AUTUMN RETREAT – Alessandro Papalini

I am observing how nature is still in winter. Leaves have dropped, and there seems to be nothing to do. Yet, there is still movement.

Silence is not simply the absence of noises and sounds, silence is something of its own.Stillness in dance is not simply the absence of movement

In the depths of my being, the unique connection with the other takes place; the mystery of the other is nothing but the mystery of

The term “somatic” comes from the Greek word “soma,” which means “body,” and somatic practices focus on perceiving and understanding bodily intelligence. Instead of emphasizing

On the last day of my second CS Retreat, I made this little drawing. I was amazed by the volume of both real and internal

For two and a half years, I have immersed myself in the sea of contact improvisation.I have been surprised by how much it has helped

Recently a girl at the end of one of my intensives asked me if she could interview me for the creation of a podcast. Due to

La mia esperienza come disegnatrice nei contesti di contact improvisation nasce appena vengo in contatto con la pratica nello spazio della jam. La jam, cuore

Whispers of Air: A Dance in Earth’s Embrace  In the stillness of movement, a delicate choreography unfolds—a dance woven between breath and touch. Here, we

Dancing from a place of stillness   from here,  still breathing  still changing  still decomposing      from here,  still  and still from here.   

Silence, on our planet, does not exist. Sounds, no matter how slight, surround us everywhere. One environment may be quieter in relation to another, but

Verbal exchange shapes our dialogical relationship, giving shape to the silences that intersperse words. Silence can therefore be considered a relational place in which we are

“Black. Silence. Dark and quiet, the absence of everything, of lights and sounds. The fascination of emptiness, of nothingness in which one can get lost,

Getting bored with my movement patterns… getting bored with “I lift you, you lift me” CI dances… getting bored with this phrase… getting bored with

As autumn has arrived, also stillness is becoming very present in my movement practice.  In the last years, It has become more and more clear

“Animals and trees teach how not to know, how to tolerate being in the world without the obsession to understand. They know how to surrender,

Linus and Emelie are two professional musicians and sound healing practitioners fromSweden.Emelie has been studying classical percussion and chamber music at Örebrouniversity in Sweden and

A circle is a place where our dance continues and we witness each other through another chanell.  We still improvise and we also allow ourselves

I understand Contact Improvisation to be, in a very simple way, just dancing.  I don’t really separate it from the rest of my dancing.  My

When I wake I’m wanting youWhen I wake I’m needing youWhen I wake I’m so lonelyWanting youWhen I wake I’m wanting youWhen I wake I’m

Silence and the state of contemplative dance are keys for diving into deep improvisation. Using these methods helps our movements to truly be rooted in

A body that recognizes silence is not just any being, it moves knowing that it is violating a space. It decides to break what surrounds

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few” Shunryu Suzuki Towards the upcoming autumn contact silence retreat I

Once a friend told me “You are so weird, you either go to those strange festivals whereeverybody touches everybody (referring of course to CI events)

https://www.contactsilence.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Gana-Bellatalla-Duo-VICINO-LONTANO-2022-II.mp4 Between lines, points, spirals, an invisible thread holds bodies and ropes together, like the grass that grows in the interstices, new forms are generated,

I was challenged to write through the subject of silence. It is, to start with, a challenge made by itself. Paradox of words and no-words.

In this period I am particularly interested in observing how polarities interact with each other. Thepresence of one makes the presence of the other vivid.

Silence .moving into silence – spaces – sitting lying being – be the beginner mind : open curious – listeningobserving not knowing – no judgment

“Where we are when we don’t know where we are”, this is how Nancy Stark Smith described the space opened up by improvisation: a zone

When the invitation came to join the Contact Silence retreat, a sense of curiosity emerged in me.Dancing for me is a language. A language that

E = mc 2Did Einstein dance contact? Today at school I explained this wonderful scientific revolution condensed into a formula.When the time comes for this

Towards the upcoming winter contact silence retreat I was asked to write a “brief text about dance and silence”. Sitting down to write my text,

silently and gently getting back to touch, reclaiming contact with careAfter a long, precarious period of witnessing our own inner movements and surviving small, confined

Since our project started, we have been able to welcome five wonderful groups of dancing meditators, coping in our own way with the pandemic and

I used to think that I hate a routine and I was always running away from fixed schedules, fixed places and definite time, searching for

As I think about the next CSR, I wonder what relationship exists between the silence of the word and the silence of the body. It is

  “Tra un suono e l’altro cerco lo spazio di un gesto, sfiorando confini che da un lato sono musica dall’altro braccio, testa, gambe.” Come

When you wrap yourself up in SILENCE in nature to DANCE contact and MEDITATE incredible things start to happen! Time stretches, movements become super smooth and

After months of body silence, I found myself in a slow awakening of sensations, movements, relationships … I realized that there is a lot of

During this “new era of our global pandemic”, I do feel that the essentials of contact improvisation seem to be more relevant than ever. In

Part of the learning process for me is taking ideas/thoughts/nuggets/movements/pathways that I have gathered from teachers I have met along the way and modifying them,

“Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any

Finding pleasure in every movement.Connecting with the season.Harvesting thoughts,Inspirations.Moments of silence.Focused spaces where we dance.Moving from the insideTo the outside.I don’t know the next stepI

I think of silence as a way to reset the “doing / listening” system, to find a balance between action and reception. Our nervous system

In the transition from retreat to ordinary life, a sense of loss often arises and we wonder why what we have been with does not

I am happy to participate in this retreat, especially at a time like this, where the compasses have completely gone mad and the directions are

« Once a Zen Master asked a disciple: ‘Have you seen the snow leopard?”No’, replied the disciple.’Isn’t it wonderful?’ The Master asked him.from «Silence is

Here is Tomokombu at work, he will accompany us in the evening jams of the first round of the retreat. We remind you that the