When I aquired the domain www.contactimprov.com, I noticed there were many CI related websites out there serving this community or that community, a festival here, a jam there, a workshop center, or an individual teacher, but very few sites that attempted the bigger mission of holding a cyberspace that would serve the whole growing and expanding CI world community. Part of my journey has included a thorough scouring of the web for what already existed, and this is how the following list was born.

Searching the web is an art form in itself. I'd like to reveal a few of my methods so that readers might continue to expand this list for themselves and for all of us. I generally use google to do much of my searching and start with the words "Contact Improvisation". The quotes are very important, because they limit your search to include only results that have the whole phrase in the quotes. Then I'll add a plus sign and the name of a place or person, also in quotes, to get the most pertinent returns. The more specific your searches the more specific your results will be. For example a search for "contact improvisation"+ "Santa Cruz"+"Nita Little" gave me 32 results, whereas just "contact improvisation"+ "Santa Cruz" was 477, and "contact improvisation" by itself - 41,300!!! Once I find a site I always check their links to discover other interesting sites. Some sites also have bibliographies, which can be very useful for coming up with new search phrases. Another great google search tool is if you type "link:" and then a website address (ie- link: www.contactquarterly.com) then the results are all the websites that link to that site! If you find any sites that you think should be represented in this list let me know. Use the Key below to understand what each annotated site has to offer.

Please e-mail me any updates, dead-links as well as new links that you would like to see listed here.  Thanks, Moti

B = Bio/s of people or organization, WS= Workshop/class schedule and/or descriptions, J = Contact Jam Schedule/info, L = Links Page, W = Writings/Articles, PR = Performance info and/or Reviews, P = Photo gallery, V = Video, R = Online Registration, M = Map/Directions, S = Store/ items for sale, F = Forum, N = Newsletter

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Contact Camp at Burning Man, (Black Rock Desert, Nevada)
http://www.bodyresearch.org/burningcontact/
Burning Man Festival will happen this year Aug. 25 - Sep. 3 . Last year over 100 people came together from 8 countries to form Contact Camp within the larger context (40,000 people) of this amazing creative festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. They hosted regular jams, classes, and labs within the Burning Man Festival, in two geodesic domes at Center Camp, and around the playa. Hundreds of others were involved in a fresh and wide open but focused space of exploration. This will mark Contact Camp's 3rd year at Burning Man.

Malcolm Manning
www.movetolearn.com
Malcolm's site is one of the most well written and resourceful sites I've found. You'll find detailed descriptions of CI and related forms such as somatics and Feldenkrais Method. You'll find workshop descriptions, quotes, writings, pictures, and projects in progress such as a Teacher's Tree- a big family tree of Malcolm's teachers and teacher's teachers. Also newly added is a great booklist with direct links to Amazon.com to purchase the books or get more info. (B,WS,PR,W,P,L)

Stolzenhagen/ Ponderosa Tanzland Festival
gut-stolzenhagen.de
www.ponderosa-dance.de
www.smaher.de
In 1999, a group of 22 volunteers came together to build a dance studio in an old cow barn in the village of Stolzenhagen, Germany. This is now the heart of the Ponderosa Tanzland Festival, offering CI classes, artist retreats, workshops, and performances. The first site listed here is the community site, the second is the festival, the third is Co-director and teacher, Stephanie Maher's site. All are filled with beautiful photographs and useful information. (B,WS,J,P,R,L)

ZIP.Orvietofestival
www.contactfestival.it
One of the largest annual dance festivals in Italy, with a focus primarily on CI. Five days of improvisational dance and music with guest artists from several countries invited to collaborate in workshops, study labs, jams, and performances every night in two palatial historical theaters. The site is full of information, artists bios, archived performances and photos, historical background on the venues, and lots more. (Italian and English)


Proximity Magazine
proximity.slightly.net
<proximity> is an Australian magazine devoted to new dance/movement and improvisation practice. It has a focus on CI, movement improvisation and other related forms. This site is a great resource! They have a great archive of articles from 1998-2002. (W,L)

Contact Improv Dance - tribe.net
www.tribe.net/tribe/5ddfc7ea-c25b-4f40-9749-31ac4dc79c13
This is an established online group that has useful CI forum. It's got over 750 members, interesting threads, and lots of postings. (F,P)

Contactimprov.net
www.contactimprov.net
This is the longest standing web worldwide directory for CI with extensive lists of jams, workshops, classes, events, and teachers of CI from around the world. (B,WS,J,W,P,L)

The BodyCartography Project
www.bodycartography.org
A movement ensemble that performs in public spaces, creating a physical dialogue between the dancers and the environment. The work is both improvisational and choreographed originating from CI, release technique, butoh, Capoeira, Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering, and various forms of somatic movement. Founders Olive Bieringa (NZ) and Otto Ramstad (USA) travel the world teaching and performing. (B,WS,P,W,N,L)

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CI Teachers and Enthusiasts Sites:

I've tried to gather sites for some of the more well known Contact teachers as well as enthusiasts with particularly resourceful or beautiful CI related sites. I've listed the teachers starting with those who have been at it for the longest (Steve Paxton, our founding father, followed by early pioneers in the 70's) leading up to now.

