What happens when a small group of people stand in front of each other without a script? They stand scattered, side by side, facing the empty space in between. Their feet planted on a dancefloor, above them a linen roof on which the shadows of large trees and their leaves are cast; surrounded by the soft babbling of a small stream. Instruments and objects of various kinds placed nearby, still untouched, as if waiting. A shared silence that holds something. Who is going to start? In which manner? What will grow on the soil of our imagination?
A week to dive into the depths of improvisation.
A week to play seriously and enjoy failing.
A collective attempt to compose presence!
From 7th – 13th of June 2026
Carla, Celine and Leon invite you to the JamJam Research Lab version composing presence!
With time and slowness we want to explore the many different layers that improvisation offers as an artistic playground. The Lab is intended to be a container that we fill together. Along the JamJams, there will be various research formats for engaging in an exploratory group process through dance, music, and performance. These include formats guided by us, as well as the desire to share this creative responsibility as a group and bring your own ideas and impulses to life. We want to venture to put improvisation itself to the test: to understand it as a process of constant becoming and dissolving and to encounter what really is with radical honesty.
Who can join?
It is not required that you have been to a JamJam Festival before. The idea of the Lab just grew out of the previous festivals, as we saw a lot of potential in it as an experimentational field and wish to explore it further – to let the seeds bloom into some odd looking flowers! We will be an intimate group, sized between 10 and 15 people. You can attend the Lab at any age and with any or none (artistic) experience in the field of improvisation. What we wish for is a curiosity about improvisation as a process of relating to each other and your surroundings; constantly negotiating what is happening in between comfort and risk, rules and chaos. We would like to gather people with a seriousness about playing and a willingness to commit to a group process for the length of an entire week.
We decided that the Research Lab will be a kids-free space. The JamJam Festival in July 2026 will be, as usual, children-welcoming!
Content and formats
Accompanied by reflection rounds and creative exchange, there is space for the match we stroke to become a fire! The idea is to integrate the experiences happening right there and pursue the path that rises out of it, which cannot be planned beforehand. The Lab is intended to be a co-creative space for all participants. The following propositions function as a base and starting point for the research week:
A JamJam is an improvisational fusion of dance jam, music jam and scenic experimentation. We surrender ourselves to the body, to the senses, to life and to stop trying to do something. Intensifying what we absorb out of the silence and richness of what is already happening. A collective discovery of dances, sounds and scenes that no one has learned, no one can, no one knows.
We will host and introduce the first evening JamJam. For the following evenings, we want to share the possibility and power to shape the Jams towards different directions and experimentations: each day there is a place and time to meet for the people who want to contribute their ideas and reflections. Out of this gathering a person, duo or group is formed to shape/introduce/guide the next JamJam. Or no person is found and we need to deal with what happens if no one is guiding 😉
Passing Through encourages us to reflect on our understanding and awareness of space through our bodies and movement. The practice could be described as a group meditation in movement. It has a very clear structure in which we will work on presence, clarity, relations and calm in spaces that are at times highly dynamic.
Passing through was originally founded by David Zambrano. Celine experienced it with Jonathan Martineau (who trained with David over years). Now Celine is very excited to share some spark of it and offers to introduce and facilitate it throughout the week each day in the mornings. It is a very complex, but not complicated practice. It needs time to develop and usually with David Zambrano it is something trained over a period of 4 intensive weeks. As this is not the only thing we want to do during the Lab and for such a limited timeframe, there is no aim to “reach” or fulfill the whole structure of Passing Through as originally taught. Celine wants to rather work and deepen on its basis – so it can enrich all the other improvisation practice we are doing over the week.
For the process it would be awesome to have as many bodies as possible gathered there! But as everything else, it is not obligatory.
Potential ideas that could come to life:
Becoming individual translators of languages that are inherently abstract and sometimes misunderstood. How could a movement I witness sound like? What parts of my body get activated through a specific sound? What is there to find in the gap where language fails?
The group takes a slow, silent walk through the scenery. They wander around and pause, if they happen to determine a „stage“ by their alignment and attention. The stage can be between two trees, on a plank that crosses a river, in the river, behind the corner of a wooden hut. In silence, each person decides on their own, if they go on this stage now or not, listening to their impulse. A bell is rung and everyone who decided to go, enters the stage. 6 minutes of an improvised performance begin. The random fraction of the group that happens to be on stage now composes something together right on the spot. The other fraction of the group is witnessing. The bell rings once more and the whole group continues to wander around again, until they pause at another place to repeat the ritual.
Discovering, sharing and recording sounds on a meditative walk through the nearby area and nature. The treasures can then be put onto a midi board and be played with in Jams.
Researching ways on how to play any instruments without the need to know how to play them „correctly“. How can objects be turned into instruments? How do I find sensory, physical access to sound?
Plus / Or: Everything you are contributing around the field of improvisation!
Schedule
about to come (sooner or later)
Sunday 7th of June: from 16:00 arriving / dinner / landing together
Monday – Friday: creative formats/labs/reflection/food/relaxing/jumping into the pond/JamJams/etc.
Saturday 13th of June: closure / finishing with lunch
Our stance on improvisation spaces
Consensus-based
The Jam Jam Research Lab is consensus-based. In our understanding consensus is complex and involves more than simply agreeing or disagreeing to an interaction. Consensus can change within moments and we want acknowledge the difficulties that can come with it. Some things can only be discovered through experimentation. We see it as a continuous process of exploring, communicating and redefining boundaries.
