ORGANIZATION TEAM.

The organizing team is made up of Carmen Alcalde, Diana Bonilla, Leilani Weis and Lucía Sánchez. Four women who have been dedicated for years to the practice, dissemination and teaching of Contact Improvisation Dance. Four people. Four ways to understand and experience this discipline, and something that unites them: the desire to continue studying and delving into the principles of CI with the help of international masters with extensive experience who were close to its origin.

CARMEN ALCALDE.
Spain (Extremadura).

Organizer and dance teacher Contact Improvisation. Social educator, cultural anthropologist. Gestalt therapist with a gender perspective. Facilitator of group processes.

I am interested in the synergies between CI, voice, sound and movement improvisation and how these practices affect our perception, subjectivity, health and modes of relationship, creating new forms of contact with ourselves, with others and with space-world.

I trained in parallel in the social and artistic fields, approaching singing, theater and dance since childhood and later doing different training from which I still continue to draw. In 2005 I fell in love with Contact Improvisation and delved deeper with numerous teachers. Since 2010 I have been teaching CI in different spaces and with various groups, in addition to getting involved in the organization of meetings, festivals and instances that promote the practice and its philosophy. Since 2017 I have lived in and managed La Enramada, an art and creation space located in the Vera Valley (Cáceres) where I work as a therapist, host workshops, residencies and cultural events, and offer JAMs and regular CI classes.

As an CI teacher, I have participated in the festivals of Asturias, Madrid, Cardedeu, Malloak (Lecumberri), Italy, and La Provenza and in other events such as “Pirineos en Danza”, “Namoreira”, “Itineranzza” “WIM Festival” or “FestCAM”.

I co-organize the CI Meeting “Danzas Magas”, the CI and improvisation residential “Spaces ( ) between life and dance” together with Lucía Sánchez, the meeting “Enramando” together with Ernesto Novales, and the workshop “Color and movement”, along with Leticia Ruifernández.

I coordinate co-educational projects on Gender Equality in public schools and women's associations in the La Vera region and have taught several dance, voice and self-care workshops for women both in rural areas and in Equality Spaces in the community of Madrid.

DIANA BONILLA.
Spain (Madrid).

Dancer, performer, pedagogue and organiser. She began her studies in 1996 in classical dance, Spanish dance and flamenco in Madrid. A few years later she continued her training by entering contemporary dance and discovering Contact Improvisation. Since then she has continued her study, practice, teaching and dissemination uninterruptedly. She dedicates herself to researching the art of improvising with teachers such as Shahar Dor, Keith Henessy, Julyen Hamilton, Katie Duck, Daniel Lepkoff, Cristiane Boullosa and David Zambrano, who have strongly influenced her in both her artistic and teaching practice.

Since 2002 Diana has been dancing in different companies and for different choreographers such as Cristiane Boullosa and Francesc Bravo (Cía Rayo Malayo). She has collaborated as a dancer and assistant to the choreographer Meyling Bisogno in multiple works since 2009 (www.meylingbisogno.info). As an improviser and performer she participates in the Omos Uno project, performing periodically since 2008 on independent circuits mainly in Madrid. Since 2019, Pedro Berdayes (National Dance Award in the Creation Category of the year 2000) has collaborated as a choreographer with the company Omos Uno.

Diana teaches CI and has regularly organised CI festivals in Madrid since 2006. She has been part of the teaching team of the CI Training in Madrid and Bilbao ( www.espaciofci.com ) since the beginning of the project. She has organised EXIN since 2014 with teachers such as David Zambrano, Edivaldo Ernesto, Sara Shelton Mann, Meg Stuart and Guillermo Weickert. ( www.exindance.com ).

LEILANI WEIS.
Chile, Spain (Barcelona).

I am a dancer, mover and researcher of movement as a creative process. I am very curious about my own body and others bodies dancing, together or alone.

I live dance as an act of presence and attention, where I receive information from myself, from others and from the environment. With these I can play, compose, create and feel great joy.

My work focuses on the mechanics of bodies on Earth and how they affect us. When I come into contact with others and with the space I let myself be affected equally. The dance space, filled with information, is my place to practise presence and attention.

In the classes I try to open possibilities for practitioners/dancers to find their own organic, biological and natural paths, the ones the body possesses and we so often forget. I trust in the beauty and natural organisation of the body and seek its wise ways.

My work world is moving around, teaching classes, facilitating labs, performing, organising CI events and creating pieces.

