Updated February 05 2026 – Mis à jour le 05 février 2026
Let’s Dance! Subscription information is at the bottom of this newsletter. – Ian!
Hello, Ottawa/Gatineau area dancers and movers.
Events in or originating from the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
Events that recur weekly or monthly show only the nearest upcoming event or two. Follow the link for future events.
The events in this section recur weekly, with some exceptions. Check the official event page to make sure the event is scheduled on the day you want to attend.
If you’re new to Contact Improvisation Dance, first please attend the next free CI Basics class/jam on February 7 below.
CI dancers who have already taken a CI Basics class in Ottawa are welcome to attend any of our almost weekly Saturday CI jams running almost every Saturday until June 27 2026. (We have no Saturday CI during July and August.)
In Ottawa, this dance takes place mostly weekly, outdoors at Mooney’s Bay, all year round. See the web page above, the facebook group: Dance to Nature group, or contact Alana O’Donnell for current information. Some Sundays have no facilitated dances.
The grassy dance area is not very friendly to wheelchairs, though there are paved paths adjacent. Accessible city washrooms are available in the main building at Mooney’s Bay.
This event has no online site on which to post updates, so you have to contact an organizer to make sure that there are no last-minute changes.
Biodanza, which means “dance of life,” has been around for over 60 years and is practiced all over the world. Biodanza is a process of human development that expands and enriches parts of our identity! It is a rich pedagogy of the art of living that enriches our connection to ourselves, to others, and to the world.
Biodanza in English with Alana happens most Wednesdays, except on the fourth week of every month, at the Rosemount Orange Hall at 41 Rosemount Avenue in Ottawa. See the web site or the item below for the exact dates.
Cet événement ne dispose pas de site web pour publier des mises à jour. Vous devez donc contacter facebook: Isabelle 819-665-2107 pour vous assurer qu’il n’y a pas de modifications de dernière minute.
Les cours hebdomadaires recommence pour accueillir ceux et celles qui veulent découvrir la Biodanza.
These Thursday evening Ecstatic Dances usually take place at 7:30pm on the first and third Thursdays of each month at the Rosemount Orange Hall at 41 Rosemount Avenue in Ottawa. Different people run these events, each with their own facebook sites, so you have to look in multiple places to find out the details. See below for the current dates.
The start time and schedule shown here are approximate; they keep changing. These weekly dances are run by different people who may do things differently, so you have to check the facebook event for the current week to know the actual start time and dance schedule.
These Thursday evening Ecstatic Dances usually take place on the first and third Thursdays of each month at the Rosemount Orange Hall at 41 Rosemount Avenue in Ottawa. Different people run these events, each with their own facebook sites, so you have to look in multiple places to find out the details. The start times aren’t always the same; check online before you head out. The events are only visible on the facebook; there is no public web page. Try looking in all these places for the upcoming events:
The Rosemount Orange Hall is not accessible; there are many steps up to the dance floor and the washroom is too small for a wheelchair.
Ecstatic dance offers a space for people to let go of inhibitions, connect with themselves and others, and experience the joy of movement in its purest form. It can be a deeply transformative and liberating practice for those who engage with it regularly.
We welcome you to our Dances of Universal Peace.
Please join us every First Friday from 7 till 9 pm
We will dance at the First United Church in the Westboro neighborhood of Ottawa on the first Friday of each month, 347 Richmond Road Ottawa. Room 7/8. Please enter through the back door at ground level on Madison Street. Pat and Jessica and Elyse will lead us through a program of joyful and contemplative dances.
Dances of Universal Peace are monthly, participatory simple circle dances and songs drawn from the earth’s sacred traditions, such as: Jewish, Christian (Creation Spirituality, Aramaic & Gospel), Islamic Sufi, Buddhist, Native American, Hindu, African, Celtic, Zoroastrian, and other Universal songs of peace. Sacred circle dances and mantric chants from a variety of mystical traditions focus on opening the heart in community. All dances are taught on the spot.
Dress casual. Singles and couples are welcome. Bring a friend if you like. Live music by (leader(s)) & friends. $10–20 donation requested at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds. Venue is accessible at ground level. Women’s washrooms are up 3 stairs.
You are invited to dance for peace – bring a friend! The Dances of Universal Peace are a 40 year old tradition of dancing to simple chants from a variety of the world’s religions in a simple and peaceful moving meditation. Newcomers are happily welcomed. No previous experience or dance partner needed. All dances and movements are learned on the spot.
This location is wheelchair accessible with an accessible washroom.
Come to our free CI Basics class and dance jam, open to everyone, on
Saturday February 7 at 11:15am.
Invite your CI-curious friends! All Welcome! No experience necessary!
We teach you everything!
Please arrive on time (11:15am) for the consent talk.
