Join Us For a Weekend of Contact Improvisation

Join us for a weekend of dance and delight at the 2013 Ontario Regional Contact Jam. Beginners, novices, and old-timers are welcome! The theme of this year is coming home. This has a double meaning. The annual Ontario jam is "coming home" to the beautiful Kitchener-Waterloo, where it began in 2000. The theme is also an invitation for all those that participate in the weekend to sink into the comfort and safety of your home in the body and the mind and the unity of movement with others in the practice. "We are all just walking each other home," said Ram Dass.

As of today over 120 dancers of all ages are registered for the weekend and another 40 are expected to drop in. A third are from out of province, including Sault St Marie, Winnipeg, Nova Scotia, and multiple cities in Michigan and New York State. A dozen participants will be arriving from Quebec; including a Finnish scientist; and one intrepid van load is travelling 12 hours from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Only 16 volunteers are registered from Kitchener-Waterloo. Find out how you can you help with the jam.

See below for more details about the weekend including housing, the schedule and program as well as directions and registration fees.

For those who have already registered, the Welcome Letter has all of the information you need to plan and prepare for the jam.

Event Details

What: A Contact Improvisation dance jam! The ORCJ jam will feature workshops and special sessions, featuring some of Ontario's and the surrounding area's great movement teachers.

Who: Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran of the form, people of all abilities and all levels of dance experience are welcome. If you can get to Kitchener-Waterloo from wherever you live, you're in the Ontario Region and we'll treat you like family! Bilingual English/français facilitation will be available (as volunteers permit).

How: Want to learn Contact Improvisation? During the jam, come to our Contact Improv Beginner class. Come with loose-fitting or yoga clothes and be prepared to dance in bare feet. For all languages - we'll do our best to provide translation as volunteers permit. To support those who are sensitive to smells and odours, avoid scents or perfumes on you and your clothing, please! Come as you are!

Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, 116 Queen St N, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

(see pictures HERE)

Food: Sumptuous vegetarian feasts provided throughout the weekend. We'd like to know who has food allergies that we should be aware of; we can't promise that we will accommodate all of them, but we will do our best. Contact us via OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca. We ask people to bring plates, bowls, mugs and cutlery with them to the jam. (Food help needed! See below.)

Housing: With the theme of Coming Home we are committing to try to find a local home for all out of town jammers to stay. Kitchener-Waterloo is a small community and so housing may not be available for everyone. Register early so we can find you a special place to call home while you are with us. If you live in Kitchener-Waterloo think about sharing your home with those from away. Host someone or a posse of someones in your home. See information below.

Ride Sharing: We are coordinating rides to and from Kitchener-Waterloo. Enter your ride details on our carpooling page.

Weekend Schedule: Registration opens Friday May 3, 2013 at 5:30pm. Cleanup starts Sunday, May 5 at 3:00pm - help appreciated. You can preview our tentative schedule.

Cost (all-inclusive weekend): $50 before March 2013, $65 before April 15 2013, $80 after April 15 2013. Children accompanying paying dancer parent(s): free. Parent(s) accompanying paying dancer children: free. For alternative financial arrangements, including daily rates, hardship discounts, and easy payment plans, contact Charlie at ontjam@contactimprov.ca or 416-427-2177.

Contact a Human:

• Tanya Williams, Kitchener - ontjam2013@contactimprov.ca
• Charlie Halpern-Hamu, Toronto - ontjam@contactimprov.ca - 416-427-2177
• Ian Allen, Ottawa - idallen@idallen.ca - 613-235-6216

The Venue:Church of the Good Shepherd

Outside

• Street view of church.
• Park across the street.
• Open space behind the church.

Inside

• Kitchen and eating space.

Contact Improvisation Beginner Class: The Very Basics Introduction

For people who are completely new or fairly new to Contact Improvisation, the Ontario Regional Contact Jam is offering a Beginner's Workshop Introduction to Contact Improvisation Fundamentals: Friday, May 3 (time to be determined).

The aim is to provide a fun and safe introduction to three fundamental practices so people can then begin dancing at the Ontario Regional Contact Jam (and elsewhere). Come play with us!