I have taught in several countries in Latin America, North America and Europe where I continue researching and collaborating with different groups of artists. For 18 years I have been investigating the intersection between Contact Improvisation and Argentine Tango, two dances that I love deeply. In this research I have learned a lot about space and compositional musicality in the body. I am fascinated by understanding the depths of these two techniques and seeing how they can meet and disagree during a creative and compositional process. I contribute to the organisation of different events whose aim is to create attentive containers where we can study and practice Contact Improvisation and the techniques that nourished it. (ItalyContactFest, IMMERSIONES, Contact Improvisation festival).

LUCÍA SÁNCHEZ.
Spain (Mataelpino, Madrid).

Movement teacher for 15 years (Contemporary Dance and Pilates since 2008, and Contact Improvisation since 2011). Lucia teaches regularly in Madrid as well as Spain and Europe (intensive workshops and Festivals such as: Asturias Contact Festival (2023), “En Provence” Contact Festival (2022, 2023, 2024), Malloak Contact Festival (2022), Cardedeu Contact Festival (2019), Italy Contact Festival (2018), Contact Meets Contemporary (Goettingen, Germany, 2016, 2017 and 2018), Madrid Contact Festival (2017) and others...).

Projects: In 2008 she opened, directed and taught at the Lapuertaroja studio (Madrid) and managed it until 2021. In 2021 she consolidated La Mimosa, a room dedicated to conscious movement and dance, where she teaches regular classes and intensive workshops as well as organising Jams. Lucia has also co-organised the End of the Year Contact Improvisation Meeting (now Danzas Magas) from 2015 to the present.

From 2012 to 2016 she was part of the improvised music and dance company Omos Uno, directed by Cristiane Boullosa, which regularly performed in Madrid.

More about Lucía.

MUSICIANS 2026.

EBI SORIA.
Donosti, Euskal Herria.

A multidisciplinary artist, musician, choreographer, actor, and teacher, he trained at the Donostia School of Music and Dance and at the "Taller de Musics" in Barcelona. He furthered his training in jazz, composition, and arrangement with various Spanish and international musicians and artists.

His journey began in music, and he gradually discovered an emerging and eager interest in exploring other related disciplines, such as dance, contact improvisation, theater, installation art, audiovisual art, and performance. He focuses his interest on improvisation and real-time creation, both individually and collectively, training with various artists in this field, including Lisa Nelson, Jess Curtis, Joao Fiadeiro, Julian Hamilton, and Katy Duck.

In 2014 he created the company CIA HIRIKO DANTZA PERFORMANCE ELKARTEA with which he has been carrying out activities related to the arts of movement, both in the field of teaching and in the social field

PALOMA CARRASCO.
España (Madrid).

I make my living as an educator, and my life is enriched by the regular practice of free improvisation. I have been active in the Madrid free improvisation scene for over two decades and have also participated in scenes across Spain and Europe. Since 2017, I have spearheaded the *Escucha en Movimiento* (Listening in Motion) project—a space for exploring free improvisation between musicians and dancers—by organizing regular practice sessions and workshops in Madrid. I am part of the Dance Department at Cruce, contributing to the programming and organization of the space. I currently maintain several active interdisciplinary performance projects: a duo with dancer Koke Armero, a duo with double bassist and dancer David Leahy, and a trio with Tania González and Julyen Hamilton, alongside numerous collaborations with musicians such as Ricardo Tejero and Javier Pedreira.

My background includes training as a musician (piano, cello), a "mover" (FCI), and an engineer (Telecommunications). Since 2003, in a process of continuous growth, I have drawn inspiration from mentors such as Chefa Alonso, Wade Matthews, Barre Phillips, Lê Quan Ninh, Cristiane Boullosa, Katie Duck, Julyen Hamilton, and Mónica Valenciano. Since 2014, I have focused my work on interdisciplinary exploration, moving from the physical body into spatial awareness. Body and space have become central to my cello practice, creating synergies during interactions with dancers. I continue to train, research, and share my interdisciplinary work across Europe, attending events such as the "Impro Summer Intensive" (Amsterdam), "Laboratori d'improvisació multidisciplinaria" (Barcelona), "Common Ground: music meets dance" (Berlin), "Soundance" (Berlin), and the "Conférence Européenne Pour l'Improvisation" (CEPI) (Valcivières 2019; Puget-Ville "Stage 2020" & 2022; Esino Lario 2022; Puget-Ville 2025).