A Place of Encounter
Our most important purpose for our Dancers’ Village at NFH Sommerecke is our encountering, at our events and in our community space.
We cultivate quite different kinds of spaces for encounter and connection, in line with our association’s purpose: to foster tolerance and mutual understanding, to make conflict resolution a lived experience, and to experience our diversity — through which we challenge, recognize, and complement one another — as a gift.
We nurture these spaces for encounter in accordance with our association’s mission of promoting international-mindedness, tolerance across all areas of culture, and the spirit of international understanding. For us, tolerance is an absolute key concept.
Below, we would like to introduce you to our various events and activities:
- CI-Jams (4-6 days, focus on CI dance)
- CI-Residencies (1-4 weeks, focus on community and dance)
- Various Encounter Events (Family Encounter, Intense Week, Encounter Events with specific topics or offerings)
- Tänzer-Wanderheim (Dancers’ Temporary Home)
- Our Sommerecke-‘WeTimes’ (internal meetings of Supporters and Core Group)
(Registration for the following events: all CI Jams, CI Residencies and Encounter events are listed in our events section. Please register there.)
CI-Jams
Our Four Seasons Jams are the core event where the dance community meets every three months to dance and celebrate. The focus here is on Contact Improvisation, an open form of dance that combines mindfulness, body awareness and a sense of playfulness. There are numerous workshops with various teachers, a varied programme featuring singing circles, body work, a sauna, sharing groups, and talks, labs and workshops on various topics. Always with a view to deepening our sense of community and creating space for genuine encounters, which is why this is not a festival but a jam with a limited number of participants (up to 50 people), where everyone can and will meet one another.
CI-Residencies
In our CI Residencies, we delve deeper – into community, dance, silence, embodiment and personal processes – over a longer period of 1–3 weeks. We come together in smaller groups of around 10 to 20 people, with no set programme. Instead, there is plenty of space for whatever wishes to emerge: for encounters, for individual concerns and for shared exploration.
Everyone is both a participant and a contributor – what happens arises from our being together.
In all our events, we aim to live in community with courage, curiosity and openness, noticing what wishes and is allowed to emerge, with mutual consideration and respect. Particularly in the residencies, our guests also experience and explore being together without a completely fixed daily or weekly programme, focusing instead on living together, getting to know one another and finding our place as a group, being creative and in contact with one another.
Encounter Events
There are a variety of encounter events, each with a different focus:
- Family encounters are like CI residencies, but with children. It is important to us not to organise a mere ‘parallel programme’ where adults and children are kept separate, but rather to create on-site activities where young and old can have fun together and get involved. And sometimes, a separation is refreshing for everyone involved – allowing the grown-ups to just dance and the little ones to just play.
- Around certain public holidays, these gatherings also take the form of dance-hike-wellness days or massage and bodywork weekends, to ‘recharge your batteries’, or simply to ‘be’ and enjoy the summer retreat and the community.
- We also organise encounter weekends featuring family constellations with Michael Uhl, a deeply healing practice for the soul, designed to address and heal the wounds of one’s own life story.
- The ‘Intensiv-Zeit’ (Week of Intense Encounter) with Michael and André is also a time of gathering, focused on looking deeper into one’s inner self, experiencing oneself and engaging with oneself, including looking into the shadows (using a variety of techniques that support this), and finding reflection and support within the group. And, of course, dancing, going out into nature, and creating art. ‘A week towards happiness’, with a clearly defined and structured framework.
Tänzer-Wanderheim
The ‘Tänzerwanderheim’ (Dancers’ Temporary Home) offers the chance to live and work at the Sommerecke for a while – as a dancer, a dreamer, a helper, or simply as a person.
Whether you’re looking for a break from everyday life, want to get to know the community, or simply fancy doing something different – there’s plenty of scope here to play an active part in shaping life on the ground. Nature, community and creative inspiration go hand in hand here. However, we only have a limited number of places. Would you like to join us for 1–2 weeks or longer? Drop us a line at
WeTimes
There is a group of supporters of the ‘Sommerecke’ project, currently comprising around 15 people.
The core group organizing the house (currently around 10 people) invites the supporters 4–6 times a year (no obligation to attend) to experience and strengthen the sense of community, to reflect on the project’s development and future, and to work together on matters relating to the Sommerecke.
On these weekends, quite a few things have already been achieved in and around the house. It’s a relaxed and wonderful time to get together, celebrate together, and occasionally tackle a project together.
Would you like to become a supporter of the ‘Sommerecke’ project too? Then drop us a line at