English Version:
Contact Improvisation Practice Retreat
14.-17.5.26 in Barnin
With Angela-Mara Florant, Elske Seidel & Dino Spiri
We are delighted to invite you to the 2nd Contact Improvisation Practice Retreat at this wonderful farmhouse. The venue features a spacious dance studio, a lush garden with a fireplace, and a sauna, all located directly by the serene Lake Barnin. Last year’s gathering was truly inspiring, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming you to this second edition.
As with last year, our aim is to create a framework that balances focused work with a relaxed and restful get-together. The CI Practice Retreat is designed for movers who regularly practice Contact Improvisation and are curious to explore their own topics, questions, and curiosities in the fields of movement, touch, and improvisation.
The primary format for this event will be our jams. We envision co-created, focused jam spaces that allow us to fully immerse ourselves in the practice. During free time, our social needs and wishes will naturally be met as we enjoy the sauna, swim in the lake, or simply relax and connect with one another.
Program:
Angela-Mara and Dino will offer classes in the studio to help us come together as a group and provide inspiration for fulfilling jams. These sessions will explore material that encourages us to connect and relate our moving bodies, not only in duet form but also in ways that let us break free from familiar patterns and discover unique moments. We hope for the jam spaces to be filled with diversity, freedom, some friction, and surprises.
Elske’s outdoor class, “Nature as Teacher,” honors the beautiful setting of our retreat and adds layers of sensation, detail, and freedom to our dance.
Pan will enrich the jamscape and our dances with his musical creativity and skill, while Inga will nourish our bodies and souls with her delicious organic food.
For whom is this event?
This event is for dancers with prior experience in Contact Improvisation. We recommend at least one year of regular practice.
You will get the most out of this Practice Retreat if:
- You feel comfortable with basic CI techniques, including moving through space and levels while sharing weight with another body.
- You feel at ease in your solo dance and do not rely solely on dancing in contact with another person.
- You can confidently navigate through a jam.
- You enjoy focused dancing and exploration.
Team:
Angela-Mara Florant
studied MA “Arts du spectacle” (performing arts) in Besançon (France). She lives as a freelance theatre director in Hamburg, teaches weekly contact classes, gives workshops
and organizes jams and festivals. Since 2015 she is co-organizer of the NORDTANZ Festival in Hamburg and is part of the management of the dance studio Triade. When not dancing
Contact, she teaches Pilates, dance and theater for children or directs independent productions.
www.angelamaraflorant.de
Elske Seidel
based in Berlin, is a passionate CI dancer & teacher, deeply committed to CI and its community internationally. She has been teaching dance and improvisation full time and
wholeheartedly for 30 years, CI since 2004. Her boundless fascination and joy exploring and researching Contact Improvisation in all its depth and subtleties, inspires her
workshops, privates, ongoing classes, and each of the projects she creates. Her work recognizes nature, improvisation and teaching itself as core sources for knowledge and
understanding. Some of her projects are: Contact Year Hamburg, CI Basic Training Program Hamburg, Contact Jahresgruppe Berlin and Nature as Teacher Workshops.
www.elskedance.de
Dino Spiri
has been dancing and teaching CI for a decade. His knowledge of the moving body and his teaching are strongly influenced by the Alexander Technique (Dino is a certified
teacher of the Alexander Technique), Klein Technique, his meditation practice and BMC®, and by intensive work with many wonderful teachers, such as Yoyo van der Kooi, Dan
Armon, Eva Karczag, Joerg Hassmann, Hanna Hegenscheidt, Friederike Tröscher and Jens Johannsen and Susanne Middendorf.
www.dinospiri.com
Inga Striezel
I have been cooking delicious meals for various seminars and festivals for several years now. Dancing in community, surrounded by beautiful countryside and water. I am very
happy to prepare delicious meals for all of us using mainly seasonal food from organic farming. I lived in Berlin for a long time and have recently moved to the countryside in
Lower Saxony. See you soon on the dance floor.








