quiera crear!
Enero 14, Día 9
Círculo de mañana, desayuno, jam de despedida.
Técnicas que se aprenderán: Contact Improvisación, Masaje Tailandés, Astrología, Uso de la Voz, CLown.
Actividades especiales: Liquid Love (jam con aceite), sanación con sonido, astrología, Kirtan, sauna, ceremonias, fogata, danza ecstática y una megaparty Touch and Play.
Más info y registro: contact@touchandplay.org
Precio: $475 dlls
Precio especial antes de Diciembre 6: $375 dlls
Pago puede hacerse a través de Paypal: nisspay@gmail.com
Precio incluye: alimento, camping y todas las actviidades.:Camas disponibles agregando $ 50 dlls.
Cupo limitado a 20 participantes.
