Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura

Contact in Natura 2025

Contact in Natura
- 2025 -

10th Contact Improvisation Festival
in Chapada Diamantina
Bahia, Brasil
(ex-Encima da Chapada)

10th Contact Improvisation Festival
in Chapada Diamantina
Bahia, Brasil
(ex-Encima da Chapada)

January 10th to February 7th
Vale do Capão / Vale do Pati / Moreré

10th Anniversary Edition
- From the Mountains to the Sea -

Cycles are being completed and the wheel keeps turning… curious, renewed, naturally in movement.

To celebrate 10 years of the festival, we decided to change our name, stating with more clarity and maturity what we propose and why we came: Contact in Natura! After all these years, we continue to meet here, a place that generously offers us this real contact with deep nature, including everything: the human and non-human beings that inhabit it, the different landscapes, all the elements, the climate, the emotions… And it is to this experience that we invite you!

PROPOSAL

Contact in Natura will take us on a powerful journey from the mountains to the sea of Bahia, towards an encounter with the nature of movement and opening a space to truly listen to the essential. An intriguing dive into human interactions, in a precious experience n the valley of diamonds.

The festival is divided into three stages: Vale do Capão, Vale do Pati and Moreré.
You can sign up to participate in all stages or choose just some of them.

STAGE I - VALE DO CAPÃO

Contact studies and practices:

Classes, intensive courses and jams

- January 10th to 17th -

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Contact studies and practices: Classes, intensives and jams in Vale do Capão
We will start this year doing what nourishes our souls! Meeting interesting people with the same focus: movement. Classes, intensives, space for labs, practices and jams, as well as a dancing walk to the waterfall – something that cannot be missed in a place as beautiful as the town of Caeté-Açú, also known as Vale do Capão, the most cosmopolitan small village in the world!

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We will be enjoying the entire infrastructure of the super charming Pousada do Capão. It includes a wonderful studio with wooden floor, the Batista River with a natural pool, a multi-sports court, a sauna, a hot pool, several lawn areas surrounded by nature, and all with an inspiring view. There we will share classes, intensives, jams, laboratories, sensory exploration trails and moments of exchange and coexistence.

STAGE II - VALE DO PATI

Ecosomatic Experience
in the National Park

- January 20th to 26th -

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The journey continues in the second week, with a dive into an even wilder nature, co-creating with the land, its reliefs, its waters and its inhabitants. Being present at every step, we will walk and reveal our true authentic movement in natura, without artifice.

Waterfalls, plateaus, viewpoints and trails will be our space for movement. In a genuine connection with this landscape, we will traverse and be shaped by the Chapada Diamantina National Park, experiencing and contemplating the unique magic of the Vale do Pati.

Os professores

Em breve mais informações...

STAGE III - MORERÉ

CoMover: aquatic movements
in the warm sea

CoMover:
aquatic movements in the warm sea

- February 1st to 7th -

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we’re going to go a little longer, with a delicious post-festival, to close this edition on a high note! We’ll leave the the mountains all the way to the sea, anchoring in the warm waters of Moreré. There we will immerse ourselves in a transformative experience, letting ourselves be carried away by the movement of nature to connect with our amphibian essence, through dance and aquatic therapies, as well as other liquid movements.
This meeting is designed to discover and explore the 7 Basic Movement Patterns, through aquatic dance, contact improvisation, breathing, apnea, as well as aquatic practices sessions in pairs based on somatic methodologies, honoring the aquatic roots of our evolutionary movement.

We will investigate these practices by promoting safe spaces, from the playful to the therapeutic, to explore the inner depths of our body systems in movement and connect with the stillness, fluidity and healing power of the aquatic world.

Comover Morere - Contact in Natura 2025
Reproduzir vídeo

The teachers

Schedule

… full information coming soon
with the programming in each of the Stages

Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura
Logo Contact in Natura
Photos from past editions

Investment

The packages below include all activities and food during each stage.
Accommodation and transportation must be paid separately.

You can choose to participate in one, two, or all Stages.
In the this case, the Complete Package has a more convenient price.

