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 2024.

ANTONIO LORENZO
Spain.

Antonio Lorenzo (www.oniricos.es) is a multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and producer who has spent years developing a personal language in which music and dance intertwine. He is a producer and director of Producciones Oníricas, with his BaiLand and Itineranzza festivals. He is also a producer and director of the BaiLand Training Program with the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid: a theoretical and practical study of spaces for joint music and dance creation.

He is also musical director of the A Butoh Pelao dance series with the ExLímite theater. He is also founder of the Sesión Onírica: Live Music Ecstatic Dance program. He is also creator of the M3 Lab: Music, Meditation, and Movement Laboratory. He is also creator of the Conciertos Oníricos, spaces for shared dreams. He has worked as a musician for long-standing and reputable dance companies in the world of improvisation, such as OMOSUNO by Cristiane Boullosa. He has also worked as a dancer in Chefa Alonso's improvisation orchestra, a pioneer of free improv in Spain. He has participated as a musician and dancer in numerous national and international dance festivals (contact, butoh, impro...). He has provided musical accompaniment at festivals, classes and master classes on yoga and spirituality. He is the owner and artisan of a pastry business (www.elantojo.es). He has a degree in philosophy from the UAM and is the author of numerous texts on aesthetics, art theory, dance and movement.

FEDERICO CORSINI
Italy.

I'm Federico, human, dancer, and musician and I explore the connection between body, movement, and sound. My practice is about sound becoming touch (and vice versa), supporting spaces and energies. I am the founder of the music band ALIGAGA, I'm a sound-movement researcher and a total improviser. I have a natural affinity for performing arts and visual arts. In Arts, I'm currently investigating how to enter and exit energies and how to stay with "what there is". Listening is the heart of my artistic approach and a key for practicing somatic disciplines, contact improvisation, and FormlessArt playfight. I explore touch and "sound body work", trusting in awareness of the body and its intelligent profound wisdom.