International Contact Improvisation & Butoh Festival En Provence Autumn - 17-23 Octobre 2026 - Rustrel - 17th Edition

17th edition of the Festival of Contact Improvisation & Butoh in the French Province, 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.

Contact Improvisation, Butoh, Workshops, Jams, Underscore, Live Music , Nature.

THE PROGRAM => Check https://www.emotionbodies.com/events/87-festival-contact-improvisation-butoh-provence-rustrel-autumn-2026.html

The event is open to all those who wish to share, learn or get a deeper experience in Contact Improvisation & Butoh Dance. Space open to all levels, beginners, advanced and professional dancers.

Days and hours: From Saturday 17th of October afternoon to Friday 23th of October 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: 🍃 Adeline: Wholesome, Local, and Full of Flavor.
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
MUTSUMINEIRO (Tokio, Japan)
Japanese Butoh Duet, Neiro and Mutsumi. Since first meeting at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio in 2012, Neiro and Mutsumi have performed together as MUTSUMINEIRO—a duet in pursuit of what they call “an idiotic blessing moment”: fragile, foolish, beautiful. Their collaboration, rooted in Butoh, invites audiences into dreamlike landscapes of movement, where time seems suspended and the body becomes a body to let memory, intimacy, and the unknown appear. Their signature work, «Tonight or Never….», was conceived as a wedding of souls—an eternal dance inspired by the blooming flowers in Marc Chagall’s paintings. This piece toured Japan, UK, Poland, Israel, Germany, Brazil, and Ecuador captivating audiences with its surreal tenderness. In 2016, Neiro and Mutsumi founded Galerie Ame, an intimate performance and residency space in East downtown Tokyo, where they host workshops, performances, and artistic exchanges. In 2023, they premiered Pink River—a dance that flowed like a prayer, expressing the miraculous fruit of their shared life and universe.

MUTSUMI (Tokio, Japan)
Mutsumi Kimura’s journey into dance began at the age of three with classical ballet training. As a junior high school student, she transitioned to rhythmic gymnastics, later competing at the national level, including the Inter-High Championships, National Sports Festival, and All Japan Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. She trained with the All-Japan National Team while attending Tokyo Women’s College of Physical Education, but an injury forced her to step away from dance. A decade later, she was deeply moved by a documentary featuring Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno’s Butoh, inspiring her to return to dance. In 2009, she relocated to Tokyo to study under Yoshito Ohno at Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, where she met her longtime collaborator, Neiro. She has participated in Mitsuyo Uesugi’s Butoh workshop “Kayoukai”, and in 2016, she was selected as a model for ISSEY MIYAKE, a photo book by Yuriko Takagi published by Taschen, in conjunction with the MIYAKE ISSEY. Exhibition at The National Art Center, Tokyo.

NEIRO (Tokio, Japan)
2008–2010 – Art Mime Training, Japan Art Mime Society, Tokyo, Japan Studied under JIDAI (JIDAI – Art Mime)2010–2012 – Mime Art Theatre Training, Teatr Sztuki Mimu (Mime Art Theatre), Warsaw, Poland Studied under Stefan Niedziałkowski; performed in his company (Stefan Niedziałkowski – Mime Art Theatre)2012–2017 – Butoh Training, Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio, Yokohama, Japan Studied under Yoshito Ohno (Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio)
Artist Statement
NEIRO’s artistic journey—from Mime to Butoh and into the experimental realms of his duet work in MUTSUMINEIRO—reflects a deep commitment to exploring raw, visceral states through the body. His trajectory across artistic mediums and cultural landscapes, from Poland to Japan, has shaped a practice deeply grounded in intuition, physical memory, and the mystery of presence.
Each mentor—Stefan Niedziałkowski, with Mime’s silent discipline, and Yoshito Ohno, with the profound spiritual layers of Butoh—offered NEIRO distinct vocabularies, which he has since fused into a unique language of movement.
His solo work, Bokutoh KI – Dance TANTAN, represents the culmination of these influences. It is not choreographed in a conventional sense but rather unearthed moment by moment in improvisation—an open space where time fractures and something unknown is allowed to be born. He describes this process as “a scream, a crack, something that whispers to us to take a peek.” It is not theatre in the traditional sense but rather an ephemeral emergence—a fragile reality that exists only once.