 
 

 

 

Stage I

Vale do Capão

- Contact studies and practices -

10th to 17th January 2025

8 days, including all activities and meals
(without accommodation)

Early bird until 31/10: R$ 1930
(Approximately € 320)

After 01/11: R$ 2120
(Approximately € 350)

Stage II

Vale do Pati

- Ecosomatic Experiences in the Pati Valley -

20th to 26th January 2025

7 days, including all activities, meals and guide
(without accommodation)

Early bird until 31/10: R$ 2350
(Approximately € 390)

After 01/11: R$ 2550
(Approximately € 420)

 
 

 

 

Stage III - Post-festival

Moreré

- CoMover: aquatic movements -

1st to 7th February 2025

7 days, including classes,
jams, labs and food (without accommodation or transport)

Early bird until 31/10: R$ 1930
(Approximately € 320)

After 01/11: R$ 2120
(Approximately € 350)

 
 

 

 

All Stages (I, II and III)

Capão + Pati + Moreré

- Full package -

10th January to 7th February 2025

29 days including all activities,
and food during the stages
(without accommodation or transport)

Early bird until 31/10: R$ 5540
(Approximately € 900)

After 01/11: R$ 5970
(Approximately € 970)

- Accommodations -

Stage I

Accommodation at Vale do Capão

R$ 50 (camping per night)

Night from R$ 130*
(bedroom with double bed)

Stage II

Accommodation at Vale do Pati

From R$ 50 (camping per night)

Night from R$ 100 (shared bedroom)

*During the Vale do Pati stage, the Festival’s production team recommends accommodation in a room to reduce the weight of the trek.

Stage III

Accommodation in Moreré

R$ 50 (camping per night)

Night from R$ 200*
(bedroom with double bed)

 
 

 

 

* You can contact our organization team to see if there are other people looking for a roommate to share the costs. +55 75 99842 1657

How to get

To get to this blessed place called Bahia, you have to take a plane to Salvador da Bahia (SSA).

Capão and Paty

If you are coming for stages I and II (Capão and Pati), there are 2 options:

The cheapest option is to take the bus from Salvador to Palmeiras and from there a van to Vale do Capão .The 8am and 11pm buses arrive at times when you can easily find public transport that takes you directly to Capão.

The other option is to take another flight from Salvador to Lençóis (LEC) and then from the airport take a taxi to Vale do Capão.

Moreré

If you’re only coming for stage III (Moreré), we suggest you take the bus from Salvador to Valença and from there take a speedboat to Boipeba, then a quad bike taxi or the collective tractor to Moreré.

The speedboats leave at 7.20am, 9am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.

 
 

 

 

More information:

contactinnatura @ gmail.com
/encimadachapada
Photo and video credits: Geraldin Acevedo, Eli Hill, Maria de Los Angeles, Carlos Gavina, Sasha Bezrodnova, Julia Limaverde, Eugene Dymohod, Joana Shroeder, Ciro Becker, Felipe Godoi, Olya Glotka, Marina Sekacheva.
Contact in Natura. All rights reserved.

Hugh Steiner (UK)

Hugh Steiner
(UK)

- Intensive in Vale do Capão -

Human Moves

Playful practice & explorative inquiry of Contact Improvisation.
My approach to movement practice is both: technical and experiential – concentrating on building up a functional understanding of underlying physical principles and structures of Contact Improvisation whilst also widening the trust to one’s instincts, impulses and intuition.
The principal themes behind the work are organic, fluid and functional movement, tuning and sensitivity to listening through the body & deepening the awareness of the body in movement and in connection to other bodies. Material alternates between contact and solo tasks, and exercises that connect the group as a whole, creating an open, safe and exciting environment to explore.

- Practices in Vale do Pati -

On Being with nature

Connecting to the land through embodied practice.
Attending the various ways we can engage and connect with our environment, calling upon different qualities of attention and observation when in nature. Ones that can be found in shifting the focus away from the often dominant mind and into our felt senses and the body’s inherent knowledge. From simple walking exercises, partner-work and gentle bodywork, to finding a sit spot and playing with ideas of soft fascination and deep time. These sessions will seek out ways we can ‘be with’ rather than ‘upon’ the land and how this state can ripple out to the ways we can live and dance alongside each other in life.

