TRAILER:<a href="https://youtu.be/7DQbORO4BM0?si=RwaZKplXGhJykKHP" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7DQbORO4BM0?si=RwaZKplXGhJykKHP</a>

the desire of a body toward the center of the earth is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> Description:Two dancers move toward connection while navigating the fundamental disorientation of being human. Tara KnightDirector Rebecca SalzerDirector Liz BurrittKey Cast Liam ClancyKey Cast Liz BurrittChoreographer Liam ClancyChoreographer Rebecca SalzerEditor Ronan KelleherMusic Christopher PetilloLighting Emett CaseyColor Grading Director Biography -&nbsp;Tara Knight, Rebecca SalzerThis is Ms. Knight's and Ms. Salzer's sixth collaborative film. Among the honors awarded to the directors are the Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival and The Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Previous films have been featured at numerous national and international venues, including South by Southwest, The Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, The International Festival of Screendance, VideoDanza Buenos Aires, the Athens Video Dance Project, and on PBS-affiliate television stations. Ms. Knight and Ms. Salzer's collaboration is fed by their differing backgrounds and training; Ms. Knight in film and animation, and Ms. Salzer in choreography and screendance.

the desire of a body toward the center of the earth

"Luminarium" is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> Short Film Description (50 words or less): Contact dancers explore the Terceradix Luminarium, an immersive art installation by Architects of Air that was part of the Luminato Festival in Toronto in 2025. Country of origin: Canada Filmmaker/s: Sarah Jones Release date: 2025 Dancers: Elsa Lam and Olivia Proudfoot Camera: Sarah Jones Location of Filming: Toronto, ON

Luminarium

Dancers: Shira Yaziv &amp; Richie&nbsp;Villa

Dynamic Partnering in Motion

Site specific impro dance. Catania , May 2025. Dancers: Marta IucciMarta WrzesinskaJesús Alonso

Sicily before breakfast

Short Film Description (50 words or less): Hand Made investigates manipulation as a social and physical force. Filmed in one continuous shot in the empty space of a museum, it lets bodies and hands shape each other and the space — a raw exploration of influence, touch, and connection, reflecting how society molds us into becoming creation itself. Filmmaker: Olivia Court Mesa Release Date: June 2023 Choreographer: Olivia Court Mesa Dancers: Einav Kringel, Marie-Louise Hertog, Pablo Navarro, Alessio Monforte Camera: Olivia Court Mesa Location of Filming: Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, Germany Other Credits:Sound Design: Roey HasonMade in collaboration with MiR Dance Company / Director: Giuseppe Spota

Hand Made

﻿Primal touch is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> ﻿Primal touch is a dance film exploring the invisible bonds between people. Through three bodies in motion, the work traces different ways of being close — yearning for fusion, fearing loss, needing distance. Each character moves through their own emotional logic, shaped by the silent patterns of attachment. Dancers:Aurora MitsianiElke KaluparLászló Sandig Camera:Bren Vasquez Music: Safam Colour:Shaffim Rohan Director Biography<a href="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/003/133/635/original/efb2302369-headshot.jpg?1746806912" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/003/133/635/thumb/efb2302369-headshot.jpg?1746806912" width="120" style="border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 12.95px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative;"></a>Anastasia Shikina is a Berlin-based documentary filmmaker and creative producer with over 7 years of experience exploring stories that move — not always loudly, but deeply.Anastasia’s work is rooted in connection — with people, places, gestures, and the quiet things we feel but don’t always say. She’s drawn to stories that are intimate, sometimes raw,and always honest.Whether it’s a documentary, a branded content, a dance film, or something in-between, she creates space for the story to breathe — and unfold at its own pace. Director StatementPrimal Touch is a physical exploration of attachment theory. I’ve always been fascinated by how our early emotional patterns shape the ways we seek closeness, navigate intimacy, and respond to vulnerability.The choreography in this film mirrors the push-and-pull dynamic of human relationships: moments of longing and hesitation, approach and withdrawal, attunement and rupture. Dance becomes the language through which attachment styles manifest — anxious reachings, avoidant retreats, moments of synchrony and collapse.Rather than telling a linear story, I wanted to evoke an emotional landscape where the body speaks first — before thought, before words. “Primal” refers to the instinctive, embodied responses we carry; “Touch” to the emotional resonance of contact, connection, and its absence.Primal Touch is not about resolving these dynamics, but about recognizing them — in motion, in stillness, in the spaces between three bodies.Ratings