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 internationally. 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)
Sébastien
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/

Structure of the intensives

EXODUS BUTOH WORKSHOP WITH MUTSUMI NEIRO.

Mutsumi and Neiro are offering an immersive Butoh Laboratory workshop that invites participants into a process of constant departure rather than arrival, exploring dance as a way of being rather than a technique to master. Rooted in the life-practice and philosophy of Butoh as transmitted by Yoshito Ohno, this lab offers solo and group explorations, guided improvisation, and silent observation to unlearn form, reveal presence, and encounter the unknown through the body. Led by the acclaimed Japanese duet MUTSUMINEIRO—known internationally for their poetic, fragile, and dreamlike performances—the workshop is open to all who are willing to engage sincerely, offering not choreography but a deepened sense of body, space, and the mystery of being alive, where dancer and dance become one.

MUTSUMINEIRO Butho lab 6The workshop does not promise arrival, but rather constant departure towards the unknown. The “EXODUS” Butoh Laboratory is not designed to teach technique or reproduce form—it is a process of unlearning, confronting, and revealing.
Participants are invited to experience dance as a condition of being. Participants will not walk away with choreography or repertoire—but with a revealed sense of body, space, and the mystery of being alive.

It is a meeting into dance as life, and life as a continuous, open-ended exodus. Never get caught by your wish to put the meaning on it. Let it just dance!!

Dancer is dance, dance is dancer.

Everything of your life is your dance.

It is an exploration for your dance, harbouring extravagant possibilities.

This workshop is open to everyone, but demands sincere engagement. Each day includes solo and group explorations, guided improvisation, and silent observation.

Mutsumi and Neiro studied with Yoshito Ohno(1938-2020), who was there since before the name “Butoh” was given. They are recognised experts in Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio’s legacy, which encompasses Butoh’s life practice and philosophy, alongside their contemporary approach, offering a unique experience and perspective on presence for all human beings.
www.mutsumineiro.com

​​​CONTACT IMPROVISATION WORLSHOP with PEP NEBOT
LOSING CONTROL

What happens when we stop trying to control every movement? What becomes possible when we consciously allow ourselves to fall, fly, listen, and respond instead of anticipating and directing?
This workshop explores the art of losing control consciously—not as recklessness, but as a practice of trust, awareness, and presence. Through the principles of Contact Improvisation, we will investigate how giving genuine weight, receiving another body with sensitivity, and allowing momentum to guide us can awaken our natural reflexes and expand our movement possibilities.

Pep Nebot Contact Improvisation 6Rather than relying on habitual patterns or constant mental planning, we will cultivate the ability to not do: to empty the mind, soften unnecessary effort, and let movement emerge from listening. In this state, the body's intelligence comes forward, allowing spontaneous decisions to arise with clarity and precision.

Fear often appears where control begins to dissolve. Together, we will approach this edge with curiosity, gradually transforming the fear of falling, being supported, or becoming unpredictable into confidence, adaptability, and even pleasure. Flying, falling, rolling, and sharing weight become opportunities to experience freedom—not through the absence of awareness, but through a deeper form of it.

Throughout the workshop, safety is the foundation. We will develop clear physical principles for supporting one another, managing weight responsibly, protecting ourselves and our partners, and recognizing our own limits. Conscious risk-taking is only possible when built upon attentive listening, mutual care, and respect.

This workshop is an invitation to discover that losing control is not the opposite of awareness. It is a refined practice of surrendering unnecessary control so that responsiveness, trust, creativity, and joy can emerge.

​​​CONTACT IMPROVISATION WORLSHOP with MERCÈ NEBOT

Rising from the Ground - Architectures in Contact-Improvisation
Merce Nebot Festival En Provence Contact Improvisation and Butoh October 2026

Before meeting another, we first meet the ground.

In this intensive, we will explore the ground as our first partner: a place of listening, support, and momentum. By allowing gravity and the simple laws of movement to guide us, we will discover how the body can organize itself with greater fluidity, efficiency, and freedom.

Through floorwork, spirals, and the exploration of the inner lines of force that connect our center to space, we will cultivate a quality of presence where movement emerges with less effort and greater availability.

From this deep relationship with the ground, the dialogue with another naturally unfolds. Support becomes shared, weight begins to flow, trust develops, and contact becomes a space for play, listening, and creation.

Open to movers of all levels, this intensive offers an opportunity to explore the fundamental principles of Contact Improvisation as a living field of research.