The accessible, community-run Ottawa/Gatineau Contact Improvisation Dance classes and jams run a free all-welcome CI Basics class and dance jam at 11:15am on Saturday February 7 open to everyone, especially people new to CI dance. Follow this link for details on time, location, and what to wear: Contact Improv Dance Basics. Please arrive on time (11:15am) for the consent talk.
The next free CI Basics course will be held on March 7 (first Saturday) at the same time and venue.
CI dancers who have already taken a CI Basics class in Ottawa are welcome to attend any of our weekly CI jams running mostly weekly (check the schedule!) every Saturday at 11:5am until June 27 2026 and then resuming weekly again in September 2026 after summer (July+August) break.
The ODD/CDC studio is fully accessible, with a large accessible washroom on
the same floor as the dance space.
✨ From Fire of Pain to empowered Intuitive Dance for Women ✨
This 5-session intuitive belly dance workshop is a gentle, trauma-informed journey into emotional awareness, release, & embodied empowerment.
You leave feeling rooted, lighter, and empowered, with tools you can reuse beyond the workshop.
🌿 What Makes This Workshop Unique
This is a journey back to your body, where emotions are not problems to fix—but messages to move, listen to, and transform 💫
This workshop is for women-only.
This event has no online site on which to post updates, so you have to contact Owen Tuf to make sure that there are no last-minute changes. (The Rupert Hall gives over-riding event priority to local events such as funerals.)
🦑 Ecstatic Dance this month is indoors at the Rupert Hall, 24 ch Shouldice, Rupert QC.
Danse Extatique Wakefield fait partie de la communauté mondiale de Danse Extatique. Plutôt que de danser pour nous divertir, nous dansons pour célébrer, jouer, explorer, prendre conscience, transformer, construire une communauté et exprimer notre liberté. En tant que forme de méditation en mouvement, la musique commence doucement, monte en énergie puis se termine en créant un espace méditatif.
Les directives générales consistent à créer un espace sécuritaire et sacré pour bouger comme vous le souhaitez, en honorant votre corps et en permettant une connexion respectueuse avec les autres à travers la danse. Nous bougeons pieds nus (ou en chaussettes, bien sûr), tout le monde est le bienvenu (incluant les enfants accompagnés d’un adulte), et c’est une zone sans drogue/alcool et sans parfum. Vous pouvez assister à l’ensemble de l’événement, en commençant par un cercle d’ouverture et un centrage, ou simplement passer nous voir pendant l’événement. Nous demandons aux participants de s’abstenir de parler sur la piste de danse afin de permettre aux autres d’approfondir leur expérience, mais si vous souhaitez bavarder, il y a un espace confortable dans l’entrée pour le faire.
Rather than dance as entertainment, we dance in celebration, play, exploration, expansive awareness, transformation, building community and expressive freedom. As a form of meditation-in-motion, the music starts slow, builds energy, then ends in a meditative space. We gather as part of the worldwide community of Ecstatic Dance.
The general guidelines are about creating a safe and sacred space to move however you wish, honouring your body and allowing respectful connection with others in your dancing. We move in barefeet (or socks of course), everybody is welcome (children accompanied by an adult), and know that it’s a drug/alchohol free and scent free zone (no perfume pls).
You can come to the whole event, starting with an opening circle and centering, or just drop in for a visit during the event. We ask movers to refrain from talking on the dance floor to allow one another to deepen into the experience of expression through movement, but if you would like to chit-chat, there is comfortable space in the lobby for hanging out!
Held on Valentine’s weekend, Dance Expansion — Heart Edition invites us into a night of movement, music, and connection — a dance floor rooted in presence, expression, and heart-opening energy. Dance Expansion is a new-wave dance experience blending deep electronic music, somatic movement, intention, and an uplifting alcohol-free atmosphere. It’s a party — just a different kind of party. One that feels good in your body, clear in your mind, and open in your heart.
✨ What to Expect
📅 Event Details
Touch plays an essential role in how we relate to one another, yet it is rarely examined with care and intention. This experiential workshop offers a structured, supportive space to explore how we give and receive touch, with an emphasis on awareness, choice, and communication.
Working exclusively with hand-to-hand touch, participants are guided through simple, time-limited explorations with different partners. These experiences are supported by reflection and discussion, allowing insights to be integrated gently and at one’s own pace. No prior experience is needed.
In this series of 6 workshops, inspired by the book “The Art of Receiving and Giving: The Wheel of Consent” by Dr. Betty Martin, you will be invited to:
All activities take place within a clearly defined framework designed to support safety, respect, and consent.
Unfortunately, the various Ottawa dance organizers don’t cooperate and list their events on one site, or even on each other’s sites, so you have to watch a half-dozen different places to know what’s going on. Many events don’t have public web pages, so you have to sell your soul to The Facebook to access their information. We’ve included links to some of the dance events we know about, below.