Thomas Rocourt (France)

Thomas Rocourt
(France)

- Class in Vale do Capão -

Dancing with the yes flow
Why do I dance? What brings me to Contact Improvisation? What are my desires when I dance? What are my limits? Where is my pleasure in moving and making contact? What explorations are welcome? When do I feel safe or not safe? What is my responsibility; what is my dance partner’s responsibility? In this workshop, we will open up these questions… and a few others! We will leave room for our feelings, our inner barometer. We will explore – with intention and with a supportive framework – our “yes”, “no”, “maybe”, “stop” and “again”… Contact Improvisation offers a (potentially) magical and revolutionary playground. As CI turns 51 years old, consent remains a topic of research for this practice. Let’s keep researching together!

Andrea Scheel (Mexico)

Andrea Scheel
(Mexico)

- Intensive in Vale do Capão -

From Falling to Flying

Workshop with focus on the physicality of the delivery of weight, confidence, micro fallings and fallings; and what this implies on a human level. Taking the falling as the motor of movement to start in the direction of the flyght. Go through the basic principles (weight, counterbalance, enter and leave the floor, to listen…) to expand the body’s capabilities in unconventional situations, opening up spaces for play and alertness without resistance. From somatic explorations and movement patterns, we will share tools of martial arts and experiential anatomy. We will create spaces of attention where everything is resolved with the detachment, where impulse becomes an entry for a dance. And so through collective learning we find a space for improvisation.

- Immersion in Moreré -

(Andrea Scheel and Karen Palafox)
Water’s Bodies

An immersion to rediscover the origins of our amphibious being, moving in water and on land, and allowing ourselves to be guided by them. We will explore the body and movement through somatic methodologies, Contact Improvisation, and certain aquatic techniques to embody the wisdom of Moreré’s warm waters. By creating safe spaces, we will delve into the aquatic experience from both a therapeutic and playful dance perspective, primarily working with human movement development patterns. These patterns develop in our fetal state, within the liquid environment of our mothers’ wombs, and connect us to the movements of certain sea creatures that inspire our creations, dances, and explorations, both on land and in water.

Karen Palafox (Mexico)

Karen Palafox (Mexico)

- Immersion in Moreré -

(Karen Palafox and Andrea Scheel)
Water’s Bodies

An immersion to rediscover the origins of our amphibious being, moving in water and on land, and allowing ourselves to be guided by them. We will explore the body and movement through somatic methodologies, Contact Improvisation, and certain aquatic techniques to embody the wisdom of Moreré’s warm waters. By creating safe spaces, we will delve into the aquatic experience from both a therapeutic and playful dance perspective, primarily working with human movement development patterns. These patterns develop in our fetal state, within the liquid environment of our mothers’ wombs, and connect us to the movements of certain sea creatures that inspire our creations, dances, and explorations, both on land and in water.

Giulia Isabel
(Italy/Dominican Republic)

Giulia Isabel
(Italy/Dominican Republic)

- Practices in Vale do Pati -

Ecologic Remembrance

In the western world, we live in critical times of disconnection between humans and nature. This fracture creates a deep inner void and I believe it is one of the main reasons for the rapid decline in global mental health. It is urgent and vital to find ways to recondition our bodies and souls to remember that we are nature. Ecosomatic rituals help us restore our original belonging to the web of nature. From this state of expanded awareness, we can begin to integrate our existence into the larger field of Earth and recognise ourselves as one of nature’s many creative expressions. How do we breath, move, and relate as a body that remembers its natural belonging?

Julia Limaverde (Brazil)

Julia Limaverde
(Brazil)

- Classs in Vale do Capão -

Listen to the void - beyond technique
As we sharpen the kinesthetic awareness, we may be able to set aside our usual patterns and find ourselves in a state of deep listening. Presence sets in during the dance when we stop thinking. This active meditation takes our dance to places unvisited. Breaking the expectation that we generate a spectacular dance can lead to a unique experience. What is the difference between virtuosity and skill, repetition of acrobatics and spontaneous movement, spectacle and experience, trick and improvisation? In this class we propose to release the conventionalisms and bring the dance closer to the nature of the movement. We notice everything we have learnt, and then let it go, to unlearn, allowing what is new to arise. We are putting into question the relationship between art and life, philosophy and practice. If CI is a practical expression tool, what is the dialogue you are establishing now? Breathing, silencing patterns, recognizing addictions, deconstructing the usual path, exploring the new, with naivete, without censorship, without reference or prerequisite. Trust in the unknown, surrender. Everything is safely out of control.