Braver Space/Supported Space
The foundation of our interactions is based on/rooted in respect, appreciation, and sensitivity towards each other. Yet we are encouraging a research space and cannot guarantee a 100% safe environment. In our belief, conflict, challenges and uncertainties are part of human interaction and can lead to valuable experiences, if handled responsibly. The responsibility is shared by the collective so everyone involved has a part.
We invite you to experiment and if you fall, we are there to help each other back up.
Through this practice we might find new forms of support and security. A foundation on which it becomes possible to explore and play and improvise. A space where we can be courageous enough to embrace our ambiguities and fluidity and in doing so, become reliable.
Even an environment for improvisation needs boundaries. Repeated discriminatory, inconsiderate behavior or a lack of understanding will not be tolerated and may lead to exclusion from the event.
Facilities
The venue will be the idyllic “Fellershof”, located on the outskirts of the village Velbert (Germany). Surrounded by trees, meadows and a pond we will set up a large dance floor with an open tent roof, which will be our space for experiments throughout the week. The Fellershof is a former farmyard, private ground to Heike (and where Zuko e.V. is based) and a home to a few (dis)abled people. We want to respect the rules and wishes of the owner and residents as well as the nature around us. The lower floor of the house will be available for us to use – with a large kitchen and access to toilets and a shower. In addition there will be outdoor toilets and showers on the top of the hill next to the dance floor.
We will be camping. There is plenty of meadow space for pitching tents and also enough parking spots directly in front of the house, next to the road (low traffic) for campers/buses/sleeping in cars.
Unfortunately, the venue at Fellershof is not wheelchair-accessible due to the slope and its natural terrain. Here is a description of the grounds to help people with limited mobility evaluate the situation for themselves:
Coming from the paved road, a wide gravel path with a gentle slope leads to the left towards the house and the terrace (stone slabs of varying sizes). The terrace features beer benches and tables for dining. Meals are served outdoors under a pavilion. Inside the house, there is level access to a wheelchair-accessible restroom and shower, as well as two additional restrooms. Access to the living room is at ground level from one side; from the other side, there is a high step. Above the terrace, the terrain rises across a large meadow dotted with trees. To the right of the uneven meadow is a gently sloping, car-width gravel path. If you walk from the terrace to the left, you cross a small stream via a short, 1-meter-wide wooden bridge. A space appears on the left; it consists of two levels and has a floor made of a mixture of soil and sand. Maybe we will be having some outdoor creation moments there. If you follow the path further, it winds its way along the lake – earthy and quite narrow, with no railing – all the way up to the dance floor. The swimming lake is accessible either via a wooden pier with a ladder or via a sand pathway leading to a (quite slippery) wooden staircase, half in water. The dance floor forms the highest point and is accessible both from the narrow path by the lake and from the meadow. Most of the group activities take place there on a slightly elevated wooden floor, over which a dance floor is laid. In the center of the area, there will be two wooden stilts supporting the tent canopy. A railing will be installed on one side of the dance floor. Next to the dancefloor there will be a small hut to relax in, which you can enter via three stone steps. Next to the hut, there are two homemade toilets and cold showers with wooden paneling, each accessible via two steps made from Euro pallets. In the evening, the grounds will be illuminated along the winding path and lake, at the toilets and down on the terrace. At night, the lighting on the dance floor will be turned off for sleeping.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility, please feel free to contact us directly.
Food
We will cook for ourselves, preferably vegan. We swap the responsibility between us in small groups and by that include cooking as a practice of care and giving. Two meals a day will be shared and eaten collectively, breakfast will be improvised individually without fixed time.
The organization team will do all the planning and shopping of groceries beforehand and we consider major allergies you can tell us in the registration form. If you need anything very specific, you will have to take care of it yourself.
The Lab is meant to be a sober space. We want to work with unfiltered presence and awareness and enjoy the ecstasy that can rise from states of dancing, music and being there with every cell.
Costs and Payment Process
1️⃣ Deposit: €200 after registration – this secures your spot (the deposit carries the costs of location rent and food per person)
2️⃣ Bidding Round: On site! You choose your remaining contribution (approx. €100 as a guideline – you can also offer €0)
What is a Bidding Round?
A bidding round is a collective process in which the total cost of the event is transparently shared and each person contributes based on what they can truly afford. Some pay significantly more than average, others far less – this is how we carry the costs together.
There is no fixed price – we bid until the total costs are covered. To keep this process manageable for our organizing team, we’ve opted for a partial bidding round: this means that a large portion of the total costs is already covered in advance with the deposit.
NOTE: We originally calculated organizers fees, construction costs, etc. but as we are a much smaller group now as planned, we will improvise a lot on that part too: meaning we as organizers do all of this without getting paid and the construction on site will be more minimalist and wabi-sabi. We decided so, because we want to keep the price for the participants manageable and to give art more power than money.
Registration
To register, please fill this form: https://forms.gle/iZkyAtFYZv2fuJSu8
The registration is completed, when you paid the deposit of €200 and received a confirmation e-mail from us.
Cancellation policy:
You can cancel your spot for free, if you find a person to go for you instead or if we are having a waiting list.
Otherwise: if you cancel before May 17th we withhold €50 as a cancellation fee. And if you cancel after May 17th we withhold the deposit of €200
Team + Contact
This is the three of us after a meeting of organizing: Carla, Celine and Leon
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
jamjam.kollektiv@gmail.com
We are excited to research with you!