This is the first year in a long time that the organizers are a trio, with founding organizer Benno Enderlein having transitioned out of the team. Happily, he was present for the TM and Festival. Barbara Stahlberger, Dani Schwartz and Ecki Müller continue to organize and grow a festival that takes care of 310 people (!), open the facilitation and share it with a dedicated group of former teachers, keep things fresh by inviting almost all new teachers every year, create a container for research & renewal, empower participants to experience many angles into CI and above all endeavor to open and hold a space for difference. Even with all of this, I saw them relaxed with themselves and each other, dancing and participating fully the whole time. For me, it was a joy to be there, and seeing this joyful trio move with ease through the Festival was a big part of that. Contact Quarterly Newsletter Freiburg Festival report from Ann Cooper Albright, 2017 I had not participated in a Contact Improvisation festival with over 300 hundred people since Oberlin College hosted the 25th anniversary celebration in 1997. Therefore, it was an extraordinarily moving experience to find myself standing in a big gymnasium with that many people again two decades later. As I first scanned the room, I was amazed at the sheer number of bodies standing arm in arm, creating an enormous circle of people – and possibility. Their clothing – the bright greens, yellows, reds and purples that stood out against the dark colors – made me feel I was in a vast field of dancers. My mind quickly calculated whether I could dance with them all – six jam nights, 50 dancers a jam – at five minutes each I would have to dance close to five hours a night. We came from 40 different countries; half of the participants were new to the festival (like me), and half had been to Freiburg before. A good number, in fact, constituted a stalwart crew of regulars who had been coming for a long time, knew what to expect, and became the de facto keepers of the space. The whole scene struck me as somewhere on the continuum between a hippie retreat and a boy scout jamboree – a kind of Woodstock for Contacters, with enough flexibility to invite experimentation and enough structure to keep us safe and well-fed.

As people introduced themselves in the circle, I was struck by the cluster of geographies – the Palestinian men sitting next to the Israeli couple; the Ukrainian women next to the Russian family; the Koreans next to the Chinese. Some folks claimed bi-national locations including Berlin/San Francisco, Madrid/Paris, and Slovenia/on the road. Having traveled from all over the world to gather in this small town near the Black Forest to dance together, we could feel the anxiety begin to melt away and the excitement begin to flow. By the end of a short, guided warm-up, my cheeks were tired from grinning so much. The first hour together in that cavernous space set the tone of celebration and investigation for the week to come.

The Freiburg Contact Festival has been evolving ever since its original incarnation in 2000, when it was launched by Barbara Stahlberger, Benno Enderlein and Eckhard Muller. Eventually, Daniela Schwartz joined the team and a couple of years ago Benno shifted out of his role as a key organizer, although he continues to participate in various events. After 18 years, the organizational team has it down to a science – the structure of the event is impeccable. The whole event runs incredible smoothly (at least from the outside) and the space is welcoming and alive at all times of the day and late into the night. Once registered, each participant receives three different letters outlining the specifics of signing up for intensive classes, transportation, housing, and payment. Like any good summer camp, these missives tell you what clothing to bring and what to expect once you have arrived, with a whole area on the website for frequently asked questions. The food is scrumptious, the musicians wonderful, and there are intensives and one-off classes for every kind of dancer, both beginning and advanced. In the day-to-day running of the event, Barbara, Dani, and Ecki are helped by a whole posse of teachers and former teachers as well as a solid crew of staff who set up an outdoor kitchen. It is extraordinary to think that the amazing food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner – not to mention midnight snacks) is brought to us by folks who arrive a couple days before the event begins and that the “top chef” manages the entire catering operation from an elaborate food truck and tables set up under an awning.

Before the official Contact Festival begins, there is a gathering of former and current teachers. This is a meeting of minds and bodies from many different backgrounds who bring a variety of perspectives to their practice of Contact Improvisation and related somatic work and performance genres. Over the course of five days right before the festival begins, these teachers share experiences and skills, as well as assuming a critical responsibility for managing various aspects of the Festival, including performances (both spontaneous and curated), feedback structures, the library and archive room, study labs, facilitating afternoon and evening jams – to mention just a few of the extensive range of activities taking place in multiple studios at any one time. Most importantly (and ingeniously in terms of organizational strategies) however, the teachers lay down a solid ground of physical inquiry that coats the space of the “Sports Halls of the Wentzinger Schule.” By the end of the event, it was clear to me that the presence of sustained and focused dancing over this time allows the current and former teachers to locate themselves in a way that then supports the wild energy that arises when another 280-some people enter the space.

The festival begins with a welcome dinner where old friends meet and greet and new folks sit down at an empty place and are immediately welcomed into the conversation. Then there is the big opening circle, which then is divided into smaller groups based on language affinities. Eventually, we all gather for a big opening jam. It literally took me hours to wind down that first evening after moving with and along so many dancing bodies, including some current students of mine, one of whom came with her parents (clearly Contact has become a cross-generational activity over the course of its 40-odd year existence). Every night afterwards, the space is divided into two different jams. One is very open, often driven by the live music and with a lot of chatty energy around the edges, giving it a bit of a club feel. The other is a focused jam, the theme of which changes from night to night. One night, there was the classic Contact Quarterly – inspired jam in which folks would read bits of CQs aloud to inspire the dancing. As someone who loves words and history as sources for dancing, this was one of my favorite evenings. I especially appreciated the fact that the atmosphere of these jams was invaluably helped by the addition of soft performance lighting rather than the florescent gym lamps. This is the kind of detail that I recognized as very important in setting up the right mood for sustained dancing.

Every morning of the festival begins with five simultaneous intensive classes. This year the teachers were Benoit Lachambre from Canada, Cristina Turdo from Argentina, Franck Beaubois and Isabelle Uski from France, and myself, Ann Cooper Albright, from USA. These two and one-half hour classes run for five days and represent a core investigation. After lunch, there are a series of single classes taught by many other teachers from all over the world. These are wonderful opportunities to experience many approaches and different kinds of expertise. I took one each day and was thrilled to learn about “tensegrity,” my bones, and dancing with a sensibility in the eyes that can support weight sharing. In addition, there are all kinds of special events, mealtime discussions about politics or somatics or micro-phenomenology, different scores and performances. I particularly enjoyed the 10 x 5 score in which 10 people take five minutes each to present something they are currently investigating or passionate about. Another time there was a kitchen table score. This is a structure in which a group of no more than five people have a conversation around a table in front of a bigger group of witnesses. Just like a round robin, anyone can participate and folks rotate in and out. In addition to many spontaneous performances, there was a more formal event one night. This year it was curated by Jess Curtis, and included some mysterious dancers dressed in amazing animal costumes. They would pop out of a corner for a few minutes and then disappear. I stifled my desire to follow them and see who they were (at least one was in my class, I believe), but I noticed that several of the children immediately traipsed after them in curiosity and awe.