Primal touch

Tidal Wave is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> Description:Contact Dancer's in Ocean Motion. Filmed in Nusa Lembongan in 2022. Aalia HashemDirectorMangosteen (Winner Contact DANCE Festival 2024) Samson VowlesKey Cast Lisa FlynnKey Cast Aalia HashemKey Cast Helen TsimKey Cast Aalia HashemEditor Aalia HashemChoreographer Director Biography -&nbsp;Aalia Hashem<a href="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/003/475/275/original/9a4f660a3c-headshot.jpg?1752853642" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/003/475/275/thumb/9a4f660a3c-headshot.jpg?1752853642" width="117" style="border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 12.95px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative;"></a>Aalia Hashem is a Dancer, Contact Improvisation Teacher, Creative Director, and Multi -Disciplinary Artist from Vancouver, Canada, living in Asia since 2019. Films she has directed include Mangosteen (Thailand 2020), Dancing With Myself (Covid 2020), Eternal Dance (Lena Residency 2024) and The Threads That Runs Through Everything (Kirstie Simson Residency 2023). She currently teaches CI in Koh Phangan, Thailand. Director StatementOur group of dancers gathered one afternoon to utilize the studio space during an Authentic Relating Leadership Retreat weekend held by Rick Smith in November 2022. Collectively we shot this together on an Iphone. I held onto this project, thinking I had lost the footage. Samson is a student of mine, attending Momentum Workshop. Helen is a theatre and comedy queen, and attended my Bali Eco Stay Retreat Jam. Lisa went on to organize Contact Jams in Uluwatu. We found our flow together, with the tidal sounds that inspired us.

Tidal Wave

This intimate short film explores the boundaries of touch through contact improvisation dance. It follows Malal, a young queer woman of Franco-Malagasy descent, who finds herself through dance. The film immerses us in the intensity of touch as a silent yet profound language. It invites us to question our limits, ideas of intimacy, and the invisible rules shaping our perceptions of the body and others. A sensory journey that challenges norms and invites us to rethink contact and intimacy. Through contact improvisation, Malal confronts and questions the violence tied to her identity—gender, sexuality, and origin. Julie GuernierDirector/Writer/Producer

In a World Where We Don’t Touch Anymore

Filmmaker/Video by: @videoandanzas&nbsp;&nbsp; Dancers: Nica Portavia and Jesús Alonso Camera: Marta Wrzesinska Filmed in: Madrid

Contact improvisation with Nica Portavia and Jesús Alonso

Dancers: Milan Horvay and Kathleen Rea Camera: Sarah Jopes Director/Editor: Kathleen Rea Music: Marco Martini - Vivaldi Legacy (ArtistIO) Breeze and Crickets: Mother nature

Breeze On The Hill

Dancers: Rai Cabiró and Ganesh Katara Camera: Giyoung Kim. Filmed in: Dharamkot, India https://www.instagram.com/gatohumano_/

Contact Improvisation Duet with Rai Cabiró & Ganesh Katara

Dancers Henna Timonen and Tiina Jääskö Filmmaker: Tiina Jääskö

In quest for connection

Filmmakers: Jane Husak and Ariel Brink

Perpetual Motion

Short Film Description (50 words or fewer): NAKAMA is the result of a beautiful process between two souls that met with their bodies dancing Contact improvisation as a ritual, every week for 2 years. Juan and Diana want to have a little memory of all the understanding they enjoyed this time in this amazing spot in Andalusia. Country of origin: Spain and Argentina Filmmaker/s: Juan Manuel Rodriguez and Amanda Baro Guerrero Release date: 8 ago 2025 Choreographer: Juan Manuel Rodriguez and Diana Area Dancers: Juan Manuel Rodriguez and Diana Area Camera: Amanda Baro Guerrero Location of Filming: Cadiz, Spain 仲間 Nakama (Japanese)"A friend or companion so close that you consider them family."

