Our retreat was created and will held by our core facilitators: Rita Vilhena (PT) and Daniel Hayes (NL, USA). After our dive into Touch&Play’s Embodied Consent work we will teach some of the fundamentals of Contact Improvisation. Once grounded into our selves and our collective we will venture out to explore the concept of Kink through various power, rope, role and sensation play scenarios and dive into an embodied exploration of gender and everything it entails.

The facilitators are elders from our community with a intimate knowledge of the culture and praxis that form the roots our the Touch&Play work.

The participants – a group of dancers, movers, somatic learners, spiritual magic makers, embodied humans, vulnerable deep-divers, and relational explorers – are also invited to propose an offering during the gathering
We call in this community, expanding within and expanding throughout, to gather in a new creation.
you are warmly welcome, to come as your full, unfiltered, beautiful self.

Looking forward to Dance with you,
Daniel, Adi and Rita

Touch&Play from its inception has been based on questions rather than answers. We don’t pretend to know what it is that you want or need nor what you will actually take with you from your time with us.

We frame out spaces as Experimential, being both Experimental and Experiential and invite you to be the principal author of your journey. Through that lens we gift the opportunity to contribute to and enrich the journeys of around you. We form an (a)temporal and interdependent community where all our thoughts, feelings and actions are woven together in a rich relational web.

How do you want to show up in this tribe and what do you want to offer? As you step in and become familiar with our practices and culture you will see many ways of adding your grain of salt. Perhaps you feel called to join our Soothe & Care Team or hold a booth at the Exploratorium maybe you decide to sign up for an extra chore or propose a community offering or affinity group. The ways of stepping up are many and you get to feel into how you want to be part.

When you register you will be asked if you want to be part of the Soothe & Care team.

In order to create a safer container we invite volunteers (participants, teachers) to form part of the Sooth&Care team. This means contributing a little of your time supporting participants in processing their experiences by (e.g. co-regulation, deep listening, being present, finding a container for emotional release). As part of the Sooth & Care team you will need to attend a short pre-festival briefing onsite by the Soothe & Care Team Lead(s) in the afternoon before the festival starts. During the festival you will meet once or twice as a team to share your observations and experience of the group. The commitment to the role doesn’t require much times and it is flexible so it aligns with your own needs and boundaries. Within the team you’re mutually supporting each other and it’s a lovely way to bring your contribution.