Except for the community-owned, community-run Ottawa/Gatineau Contact Improvisation Dance group, all dances are privately run.
Events outside the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to some of the above dance events.
Join us Noon to 9 PM on Saturday February 14th for a loosely structured long jam in Detroit! Indoors at lovely Andy Arts. You can also take part in the regular Sunday class & jam the following day (10:30–1pm.) We’ll provide an optional dinner Saturday at cost around 5pm on location. Bring some snacks to share as well. There are many Air BnBs/hotels in the area or let us know if you want to stay with a local host for Friday and/or Saturday night.
The last two iterations of this event provided a delicious mixing of local dancers and out-of-town dancers in a focused creative container. We ask that you have some experience with contact improv before attending the 9HR JAM.
Sliding scale fee for Saturday jam is $30-$60, plus an optional Lebanese dinner for $15.
Not sure what to pay on the sliding scale? Pay $60 if you can easily afford to. Pay around $45 if you’re on a tighter budget but that amount is not a hardship. Pay $30 (or contact us to pay less) if paying more is a hardship.
Visiting dancers are also welcome to join our Sunday class and jam–emphasizing rest and rehabilitation!–for an additional $5-$15 donation. Class is from 10:30–11:30am and the jam is 11:30am-1pm.
LOCATION: We’re dancing in the spacious, luscious corner studio at Andy Arts: 3000 Fenkell Ave, Detroit, MI 48238. PARK & ENTER ON PARKSIDE. Andy is a wheelchair-accessible venue.
Through her social enterprise Somatic Society, with the support of dear friends, Cara is pleased to offer a facilitated open space to learn and grow in a regular practice of contact improvisation, within the context of a healthy community.
facebook: Constellations: A Contact Improv Curriculum – Part 1 of 4 (aussi disponible en français)
I’m pleased to announce a set of four contact improvisation workshops this Spring in Montréal. They present a concrete training curriculum for contact improvisation skills and expression that I’ve been developing over the past five years. It would be a pleasure to see you at some or all of them.
All levels are welcome. However, if you are a new dancer you should have attended, say, a half-dozen classes or jams prior to joining the workshops.
Part I, March 6–8. The beauty of sharing weight
The heart of contact improvisation is the weight-sharing connection. This is much harder and more beautiful than it appears at first, and eventually enabling two dancers to behave as one organism.
The Ontario Regional Contact Jam is
in Toronto again in 2026.Online Registration for ORCJ 2026 is now open! Register in February and get a discounted $160 full three-day weekend registration price with snacks and on-site vegan lunches included! Price rises gradually $10 each month up to $180 in April 2026.
There is NO registration form to fill out. Dancers in Canada can register and pay simply by sending a Canadian Interac (email) e-transfer to the ORCJ email address given on the web page. Dancers who can’t pay by Interac (e.g. outside Canada), or who have any other complications, whether financial or logistical, can register by sending an email to the same address and we will arrange other payment options, including reduced fees as needed. See the above web page for details.
We welcome beginners and newcomers and all levels of dance experience. See dozens and dozens and dozens of your bestest dancing friends from all over the world!
https://contactimprov.ca/orcj
If you register before 11pm on March 26 2026, we will feed you snacks and an on-premises catered vegan lunch every day!
Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to this event.
NOTE THE NEW LATER DATE! This was originally scheduled two weeks earlier.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots.
The Global Underscore long-form Contact Improv Dance Jam takes place for four hours simultaneously, world-wide at 10am-2pm EDT (14:00-18:00 UTC) on Saturday June 20 in 2026. Follow the link for a location near you, or join the global Zoom link. You can find events in other communities on the facebook Global Underscore page.
The Global Underscore Talk happens on June 13. A meta-sharing harvest happens on June 27.
The Underscore is a long-form dance improvisation structure developed by the late Nancy Stark Smith. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe.
The Underscore is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational dance practice; for developing greater ease dancing in spherical space—alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. It allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expressions, embodying a range of forms and changing states. Its practice is familiar yet unpredictable.
The practice—usually 3 to 4 hours in length—progresses through a broad range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity and other times of higher energy and interactive dancing.
Big Heart Dance Camp always starts on the first Tuesday after Father’s Day (which itself is the third Sunday in June). 2026 will be the 16th year of celebration.
See the Big Heart Learn More page for details about Big Heart Dance Camp.
Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to this event.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots
Save the date.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots
Save the date.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots
Save the date.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots
Save the date.
Recurring Events outside the local Ottawa/Gatineau/Wakefield/Lanark/CarletonPlace Region
Some of these events changed during the pandemic. If the listing below seems out-of-date, please contact the organizers.
facebook: Groove Tonic PEC hosts a weekly barefoot, free-form movement and dance event in Picton (Prince Edward County).
For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact the organizer.