Come to the Intro with stretchy or yoga clothes (no zippers, buttons, or buckles) and be prepared to dance in bare feet. Please refrain from wearing perfumes or other scents, to support the health of those who are allergic.

The class is included as part of the Ontario Regional Contact Jam weekend admission fee. Guests not subscribed to the full weekend pay $10 for the class.

For more information about the intro class, contact us at OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca.

Talent: Reserved and Un-Reserved Performances

We're having a talent show and possibly other performances. We're planning for most of the performances slots to be available for short (5 minute) spur-of-the-moment ideas right at the jam itself, but if you have a prepared piece you hope to fit in, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can try to accommodate. Contact: ORCJshow@contactimprov.ca

Bodywork and Healing arts

Once again we are inviting community health professionals and amateurs to share their passion for enhancing the healthy & dancing body-mind-and soul!
We  already have 9 registered  volunteer care givers and have opening for more...Participants will benefit from  quality exchanges and therapists my find this to be an interesting place to showcase their work, explore and exchange (click here for details )  
 
As a community outreach, students from the MEDIX SCHOOL of Massage (Supervised by an RMT- Instructor) -will provide treatments on Saturday May  4th
details to be announced... and  will help a local charity
 

If you are interested in participating as a caregiver or healing circle volunteer (to  organize the space and exchange rotations)
please email  healing.orcj13@gmail.com  or call Pi-Air (pierre) 1-877-969-8907
with  the following info : Name, technique/service, time/day you are willing to contribute to the event, your mini bio, website & contact info and we will post it on the Bodywork and Healing page

Call for Ontario Regional Contact Jam Volunteers!

Contact us!: OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca

Share Your Home:

Can you offer housing space for our out-of-town dancers? Can your parents offer space, or your friends, or your neighbours? Guest jammers bring their own sleeping bags and pillows and their sense of fun; the Jam feeds them; and you contribute your friendly hospitality and a bed, sofa, or perhaps a floor. If you have space to house out-of-town dancers contact Brad at brad.johnston.coaching@gmail.com.

Help with Food

We are looking for volunteers to help with the food for the Ontario Regional Contact Jam. Can you help make this happen in May 2013? Contact us at OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca The work will be mostly prep work (slicing, dicing, food processor running...). Not hard and lots of excellent company!

Help with Help

We're organizing the 2013 Ontario Regional Contact Jam in May 2013, in Kitchener-Waterloo. We invite all interested and committed contactors to join in the creation of another awesome contact dance experience. We're looking for help with all kinds of sub-projects:

• flyer design,
• advertising and promotion,
• specialty workshops,
• food,
• housing / billeting,
• set-up and clean-up,
• facilitation,
• talent show,
• music,
• budgeting,
• incorporation,
• and all kinds of stuff we haven't thought of and you have.

We'd like to invite members of the contact improv community throughout Ontario and neighbourhood to help us pull it all together. If you've got an idea of how you can contribute, please let us know. Contact one of us, and we'll get you hooked in with the group:

• Tanya Williams, Kitchener - ontjam2013@contactimprov.ca
• Charlie Halpern-Hamu, Toronto - ontjam@contactimprov.ca - 416-427-2177
• Ian Allen, Ottawa - idallen@idallen.ca - 613-235-6216

2013 Open Planning Meetings

We're planning the next Ontario Regional Contact Jam in May 2013. We invite all members of the Ontario contact community to join the planning group.

We want to plan our way forward in an open way with broad involvement from the Ontario CI community. So join us and help guide our common future.

We regularly accommodate out-of-town teleconferencers, so please let us (OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca) know if you would like to call in. In addition to all the regular organizational tasks, we're looking to clarify our overall scope and goals and set a budget.

If you'd like to participate, but can't come to meetings, contact one of us (in any language), and we'll get you hooked in with the group:

• Tanya Williams, Kitchener - OntJam2013@contactimprov.ca
• Charlie Halpern-Hamu, Toronto - OntJam@contactimprov.ca - 416-427-2177
• Ian Allen, Ottawa - idallen@idallen.ca - 613-235-6216

Thanks,
Tanya, Fred, Adam, Tegan, Brad, Pierre, Charlie, Ian!, ...