Dartington is in the air, as this year Contact Festival Dartington travels to Cornwall to take residence at the brand new Performance Centre studios at Tremough Campus in Penryn. The studios are spacious and feature fully sprung Harlequin oak floors, and natural light from large windows. A popular holiday destination for UK residents and international visitors alike, Cornwall boasts some of the most pristine beaches and coastlines in the world, and is awash with fresh ocean air from both sides of the Cornish peninsula.
Contact improvisation first landed in the UK in the 1970s and 80s when Steve Paxton began researching and teaching at Dartington College of Arts, in the theatre program under the direction of Mary O’Donnell Fulkerson, European pioneer of release technique. In collaboration with other artists of the New Dance movement, Fulkerson and Paxton began a series of spring festivals of dance and improvisation at Dartington. In the spirit of these gatherings and following a very successful National Contact Jam hosted at Dartington in 2010, and first annual Contact Festival Dartington in 2011, both which garnered a huge response from participants to continue, we now present the second annual Contact Festival Dartington.
The festival features a series of two-day workshops with exceptional teachers, showings of work, and jams with live music. All sessions take place in the same space, and no parallel sessions mean that participants do not need to choose between workshops and that a shared experience of work and play develops throughout the week. Homemade vegetarian and omnivorous food is provided by our talented team of cooks who prepare three meals daily. Hot beverages are also available throughout the day. All food is included in the festival price, and special diets can be catered for on request.
Apartment-style accommodation on the grounds of the Tremough Campus is also included in the festival price. Participants can choose between rooms with a large double bed and ensuite bathroom for one to two people, or a limited number of rooms with bunk beds, also with ensuite bathroom.
Tremough Campus, TR10 9EZ, is easily accessible by road or by rail from Penryn train station, which is a ten-minute walk away. By plane, regular flights from London come to Newquay Airport (1 hour by train), Exeter Airport (3 hours by train) and Bristol International Airport (4 hours by train). Follow the link for travel advice to Tremough Campus.
Standard price of £285 includes all festival events, food and accommodation. There is also a day rate of £60 with accommodation or £50 without accommodation; both prices include food.
Up to six bursaries of £100 each for artists from the southwest have been made available through dance cards for continuing professional development activities via dance agencies in the southwest including Plymouth Dance, Dance in Devon and The Works Dance & Theatre in Cornwall. Deadline for CPD dance card applications is the 1st of June for Contact Festival Dartington participants. (Note this is an extension from the earlier deadline of 1 April.)
For more information. Click on their website: www.contactfestivaldartington.co.uk