Take three classes from one teacher, one class with each teacher, or any combination. The festival is open to all dancers; no experience is necessary. All events are at the Community Education Center (CEC)/Kumquat Studios and nearby studios in West Philadelphia's cultural area of museums, theaters, restaurants, and shops. For registration and housing information, see below and the Registration Form.

Directions to the CEC/Kumquat Studios (NEW)

• Driving from the West: Take I-76 East. Exit for 30th Street RR Station. Drive around two sides of the station then continue straight to Market Street. Turn right and drive up to 36th street. Turn right and drive to the next light at Lancaster Avenue. Turn right to 3500 Lancaster, an old school building.
• Driving from the North and East: Take I-95 South or the Ben Franklin Bridge to I-676 South (a short expressway through Center City). Exit for 30th Street RR Station. Continue as above.
• Driving from the South: Take I-95 past Philadelphia Airport. Follow signs to I-76 West. Exit for 30th Street RR Station. Turn left on Market Street just before the RR station. Drive up to 36th street. Turn right and drive to the next light at Lancaster Avenue. Turn right to 3500 Lancaster, an old school building.
• Walking from 30th Street RR Station: exit the station on the 30th Street end. Turn left and walk to Market Street. Turn right and walk up to 34th Street. Turn right and walk to Lancaster Avenue. Turn left and walk up to the CEC, 3500 Lancaster, which is an old school building. Enter the ground floor door on the left and walk up stairs.

Schedule of Events

See also the detailed schedule.

Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, researcher, engineer, and artist who has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979. He usese Contact Improvisation as part of improvisational performance practice. He integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, body work, and Authentic Movement. He regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists, and has worked with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Chris Aiken, and Lisa Nelson among others. Ray's work has been featured at numerous national and interntional dance venues and festivals. He resides in Berkeley, CA, when he is not travelling.

Martin Keogh has been teaching and performing Contact Improvisation for over twenty years. He has travelled extensively to monasteries in Japan and Korea, and is the former Director of the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley. He is one of the original members of the Motivity Dance Company, which specializes in aerial dancing on low level trapeze. Martin is cofounder of Spring/Fall Dance Studio and The Dancing Ground, an organization that produces conferences on gender and mythology in Northern California. He has worked with Touchdown Dance USA, an organization that teaches C.I. to the blind and been dance faculty at the National School of Fine Arts in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. When not on tour, Martin dances with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

K.J. Holmes is a dancer, singer and poet based in Brooklyn, New York. Her studies in ideokinesis with Andre Bernard in NYV 1980-83 led her to improvisation and new dance techniques. She has performed in the work of Cathy Weis, Margarita Guergue, Ann Carlson, Anne Bogart, Andrew Hardwood, among others. She has taught Contact Improvisation throughout the world at festivals and universities including the Bates Dance Festival, Festival Internacional de Danza in Mexico and Guangdom Modern Dance Academy in China.

Eric Schoefer was the recipient of a Pew Fellowship in Choreography. He is a co-founder of SCRAP movement collective and co-founder of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He has performed with many choreographers including mentor, Simone Forti. He teaches Contact Improvisation in Philadelphia.

Leah Stein is known for her site specific dance work, most recently cited Best Of the Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe 2001. A choreographer/dancer, she is Director of the Leah Stein Dance Company. She teaches at Contact Improvisation and modern dance at Swarthmore College and the University of the Arts.

Group Motion is one of Philly's most popular collective dance groups. The Friday night open movement sessions are a community mainstay for over 20 years. Led by director/choreographer/composer Manfred Fishbeck, dancers sway to electronic sounds and acoustic rhythms in an ultimate improvisation. Fischbeck is on the faculty of Philadelphia's University of the Arts. He has been a guest artist, teaching and performing across the USA, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.

Registration/Fees

To register, please fill in the Registration Form, make a check payable to Philadelphia Dance Projects (memo contact festival) and mail your form and check to:

Philadelphia Dance Projects
c/o Chris Deephouse
219 Woodlyn Avenue
Glenside, PA 19038

Housing

This year, the festival is in University City near the Penn and Drexel campuses. The primary location is CEC/Kumquat Theater at 3500 Lancaster Avenue. Click here for a list of listing hotels and Bed & Breakfasts in University City. The Cornerstone Bed & Breakfast is particularly close to CEC/Kumquat. The four large hotels listed are 5-10 blocks away. This web site also lists restaurants, events, and other information about University City.

You can also stay with local contact improvisers who are hosting visitors from out of town. Please check the box on the registration form and we will contact you the weekend before the festival.

For information, please contact Chris Deephouse, deep-at-contactimprov.net

Philadelphia contact jams are the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of every month, 3:00 pm - 5:00pm. For more info, click here. This page is maintained by Chris Deephouse.