Czech contact improvisation community festival
Létanec is czech contact improvisation community festival that brings together czech and foreign dancers to share, learn and enjoy contact improvisation and related practices.
We invite people to gather to dance, explore and play. To experience one week of sharing dances, spaces, visions and daily realities. To bring together Czech contact improvisers to enhance the sense of community and creative potential, and to interconnect with dancers from abroad.
What are our values?
We understand life as a web of relations, where every single movement influences everything. In this sense, we practice contact improvisation to contribute to more conscious life on this planet. We want to bring wisdom to all our relating on multiple levels:
Our own body and personal needs. We are all learning to listen to our inner self and to respect our body and soul and at the same time we want to feel safe and respected by others on the dance floor. We want to bring the topic of respect and boundaries in CI to light and to collective discussion as we feel it’s highly needed in the growing Czech contact community.
Relationships in the community. We know it is full time labour to take care of our relationships. We want to develop sensitivity, clarity and good communication to build friendly community environment where everyone can develop their potential.
Local and global ecosystems. The festival takes place in Czech countryside in the season of early autumn when we can benefit from local fresh vegetables and fruits. We believe the ecological aspect is part of CI culture and we feel the same need for sensibility in interactions with our environment as we aim for in interactions with our dance partners. Ultimately, we feel the responsibility and respect for the Earth that is the ground on which we dance.
Where do we dance?
The venue of the camp is a renovated farmhouse called Plum Yard in the village of Malovice in southern Bohemia. The Plum Yard farm was inhabited and reconstructed by the artistic collective of Theatre Continuo as first project of this kind in the Czech Republic. During the past 20 years of its existence it has hosted numerous theatre performances, site specific projects, workshop and residencies. The farm was reconstructed in harmony with the original conception using local materials. The dominant feature is the multifunction studio designed as a modern wooden construction with an open roof frame.
For whom is it?
Inclusive environment. Létanec is open to all levels and welcomes diversity of ages and backgrounds.. We want to open safe space and guidance for everyone. We as organizers will guide you through the process doing our best and we expect the participants to enjoy and get the most of the Camp by being an active part and taking care of each other. We know that every day and every dance meeting has its unique spirit and within our frame we trust in the process to freely reveal itself and to add colours to all festival activities.
How does a day on Létanec look like? We are all teachers and students in a way and we want to create spaces for exchanging perspectives and hearing all voices. The festival is structured as follows:
Early mornings – Restorative yoga classes to delicately wake up your body.
Mornings – We will immerse into one of our CI intensives. Also, there will be alternative activities to do, if you don’t feel like doing the intensive.
Afternoons – diverse workshops of related movement disciplines will take place. We will also have Creative nest – a space for you to take initiative and experiment with others using your skills.
Evenings – jams of course!
Free day – In the middle of the week, we will have a free day with some surprises.
Respect and self-responsibility hub – We want to bring to light the topic of respect and responsibility in contact improvisation. We want to create safe dance spaces where people know their own and other people’s boundaries to be able to fully dive in and enjoy the dance. We know there have been a lot of misunderstanding about the CI culture among people in the Czech Republic, some of them based on people’s own bad experiences in jams or classes, some of them on lack of information or insecurity in close physical contact with other people. We think it’s very bad if a newcomer to a jam or a class gets this negative experience, therefore we want to bring discussion and collective education to the community space.