FEBRUARY 2025
CONTACT FESTIVAL
SOUTH
AFRICA
%20(_edited_edited_edited_edited_edited_p.png)
CONTACT FESTIVAL SOUTH AFRICA 2025
Pre-Festival: 1-2 Feb
Main Festival: 5-9 Feb
Post-Festival: 9-11Feb
- Immerse deeply in dance and nature
- Learn new Contact Improvisation skills
- Jams every night with live music
- CI Intensives with international teacher
- Connect with a vibrant community of dancers
- Beautiful mountain surrounds and river for swimming
- Delicious vegetarian meals
- Time for resting and connecting
VENUE
Hearth & Soul Eco Farm
is a beautiful retreat centre in the heart of the Overberg
surrounded by trees and mountains with a river for swimming -
a creative and inspirational sanctuary just 2 hours drive from Cape Town
TEACHERS
Contact Improvisation
SERAFIMA DAROVA
Serafima has been practicing and teaching Contact Improvisation intensively for over a decade, and has trained with CI teachers from around the world. A student of Contemporary Dance since the age of 7, her early career was in performance, as a professional dancer in Russia and Crimea.
She is now a dedicated CI community leader, teacher and organiser of classes, jams, festivals, workshops and creative projects. Bringing people together and creating space for the development of CI is her passion and mission.
Serafima founded the CI community in Crimea, has been an integral part of the CI scene in Goa, India, and since 2022, has been an instrumental figure in building the thriving CI community in Bali, where she is currently based.
At the core of her practice is the desire to share the experience of recognising onesself as a space that holds everything. Her teaching invites people to access the spaciousness within and attune to the wider field of existence.
Contact Improvisation
THALIA LARIC
Thalia Laric is a dancer, community leader and teacher of Contact Improvisation. She has been holding regular classes, workshops and jams in Cape Town for over 10 years and is dedicated to growing the practice of CI in South Africa.
She has studied with Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simson, Julyen Hamilton, Lucia Walker, and Jori Snell, amongst many other influential teachers. She travels regularly to Europe and Asia to teach, learn, dance and create. She is also a certified teacher of the Skinner Releasing Technique and holds a Masters degree in Choreography. She has danced professionally with various South African theatre companies and founded several dance platforms including Underground Dance Theatre and MusicDance CapeTown.
As a performer her interest is in improvisation and compositional decisions that are made in real-time.
She also runs a Facilitators Lab, for Cape Town based teachers, to deepen practice and research of CI.
Morning Practice
TASHA SAHA
Tasha is a yoga teacher, meditation instructor and retreat facilitator whose offerings centre around restoring the body and being to their innate harmony and intelligence, and creating the space and awareness for radical mental and spiritual transformation. Her sessions invite us into the present moment where we can experience ourselves as we are- outside roles, responsibilities and the expectations and projections of self and others, and into the miracle of our bodies, the tenderness of our hearts and limitless consciousness.
Our daily morning practice asks us to fully inhabit our own bodies and breath, as the steady ground of presence for contact with one another. With fine attention and great compassion we will tend to and prepare bodies and minds with movement, meditation and breathwork, cultivating and aligning to a soft, strong and grounded centre from which to move.
Tasha has studied and danced Contact Improvisation intensively for the past 5 years and considers it a central part of her spiritual practice.
MUSICIANS
Live Music
ANWAR McWHITE
Live Music
LAING DE VILLIERS
Live Music
ANDREW VAN DIEMEN
EVENTS
PRE - FESTIVAL
1-2 February 2025
Saturday & Sunday
10am - 5pm
Cape Town
CONTACT IMPROVISATION FUNDAMENTALS WORKSHOP
Pre Festival workshop taught by guest international teacher, Serafima Darova. Highly recommended for beginners to lay down the foundations of Contact Improvisation technique before the festival. Recommended also for more experienced dancers and CI teachers to fine tune techniques and develop their practice.
From Technique to Freedom
Discover how mastering the basics—falling, lifting, gravity, momentum and sharing weight—can lead to a greater sense of freedom and creativity in Contact Improvisation. This workshop is about uncovering the profound in the simple and letting your movement flow naturally.
MAIN FESTIVAL
5-9 February 2025
Hearth & Soul Eco Farm
Overberg, Western Cape
The main event of the year! Dancers from all over South Africa and the world come together to share, connect and expand through the practice of Contact Improvisation. Highly skilled teachers, Serafima Darova and Thalia Laric lead us in a five day immersion with CI Intensives and workshops that will transform your dancing experience.The Festival also offers daily morning practice, outdoor sessions, bodywork and evening jams with live music, as well as free time for resting, reflecting, connecting, walking the land and swimming in the river.
