Welcome

Heya.

We have great news: Skiing On Skin 2027 will be help In solvalla sport center, very close to Helsinki. It will be from 16-21.02.2027, from tuesday to sunday, 4 Full days.

We have not yet updated all the new info, but it will be coming.
Registration will open 15.10.2026. (sorry sorry)

For history you can go to archive page, and listen some stuff from this year (and maybe 2025)
If you were on 2026 edition, you should have password for the pictures.

Dear fellow CI dancers,

A huge welcome to the 15th Skiing on Skin – Contact Improvisation Festival!

We are a group of ?? Finnish CI dancers and teachers. Many of us are also dear friends and colleagues for well over 20 years.

We were so happy last year to get back into creating this beautiful festival again in these new inspiring surroundings that we are eager to keep on going.

There is so much love and curiosity for the exploration and research of this form, and for the warm wintery family-like togetherness – surrounded by fresh, pure, silently magical Finnish nature – that we really wish to share all of this with you once again.

The spirit of the festival is as follows : We aim to offer our freshest findings of what we feel passionate about in our own explorations with CI.

Some of us are drawn to study anatomical details or the precision in weight sharing. Some focus more on the somatics and deep listening through touch. Some love to play and improvise. For some it’s about the nourishing quality of human connection and also learning about life and its mysteries through dancing together. Some are lively lovers of dynamic flying, jumping and bumping. And some seem more like eternal explorers of hyper-slow and meditative micro-movements. Some are going for the unknown, and some just love to repeat the same same in different ways. 

No matter what is each one’s calling and personal interest, together we are creating and enjoying a rich offering of a variety of perspectives towards our common love, the ever-present creative meeting point, the dance of Contact Improvisation.

So, we would like to invite you to dance and be with us!

Please come and share your dance and contribute to the co-creation of a fulfilling festival atmosphere through your way of being, moving and dancing.

Let’s share the deep and mysterious meaning of dancing together in these unprecedented and apocalyptic times.

With all this we like to say that we would be very happy to see you again! ..or to see you for the first time! ..or, why not, to see us all like for the first time ever, like never before : )

Some practicalities which are good to know :

The festival is created in a non-profit spirit.

Basically we create it just out of love for the CI, for each other, and for the evolving community. Our shared dance is the thing which makes us rich. This is how many of us choose to continue to believe : ) All the money you pay for participating goes in its totality to cover the basic necessities of the festival.

If you have any questions please reach out.

We are looking forward to seeing you and to dancing with you!

Warm wishes from the SOS 2027 team :

Schedule and Classes

This schedule is preliminary and probable to change.

Classes:

Embodied – Towards body wisdom, flow, and connection

Teacher: Iiris and Jarno
Pathway:

Through touch, hands-on work, breath, and somatic movement, we open body channels and explore receiving as an active, creative process. How does touch turn into movement, and movement into dance?

This is an embodiment practice: bringing thoughts, intuition, and experiences into the body and physical reality. When they grow roots, they can turn into agency and transformative power. Positioned as channels between earth and sky, we remain open to what wants to flow through us. Through contact improvisation, we explore weight, support, and active listening, building a bridge between inner experience and shared movement. Being seen and sharing movement amplifies the process and makes it more tangible.

Dynamic Flying 

Teacher: Mirva
Pathway: Mechanics of Contact Improvisation

Together, we will investigate how to generate and receive energy, moving in and out of the floor with efficiency and clarity. Through guided exercises, you’ll develop skills in timing, counterbalance, and responsive partnering—learning how to safely enter and exit lifts while maintaining a continuous flow.

Dynamic flying invites a balance of trust and technique. We’ll work with pathways into the air, exploring how spirals, weight shifts, and directional forces can support effortless lifting and landing. Attention will be given to listening through touch, refining sensitivity so that movement emerges collaboratively rather than through force.

Living In The World As If It Were Home

Teacher: Otto
Pathway:

1st part – Gravity.
For reasons unknown to my knowledge, masses attract each other. Since the earth’s mass is so much more bigger than ours, it seems that the earth is pulling us, but we are also pulling it, our mass pulling earth’s mass.
Gravity, or weight if you will, is a force that is flowing/going down, into the earth.

We are like we are because of gravity (and bunch of other things, but gravity is a big one)

How we move in this force field, how it moves us, how it flows through us, into the earth, and how we pull the earth, and it’s support into ourselves and further.

2nd part – Reach
Imagine the smallest possible reach that you can sense/feel. Do it.
Where does it come from?
What is needed in order to reach?
What qualities “reach” request and/or opens?

Title of the classes stolen from the book by Tim Lillburn: https://www.corbelstonepress.com/product-page/living-in-the-world-as-if-it-were-home-tim-lilburn

Leaning Into Motion

Teacher: Panu
Pathway: Mechanics of Contact Improvisation

Class description

What happens when we dare to give more weight, move farther off balance, or let go of knowing exactly where we are? This class explores the core principles of Contact Improvisation through progressive exercises in weight-sharing, momentum, orientation, disorientation, and collective exploration.

 

“Breathing, Falling, Catching”

Teacher: Vega
Pathway: Mechanics of Contact Improvisation

Falling & catching begins with our breath. We can use our natural breath cycle to synchronize and tune in with others, while playing with gravity, momentum and the ideas of falling & flying – both in solo movement, in contact with a partner, and within the shifting dynamics of a trio.

We will begin by exploring falling on a micro-scale, gradually growing our movement towards more complex actions. Through the subtle mechanics of the ‘small dance’, we can discover fluid ways of catching ourselves and each other, using momentum, suspension, reaching, swinging and bouncing. We will explore how these principles can lead into easy rides and weight-shifts, where falling, catching and flying become part of a continuous dance.

Working with the frame of the arms and counterbalance, we will look at how body tone, alignment and positioning can create both support and lightness. We will also explore grounding through the pelvis and feet, rolling into rides, staying mobile underneath a partner, and finding soft, connected landings.

From these principles we will move towards trios, exploring how three bodies can share weight, momentum and space. How do we enter or leave? How can we catch another dancer’s trajectory, support the existing dynamic, or redirect it? We will play with spiraling, orbiting, timing, pausing and changing levels, cultivating our ability to read and respond to the constantly shifting composition.

Trios can bring a wonderful combination of challenge, playfulness and care. Sometimes we fly, sometimes we catch, sometimes we simply witness and wait. By softening, listening and staying available to what is happening in the moment, we can discover unexpected pathways and let go of fixed intentions.

I will offer clear technical exercises and principles, balanced with time for research and improvisation. The aim is to integrate the material into our dancing bodies – cultivating lightness, responsiveness and trust, while enjoying the playful possibilities of dancing together.



 

The Place

Our venue: SOLVALLA

We have found a new amazingly beautiful venue for our festival just around the corner from Helsinki! (our previous venue Vierumäki will be under renovation for some years)

Solvalla is a sports centre situated in Espoo, in the natural park area Nuuksio. It is a very beautiful place with great facilities for dancing and a very nice surroundings and nature for all kinds of outdoor activities. We will have accommodation in comfortable 2-??? people rooms. All the spaces have also been newly renovated.

We will also have a really nice breakfast, lunch and dinner in Solvalla and then our self-organised jam snacks in the evenings.

Solvalla is very easily reachable from Helsinki by taking a train to Espoo and then the bus number 245A from there.

The address is: Nuuksiontie 82, 02820 Espoo

More info on how to reach Solvalla with public transport: www.hsl.fi/en

Solvalla webpage (unfortunately only in Finnish): www.folkhalsan.fi/fi/toimipaikkamme/solvalla

Getting there

Contact