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.

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

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

• 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 movement — are endlessly rich and will remain our foundation.
On top of this base, we will introduce other points of attention to see how they shift, deepen, or transform our dance. For instance: What happens when we focus our gaze into the far distance, or onto something just a few centimeters away? What happens when we remain highly permeable to the presence and potential influence of other dancers in the room, beyond our immediate partner — allowing their energy, movement, or rhythm to subtly seep into and reshape our duet? When we focus our attention in having a secret trio while ? How does our CI change if we give “super-powers” to our hands (or other part of our body), letting them lead and inspire the movement? How is our dance influenced by the awareness of performing in front of an audience, or being in a stage-like situation?
Through these explorations, my aim is twofold: to deepen our understanding and embodiment of Contact Improvisation’s core principles, and to open new pathways that expand our daily CI practice. Ultimately, we will discover how subtle shifts in attention can reveal fresh possibilities and bring new textures, colors, and inspirations to our shared dancing.

CONTACT IMPROVISATION CLASS - MERCÈ NEBOT
​​​CONTACT IMPROVISATION – FROM ORGANIC MOVEMENT TO CONNECTION
This Contact Improvisation class invites you into a somatic exploration of movement, where dance takes root in a deeper connection with the body’s organic and tissue structures.

We will take time to sense how bones, muscles, fascia, and fluids support and nourish movement, and how listening to them with attention can open new qualities of presence and relationship.

​Through this inner awareness, we will explore how our internal dynamics meet the outside world, subtly shaping our dance and our interactions with others. Movement quality will deepen, gaining finer textures, greater attentiveness, and an expanded sensitivity. ​Blending the principles of Contact Improvisation with somatic awareness, this work opens the doors of perception and invites our dances to be infused with an intimate, vibrant connection.

BUTOH INTENSIVE - MAKI WATANABE
Towards Dancing Like a Flower – Maki Watanabe
​The founder of Butoh dance, Tatsumi Hijikata, said,
“Butoh is a corpse standing with all its strength.”

And the other founder, Kazuo Ohno, said,
“Butoh is the dream of a fetus.”

Through Butoh dance,
we can explore our body, our presence, as they are.

By observing rain, wind, animals, insects, stones, etc… things from nature,
we try to dance life and death, shadow and light, with our own body.

As if we were trying to discover our resemblance to a flower.
As if we were trying to open a flower petal, one by one.

The workshops take place through different kinds of work such as observing the body: the organs, the bones, the liquid state, the points, the lines, etc… breathing exercises, walking and its relation to the ground, research with imagination, etc… And dances with different themes, and free dances in improvisation.

These intensive workshops are open to everyone. It is an initiation, an exploration, an invitation into Butoh dance.

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

XII century Château de Rustrel located in the center of the village

This XII century castle has recently been restored and we continue to add a new touch to it every year. Nevertheless, it is a princely stopover that is offered to you with dinners in the amphitheater at the foot of the castle on sunny days, rooms for 2 and dormitories with 3, 4 and 6 beds and a large common room in ground floor. As it is in the center of the village, it is also an opportunity to take a short tour of the oil mill or simply listen to your footsteps echo in the cobbled streets.

We will have the chance to stay together in this historic building and meet there at every meal to share unforgettable moments.

The vegetarian food of Silvia Sampons, our chef
Silvia Sampons festival en provence contact improvisationS

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/

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

• Early Bird until September 30, 2025: €440
• After September 30, 2025: 480 €

Price WITHOUT accommodation in Rustrel castle:

• Early Bird until September 30, 2025: 370 €
• After September 30, 2025: 410 €

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 Rustrel Castle 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 castle, dining room, bathrooms, terraces, etc.
All workshops and jams.
Liability insurance.

What is not included in the price:

Breakfasts (the dining room of the Castle will be available to all participants). However, 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