About Rustrel

Rustrel is a village located north of Apt and at the foot of the Monts de Vaucluse. Its open-air ocher quarries, fully exploited in the past, have made it rich and continue through tourism with those of the "Colorado Provençal". Its dirt trails allow you to discover eroded cliffs with more than 20 shades of ochre2, hoodoos, etc. They date from the Cretaceous and are composed mainly of ochreous sands, white sands and ferruginous cuirasses.

The privileged environment: The Provençal Colorado extends over more than 30 hectares, in the Luberon massif, about 10 km from Apt1. Marked trails run through former ocher quarries with more than 20 shades of ochre. The site includes the "Cirque de Barriès", the "Cirque de Bouvène", settling basins, fairy chimneys (dangerous area prohibited by municipal decree), the "Sahara", the bed of the Dôa (small local river) . The GR 6 long-distance footpath crosses the site. The colors of the ochres of the Provençal Colorado contrast with the shades of green of the vegetation and the white of the surrounding limestone massifs.

Accommodation
Mas des Ocres – Rustrel

In the heart of the village of Rustrel, Mas des Ocres offers a peaceful and welcoming setting, with beautiful views over the Luberon Regional Natural Park.

A large garden, a lovely terrace, a swimming pool, and comfortable spaces invite you to fully enjoy the surrounding nature and tranquillity. The accommodation offers shared dormitory rooms as well as a few double rooms.

Here, the air is fresh, the landscape stretches as far as the eye can see, and the quiet of the night naturally invites rest. It is an ideal place to recharge, connect with others, and fully experience the festival while staying right in the heart of the village.

GPS location:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Xt6phpByyNPYVX5QA

🍃 Adeline: Wholesome, Local, and Full of Flavor
ADELINE

Throughout the retreat, Adeline, our local cook, will delight us with vegetarian meals — light, nourishing, and full of energy — served for lunch and dinner.

🌿 Fresh and Organic Ingredients
Her dishes are crafted with seasonal produce, sourced from local farms and organic agriculture, bringing freshness, color, and authenticity to every plate.

✨ Food that Nurtures Body and Soul
With generosity and passion, Adeline invites us to enjoy a simple, vibrant, and balanced cuisine, perfectly aligned with the spirit of the retreat. 🍽

PRICES & REGISTRATION
Price WITH accommodation (ony 30 beds):

Early Bird until September 18th, 2026: €495
After September 18th, 2026: 535 €

Price WITHOUT accommodation :

Early Bird until September 18th, 2026: 415 €
After September 18th, 2026: 455 €
To reserve the place, you must pay the deposit of €100, and the rest can be transferred or paid in cash at the event.

What is included in the price:

Accommodation in shared rooms. People will be distributed as they register. (for those who pay the price with accommodation).
All lunches and dinners, with organic vegetarian cuisine.
Use of the common spaces of the accomodation premises, dining room, bathrooms, terraces, etc.
All workshops and jams.
Liability insurance.
What is not included in the price:

Breakfasts. The dining room of the accomodation premises will be available to all participants, sleeping in our premises or not. Also, coffee and tea will always be available to everyone. A refrigerator will also be made available to all participants.
REGISTRATION AND PAYMENTS

To reserve your place you must register in the registration form and pay the deposit of €100 to confirm your reservation, and the rest can be transferred before the event or paid in cash on the first day of the event.

The transfer of the deposit can be made to a Spanish or French bank, or by Paypal:

• Spanish bank: IBAN: ES47 0081 0900 8000 0334 3240SWIFT: BSABESBBXXX (Owner: José Nebot Muns)

• French bank: IBAN : FR76 1390 6001 4200 1891 0602 595 / BIC : AGRIFRPP839 / Association Corps Raccords

• Paypal: emotionbodies@gmail.com If you choose to pay pay Paypal, there is an applyed commission that can vary from 5 euros (Euro zone) to 20 euros (Israel or Australlia for instance). Due the this high quantities, we will ask you to pay us back this commission in cash in the festival. Thanks for understanding.

When making the transfer, write in the concept "your name and surname + Festival Provence". For international transfers, make sure that the amount being sent is free of bank commissions.

Contact and information:

Contact in France: Merce Nebot +33 666124365, corpsraccords.asso@gmail.com
Contact in Catalonia: Pep Nebot +34 685166358, info@emotionbodies.com