| ( October 6, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
| Dear Friends, we would now like to present the schedule for the upcoming ICC 2003 - which is of course subject to changes. The official part of the convention will start on FRIDAY, November 7 at 10 am in the convention room of the Ramada Treff Hotel - which is also the hotel where most of our participants will stay during this event. After a short introduction of the attendants we will start with a very interesting presentation, which our special friend David Fox has prepared for us: Contortion – from Pharos to Internet. After David’s presentation we will have the first question and answer podium with the famous contortion trainer of the Mongolian States Circus Mrs. Nora Novosammboo and one or two of her students. After a lunch break Jim Pickles will introduce us to a very interesting and new method of stretching, called "Pre-exhaustion - a method for rapidly stretching muscles". Jim also offers separate workshops for this, which will also take place on Sunday the 9th. For those who are interested - we need your registration as soon as possible. We will finish the “talking” part of the first day with wonderful Lorna Chester in a Q & A podium. |
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| As you know, we will have 2 Shows this year. The first
one will already be in the evening of the 7th. In recent years everyone was more
interested in already watching the show rehearsals, so that this year we will not plan too
much for the late afternoon, but will invite every participant to the rehearsals
for the show. The first show will then start at 7.30 pm on Friday, Novemeber 7th. Here is a preliminary list of the performers in the first show :
The next day - SATURDAY - will again start at 10 am with a Q&A podium where we will have most of the attending and performing contortionists, who will be happy to tell you more about their lives. Right after this, Jonathan Avirom, a wellknown lawyer from New York, specialized in immigration procedures for the United States will inform about legal and administrative issues. This will be specifically interesting for our artists, agents and trainers. |
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 Lisetta Landoni (left) |
Next on our agenda is a talk by our friends Ken &
Angela Thompson called: "The Alexander Technique and Performance and
PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation)", which is a way of
improving range of movement in joints, and helping everyone in finding their full flexible
potential. And since this convention is all about the different approaches and variations of flexiblity and stretching,we will start the afternoon with a Yoga presentation of Lisetta Landoni and her assistant - including background information as well as an amazing presentation. The workshops with Lisetta will take place on Sunday. Again we have to urge everyone who is interested in participating in these yoga workshops to write to me (Ska) as soon as possible and to register. More information on Lisetta can be found at: http://www.fky.it As we mentioned in one of our latest updates, we will open our contortion material exchange desk for those who are interested in swapping or buying contortion material, such as photos, videos etc… Please note, that all material offered will first have to be a viewed by us. Again we need to remind everyone, who is interested in offering any such material to inform us about this as soon as possible. |
Right after this the rehearsal for the 2nd show will start and we will move to the show location. The second show will also start at 7.30 pm on Saturday, November 8th. Here is a preliminary list of the performers in the second show :
On SUNDAY the 9th there will be a final session discussing current and future projects to support and promote contortion After that we will offer a limited opportunity for our participants to take their own personal photos of some of their favourite contortionists. For those who are interested - we ask you to speak to Ska during the convention, so we can arrange this with the contortionists. We will finish the ICC with Jim Pickles´ and Lisetta’s workshops (for those who are interested) and with a little Gettogether for those who will stay until the 10th of Nov. For all participants who are already arriving on THURSDAY the 6th we will also arrange a Gettogether at the ICC 2003 hotel in the evening. We´re very much looking forward to the convention. If you have further questions, please contact us at any time. Ska von Schöning
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| ( July 18, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
Dear Friends, Here comes great news for further activities at the ICC 2003. I had the great pleasure to meet Lisetta Landoni, the president of the FKY Federazione Kriya Yoga Italy during my last stay in Milano. Not only, that Lisetta is a wonderful person to get to know, her ideas and reflections on contortion and the connection with yoga did deeply impress me. Being so highly involved in yoga, she still shares a profound interest and tolerance for contortion, which I personally have rarely experienced in this field. Lisetta is a very well known personality lecturing and teaching yoga in –in my opinion- the most beautiful and expressive form. You can imagine, that I am very happy to announce here, that Lisetta and two of her assistants will join the ICC 2003 to not only lecture and demonstrate their form of yoga, but also to hold workshops. We think, that this is a wonderful oportunity to many of you, who have been asking for workshops and would like to extend their practical knowledge in the field of yoga and stretching. If you want to learn more about the FKY, please go to http://www.fky.it For us it is now very important to find out who is interested in any of these workshops with Lisetta and her assistants in general. |
The more and the earlier information we get, the easier it will be for us to organize these workshops in little groups. Most probably they will be held on Sunday 9, 2003 in the afternoon. If we have a lot of interest, we will try to find some more time slots on Saturday 8. Depending on the interest and the number of participants, we will try to negotiate reasonable fees with Lisetta. This is the reason why we ask you to give us your feedback as soon as possible. All correspondance in respect to these workshops has to solely go through us, because we have to organize it from here and we do not want Lisetta to be stressed out too much with this.
Well - here we go ! Please let us have your feedback asap. If you have further questions, please contact us at any time.