Our Contact Improvisation Intensives will focus on enriching and refining the dance through our deepening attention. Curiosity and presence provide us with a sense of safety; the more aware we are, the more we are able to confidently engage in dances that are dynamic, experimental and adventurous. We will learn detailed techniques of lifting, flying and falling, exploring momentum and unlocking subtle understandings that open new movement possibilities and bring natural, effortless flow to our dance.
CONTACT FESTIVAL SOUTH AFRICA
POST - FESTIVAL
9-11 February 2025
Hearth & Soul Eco Farm
Overberg, Western Cape
CONTACT IMPROVISATION - JAM IMMERSION
Two more days of dancing together! An opportunity to integrate skills and experiences from the Main Festival and deepen in practice and community. Through jams, scores and discussion, we will explore different ways of directing our awareness within the dance, sustaining our interest, creativity and presence. We will explore approaches to witnessing and observing Contact Improvisation, noticing composition from within and also though observing each other. Combining technical exploration with the art of spontaneity, to create a profound connection to ourselves, each other, and the space around us. The programme includes an 8 hour jam, an opportunity to stay in process for an extended period time, noticing the shifting states of the collective experience and also our own attention. We treat the process as an opportunity to deepen in authenticity in our movement, presence and interactions.
The Post Festival Jam Immersion is not open to beginners unless you have joined us for the Main Festival.
For Ticket pricing and Accommodation options, click here >>
GALLERY
Images of the 2024 Contact Festival
ACCOMMODATION
The following options are available for the Festival and Post- Workshop:
SHARED ROOM- with ensuite bathroom, for 2-3 occupants, single beds
PRIVATE ROOM - with ensuite bathroom, single occupancy
CAMPING - tent and bedding provided by you, shared bathroom
TICKETS
Tickets for Contact Festival South Africa are limited, and having been full to capacity last year, we expect them to be in high demand. Please complete Registration and purchase your tickets early if you know you would like to join us.
PRE - FESTIVAL
Workshop with
Serafima Darova
2000 ZAR SA Residents
125 Euros International
1 - 2 FEBRUARY 2025 -
WOODSTOCK - CAPE TOWN
From Technique to Freedom
Discover how mastering the basics—falling, lifting, gravity, momentum and sharing weight—can lead to a deeper sense of freedom and creativity in contact improvisation.This workshop is about uncovering the profound in the simple and letting your movement flow naturally.
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd Feb
10:00-13:00 and 15:00- 17:00
The cost of your ticket includes all workshops and jams. Please bring a water bottle and your own lunch.
MAIN FESTIVAL
SHARED ACCOMMODATION
7200 ZAR SA Residents
455 Euros International
5 - 9 FEBRUARY 2025 -
HEARTH & SOUL - OVERBERG
PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION
8400 ZAR SA Residents
535 Euros International
CAMPING
6200 ZAR SA Residents
395 Euros International
The cost of your ticket includes 4 nights accommodation, meals, tea, and all classes, workshops and jams.
If you purchase a Camping Ticket, you are required to bring your own tent, sleeping mattress and bedding.
POST - FESTIVAL
Jam Immersion
SHARED ACCOMMODATION
3400 ZAR SA Residents
215 Euros International
9 - 11 FEBRUARY 2025 -
HEARTH & SOUL - OVERBERG
PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION
4000 ZAR SA Residents
250 Euros International
CAMPING
2900 ZAR SA Residents
180 Euros International
The cost of your ticket includes 2 nights accommodation, meals, tea, and all classes, workshops and jams.
If you purchase a Camping Ticket, you are required to bring your own tent, sleeping mattress and bedding.
MAIN FESTIVAL &
POST - FESTIVAL
SHARED ACCOMMODATION
9400 ZAR SA Residents
590 Euros International
5 - 11 FEBRUARY 2025 -
HEARTH & SOUL - OVERBERG
PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION
11000 ZAR SA Residents
690 Euros International
CAMPING
8000 ZAR SA Residents
500 Euros International
The cost of your ticket includes 6 nights accommodation, meals, tea, and all classes, workshops and jams.
If you purchase a Camping Ticket, you are required to bring your own tent, sleeping mattress and bedding.
To receive payment instructions and reserve your space, please complete the registration form.
Payment is to a South African Bank account or via Wise.
SCHEDULE
Contact Festival South Africa 5 - 9 February 2025
Post - Festival Jam Immersion 9 -11 February 2025
