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  contactfestival Freiburg 2005 -
People contacting under an improvisational score
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  Ester Momblant Ribas
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‘The big circle starts in 5 minutes’. - A voice announces to all of us meanwhile we finish our first delicious meal of the week. So, we wash our dishes and get ready to introduce ourselves to five full days of improvisation contacting with people.
People??!!
We are two hundred people coming from about twenty different countries around the world. All of us meeting with the same purpose: dance and share the experience of Contact Improvisation. Yes, I am in Freiburg 2005!!!!

UOUH...but hang on!! From where shall I start?
First let me see…. where shall I put my tent up, my fabric bubble, my skin-esphere for the next five days. Let me see how my bits and pieces are, and where I place them inside of my fabric-sphere, so they are handy for when I need them.
Well, I am ready!!!! Mmm…. Lets see what is around my kinesphere. There are two very big sports halls; One for sleeping and the other for dancing. Each of them can be divided onto three, by magic curtains-walls that go up and down. A small but very cosy kitchen area, and a movable dinning area which spacing depends on the weather forecast; sun: outdoors, rain: indoors. Yes, I feel comfortable here. But, I am sharing it with two hundred people!

Two hundred people!!!
How many different ways for connecting with people are there?
The first few hours, of course, we all greet to the people who already know from past festivals, courses, or other events. But within the second day something magic happens. New people and new faces become familiar, connections begin to happened:
The coincidence of having lunch beside the same person more than once, wearing the same colour clothes, keep meeting them on the dance floor, being tent neighbours, having friends in common, etc…
That is nice!! I liked that gesture, the energy of that person, their comments: affinities and attractions begin to appear around me.
Some how this person influences me, I am learning from them.
UOUH!!! This is a bit too much information for my little head; I need to divers my attention. Lets go to the lake or to wash my very sweaty cloths.
Oh! Where was I? What was I doing? I lost myself among all those exciting inputs. Some how they seem to disappear, leaving me with a feeling of emptiness. Oh! This must be a gap [ ]. Well then, breath and surf within it.

But, after all this grazing among two hundred people, something magic happens again: Mmmm… I am very fine here with this person, it is fun, the conversation is engaging me, and I shall stay here for a while. I might as well see where this takes me. Mmmmm… it is not fixed, it develops and takes me somewhere else…
><: UAUH!!!! That was great. But, what is that delicious smell awaking my stomach and my saliva?
><Food again…<>

So, one after another, the connections come on my way. They mixed with my own needs and wishes and day after day it seems that I am living in a five days on going JAM.
But how come is this happening?
Is it prescript or descript? Am I provoking it? Am I deciding previously how I want it to be? Or, it just happens, is it just describing what is happening around me? Just following whatever triggers me, and that builds the path under my feet. How does it work? It is magic! Can I control what happens in a JAM?

Is this ‘magic on going JAM’ happening only in Freiburg 2005?
To me it was revealed here, but that does not mean that it was not happening already around me. I guess, I just need to allow myself to telescope the coincidences flying around, like little seeds of possible engagements with the outside world: Open score.

Thanks to all 200 people! Ester Momblant Ribas

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