Warm Up.  Dance.  Watch.  Listen.  Dance.…  Jam. This Jam is for the practice of Contact Improvisation.  (You are also welcome to just watch. Witnessing charges the space.)  Our intention is to create an enlivening variety of states with the movement, music, and space.

There will be no formal instruction during the Jam.  Please take care to work in a way that feels comfortable for you and is sensitive to others.  

The focus is on the dancing — if you want to talk or socialize, please use the outer hallway areas.

We are also dedicating the jam to Steve Paxton, who originated Contact Improvisation, and passed to the ethers in February 2024.

Hosted by Patrick Crowley and Sarah Young

Please do not come to the event if you have any symptoms of sickness or have been exposed to anyone with any contagious sickness 3 days prior.

Stephen Katz Biography
Stephen's work joins the emotional resonance and refinement of classical music with the roots of rhythm and improvisation. Trailblazing cellist and award-winning composer Stephen Katz has charted new territory for the rhythmic potential of the cello with the groundbreaking approach he calls Flying Pizzicato. The results are compositions and improvisations that juggle two or more voices at a time, making music that lays grooves, weaves tunes, and lifts spirits. Stephen has performed his compositions at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and toured internationally as a soloist, and with the Paul Winter Consort, Rachael Sage, Susan Werner, and the Essex String Quartet. He has been featured on American Public Media national broadcasts of Performance Today, and is a NEA grant recipient through the SUNY/Buffalo Arts in Healthcare Initiative. As a film composer Stephen’s score for The Rich Have Their Own Photographers won the Jury Prize Gold Medal for Best Impact of Music in a Documentary at the Park City Film Music Festival. His other film scores include Two Square Miles, a film about Hudson, NY, broadcast nationally on PBS/Independent Lens, and The Tenacity Of Hope for Living In Te Light/Cure CMD (Congenital Muscular Dystrophy). Stephen is also an improviser and composer in the Dance world. He plays regularly at New England movement jams, has collaborated and performed with Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, members of Pilobolus and Beverly Blossom dance companies, and has been a Visiting Artist composer at Amherst College. As a co-founder of the movement/theater company Seen & Heard with the late dancer and monologist BJ Goodwin, he literally danced with the cello while accompanying the dramas they played out on stage. As a teacher, Stephen has been a regular workshop presenter at the New Directions Cello Festival since it’s inception in 1994, and has the distinction of being the most frequent guest performer at the Fest. He also held chamber music residency posts at Yale, Meadowmount, and UMASS Amherst. Born in San Francisco, Stephen received a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He, his partner, Beth Fairservis and his son live in Haydenville, Massachusetts.

"With a bow and fingers as light as feathers Stephen Katz makes a cello bring out meanings you might not have suspected were there."
~ The New York Times