| ( April 30, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
Dear Friends, we know it is really time now to supply you with more information about the upcoming event. Since we expect a lot of participants coming from abroad, especially USA, we wanted to wait a while and watch the developments in the Middle East. Now that the worst is over, we hope that our american friends are gaining more confidence to travel abroad again. I -Ska- was approached quite often by some friends who were worried about the general attitude in Germany now after the US activities in Iraq. I can only repeat what we said in an earlier message: There is no anti-american attitude amongst the people in Germany. Although a considerable group of people in Germany -as btw also in America- didn’t support the idea of a war against Iraq, the Germans have always had a deep friendship and admiration for America and they are able to make a difference between government politics and private life. I am only saying this to reinsure everyone that Germany is a safe - and beautiful - place to come to ! |
 Carola and Stefani Casselly |
First we want to answer a question which seems to be the most asked and the most interesting one these days: Who will be performing at our shows ? About our first (talent) show we will give you more exciting and detailed news in our next update. The main gala show
will be filled with names and artists you have known for many years and most of you will
be very anxious to see: 1. The Casselly Sisters (Carola und Stefanie). So many poeple have approached us, asking about them. Now you will finally see them in different performances! Here we should mention, that their young twin sisters Alexia and Romina will also appear in our talent show a day before the final gala event. |
2. Svetlana Belova from Russia, an artist who is also very well known amongst most of you. She won the first prize of the "Circus Princess 2001" festival - one of the most respected awards in European circus. 3. Mongolian Fascination CHARADE (Theo O. Krath’s Ensemble) with FOUR girls. The word Fascination sure is just perfectly chosen for this kind of performance. 4. Die COSKADAS of the Artistenschule of Brigitte und Marcella Seliger in Coswig. One of the girls you will see in this duo has already performed at the first ICC in 1998. It will be most interesting and wonderful to see her working now again. 5. ALBANA in a new performance, which will be presented at the ICC 2003 for the first time. |
 Mongolian Fascination
CHARADE |
 Die Coskadas |
6. NATALYA from
Russia with a wonderful equilibristic performance 7. ALBANA & CAROLA in a Duo Performance, especially put together for our ICC 2003 friends This is all we want to give away now. Obviously we want to keep you curious and want to safe some of the further highlights for the next update. We are coming now to a point, where
we have to take a closer look at the registration situation. Within the next six weeks we have to get a very clear idea of how many participants we have to host. This is important to make the final bookings of the number of hotel rooms, the size of the conference room show location etc... |
The locations we have our option on for this event are giving us a deadline by the 15th August to make all final reservations. By then we have to make definite bookings depending on the amount of registrations we have. We will be charged for all the rooms we book by then - so it is obvious that we want to avoid paying for empty rooms. Therefore we can only repeat this once again. If you are sure that you want to join the ICC 2003 please make a definite booking as soon as possible - and make sure that your registration fee has been paid and arrived with us by August 15, 2003. Any bookings after this deadline are risky and we will not be able to guarantee your participation - neither in the complete conference nor in the show. |
 Natalya |
 Mongolian Fascination CHARADE |
Payments have to be made in EUROS or in the equivalent of Euro in Dollars. We prefer transfers, but if necessary we will also accept cheques. Payments should be made to the following account: SHOWBIZ (W. Kahl) Cheques should be sent to the following address: SHOWBIZ Ska von Schöning Everyone who will now make a final reservation and payment will be notified and get an appropriate confirmation from us. If you like to check out the website of the hotel where the
ICC2003 (except shows) will take place, click below Here again the conditions and prices for the rooms we have negotiated for you. |
| Accomodation We have blocked a number of rooms for our 3 days
attendees in the Ramada Treff Hotel Hürth. The special room rate per day will be EUR 70,00
for a single and EUR 88,00 for a double room - including breakfast. Each
attendee has to pay the room directly to the hotel when checking out. IMPORTANT: when you do your definite reservation for the total three days of the event, let me (Ska) know seperately, when you will arrive and if you do want to take advantage of the hotel room we have reserved for you. In any respect I will approach you immediately after your firm reservation about your travelling and hotel booking details. With regards to our daily schedule at the convention itself, we will publish a detailed program in one of the next updates of this website. As we mentioned already, we will have experts there again talking about their training with students in contortion, yoga and various other techniques affiliated to the stretching and flexibility of the body. |
 Carola and Stefani Casselly |
 Die Coskadas |
We will offer workshops for all who are interested in learning more about the flexibility of their own body. Learning by doing, so to say.... Some of our famous contortion artists will stand question and answer in podium discussions. Former contortionists like Lorna Chester and other will talk about their active and professional times on stage. We made very good experiences with this kind of schedule in the past. We found, that most of our participants, who came to the recent ICCs are mainly interested in learning all about flexibility and the different ways and methods to approach it.... and of course: TO MEET THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY DO IT. We will generally stick to this concept, but we will bring very new inputs this time too. That’s all for now. If you have any further question, please contact us at the following email adresses: ska@vnet.de or via our icc email account info@icc-convention.com |
Best regards to you all
Ska von Schöning
( March 2, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
We now have a Pre-Registration form for the "Show-Only" tickets online. Remember: there is limited availability for these tickets - depending on how much space is left. The tickets will be sold strictly by order of pre-registration - so please register now without any obligation. Please see ticket details below (Feb 18 news)
Please click here, fill and return the pre-registration form for "Show-only" tickets (no obligation) |
Those interested in attending the convention should not use the form - we will guarantee enough seats for you and all accompanying persons.
