Warm welcome to the 13th Skiing on Skin – Contact Improvisation Festival!
We are a group of 17 Finnish CI teachers. Many of us are also dear friends and colleagues for well over 20 years.
We gladly and enthusiastically inform you that we are continuing to create this festival, precious for many of you – we have heard – and for us too.
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 just couldn’t hold off creating the SOS once again, for all of us to deeply enjoy.
We had a 5 year pause in organizing the SOS, in order to recharge and renew our passion.This year we feel ready, ripe and refueled to collectively birth the dear and long-awaited 13th SOS.
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 to perfect technical skills. Some adore the precision in weight sharing. Some focus more on deep listening through touch. Some love to play. For some it’s about the nourishing quality of human connection. For some it is about the mystery of the universe. 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 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.
Good news! We have found a new home for the SOS. It is a sports center, located 1,5 hours from Helsinki, with great facilities for dancing and winter sports, such as skiing, and also for dipping in the ice-cold lake, swimming in an indoor pool and having a sauna. You can read more about the center here:
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 2025 team : Annukka, Iiris, Ilona, Jarno, Kaisa, Katri, Linda, Malcolm, Mirva, Otto, Panu, Petri, Ronja, Samuli, Terhi, Ulla, Ville.
Schedule and Classes
This is a preliminary schedule, changes are possible, but you get the idea.
Trios can feel challenging from a technical or psychological perspective but they can also bring safety, spaceness and easiness for dancing and create more openness in the jams by breaking the duo format. In these classes we will explore ways to enter a dance, keep a trio ongoing and flowing. We will discuss the potential obstacles that can keep us from dancing trio and work on some technical aspects that support trio dancing.
These sessions are focused on offering skills and tools for contact improvisation, and understanding it´s underlying physical principles. As well as widening our perspective of choices by explorative research of contact. We also approach CI as a larger phenomenon of improvisation, incorporating solo and group composition in the work.
We will flow in and out of contact, viewing the dance as a playful dialogue, which breathes freely in time and space. We will explore the state of improvisation and creativity, to emphasize the courage to play and investigate the unknown.
This exploration is based on in-depth somatic education pouring from axis syllabus, anatomical study of safe and functional movement, and of course the principles of contact improvisation.
We will play with gravity, momentum, and suspension in order to create effortless flow in our movement. Falling and flying, using body´s natural spirals to move us in different levels, and catching the rides like a wind !
Join us for fun, danceful and explorative learning and unlearning experience !
How does the body move and from which parts especially? Which parts are more stable? Which parts is it easier to follow a partner with? How do we consciously include other levels than the physical one in dance?
The classes are inspired by my poetry book Scores for Touch and at Skiing on Skin I will be using the poems as scores for teaching and dancing Contact Improvisation.
In the classes we will keep on moving with the topics of touch, as well as write. Classes are suitable for all levels and for people who wish to find more depth and clarity in their CI dancing.
…to the connection with oneself, space and another
Taking time relaxing and really tuning in with one´s own body-mind-spirit and then tuning into that of the partner/partners. Besides dance and contact improvisation this class is inspired by biodynamic osteopathy.
Diving into the basics of dance improvisation: listening to the space both inside and outside our bodies – inspired by all the different waves of time flying in the nowness.
Solo – contact and group work
Languages of Sensation – Somatic approaches to contact improvisation (Malcolm)
We will move between exercises aiming to clarify the sensations which lie at the heart of CI and exploring improvisational structures that uncover different types of CI vocabulary.
The idea of this approach is to minimise the teaching of set material (moves, tricks, etc) and instead to maximise the opportunities of participants to discover material for themselves through their own research and exploration.
Very simply, I set up calm and simple experiments in which we can experience a range of sensations without any demand to move very much. And then we dance a lot. Often there are unusual rules for the dances. Sometimes there are none and you can improvise freely.
While the course aims to support the development of our CI movement vocabulary, it does so through enriching the sensory skills that enable us to improvise with each other.
In this way it serves as both a solid introduction to the practice of CI for beginners, while simultaneously challenging experienced contact dancers to abandon habitual pathways and truly improvise from the present moment.
Contact improvisation is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their movement; gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to feel these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. This workshop will include rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner. We will aim towards movable support and gentle flying technique. This could be also called horizontalfalling.
Imaginary Physicalities (Otto) Philosophy: Access to “real” world is limited by the limitation of our perception. We make conceptualisation about.. Well, most of the things (if not everything). Like time, space, spoon, food, home, survival, life and obviously about ourselves.
My perception affects my conceptualisation and my conceptualisation affects my perception. I can create myself if, not anew, at least something that I know I am not, yet I can experience it. So in these classes we explore what we are, and partly what we could be. I’m in search of qualities of perception of/and movement. I have very specific suggestions for exploration, all of which all arise from my perceptual experience, which I can’t explain in any other way than imagining forces that are not quite there, in the “real”. So come to imagine, and search for qualities of movement with added forces.
In this class, we delve into the dynamic relationship between bodies, gravity, and space, uncovering pathways of movement that blend fluidity with moments of stillness and suspension. Through guided exercises and improvisational tasks, you’ll experience the sensation of grounded flying, where the interplay of gravity and balance allows for effortless ups and supported descents. Emphasizing trust and connection, we’ll explore how to navigate the push and pull of gravity, discovering balance in both grounded and airborne states. Join in a dance that is both spontaneous and intentional, revealing the limitless possibilities within each movement.
We will study the principles of contemplative art trough gravitational movements of contact improvisation.
We will practise to tuning in and to manifesting heart based, present centered and intuitively unfolding, both horizontally vertically creative movements, which are also mysteriously meaningful and necessary for the well being of each soul.
