Updated April 10 2026 – Mis à jour le 10 avril 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 May 9 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, is on Thursday instead of Wednesday, at the Rosemount Orange Hall at 41 Rosemount Avenue in Ottawa. See the web site or the item below for the exact dates.
Les cours hebdomadaires recommence pour accueillir ceux et celles qui veulent découvrir la Biodanza.
These Thursday evening Ecstatic Dances usually take place around 7pm on the first and third Thursdays of each month at the Rosemount Orange Hall in Ottawa. See below for the current dates.
Conscious Dancing, Relational Presence and Self-Understanding Ceremony
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 May 9 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 May 9 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 last free CI Basics course this season will be held on June 13 (second Saturday) at the same time and venue. CI Basics classes will resume in September.
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.
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.
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.
facebook: Constellations: A Contact Improv Curriculum – Part 2 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.
NOTE THE NEW LATER DATE! This was originally scheduled two weeks earlier.
40 Years of Community Dance & Living: An Honoring of Earthdance Roots.
2026 is an exciting and meaningful year for Earthdance, marking 40 years of dance, creative living, somatic exploration, and connection. To honor this milestone, Earthdance is offering a year-long series of celebratory events—and we warmly invite you to be part of it.
We begin with the Spring Jam, a gathering devoted to reflecting on, honoring, and celebrating our PAST.
Come dance on our gorgeous floors with the people who helped build them. Come share meals that have nourished generations of dancers. Come tell stories of your Earthdance roots and celebrate the many ways this community has shaped our lives.
This special jam weekend will be hosted by Earthdance’s founders and early visionaries, who will share legends, insights, and wisdom gathered over decades of tending this community.
Whether you’ve been a staff member, work exchanger, board member, or have been coming to Earthdance for decades—or perhaps you’re newer to the land and the dance—you are part of why Earthdance exists! Regardless of your Earthdance journey, this is an opportunity to celebrate our past and living lineage that continue to shape this place.
Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to this event.
Linking Our C.I. Practices, Communities & Research
A Montreal-based Contact-Improvisation Festival bringing together local and invited teachers, artists and communities.
12 days of contact improvisation workshops - jams - performances - surprises.
Together, we are crazily creating a 12-day schedule overflowing of Contact-Improvisation offerings taking place at several studios that regularly hold the Montreal community’s year-round C.I. activities!!
Daily C.I. practice, workshops, jams, performances, surprises and community throughout the festival !
Full schedule and registration ARRIVES April 13, 2026.
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. Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to this event.
Details to be announced. Save the dates!
July 23–26 (over four days: Thursday to Sunday) in Sutton QC near the USA border 120km south-east of Montréal.
Come for dance, pond swimming and sauna playing outdoors and night bonfire singing. Hear the roosters crow, horses gallop and frogs croak. Sleep in cabins, the big house or tent in the orchard or forest. Your summer dreams come true.
Contact Ian Allen about car pooling from Ottawa to this event.
A 4-day sober & conscious gathering in the forest dedicated to music, sharing, nature connection, creative expression & ancestral wisdom
~Un rassemblement sobre et conscient de 4 jours en forêt dédié à la musique, le partage, la connexion avec la nature,l’expression créative et la sagesse ancestrale
Time & Location /Heure et Lieu: Aug 28, 2026, 2:00 p.m. – Aug 31, 2026, 5:00 p.m. Outaouais, 464 Chem. de Lytton, La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau, QC J0W 1N0, Canada
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Friday, Oct 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM to Sunday, Oct 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM EDT
As we head into the season of harvest and coziness, we want to dance with you at the “Falling into Autumn” annual weekend-long jam!
We’re creating a weekend of dancing, connection, and care—centered on trust, open communication, and being in space together. This jam is access-focused and intentionally welcoming, with efforts to remove barriers so more folks can join us.
Contact improvisation is magical because it’s not codified—everyone brings their own style. We celebrate dancers of all experience levels, identities, and body types. Your presence, your body, and your lived experience are what will make this jam amazing.
Whatever your style, we offer options to support you: technique classes with local and traveling teachers, guided jams with themes like the Blindfold jam, and open jams for unstructured exploration.
Inspired by the season, we’re making the space cozy with cushions and mats in the studios for when you want to rest while staying in the room. Saturday night we’ll share a catered dinner and enjoy film screenings of contact dance from around the world, including local submissions. With just 1–2 events at a time, there’s space to breathe, dance, and truly get to know each other.
We hope you’ll finish this weekend feeling a sense of collaboration and togetherness with your fellow dancers, and a sense of excitement and inspiration for your own dancing.
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.