Ska von Schöning
| ( June 20, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
Dear Friends, Things are becoming quite busy now with all the preparations for the event and as you will see, we have been rather busy in the meantime. First of all we want to give you an update of the list of performers who will demonstrate their skills at the next International Contortion Convention : Already mentioned in our last newsletter
dated April 30 S VETLANA BELOVA from Russia - "Circus Princess 2001"Mongolian Fascination CHARADE (Theo O. Krath’s Ensemble) with FOUR girls - also in different performances. |
 Jasmine George |
 Svetlana Belova  Imelda Jacobs |
Die COSKADAS of the Artistenschule of Brigitte
und Marcella Seliger in Coswig - plus Philip in a solo
performance
ALBANA
in a brand-new performance.
NATALYA from Russia
with a wonderful equilibristic performance
ALBANA &
CAROLA in a world-exclusive duo performance
Sonia -
student from the studio of David Fox
Manushage
- promissing talent from the Albanian State Circus
But we have
more great news - and names - for you :
We are very happy to announce that lovely JASMINE GEORGE has confirmed her participation in the event. She is a rising star in this genre, full of enthusiasm and love for what she does. Many of you will remember IMELDA JACOBS from South Africa. She performed at the last ICC in Las Vegas. In the meantime, she has been working hard to improve her contortion skills and it will be exciting to see her performing this year again in her new routine. GEORGI TASHEV, a well known male contortionist, has also confirmed his participation in this years show. He has been performing all over Europe in the last few years and we are very happy to have him at our event. Another wonderful highlight will be the performance of ELLENA & INGO in their exceptional adagio number. ELLENA FIESTA will also show her Solo Contortion act. It is a real pleasure to see such talented people work together. |
JAMIE (male contortionist). As we already said, we will be focussing on promoting new talents this time. One young artist definitely deserves our attention. It is Jamie from England. He is now 17 years old. His big ambition is to come to the ICC 2003 and to have a chance to show his talent. We hope, that this event will give him the reassurance and confidence to continue with his work. We have been in contact with PINA CONTI, who has expressed her interest in participating and performing in our gala show. She is presently working out her schedules to see, whether she can make it to Cologne. No need to say, that it just would be MARVELLOUS, if she could come Some of the above artists and the ones of our previous update will perform in two different acts. At this moment we already have approx. 20 different performances and it still seems to become more...... In the convention you will also meet Lorna Chester - one of the most famous contortionists of her time - and Nora Novovsamboo - coach of the Mongolian State circus. Now to the more organizational parts of the event. To our suprise we keep getting emails about the fees and the payment arrangements. The details we gave in our last update are definite prices and conditions. Please check out these pages :
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 Ellena Fiesta  Ellena and Ingo |
 Georgi Tashev |
However, if you still have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly (ska@vnet.de) any time - or use info@icc-convention.com. I am also presently preparing personal emails to all participants, who have confirmed their attandance. When you register (even if it is only for the shows), please give me also an idea, whether or not you will need our hotel special. This is important to secure your hotel reservation through us. If possible, please give me an idea of your arrival dates and departures. Please be aware, that the deadline for the DEFINITE particiaption in the convention and/or show and hotel bookings September 15, 2003. These are our deadlines with respect to guarantees of locations and other arrangements, which we have to secure at this end. Therefore it is also very important, that your payments arrive by this date. We will only consider registrations as firm registrations, if and when we received payments. NEW ACTIVITIES during the ICC 2003 Photo / video exchange desk In the past we have been having a lot of interest and inquiries about the possibility of exchanging or buying contortion material during the conventions. |
| We have always considered this a bit of a difficult
subject, since it is not easy to ‚control’ this kind of activity and to keep it
within the guidelines we would expect and demand at our event. On the other hand we
totally understand that such a desk is a great opportunity for many people to aquire some
nice contortion material right on the spot and after viewing it before buying. Therefore we we have decided we will try this little venture this time and see how it works. There are however some conditions to this: People who want to offer any material will have to hand in a detailed list and description of the material they want to present, give away or sell. This list will have to be with us by the end of September 2003, including the prices at which they will be offered. The material in question must be free of nudity or any sexually suggestive content ! The desk will be open only at certain hours during the convention in order not to disturb other activities during the convention. We will provide space and equipment needed to view the material (VCR, TV, tables etc...) Limited photo shoots for convention participants At this point we are also working on a concept for fans to take limited photos (no videos!) of some artists during certain time slots of the ICC on a little stage/platform we will specifically provide for this purpose. |
 Natalya |
 Manushage |
This is still depending on several conditions, which we
are momentarily trying to work out with our performers at the ICC. Nobody of the artists
will of course be pushed or forced to do that! It will be totally voluntarily in order not
to bother or tire out our artists! Also it will be totally organized by us. We do not want
any artist to feel obliged or pressurized by anyone at ANY TIME to do this! More on this
subject in our next update. So, that is all for now. More detailed information on the convention schedule is coming together day by day and we will keep you updated , as usual. And –as usual- you can always write us, if you have any further question or if we can help you to organize your trip to this event. Best regards Ska von Schöning |
Event promoters: Ska von Schöning (Ska Showbiz) and Klaus Bischoff
Here are -again- some links to our previous events :
 1998 Dresden / Germany |
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 The website that started it all (including coverage on ICC2000) |
Jim Pickles` ICC2000 pages An attendant´s view |
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 Sonia |
some of the pictures copyright by Jim Pickles