NAKAMA

Naval Ode is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> DescriptionThe poem Naval Ode - "Ode Maritima" - by Fernando Pessoa captures the movement of separation between the dock and the ship, and thus the distance – between the inside and the outside, between myself and the other. The text is embodied by a mysterious and suspended dance, imbued with nostalgic desire, which swells like a sail. Fu LeDirector Magalie LanriotKey Cast Roel Q SeeberKey Cast Dead ComboMusic Director Biography -&nbsp;Fu Le<a href="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/002/915/375/original/97e7a36d1b-headshot.jpg?1730141472" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/002/915/375/thumb/97e7a36d1b-headshot.jpg?1730141472" width="143" style="border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-size: 12.95px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative;"></a>Fu LE is an award winning filmmaker and choreographer in the Tetrapode dance company in France. Graduated in sculpture at the Art Crafts National School in Paris, he then trained in physical theater and in contemporary dance in Argentina, Belgium and Switzerland. He pursued recently his research in Taiwan, questioning social issues linked with urbanization.Fu Le produced a dozen of dance films awarded worldwide. He founded in 2020 the Tetralab - international screendance laboratory. Director StatementFu Le is now evolving on the edge between dance, sculpture and video, and brings visual arts to the intimacy of bodily sensations. His cinematographic approach is presently based on single shot practice, and how to manage the choreography of the camera itself.

Naval Ode

Xyl'em &amp; Phlo'em is screening in Saturday September 11, 2025, 7:00 pm Program<a href="https://contactdancefilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/66cdd17b59c470004105a17a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In person</a><a href="https://watch.eventive.org/contactdancefilmfest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online</a> Mixing original animation, movement, and sound, this work explores interconnectedness and shapeshifting of place and experience. Amidst imagery of trees and forests, dancers are imagined both in the woods, through the woods, and as the woods. Dane CreeDirector Dane CreeAnimation Dane CreePerformers Rachel LiebermanPerformers Rachel LiebermanChoreography Rachel LiebermanSound Director BiographyDane Cree is a 2013 BFA graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, specializing in experimental animation and mural painting. His dance journey began in high school theater and evolved through performances in Vanessa Voskuil’s ‘En Masse’ and explorations of contact improvisation, contemporary, and ecstatic dance. Dane's mural work, initiated with Elissa Cedarleaf-Dahl, includes five murals at the Square Lake Film and Music Festival, with the latest completed in September 2024. Since 2017, he has contributed animations to Hellavision Television Network's local project and collaborated with various musical projects in the Twin Cities, notably creating portraits for Drone Not Drones in 2017 and 2024. His animated films have received international recognition and awards, including for "Dragon," a notable piece created with Cow Tipping Press in 2020.

Xyl'em & Phlo'em

Description:Dirt field, the starting point. The raw clash between the players scratches the ground, raises dust, leaves their marks on the earth. On the moving screen, they walk and intersect. The time of the match has arrived, a place of affection and rivalry. Two bodies in a fleeing city. Something erupts in samba when feet and kicks strike a match. Imperfect match that remains in play: gaze, touch. Is there space for it off the field? Narrow curve that intertwines and dominates. Departing to arrive, a trait of virile manhood, the match is farewell, shatters, separates and connects. Year of exhibition: 2021, Brazil Direction and script - Samuel Samways Cinematography and editing - Glaydson Oliveira (Índio) Dancers - Leonardo Borges; Samuel Samways Original soundtrack - Manu Ranilla&nbsp; This video was made during pandemics with funds from the Aldir Blanc Emergency Law - Notice n.14/2020

Partida (Match)

VIRTUAL SCREENING a screening of short dance films. Opens Saturday Oct 11, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT)

Virtual Admission For Oct 11, 2025 Screening 

2021 Contact Dance International Film Festival

Donation to {{name}}

Donate

Gift Cards

None available

These are all the memberships tied to your account. Now, use our online schedule to reserve tickets. You can access your tickets via {{my_tickets_link|"My Tickets"}} or via the PDFs attached to each ticket order confirmation email. {{buy_membership_link|Looking to buy more memberships?}}

These are all the passes tied to your account. Now, use our online schedule to reserve tickets. You can access your tickets via {{my_tickets_link|"My Tickets"}} or via the PDFs attached to each ticket order confirmation email. {{buy_pass_link|Looking to buy more passes?}}

These are all your purchased tickets. Open this page on your phone, and at the door tap the "Show Barcode" button and show your screen to the attendant. Prefer paper? Print the PDF attached to the order confirmation email, or click one of the gears below and select "Download tickets PDF". If purchasing multiple tickets, be sure to print or show each unique ticket barcode.

Passes

Explore our on-demand catalog here, and head over to the {{livestreams|Live Streams}} tab to see what's coming up.

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.