Steve Paxton
Considering that Steve is the founders of the form, it's hard to find any website devoted to him. I did get 655 sites though when I googled "Steve Paxton"+"Contact Improvisation". You'll find lots of info scattered throughout these sites. Anyway, here's a nice historical article featuring Steve's role as founder. I found the article on the main danish CI site.
www.kimpro.dk/historie_eng.htm
And here's an interesting page on a site that has a little clips of a video he made in Amsterdam, dancing to Goldberg Variations by Johan Sebastian Bach, with a written piece by Steve about the process of dancing to this music. (W,V)
www.videolepsia.com/STEVE.html

Nancy Stark Smith
www.nancystarksmith.com
One of the first to practice, teach, and innovate the form, Editor of CQ magazine, and creator of the Underscore, Nancy currently travels throughout the world teaching and performing CI. Here is her home page. (B,WS,L)

Nita Little
www.nitalittle.com
Nita Little has been performing, choreographing and teaching improvisational dance for thirty years. This site has a nice simple layout with beautiful pictures. (B,WS,PR,P,W,L)

Andrew de Lotbiniere Harwood
http://www.ahha-productions.ca/en/five.htm
Based in Montreal, Canada, Andrew has taught worldwide since the 70's. (B,WS,PR) (French and English)

Martin Keogh
www.martinkeogh.com
Martin Keogh has been teaching and performing CI for over twenty-four years. He is a Fulbright senior scholar and has an extensive world teaching schedule. There are many of his articulate articles on this well designed and informative webpage. (B,WS,P,V,W,L)

Julyen Hamilton
www.julyenhamilton.com
Julyen is not specifically a contact teacher, but many contacters have studied improvisational dance with him for the last three decades. Julyen's site has some great poetry and writing hidden throughout. For a nice example check out: the kinesthetics of language- www.julyenhamilton.com/WRITINGS/kinest.html(B,WS,PR,W)

Kirstie Simson
www.contactimpro.org/en-article54.html

http://dance.uiuc.edu/people/1045
Since 1979, she has worked extensively, performing and teaching throughout England, Europe and the USA. No site of her own, but here's a bio on another site. (B)

Pauline de Groot
www.xs4all.nl/~pdgdans
Pauline is one of the first CI teachers in Europe. Based in Amsterdam, she currently lives, teaches, and choreographs there. (B,WS,PR,L)

Rusty Lester
www.rustylester.com
Based in Germany, Rusty has been teaching and performing since the mid 80's. This is a visually nice site with a great photo gallery. (B,WS,PR,P,L)

Allen & Karen Kaeja
www.kaeja.org (B,PR,P,V,L)
Based in Toronto, Canada, this couple has a twenty-year partnership in choreography, performance, teaching. This is their company website.

Daniel Trenner
www.bridgetothetango.com
Daniel started out teaching CI over 25 years ago and then discovered Tango. This site is mainly his teaching schedule as a tango instructor, but occasionally he gives workshops fusing CI and tango! (B,WS,W,N)

Jess Curtis
www.jesscurtisgravity.org
Jess Curtis is a San Francisco based director/choreographer, performer, and teacher of CI and interdisciplinary dance/performance. He works independently, and in the collective performance groups Cahin-Caha, Cirque Batard, and Contraband. (B,WS,PR,P)

Keith Hennessy
www.circozero.org
Keith Hennessy is a Canadian-born performer, teacher, director, and organizer living in community in San Francisco since 1982. This is Keith's Dance Company, Circo Zero's webpage. (B, WS, PR, W)

Stephanie Maher
www.smaher.de
Dancer, choreographer, improviser and teacher based in San Francisco for many years. In 1998 she relocated to Berlin where she continues to perform, organize, develop and teach in the community-based settings of K77 Studios in Berlin and the Ponderosa Tanz/Land Festival in Stolzenhagen, Germany. (B, WS, PR, P, L)

Scott Wells
www.scottwellsdance.com
Scott Wells is a critically acclaimed and award-winning choreographer. Beautiful site. From the looks of his site he spends most of his time teaching and performing in San Francisco and Germany. (B,WS,PR)

Brenton Cheng
www.bfalling.net
Lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay area. (B,WS,PR)

Annie Brook
www.anniebrook.com
On her website you can buy and read excerpts from her three books "Contact Improvisation and Body Mind Centering", "From Conception to Crawling", "Sex and Spirit: A Healthy Sexuality Workbook." Also links on her home page go to such subjects as Movement Education, Body Mind Psychotherapy, Healthy Sexuality, Pre and Perinatal Development, and Playback Theater. (B,WS,W,S,L)

Janis Claxton
www.janisclaxton.com
Originally from Australia, teaching for many years in Great Britain, she's just moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she continues to teach. (B, WS, PR, P, L)