Contact Dance in Madeira
With Pedro Paz and Howard Sonenklar
October 14 - 18, 2026
Five days in the heart of Madeira’s mountains while moving, listening, and creating together. Through contact improvisation, embodiment practice and nature immersion, guided by experienced facilitators from Lisbon, this is a space to slow down, rediscover the intelligence of the body, and belong to a temporary community rooted in the living world.
What is Contact Dance?
Contact dance, or Contact Improvisation, is a way of moving with another person through touch, weight and shared momentum. There are no steps to learn and no experience required. Two people stay connected through a single point of contact and let the movement unfold, leaning, rolling and supporting each other’s weight. It is never choreographed; it emerges in the moment, sometimes slow and gentle, sometimes playful.
In our culture touch often carries shame, read only through a sexual lens, so that simple closeness can feel forbidden. Contact dance is a return to innocence, where touch becomes honest again and connection carries no agenda.
At its heart it is a conversation without words, a practice of listening with the whole body and trusting another through presence and touch alone.
Where it will take place?
The practices will take place inside 9-meter Yurta surrounded by equaliptus forrest.
About the Leaders
Pedro Paz
Dancer, choreographer, artistic director, and teacher with experience in professional companies and curating artistic projects. He shares his knowledge in workshops, studios, and residencies, combining technical rigor with care, presence, and community. He currently coordinates the Arrábida Dance Labs and is completing a master's degree in Performing Arts.
Learn more about Pedro PazHoward Sonenklar
One of the pioneers of Contact Improvisation in Portugal, with more than forty years devoted to movement studies, contemporary dance, theatre and somatic integration. He has taught and performed across Europe and the Americas since the 1980s, and is known for movement research that weaves together perception, touch and alignment. For many years a professor […]
Learn more about Howard Sonenklar