By cultivating movement formation in this way we will be able to go gradually deeper in the layers of our being and start to more and more perceive the forces of eternal movement trough our soul.
By first aligning movements of our physical, emotional, mental structures with movements arising from the depth of our soul we will create deeply harmonizing and fulfilling effects in our being, both individually and also collectively, as a group of contemplative movement practitioners.
We will be studying, exploring and training the skill of how to ‘listen’, and how to ‘know’ and how to make choices by listening the voice of our intuition, and inner wisdom guidance. We will develope gradual openness towards the not-yet-known, as a source of unexpected gifts of transformative opportunities.
The unknown is embraced from heart centered place and autopilotic movement patterns are gradually diminished and sacrificed for the greater good and harmony of everybody and all.
Improvisation is aproached in a way of embracing all the vertically creative movement inspirations springing from ever-abundant here-and-now. Fuel for improvisation will be the fire of innerly honest seeking, trough contemplative movement and connecting, of who we truly are.
Connecting with others is done in a spirit of sharing the journey of getting to know ourselves deeper trough the meaningful enrichment and mirroring with others.
In each practise session bodies will be loved trough vertically inspired movements until the deep and total fulfilment arises in the consciousness of each practitioner.
Individual and collective alignment and synchronization process trough ´right´ movements will create unifield field of consciousness, where refined movements of forces of souls are fulfillingly perceived.
This type of movement cultivation is also possible to apply later in all moments of life, and thus to expand the training fields.
Our whole life is made out of sequences of movements, and the degree of fulfilment in the end of our lifes depends highly on what kind of choices we made during our life, and where our choices led us.
Contemplative movement practise starts developing ability to choose ´vertically creatively right´, to do the right movements, in right way, so that we can ´move´ in a right direction – for us – trough our dear years of life.
“Life is a Dancer, and you are the dance.”
Learning to dance and move in this way can been seen also as a process of letting go of a smaller will and learning to allow the higher will to gradually manifest, move and dance trough you, it´s universally meaningful, beautiful, transformative and wise dance.
You do not need any specific movement practise back ground before, everyone is welcomed and can start practicing from where they are.
Steve Paxton, Material for the Spine, and Legacies of Curiosity (Ronja)
In the wake of Steve’s passing, I want to share some things learned while working with him. Material for the Spine is a vast body of work which reflects his embodied intellect and dogged curiosity, and spans decades from Puzzle number 1 to directing your sitsbones into a developpé machine, to fooling your vestibular apparatus in order to mess with your sense of balance. The attitude is one of rigorous inquiry. We will do some of Steve’s daily drills and work with both the classical puzzle forms and some of the newer stuff that didn’t always make the final cut.
In this class we will practice some given pathways and their improvised variations to gently challenge our habitual patterns. We will work with technical material relating to moving through different planes and axes, falling together in space and time, pivoting, rolling, sliding… Although technical, in the core is the practice of listening and allowing to be surprised.
A moment to unwind and recover energy – we will work with a partner and give each other a gentle massage-dance. This body work is based on Nuad Boran Thai Massage. We work with breath, giving and receiving weight and letting go while being moved. In the core of the practice is also the Buddhist meditation practice of Metta – coltivating compassion and kindness towards self and others.
Please wash your hands and feet before coming to the class, and take warm clothes with you!
We are diving into small dance practices in great detail. Alone and together there are waves of motion. Polyrhythmics in dance is the core of this class. Skin, muscles, bones, joints and nervous systems calibrate our dances.
Space is there somewhere. We will find a way to float in 3 dimensional space. Walking, stepping and learning skills are practiced in this class. Probably we will try to explore the skating style of dancing. Speed and momentum are there to be explored.
Teachers
Teachers are all from Helsinki community, even if not living in Finland anymore.
We are excited about our new festival location, the Vierumäki sports institute! It is a well known in Finland as a sports mecca and the facilities suit our festival perfectly.
We will have three large dance spaces at our disposal. The jam space is located close to our accommodation and restaurant, and two other spaces a little walk away.
We will sleep in warm and cosy rooms of 2, 2-4, or 2-5 persons. The rooms come with bedsheets and towels, en-suite bathrooms with showers, little fridges, drying cabinets for clothes etc.
We will have flexible meal times in the institute’s buffet restaurant three times per day. It will be easy to combine a delicious and nourishing meal of one’s own liking, be it vegetarian, fish or meat. Also jam snack will be served late in the evening.
What would a visit in Finland be without sauna! We have booked the lakeside sauna for two nights during the festival. There will be two separate saunas and an opportunity to dare ice swimming in the lake! There’s also the possibility to use the sauna and spa close to the jam space for a 6 € fee per session.
Vierumäki is located 130 km from Helsinki. It’s a 90 min drive and easily reachable by public transport (some 2 hours, similar from the airport). More info for getting there – Read below
Getting there
By car
Write the visiting address of the reception in your navigator:
Pihkalantie 3 Vierumäki
Parking is free but parking spot availability tends to fluctuate according to visitors. However, most probably at this time of the year there should be enough spots around.
By public transport
Coming from Helsinki or the Helsinki-Vantaa intl. airport, you need to take a train to Lahti, where you switch to a local bus towards Vierumäki (coming from the airport you need to first change trains in Tikkurila). The buses are regular and daily.
For both the train and the bus it is probably easiest to pay by their mobile apps, or use ticket machines at the railway stations and bus stations.
Coming from the airport, the train ticket to Lahti costs 13,10 €, paid by mobile or ticket machine. You cannot buy tickets in the trains at all these days!
Vierumäki is on zone C for the Lahti area transport, LSL. The price for 3 zones is 5,20 €, if paid by mobile or ticket machine. If you pay in the bus, they only accept cash and it’s more expensive.
