ICC - International Contortion Connection *** Project Albana

You don´t know about the ICC and the aims of the ICC ?? Then click here first to check out our starting page and read about the background and the people behind this idea - and then continue reading about our project.

The latest letter from Ska von Schöning - dated Oct 3, 1999 - about our success. => Click here to read <=

If you haven´t read the first two letters you can either ...
- read the first letter from Ska - about the start of "Project Albana" (dated Oct 5,1998) by clicking here to read
- read the second letter from Ska about the status of the project (dated Nov 11, 1998) by clicking here to read
- read the third letter from Ska about the status of the project (dated Jan 14, 1999) by clicking here to read
- read the fourth letter from Ska about the status of the project (dated March 17, 1999) by clicking here to read
- read the "Albana project sale" information (dated June 26, 1999) by clicking here to read
or just read the complete page containing letters and information sorted by date. Thank you for your interest :-)

It´s been quite some time now that we came together for the ICC 1998 event. On occasion of this exciting gettogether of so many friends and lovers of the art of contortion we managed to form an idea which, admittedly so, has not been developped as quickly as we all thought it would: The ICConnection project. Here in Germany we have a saying: "Good things need their time (to devellop)". In this sense we - some of the people who are in a more regular contact like Klaus Bischoff, Patrizio and I have been talking about an idea recently, which not only would form a perfect start to unite our efforts in the original aims of the ICConnection, but would also would do some good to somebody who could need a backup from all of us, who are seriously interested in the promotion of the art of contortion. I am talking about the little/big "star" we had the pleasure to see performing on occasion of the ICC 1998, ALBANA KUKLI. With the political and economical development in Albania, we feel that we should try and help somebody like Albana to get out of the restricted and very difficult situation she is in momentarily, and to give her a chance to build up a career, by granting a scholarship to her. Here are now the basic details of this idea:

a) First of all we could try and get Albana out of the country into Germany through all official means available. For this procedure, I have already made contact with all necessary authorities and have all official instructions and recommandations on hand. I am prepared to take care of this task. The advantage of us doing the job from here lies in the fact, that we, as a company connected to show business, can officially apply for any such action. As we were already told, the whole procedure might take quite some time and there is no guarantee that we will manage to get Albana out of her country. Also we will have to define the exact time of her stay in Germany. This brings us to the next point:

b) We are thinking of supporting Albana for the duration of one year. This should give her enough time to start her own career so that within a years period from her coming to Germany, she should be in a position to prove, that she has enough performances to support her own self. If that was the case, then she could apply for a prolongation of her stay in Germany etc... (if at that point she still would like to stay here). I personally, with the background of our business, would of course try to get her the necessary work and maybe all of you, who are interested in joining us on this venture, could also look out for appropriate possibilities for her performing. Our plan is, once we got Albana into Germany, she would live here in Cologne, so that I could take care of her and she would have a ´family´ where she could always turn to, living close to her. This would also be vital for the fact, that - by organizing her stay in Germany - we will have to take over a lot of responsibility in the serious and official sense of this project. However, if anyone has a better and more practical idea, please come forward. I am only offering, but don´t forget let´s always be realistical and serious about this.

c) We calculated that, once Albana is in Germany, she would need approx. DM 1.500,-- (approx. 900.00 US Dollars) monthly to be in a position to live a decent life here. For this we need people who are prepared to contribute to her scholarship. This brings us to the very important point of this report: WHO OF YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO SUPPORT US ON THIS PROJECT ? WE NEED PEOPLE WHO ARE PREPARED TO CONTRIBUTE TO ALBANA´S SCHOLARSHIP ON A REGULAR BASIS FOR THE DURATION OF ONE YEAR.

Anyone who is seriously interested in doing this, should realize that this is not a thing which is done on a minute to minute basis, but on a basis of trust and responsibility. We will open a special bank account which will be made completely transparent for the donors. Any money which will be left over on the above funding account, will be used for either supporting another talent at a later time and/or for organizing the next International Contortion Convention. We also need your ideas here. Also Albana - if and when she is capable to support herself (and ONLY if she CAN do) will be made responsible to pay back her scholarship - or at least part of it.

These are our ideas so far. For us in order to start the official application procedures for her entering this country, we need to have enough donors to 100% support this project. Also, if anyone of you has a special idea or contact which would help us in this matter, please let us know. We have been talking to a few people who were also at the ICC 1998 and who also are already willing to help us. We know, that if we get this project off the hook, we will have proved that there really is such a thing like the Connection, which so many of us are dreaming to realize one day. If you have any questions, you can contact me at ska@vnet.de, or Klaus at kalaus@aol.com any time. We are very curious what your reactions will be.

P.S. No need to say that we spoke to Albana about this project and she would love to do it!

Ever since we published the above project on the net there has been quite some interest with lots of comments, different reactions and advise regarding the actual approach and practicability of the project itself. Also there was a good amount of people who spontanously offered to help and promised us their financial contribution towards the project. THANK YOU to all of those.

