Orcas Contact Jam
Ohmahgod! I fell in love with contact improvisation this weekend.
It was a glorious, sumptuous, wriggly, rootin’, rollin’ kind of weekend. Cody and Paul and our new friend Victor sqweeshed all our tents, mats, food and bodies into Agnitara(my subaru) and events fell into place like well-oiled dominoes(presuming that oiling a domino would actually make it flip faster and connect better). Victor, being the first domino in line, bussed to Paul, Paul drove to my house, we piled into Agnitara and hit Mt Vernon for Cody, smoothly accessing coffee, chai and snacks at the excellent co-op as we did so and swoosh-nipped onto the ferry just in time to slide between the cones, past the stern glare and acerbic chiding of the lady at the gate and right onto the ferry!
Wooohoooo Team Taxidermy!(don’t ask-I’m not even sure I remember) 
We rolled into camp nice and early, happy to have a sunny break in the drizzle to set up our tents and discovered that our ‘camp’ included a sauna and hot pool! Not just your average sauna and hot tub, either… Our host Catiya has created an amazing paradise in the lush Orcas woods. The tub is immense and built of lovely smooth stones. It’s heavenly(once adjusted to proper steamy hotness) basking like a blissful snowmonkey, listening to the double built-in waterfalls and gazing up at the gorgeous tall spruces surrounded by the beautiful, misty, incognito silhouettes of your friends-backlit by a bonfire blaze in the primeval(and believe you me, nothing says primal like the sight of a naked ballsac swinging in front of a fire) cave-like firepit backdrop to the cold plunge pool on the stone terrace. The sauna arches over it all like a holy temple, curved cedar beams welcoming you onto the porch and into the warmth of the cozy antechamber. The sauna chamber is ginormous and multi-layered, with lovely gnarled knotty beams and a cool(er…if an extremely freakin’hot place can be referred to as ‘cool’) loft area up by the vaulted ceiling.
It was a shame we only had a few days and the dance space was a twenty minute drive across the island. It would have been easy to lose oneself in the beauty and luxury of the soaking and the land, forest, garden, fluffball porchcat, plentiful deer…
But as delicious as the possibilities were in our little resort tentiverse, dance was the reason we were here and dance, dance, dance we did!
Michal(our fearless sparkling leader) took way better pictures than I did-capturing the exquisite delight of our Oddfellows dance space and swirling, happy bodies with her magical camera skilz.
Contact dance is bodyworker heaven. It’s like giving yourself a deep, stretching massage utilizing every surface you, your fellow dancers, the floor, walls, deck, leaves.. have to offer. Slowly coming into synchrony with your breath, their movements and breath, the weight of your body on, around and under theirs, then unexpectedly, expanding your equilibrium to include a much larger state of being, merging, emerging and finally evolving into a multi-headed, many-limbed organism exploring and celebrating itself. It’s creative, curious, chaotic mayhem and I loves it!
Speaking of love-have you ever seen such sweetness on a swing?
My other flickr’d pics.