Facilitators
Aude Fondard
Nature Immersion
Aude trained for stage acting in France and in London (2005-2009). They reconnected with dance, thanks to Mira Mansell, Entity Dance Company, Sydney. From 2011 Aude delved into the contemporary dance world with Stella Zannou, Britta Pudelko and Rakesh Sukesh, at Tanzfabrik, Berlin. They eventually joined Atsushi Takenouchi’s Jinen Butoh School in Tuscany (2016-17).
One of their focus as a dance artist is landscape. Aude is especially interested in the spirit of the place, and its impact on human beings. When they are not performing or writing poetry, Aude facilitates Contact Improvisation jams and classes, butoh-inspired dance journeys and dance with nature sessions.
Aude launched Cie Amako! in 2020, an association based in Marseilles, supporting their poetic and dance performances. This videoclip gives an idea of a recent production.
Jennie Zimmermann
Somatics and Dance / Body-Mind Centering®
Jennie has been dancing Contact Improvisation for more than 15 years and is a Body-Mind Centering® Somatic Movement Educator. Her work is mainly somatic and improvisation based and offers spaces to explore and reflect on elementary and dynamic processes of communication, activity and regeneration, self-care and relationship.
She followed the Laban Bartenieff Movement Analysis Programme at Eurolab Berlin and studied naturopathy, intuitive and process-based bodywork approaches and herbal medicine since 2001.
For many years she co-organized and performed in the street theatre company mosaique in fire, dance and stilt shows.
Together with Jo Bruhn she organizes Contact Time.
Jo Bruhn
Contact Improvisation
Jo Bruhn is a passionate dancer, performer and CI teacher.
Since 2001 he dedicated his life to performing arts in various facets. As acrobat, fire show artist, as stilt walker, as actor, choreographer and most important – as dancer.
The intense work with Nancy Stark Smith inspired Jo’s teaching, dancing and his artistic approach to dance.
Jo took part in the Contemporary Dance education “Dance Intensive” at the Tanzfabrik Berlin and in countless workshops in CI, Axis Syllabus, Klein Technique, acrobatics with various teachers like Jörg Hassmann, Frey Faust, Britta Pudelko amongst many others.
Recently deep inspiration came from Atsushi Takenouchi and his work with Jinen Butoh.
Jo is part of the “Contact companI” and co-organizer of CI festival “Contact Time” and works as a solo artist and in collaboration with others like Aude Fondard (Dance – theater „Designed to Die?“), Jennie Zimmermann (mosaique, Contact Time).
Rita Vilhena
Contemporary Dance researcher
A professional dancer since 2003, her main motivation is the idea of transformation and participation, driven by intuition and pleasure. Her latest works #VIBRA #DOR and CORPO SANTO are a mark of her artistic career with an interest in ritual and performance, with MA-MA and Pela Nossa Pele, in the anthropocene and ecofeminism and, more recently, research and creation on the autobiographical.
In 2005 she created and directed Baila Louca improvisation and performance in Rotterdam, a platform that has nurtured various international collaborations with choreographers, dancers and musicians. She won first prize in the Solo Dance Contest (2012) at the Gdansk Dance Festival – Club Zak , Poland. In Portugal, she is the artistic director and founding member of the Partícula Extravagante association and the program maker of Partícula no Açúcar an experimental platform.
Since 2005, she has been an active member of the Contact Improvisation practice, facilitates CI around the world and co-organises the Portugal Contact Improvisation Festival and Contact Improvisation Portugal Extravagante. She divides her time between teaching and studying. She is a guest teacher at the Escola Superior de Dança, at similar colleges in Holland, as well as at various international festivals. She has a Master’s degree in Performing Arts from FCSH, is a PhD candidate in Artistic Studies – Art and Mediations at Faculdade Nova de Lisboa (FCSH), and is a researcher at ICNOVA – Performance and Cognition.
Daniella Kassif
Guest teacher
Daniella is a CI dancer and teacher, seeking freedom and expression in human relations through movement. She has been dancing and training in various dance techniques since childhood, practising all the range from ballet to contact Improvisation.
After graduating with her BA in ‘Cinema and Choreography’ (2020), she took part in the bi-annual choreography program of ‘Kelim Center’ where she explored the relations between the open form of Contact Improvisation and the performative space.
Inspired by the perspective of Deep Ecology, Daniella is integrating those ideas into her movement practice and creation.
Since November 2023, Daniella has been based in SerVivo, Portugal, where she continues her choreography practice and teaching of CI in BONA Project, Lisbon.
Chris Gaber
Guest teacher
Passionate about moving in different ways Chris came across Contact Improvisation in 2015, finding himself flabbergasted by this both vitalizing and subtle fusion of movement, dance, improvisation and somatic exploration. Throughout the following years he developed his CI skills with teachers such as Jörg Hassmann, Daniel Werner, Valentina Cabro, Elske Seidel, and Sasha Gönner. Besides this Chris found inspiration in Formless Arts Play Fight Practice by Bruno Caverna and Ester Braga.
Lately he has found special interest in CI as a social and political practice beyond its performative, aesthetical, physical and somatic significance inspired by Heike Pourian´s work on somatic politics.
Chris has been active member of the CI community in Dresden, Germany, as teacher, co-organizer and spaceholder of regular and long jams. Since 2022 Chris is mainly based at SerVivo where he currently co-teaches the weekly CI class togther with Daniella Kassif and finds bliss and fulfillment as baker and gardener of the community.
Irene Pons
Guest teacher
Irene has spent the past few years exploring the practice of Contact Improvisation as a nomadic practitioner. For the last three years, she has been studying at Towards – Centre for the Practice and Research of Contact Improvisation in Thailand, inspired from teachers like Sasha Dodo, Dolores Dewhurst Marks, and Ekaterina Basalaeva, among others. Her work blends her passions for bodywork, dance, and visual arts, resulting in projects that reflect her interests.
www.irene-pons.com