| ( Feb 18, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
 Sonia - student of David Fox |
As mentioned before we are strongly focussing on promoting new talents at the ICC2003. You will be seeing young talents you have never even heard of in the past ! And of course those ones you were able to follow their starting ’careers’ on the Internet. For example we will have the pleasure of meeting little Sonia - a student of David Fox ! We have invited the longtime trainer of Albana - the director of the Albanian State Circus - to present his most promissing little student he now coaches, in the hope that she will one day follow Albana´s footsteps. We have also invited the Artistenschule Coswig, Brigitte and Marcella Seliger, who have started this exciting event with us in Dresden in 1998. They will introduce their young student Phillip to us.Very exciting news we got yesterday from the Mongolian State Circus: The famous trainer Nora Norovsamboo confirmed, that she will join the ICC2003 to talk about her personal life as a contortionist and a trainer in Mongolia. Many wonderful, highly professional contortionists have ’sprung’ from underneath her hands. Some of them are now working in the very successful performances which are produced and managed by Theo O. Krath. There is a lovely little story connected to her visit to the ICC: After Theo (who will also be involved in various operations for this event) and I met to discuss some items on our ICC agenda, Theo started to win Nora for a trip to the ICC in November. |
Six of her former students who are now working for Theo immediately decided to give and pay her the ticket to Germany as a special "Thank You" gift for everything she has done for them. At the ICC2003 these mongolian contortion ladies will perform for her the original act which Nora produced and trained them for. From the above you might have already noticed that this time we will have an extra show : In order to be able to concentrate on these young talents in the best possible way, we will give them a special evening where they can demonstrate their skills in our first gala show of the ICC. Of course we also want to give them a special incentive and motivation to work hard on their future careers. We will do this in form of a little competition where we will give awards to the various aspects of each and every performance we will have the pleasure to see. |
 Philip - student of Artistenschule Coswig |
 Lorna Chester |
We would also like to encourage you to
inform us about other promissing talents, who you think might be interested or could be
promoted on occasion of this convention. It goes without saying that in the sense of the old ICC tradition, we will have our wonderful gala show for our professional performers on the last evening of the event. For our fans of famous former contortionists, we have a special little suprise: LORNA CHESTER will also join us at the event and will tell us about her exciting and interesting life as one of the most famous contortion performers of her time. I met Lorna a few days ago and I could not get enough of her amazing stories which she has to tell. She is absolutely adorable and admirable and we are sure she will be a big highlight of the event. I would specifically like to thank David Fox and Walther Kahl for providing lovely old photos of Lorna to me. I made a little photo album for her, which she was very happy to receive. Some of the photos she had not even seen herself before.... |
The ICC2003 convention will start Friday morning (Nov 7) with the conference and will end Sunday night with the second Gala show (Nov 9). The first Gala show for our young artists will be Saturday night (Nov 8). So if you are travelling to Köln (airport code CGN) you should plan to arrive on Thursday evening (Nov 6) - and leave on Monday morning (Nov 10). We will come up with a more detailed schedule shortly - and the list of speakers, activities, workshops and panels is subject to change anytime until November. We will keep you updated over the next months. |
 Nora Norovsamboo |
Now we finally want to provide you with the information on costs and fees for the convention. After careful consideration and calculation of all costs we have decided on the following terms and fees : ICC2003 attendants fee: EUR 330,00 (payment in advance by cheque or money transfer - no credit card - for German attendants plus 16% USt / VAT). In order to 100% guarantee the booking, payment has to be effective by Oktober 1, 2003Terms and fees
This fee includes 3 days of conference and convention with all activities including both shows and two full buffets - except workshops. This fee also includes videotaping and photographing of both shows.
 Lorna Chester |
We will however have some light but necessary rules connected to both photographing and videotaping. This is vital in order not to disturb the convention - and respect the attendants´ privacy. Two of these main rules are:
A special disclaimer will have to be signed by all attendants of the ICC. We hope that you will go along with our decision, which we find the best solution for all. |
For those who are only
interested in our shows - but do not want to attend the convention or other activities -
we have decided to offer a special "Show only package" for EUR 125,00
(for German attendants plus 16% USt
/ VAT). This fee includes both
show events and buffets before each of the shows. Accomodation Like in the past, we have already blocked a number of rooms for our 3 days attendees in an international business hotel. The special room rate per day will be EUR 70,00 for a single and EUR 88,00 for a double room - including breakfast. Each attendee has to pay the room directly to the hotel when checking out. I (Ska) will handle all reservations for all attendees with the hotel personally. As soon as I have your confirmed registration, I will pass on the name and firm booking to the hotel. |
 Lorna and Leslie Chester |
| ( Feb 7, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
we have been getting a few inquiries about the fees and terms for the next ICC. We do realize that you all are very interested in more detailed informations from us, and we will be able to give them to you within the next two or three weeks. As we already mentioned on the CHP board, we need some extra time to be able to make more exact calculations. Our aim is to have an affordable fee, which will be strongly based on the actual expenses we will have. So far we had a good feedback and already a nice number of firm registrations. It is clear that the more people we have attending, the easier it will be for us to organize this event. In a few weeks time (latest by the beginning of March) we will come up with detailed price information. But we can assure you that we will do our best to make the next ICC as accessible to everyone as the last ones.