In this context we would once more like to point out, that not everybody is capable to raise funds on a big scale. However be sure that EVERY financial contribution represents the same value to us and is more than happily accepted. We also had a decent amount of people who came up with different ideas on how to raise the money by - for example producing a video of Albana in the first place, then selling it etc... . Again we thank all of you who have been trying to bring in their ideas and thoughts. Still we need to tell everybody, that this is not half as easy, as quick and as efficient as we need to be. Also it is not very practicable.

What we really need is a commitment. Otherwise things are going to be too vague and we cannot take the responsibility to bring ALBANA into a situation which is not hundred percent covered and safe for her. SO AGAIN - every penny helps. We still need approx. 1/3rd of the money in order to secure the project.

On Friday the 6th of November the following members of the ICConnection met in Wiesbaden in order to also discuss the project and make decisions on how to proceed in this matter from this point onwards: Klaus Bischoff, Patrizio D´Allessandro, Steffen Günthel and Ska von Schöning. We decided on the following:

Since we have a decent amount of funds being made available by now, we will now start with the official steps and procedures which will be necessary to get Albana into Germany. In the meantime we will undertake more efforts in order to try and raise money. For this, we reackon we will still have another 3 months time, since the legal procedures will be slowly.

If at the point when Albana is allowed to enter Germany, we realize that we will not have sufficient funds to support her in this country, we will have to stop the whole project. WE HOPE THAT THIS WILL NOT BE NECESSARY. It would be very sad. If however we have the money we need, Albana will come to Cologne Germany, where Ska will take care of her and try to secure jobs for her.

Ska will open two ICConnection/Albana accounts (the account nos. will be published shortly): One for US Dollars, one for Deutschmarks. This way we can save some money on bank fees and exchange rates. Also, in order to save bank charges, it might be a better idea for those who want to support Albana the whole year with regular payments, to send a cheque or transfer several monthly rates at one time. If you have any further questions, please contact Ska at ska@vnet.de or Klaus at kalaus@aol.com

We have finally established the accounts for everyone who wants to join us in supporting ALBANA. In order to avoid high bank charges, we have also opened an account in the US where we will collect an appropriate amount of money before transferring it to the German accounts. Also for everyone who is prepared to donate money on a regular monthly basis, we would advise them to always try and transfer several months if possible at one time, again in order to avoid the high fees on bank charges.

Name of the account:	Ska von Schoening / Funds for Albana (always needs to be mentioned)
Bank:	First Security Bank of Nevada, 701 N. Valle Verde, Henderson NV89014
ABA No.:	C 122401668
ACCOUNT No.:	060 101 323 9

BANK.:	Dresdner Bank Koeln
NAME OF THE ACCOUNT:	Showbiz / ICC / ALBANA
ACCOUNT NO.:	3 500 081 - 01- 400
BLZ.:(ABA No.)	370 800 40

BANK.:	Dresdner Bank Koeln
NAME OF THE ACCOUNT:	Showbiz / ICC / ALBANA
ACCOUNT NO.:	3 500 081 - 02
BLZ.:(ABA No.)	370 800 40

As we said, the accounts are established, so please go ahead..... Thanks in advance to all who are helping us.

The present situation with Albana is that everything is now prepared for Albana to go to her embassy in Tirana and apply for a visa. A letter of guarantee is provided by our company (SHOWBIZ Ska von Schoening). If everything goes according to plan Albana might already be in Germany by the end of March/beginning of May. I will personally fly to Tirana (of course on my own expense) to see Albana in Febuary and to make sure everything necessary has been done and arranged for her. Also of course we want to give her some ensurance so she can feel comfortable with her ´new life´.

If any of you have any further questions about this project in any respect, please do not hesitate to contact Klaus at kalaus@aol.com or me at ska@vnet.de any time. We will answer all questions openly to those who have a sincere interest in supporting us. It is better if you contact us and ask us about things, instead of maybe having some doubts and therefore being reluctant to raise money for Albana. In any way, please be sure that we will put your money to a very worthwile purpose and to a wonderful person and contortionist. We can guarantee to you that no money will be wasted at any time.

Also we would like to inform you that Ron Dwight has now finished his auction and we can now expect the results (funds) from this end. We would like to pass a very special THANK YOU to Ron for his kind efforts and strong support.

We are very happy to tell you, that our Albana Project is slowly but surely developing into the right direction. To the many people who have already given money to support our first ICC venture, we can only say THANK YOU and THANK YOU again.

Finally we have made a major step forward regarding the official visa application procedures for Albana. For months we have been dealing with the embassies in Germany and in Tirana to ´feed´ them with all information necessary. It started in Cologne Bonn (Albanian Embassy), went to the Albanian Embassy in Tirana und back again to the German authority which is now responsible for the final ok in this matter. Of course more information and more details were needed again....., which we supplied to them so that we can now seriously hope that everything will be settled in four or six weeks time.