Dear contact dancers (or those who want to do contact improvisation!), Suzanne and Opal are continuing to host Contact dance Jams in Peterborough, after a summer hiatus. Details are below. Please feel free to share widely! Contact Improvisation is movement inspired by the spontaneous interaction between two people playing with weight, momentum and gravity. Beginners welcome! Contact Dance Jam is hosted 4–5pm on the 4th Sunday of the month (with some exceptions - see below).
Fueled by Public Energy!
This location is wheelchair accessible with an accessible washroom.
For other Peterborough dance events, e.g.
OnDanse Val-David est un collectif soutenant la pratique de la danse extatique. Offert hebdomadairement, la danse suit une courbe musicale particulière pour induire un contact à soi à travers l’expression corporelle et une exploration personnelle dans le mouvement. Une rencontre entre le festif et le sacré!
A monthly therapeutic conscious dance journey, where we express ourselves and all of our big feelings by moving freely in community without judgment.
Our mission: to invite pure, unabashed self-expression through movement, in a warm, permissive, nonjudgmental space. NOTE: the capacity of our space is limited to 65 people; therefore, please register ahead so that you can ensure you have a spot.
This is a dance intended for all bodies, and St. Peter’s Church is an accessible space with an elevator. There are no “moves” or “steps,” but rather just an invitation to do what feels right. This kind of dance can look like anything – it can be big, small, upright, or lying down. As long as you are moving and breathing, you are doing it right.
Dance and celebrate – Danser, se rassembler, célébrer, s’émerveiller …
Classes in Biodanza and Authentic Movement in and near Montréal and Val David with Catherine Fabiola Lessard
Currently (February 2026) only the French pages are up-to-date. The English pages still date from 2021. Use the French pages.
I recall always dancing. A tiny, faded 3×3 photograph of me in traditional garb with hair in plaits doubled over, age 4, in my village in India, shows me dancing (and caught self-consciously!). I’ve tried many forms of movement and 5Rhythms® is my home-coming. 5Rhythms® is free-form movement meditation, in every class we dance through the five energies/rhythms of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness®. There is a vast ever-changing inner landscape of our bodies and psyches for us to be fascinated by and navigate with curiosity. Certified at the Waves level of this practice, philosophy, and perspective, you can find out about my classes here. As an accredited 5Rhythms® teacher, all class and workshop hours with me count towards teacher training prerequisites.
I produce workshops where I invite teachers to Montreal/Ottawa to share their wisdom, experience, perspective, and learnings. Upcoming workshops can be found here.
Freeing the Creative Spirit Teaching people to experience the pulsating sensual energy inside them and awakening their connection to flowing breath, rooted feet and a centered alive pelvis – reach up, root down, live in the heart center. Visit https://www.erik.iversen.ca/ or https://www.5rhythms.com/teachers/Erik+Iversen or contact Erik Iversen for more information. (For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact Erik.)
Lynne Adams runs 5 Rhythms classes in and near Montréal. (For wheelchair and washroom accessibility information, contact Lynne.)
facebook: Contact Improvisation Bas-Saint-Laurent
Groupe pour faciliter l’épanouissement de la communauté de contact impro dans la région. Cours, jams, covoiturage vers des activités ailleurs au Québec, etc.
Bienvenue à tous. Les jams de Contact improvisation seront annoncés dans le groupe par le biais d’évènements. Consultez la publication épinglée pour plus d’information.
Classes are facilitated in French (with possible English translation on request): Biodanza Sherbrooke: français and Sherbrook Biodanza: English (The English pages may not be updated; use the French pages!)
Shake! Mornings, afternoons, and evenings
facebook: ~bioLUMINosity®~ Edge of Trance dance, meditation, playground.
Dancing is not just getting up painlessly,
like a leaf blown on the wind;
dancing is when you tear your heart out
and rise out of your body
to hang suspended between the worlds.
We have come to be danced
not the pretty dance
not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
but the claw our way back into the belly
of the sacred, sensual animal dance
the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
the holding the precious moment in the palms
of our hands and feet dance
[…]
If people ask me how to Contact Improvise, I simply say, “Start small” or, “Start small for a long time.”
After fifty years of all this, I realize I should have said,
“Go beyond small to the place where no message is being given. Start there. Let small be the first of the pleasures to come.”
Accept the first perturbation of that emptiness as the focus of the next moments. It is not a dance about you, or your partner. It is a dance about its movement.
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
[…]
At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh or fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
[…]
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
[…]
Dancers who pursue graceful movement must practice being aware of their bodies and being aware of wordless communication. These skills are particularly important today, when we spend so much time sitting and in virtual realities. Our way of life has taken us further from our own physical experiences and the understanding of the wordless emotional messages of others. For example, contact improvisation makes the dancers listen attentively to the body of their partner. Touch is known to reduce pain, fear and anxiety.
