Salento in Contact
June 24th - 28th, 2026
Fattizze D'Arneo - Nardò (Lecce, Apulia, Italy)
We invite you to share five days of dance, nature and beauty between the olive trees and the stunning sea of Salento (in the deep south of Italy)
This little festival has born from the desire to give rise to a gathering, to create a bridge between the dancing communities of Apulia and all the people that are interested into creating an authentic space of sharing through Contact Improvisation.
The world that we will explore will be the Contact one, which will take us in a deep dialogue between bodies and landscapes, through moving in nature, jamming under the stars, classes, shared practices and self-managed moments.
It is an opportunity to weave new networks, to ground the practice of C.I on the territory and get inspired from the slow breath of the Ionian sea.
location
We will be hosted by Fattizze D’Arneo, a beautiful and authentic agricamping located a few minutes by bike from the Ionian coast of Salento.
Nearby there are the vast and clear beaches of Torre Lapillo and Porto Cesareo. The overnight stay will be in tent or bungalow.
The space is wide, inhabited by hundreds of maritime pines that guarantee shade and cool. We will be dancing on a wooden platform placed on a nice lawn (not yet visible in the pictures)
Afternoons will spread between rest, classes, activities proposed by participants, improvisations and dances in suggestive locations, joining the natural art of landscape and the artistic sensibility.
useful info
The arrival is expected on Wednesday June 24th, the departure on Sunday June 28th afterlunch.
We will stay at the agricamping Fattizze D'Arneo in our own tents, tents provided by the space or beds in shared bungalows.
The closest airport is Brindisi (BDS). We will send all the info on how to get there after the registration.
Schedule: workshop in the mornings, a class on the 25th and 26th afternoon, space for proposals and sharing, Jam in the nights with or without live music, and time to relax.
On Saturday 27th we propose a trip with a picnic and experimentation in nature, on-site Jam and live music.
Meals (from the dinner of 24th to the lunch of 28th) are vegan with vegetarian options, prepared by a chef and her staff.
The space that hosts us is a genuine village, without great comforts, where other similar realities come to life. We will move in a place that can spark multiple experiences. We like to conceive of this moment of sharing as a real opportunity for openness and awareness to the practice, where boldness and flexibility in adapting will make shared life fluid.
The all-inclusive participation fee is €280 per person.
A supplement of €20 is applied for a rented tent, or €40 for accomodation in a shared bungalow (limited places; indicate your preference when registering and we will confirm availability).
To register, go to the registration page
To contact us, write to
the teachers
elisa ghion
tangible presence
matter grounds us, attention guides us
(8h intensive)
The harsher and rougher the world becomes, the more I recognize that Contact Improvisation, through its exquisitely material elements, can speak of humanity and trust, reciprocity and support. I am interested in observing where this dialogue arises, between the tangible and the invisible.
We will explore strategies to invite the body to inhabit the present moment: fully awake, rooted in awareness, free to create. Attention becomes an inner radar that guides us to dwell in the space around and within us, sustaining our individual actions while weaving them into a collective flow.
We will dive into the material heart of contact improvisation. Off-balance becomes a generative cradle for movement – an invitation to fall, to flow beyond equilibrium, where the body rediscovers the poetry of instability. Weight-sharing, in turn, becomes a silent language: a dialogue of hands, skin, and gravity that invites authentic, profound, and real connections.
The proposed material will be adaptable to all levels of experience.
elisa ghion bio
Beyond family ties, my relationship with Contact Improvisation is my longest and most stable one. I’ve asked myself why, without ever finding a consistently valid answer. The question, however, never loses its value.
Contact Improvisation teaches me to root myself in transformation, to passion for questioning reality, to trust the matter of bodies.
I’ve been studying since 2005, teaching since 2010. I observe people rediscover the beauty of falling together and recognize how privileged I am to witness it.
I’ve studied with many people, including Roberto Lun, Nancy Stark Smith, Julyen Hamilton, Steve Batts, Kj Holmes, Eszter Gàl, Ytai Yatuv, and Katja Mustonen.
I continue learning every time I teach and every time I join a jam.
I was part of CorPoetica (2018-2022), a collective promoting awareness through movement practices. Since 2020, I’ve been a teacher at the Artemente Higher Education Center in Milan, and since 2025, I’ve also collaborated with the Nausica association at the Tito Livio Dance High School. In 2025, I joined the collective that created Moving Humanity, a project that, through CI, channels solidarity and collective action.
manuela martella
the mastery of the unpredictable
Axis Syllabus© for the Contact Improvisation
What's the active principle which moves us? Axis Syllabus© maps have been developed with the aim of direction guides, a dictionary, in the center of the material complexity and body's dynamic in movement: skeletal structure, nervous system, myofascial system, articular connections, spatial directions etc...
Focusing on the possible synergical interactions between the single body's part, we can learn to read and respond to the unpredictable, not only in real time, but even before… (of what?)… of committing to a relationship, taking responsibility, taking off.
Learn more about the Axis Syllabus©: www.axissyllabusforum.org
manuela martella bio
Axis Syllabus© teacher, dancer and performer, independent curator, author, designer, polyglot, project coach and active member of ASRM (Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork).
Born in Germany as daughter of emigrants from Salento. She cultivates an interest for everything that can facilitate a process of learning-improvement of motor coordination. Since 2018 the solo, duo, and collective performance creation, is the essential part of her research modality.
From her previous experience in american sport dance and fashion contexts, she also developed an interest for the traditional, contemporary and future roles and codes of the male and female.
www.manuelamartella.com
andrea reginato
recognize to get lost
What happens in the body before dance emerges?
This workshop explores awareness as an embodied practice: a sequence of internal gestures like observing, recognizing, welcoming, that open the door to improvisation. I cannot welcome what I don't recognize. I cannot recognize what I don't observe. And only when I welcome, I can transform.
We will work with attention to detail: what do I feel in my skin, in my weight, in my breath? What do I perceive of the other before I even move towards them? We will practice listening as a concrete, physical act that prepares the body to enter the space of the unknown. That territory of disequilibrium where improvisation becomes possible.
The paradox is this: the more I know myself, the more I can lose myself. Awareness is not control, but permission. To fall, to not know, to let oneself be transformed by the encounter.
Workshop open to all levels of experience.
bio andrea reginato
I have been dancing Contact Improvisation since 2012, when two fingers followed by two bodies in movement opened up a new world.
I am curious about what happens in the body when it dances, alone and with others. I experience Contact Improvisation as a practice of presence and attention: a space where I receive information from myself, from the other, from the environment, and with these I can play, choose, transform.
I have trained with teachers such as Leilani Weis, Itay Yatuv, Eszter Gál, Mirva Mäkinen, Linda Bufali, Elisa Ghion, Alex Guex and Urs Stauffer, through intensive workshops in Italy and Spain.
I am part of Contact Improv Padova (CIP), where since 2016 I have been organizing workshops and labs with a group of friends. I co-founded Movimiento Contact Improv Ibiza (2018-2022), helping to build a community on the island. In 2025 I joined the collective that gave life to Moving Humanity, a project that uses Contact Improvisation as a tool for solidarity and collective action.
the musicians
luca tomasicchio
Apulian multi-instrumentalist specialized in double-bass and electric bass, Luca Tomasicchio combines classic formation and sound research oriented to improvisation and tone experimentation.
Since 2018 his practice has been strongly dedicated to the collaboration with the dance world and Contact Improvisation, through performance, workshop and site-specific projects in international contexts. He has worked with choreographers, dancers, and collectives across Italy and Denmark, developing a transmedial language which weaves together sound, body and space.