International Contact Improvisation & Butoh Festival En Provence Autumn - 27 Octobre-1 November 2025 - Rustrel - 14th Edition

International Contact Improvisation & Butoh Festival En Provence Autumn - 27 Octobre-1 November 2025 - Rustrel - 14th Edition

Contact Improvisation, Butho Dance and Composition, Improvisation, Workshops, Jams, Underscore, Live music, Nature.

14th edition of the Festival de Danse Contact Improvisation de la Provence, in Rustrel, one of the most beautiful villages in France, located north of Apt and at the foot of the Monts de Vaucluse. A unique opportunity of immersion for 7 days, for 35 participants, to experience an exploration of dance and movement with quality workshops, jams, live music and many other proposals to share.

THE PROGRAM => Check the link: https://www.emotionbodies.com/events/80-festival-contact-improvisation-provence-rustrel-autumn-2025.html#angles

• Days and hours: From Monday 27th of October afternoon to Saturday 1st of November in the afternoon.
• Places available: Limited to 35 and will be accepted in order of registration.
• Location: Rustrel (Provence). Professional dance space with a high quality wooden dance floor.
• Food: Vegetarian cuisine by Silvia Sampons, our chef. Professional chef with extensive experience cooking for groups at events of all kinds. She cooks vegetarian and organic, always striving to use high-quality local suppliers. She is a practicing chef and student of alchemy, art, and culinary anthropology. She enjoys seasonal vegetarian/vegan cuisine and permaculture.

https://www.instagram.com/cuinaanonima/

Festival philosophy

This festival was born from an initiative between a brother and a sister and their passion for dance. Mercè Nebot, who has lived in French Provence for 20 years, and Pep Nebot, who lives in Barcelona, have joined forces to create this space for sharing dance, creation and beauty.

At each edition, people of many different nationalities have gathered for the Festival, which is very enriching and allows the establishment of a cultural bridge around art, dance and creativity.

In this festival we want to prioritize some approaches:

• Quality pedagogy in Contact Improvisation dance to promote better body awareness;

• Welcoming a small group that will live together for a week an intimate and profound human adventure. We want to generate a sense of belonging to the group and a sense of community, by creating an inclusive, generous and supportive environment;

• Contact with nature, surround yourself with aesthetic beauty and charismatic villages of the deep Provence;

• The cultural exchange between participants, locals and international visitors; We have already experienced on many occasions that, when people with different cultures and life experiences get together, we all grow in a spiral of creativity and self-knowledge;

• Live Contact Improvisation and other dance forms in its essence, with its living principles present at all times: self-respect and respect for the other, sense of group, security and creativity, movement in gravity, contact, attention and self-knowledge, among others.

The facilitators

Maki Watanabe (Japan)

Butoh dancer. Born on January 28, 1976, in Sendai, Japan. After training in modern jazz dance, she entered the world of butoh dance in 1995 and was initiated by Kazuo Ohno, Masaki Iwana, and Marie Kazue. Based in Paris since 1998, she offers numerous solo improvised performances as well as new works. At the same time, she dances in pieces by choreographers such as Gyohei Zaitsu, Naomi Mutoh, Katy Roulaud, and others. She also collaborates with musicians such as Claude Parle and directors.

Since 2010, she has regularly given workshops and courses in France and other countries such as Spain, Brazil, and the Republic of Congo. She taught from January to March 2025 at the Conservatoire du Théâtre in Liège, Belgium.

Among his creations:

Colors of Life - 2025, Everyone Has Invisible Things - 2024, Eternal Dialogue - 2021, Finally Like a Flower (directed by Gyohei Zaitsu) - 2018, Like That - 2016, Looking at the Sky - 2015, For a Far Star, for a Close Star - 2012, Eternal Season - 2010, A Dead Cat Feeds Me - 2009, Wolf Children (choreographed by Gyohei Zaitsu) - 2008, A Butterfly's Beat - 2002, etc.

Pep Nebot (Barcelona - Catalunya):

I began my dance journey in 2010 with Contact Improvisation, which has since become the foundation of my practice as both dancer and teacher. Over the years, I have also trained in contemporary dance, acrobatics, and handstand practice, disciplines that continue to shape my movement vocabulary and sense of presence. I have studied with internationally recognized CI teachers such as Nancy Stark Smith, Martin Keogh, Itay Yatuv, and many others. Still, my most profound learning comes from continuous exploration and the countless dancers I have met along the way.

Since 2020, I have been teaching Contact Improvisation workshops and intensives in Spain and France. My approach seeks a balance between technique and personal exploration, between the acrobatic and the subtle. Since 2015, I have also been deeply involved in organizing dance events, including CI festivals, jams, and contemporary acrobatic dance intensives. I am co-founder of the Festival International de Contact Improvisation EN PROVENCE in France (active since 2017) and the CI Camp in Catalonia (since 2020).

What draws me most to CI is its capacity to immerse us fully in the present moment, in a flowing dialogue between body, space, gravity, and touch. I see dance as both a practice and an art form—an ongoing investigation into weight, momentum, and balance, as well as an opening into poetry. Each gesture, fall, or encounter becomes a silent narrative, revealing truths that words cannot express.

For me, dance is not only physical—it is a language of presence and connection, a way to meet others, to meet myself, and to celebrate the simple fact of being alive.

Mercè Nebot – (Barcelona-Provence-Avignon) :

Passionate about dance and movement for more than 15 years, I am particularly drawn to free and spontaneous dance, centered on the art of improvisation. I discovered Contact Improvisation about ten years ago, an encounter that deeply shaped my journey. Since 2024, I have been teaching Contact Improvisation and co-organizing the Contact Impro Festival in Provence, which has already celebrated thirteen editions.

Trained in Wutao (a contemporary body practice with Taoist influences) and in Danser Être Dansé with Véronique Pioch, I now lead workshops in free dance and Wutao, and I love creating spaces for bodily expression and exploration.

What is most important to me is sharing my love for dance and the joy of free movement — freed from the limits and conditionings we often impose on ourselves — in order to fully inhabit the present moment.

Sébastien Prats (France)

Deux racines portent mon expérience professionnelle: Une expérience de plus de 25 ans dans les domaines de la production musicale, création artistique, spectacle, concert, scène en tant qu'interprète et organisation d'évenements. Une formation et une pratique d'enseignant depuis plus de 10 années dans les domaines du bien être, de la santé, de la relaxation et la méditation. https://www.sebastienprats.com/

Workshop proposal: Spontaneous singing.

A sacred space-time to find yourself in yourself and together in a fraternal, creative, joyful spirit. Free from the sounds, the gestures to which our body aspires, we will untie, energize the space through song and dance, sound and movement in co-creation. Our body evolving on a daily basis leads us to experience and feel a number of emotions that cannot be verbalized, out of syntactic or unconscious. This improvised singing space-time is made to liberate the body, connect with direct expression and digest the emotional speaking of this material. This group practice has the effect of calming the mind and strengthening confidence, self-esteem and inner joy.

Structure of the intensives

CONTACT IMPROVISATION INTENSIVE – PEP NEBOT

CONTACT IMPROVISATION AND EXPANDED POINTS OF ATTENTION

In my classes, we will seek a balance between solid technical work in Contact Improvisation and the integration of additional points of attention that can enrich and inspire our dancing.

On the technical side, I am particularly drawn to exploring the continuum of weight-sharing between two moving bodies, the unpredictability and adaptability of movement, and the ongoing, clear dialogue between partners. Flying and falling are integral to our technical exploration, approached with care, safety, and mindful attention. These fundamental principles — the contact with the floor, the moving point of contact in a duet, the sense of shared weight, and the direction of move