For all those who are still interested in providing funds for Albana we would like to answer a few questions which were risen more frequently. One question which seems to be in the mind of many people who are more generally interested in this project and can´t make out their minds whether or not to support it, is: What am I getting out of this if and when I donate? This question usually comes from people who have not experienced Albana on occasion of the ICC or haven´t experienced the ICC itself. Those who did, usually are very convinced of this project, because they have experienced the togetherness and the `what is possible´ if we all unite as friends and lovers of the wonderful art of contortion.

So let us explain this to the ones who are still a little bit doubtful or confused over the meaning of this all. First of all we, the ICConnection members always consider it worthwhile to help and support young talents if and when possible. In this case we are talking about an extremely talented young lady, who if we make it possible for her, will one day enrich not only our lives but the whole contortion world with her wonderful and beautiful work and presentation. But apart from that, there also will be a direct `refund´ to those who are supporting the project, in the form of regular news letters and pics made available to the donators during the peirod the whole scholarship. Also we will produce training videos, which will be made available at a special price to those of have joined us in the effort to realize this project.

Many people asked us whether we are planning of refunding money that was donated, if and when Albana has finished her scholarship. Here we must say that the money we have collected by now will by far not cover the actual amount of money we will need for the whole period of time. In order to still be in a position to finance Albana life whilst being in Germany, we are planning to try and get bookings for her as soon as she is ready to perform in the new concept. This way we will try to make Albana financially more independent. However this will not be an easy task to fulfill, since any new performance on the market will need time to be made popular amongst bookers.

Theoretically we would need more time to do this, but we will try our best and we are inclined to believe, that the new performance we will train Albana into, will have a very positive impact on the show market. So, even if there is any money left when we have achieved our goals with this project, we are presently planning to either use it for organizing the next ICC and/or for the promotion of other new talents. We have been given this a lot of thoughts and we think this will be the best way to handle the matter.

Now of course everybody is curious about which stage idea we have for Albanas´ performance. So - please get up for the "Changing of the Guards" before you click here

We have asked Albana already, how she would feel about this idea and she likes it. The whole choreography and music will of course be combined with the costume and should really look great. We want to finish this update with some lovely greetings Albana is sending to all of us and which Ska received in a recent letter: Quote: " I am aware that many people put their trust in me and I will never disappoint them. I highly appreciate everything that is being done for me. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. "

We hope that we have now answered most of the questions and have motivated a few more people to support us. For those who would like to contribute - check out the bank details

The BIIIG "Albana project" sale !- Thanks again to all the people who have contributed to the project so far.

During the next weeks we will offer the following "products" to the contortion community. The tapes, CDs and all what´s needed to compile, produce, copy and ship the products has been donated by Ska, Gerd and Klaus. ALL the money from these sales will go DIRECTLY to the Albana bank account.

Everybody is invited not only to buy these articles (and help funding our scholarship) - but also to add his name to the above list after digging through his archives ;-) Again a very special thanks to Ron Dwight and David de la Torre who were the first to do that for Albana

So - help funding the Albana project by buying these items - you won´t be disappointed :-)

we are more than happy to be in a position to officially announce that WE FINALLY MADE IT. After a long and unpleasant struggle with German immigration legislation and authorities, which took us more than a year, we finally succeeded in getting the one years scholarship visa for Albana. The determination and will to fight against official windmills, as well as the moral support we got from our friends, did certainly take a major part in the positive development of the whole procedure.

Albana will now be coming to Cologne Germany on November 1, 1999. Everything for her stay and wellbeing, as well as all sorts of various training preparations and facilities are already provided for. All she now needs to do is to come and go for it! No need to say she is very excited too. All active supporters, meaning the ones who have provided funds or other means of active support (like putting videos or CDs together for sale, or just giving us money without asking for anything in return) will - as we promised all the way - receive regular updates of Albanas´ progress and training as well as personal letters of greetings and training pics.

Upon request we will also make some material like training videos etc... available to everybody else who is interested. This will involve a reasonable fee which again will be put towards the funding of Albanas´ scholarship. So far we have not the entire amount available for the whole year of scholarship. Therefore and by these means we hope we will be in a position to raise more money to secure Albanas stay in Germany for the complete duration of time, as originally planned.

I personally want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart, who supported me and us in this first venture of such a kind ever, including all those who gave me their moral and continuous and active support to fight this case, as well as to those who bought video tapes and CDs which will certainly also contribute and help us to achieve what we were going for in the first place. Namely to promote one of the best and lovliest talents in contortion. I also want to thank everybody in the name of Albana. I am sure, she is most thankful to all of you.

Let us all hope that this is only the start in favor of many more young talents in this field, who deserve our attention and our continuous effort to support them and thus the beautiful art of contortion. THANK YOU AGAIN.