Even before this price update we will publish first informations about schedule, performers, travel and other convention-related topics. You can expect this update before the end of next week.
Ska von Schöning
| ( Jan 25, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
Being in the States right now, I encounter a lot of doubts and fear many Americans seem to be having about travelling to Europe momentarily or within the next few months. They are worried about an anti-American attitude which they understand has been developping in Europe over the Iraqi crisis. We don’t want to raise any political question or opinion here over this crisis, but we really want to reassure our American friends, that there is no such sentiment in Germany ! Obviously everyone has his own opinion over what is going on in this part of the world and many people are worried and speak out their mind. However I/we can assure you, that the Germans have a big love and admiration for America in general and I cannot imagine that anyone who will come over to Germany for the ICC 2003 will meet any agression or even animosity towards American citizens. If, after this, you still have questions or doubts about this subject, please feel free to talk to us any time. If we can help you to put your mind at ease, we will certainly try and do so.
Ska von Schöning
| ( Jan 02, 2003 ) - International Contortion Convention 2003 news |
Who could have thought that we would go that far - when we started ? After the big success of the last convention it took time for us to even think of topping this up again. Now we are there! And we are ready to create the next event, which will have even more… CONTORTION !!
For those who wonder what we are talking about, here are the links to what happened in the past ...
 1998 Dresden / Germany |
 2000 Las Vegas / USA |
 The website that started it all (including coverage on ICC2000) |
Jim Pickles` ICC2000 pages An attendant´s view |
At the ICC2003 we will be focussing on three major goals:
| 1st to bring us all together
again…! 2nd to specifically promote new talents 3rd to have the best Gala event of professional Contortionists you have ever seen. Yes, it will be wonderful to meet all our friends again, who have started this exciting project with us in 1998 and who came from all over the globe to participate in the last two ICCs in Europe and America. Of course we also hope to meet new enthusiasts this time, so that our group will continue growing. As for the 2nd item on our agenda, this time we are planning to invite even more promising young talents, whom we want give the opportunity to meet with trainers, specialists of the genre as well as fellow contortionists, who are already working on stage. We hope that this will motivate these young talents and their trainers and/or parents to continue with their work, focussing on a future life or chance to work one day as a professional artist. We are planning to have a an extra show for these young talents including a little competition on one of our evenings. |
 Lorna Chester |
 Lorna Chester |
And as always - we will have a big Gala Show with
contortionists from all over the world. The list of artists who have shown major
interest in performing in this show is already long and very exciting ! More details on
this will be published in one of our next updates. Rest assured, you will just love it ! What else will happen during these three days of our convention ? Again we will invite trainers, specialists and artists to speak about their work during podium discussions. This will give you the chance to ask the questions which interest you most - about training, the production of a contortion acts and the personal backgrounds of the people involved. Another focus and subject at the ICC2003 will be other - non strictly contortion related - stretching & training methods, such as yoga, PNF (P&F) and the Alexander method. We will invite specialists who will give us directions on how to integrate these different techniques and routines of stretching into our daily lives. I think that many of the participants will be very interested in this and it would be nice to get a feedback from you on this subject - as early as possible ! This will also make it easier for us to organize special stretching courses or workshops. |
Now here is the most important point of this first information. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for us to organize the hotel, conference & the show rooms : we need to get an idea on how big the number of participants for the ICC2003 will be. We have already booked a very nice hotel where the event will be held. So far we put down a reservation for quite a big number of hotels rooms, but we will have to update the hotel with a more exact number of guests on a regular basis. Since we want to have everything happening at one location (like we did last time and we think it was the nicest for all who attended) YOU have to make sure that you tell us early enough if you are interested in joining the convention. We will have to keep deadlines for keeping a certain amount of rooms at the hotel and we will strictly go by the FIRST COME - FIRST SERVE rule. If at a later point in time you still decide to come - this will be fine - but we can not guarantee to organize and book hotel rooms anymore.
Therefore we ask you to send us back the feedback form, which we attach here at the end of this update, as soon as possible. This feedback form will give you the opportunity to tell us, what your present status is, and it will give us the opportunity to work and cooperate with you on this status!
That is all for now. We will wait for your first feedbacks and get back to you with more exciting details soon.
To all of you a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!
Ska von Schöning
Event promoters: Ska von Schöning (Ska Showbiz) and Klaus Bischoff
Here are -again- the links to our previous events :
1998 Dresden / Germany |
2000 Las Vegas / USA |
The website that started it all (including coverage on ICC2000) |
Jim Pickles` ICC2000 pages An attendant´s view |
some of the pictures copyright by Jim Pickles
