Camp Contact Mission & Principles

 

 

 

Camp Contact Mission

Camp Contact intends to create a rich, cohesive community that encompasses the full embodiment and exploration of creative movement and authentic connection.

 

We aspire to be a sustainable model for a grand community by exploring, improvising, and reflecting on how we dance through life together.  We create an exciting, inviting, and safe space to empower people to leave a positive impact on each other and the planet.

 

Our primary gift to playa is showcased by the tremendous workshop offerings and opportunities for interactivity within our village. We welcome playful curiosity and a willingness to learn, as well as the passion to teach and share skills in a way where everyone leaves feeling like they can step into a new empowered version of themselves. 

 

While we love movement, dance, and of course music, we also create a cozy oasis, a step apart from the playa’s high intensity atmosphere.  Through embracing ontological design and contribution culture, we are able to come together in meaningful ways and connect deeply with people who feel like home. 

 

Here are just some of the experiences our camp offers: 

 

• Incredible Workshops
  Yoga, breathwork, sound baths, healing, energy work and more
   

• Authentic Relating
  A focus on depth, honesty, and authenticity in interpersonal and group dynamics
   

• Contact Dance Jams

Kinection, from our cells to another’s, merging rhythmically through movement. A composition of expression and trust through touch and embodied flow.
 

• Contact Dance Jams @ Center Camp
  The best way to play is together!  We have instigated contact jams at Center Camp since 2005.
   

• Ecstatic and Contact Dance at Pinwheel
  Allowing possibilities of how we move to be limitless!  Safe space for all movers and shakers to dance in the divine waters of sweet beats in a safe and judgment free zone!

 

A Little History

Our collective was founded in 2005 at Burning Man as "Contact Camp" to be a center for Contact Improvisation (CI) Dance at Burning Man.  Since then, it has evolved to be a home for CI as well as many other movement practices, with the additional focuses of Acro Yoga, Ecstatic Dance, and Authentic Relating/Circling.  We continue exploring movement practices and possibilities, as well as how those activities give us the space to connect deeper with others and ourselves.

 

Camp Contact Principles

1. Contribution Culture 

We understand it is our personal responsibility to step into roles of service and leadership, everyone is part of the collective. 

Our camp is a Do-ocracy because we know first-hand that it takes a village to build a village. We are Black Rock citizens (engaged participants), not tourists (watching and taking). We as a community come together to build and run this camp. When everyone gives 1% more than they take, we have a huge abundance!
We invite you to reach out if you don’t know how to do something. We are a knowledge-sharing, baton-passing, and teaching community. That sounds like: 

• “What can I do?” 

• “How can I help?” 

• “Is there anything else you need help with?” 

• “Is there any way I can support you?” 

 

We have no paid staff. That means we are all on level ground when it comes to building our home.  We empower our camp mates through team structures and decentralize knowledge by having teams to steward each area of camp, ensuring each team has the knowledge they require for camp tasks. This allows us to create the reality where everyone has a support system in place.

A few great questions to ask yourself as you embark upon this burn are:

• “Am I willing to give more than I take?

• “Will that be a stretch for me or will it feel natural?”

• “How can I empower myself, with empathy, to hold that intention for the duration of this adventure?” 

 

All that said, we are playful, sassy, fun, and aware, and we do our best to do our ‘work’ (i.e. steward the magic of our camp) with that energy as well.    

 

2. Living the Burning Man Principles

The ten principles are our way of life. Burning Man gives us the expansive foundation to navigate how we show up not only on playa, but in our everyday lives. Camp Contact offers guidance and integration so that everyone may have an opportunity to step into places that will expand their offering to the world.

 

We are citizens of the community of Black Rock City, (which is a beautiful leap beyond being event participants, or voyeur/tourists) and that means that we encourage everyone in our camp to help bring our collective vision to life through both intention and action.

TLDR; This ain’t no plug-n-play, babe. 

 

3. Contact Improvisation

Camp Contact was first founded to bring Contact Improvisation (CI) to Burning Man. It is an exploration of how we live and move together.
Life is a dance, and made so much sweeter when it includes contact.
We encourage embodiment, play, neuroplasticity, social alchemy, and spiritual snark. We embrace the weird. Weird is fuel for innovation and change.
Stage licking is encouraged. 

 

4. Ontological Design

The playa is a very demanding environment and Camp Contact supports its citizens through embracing a branch of philosophy called “Ontological Design” which is “the architecture of the art of being”. The intention is to bring to life physical spaces where one is able to be and become. Our camp is composed of expansive containers that create an innate sense of comfort and belonging; the perfect atmosphere for facilitating connection and self expression of all kinds.  Keeping this in mind, the cultural and ambiance stewards of Camp Contact create interactive spaces that offer its citizens a place to ground while the storm passes, and also inspires them to become their highest selves. 

 

5. Safe Space for Vulnerability

Camp Contact welcomes you as you are, and welcomes what emerges for you as it happens.  Expressions of Joy, Love, Sadness, Anger, Frustration and beyond are welcome. We take time out to explore the roots of them and let them be processed.  The four steps of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) are embraced and shared within our community.
Camp Contact is a place where we try new things, respect how each individual chooses to show up, and check our judgements at the door. We hold space and respect for all different ways and walks of life. And while we embrace snark at times as burners love, we strongly believe in communication without judgment. We are here for check-ins, both personal and camp-wide. We work through challenges in as healthy of ways as possible with compassionate dialogue, 1-on-1’s, 2-on-1’s, check-ins for alignment, clearing circles, and transparency. 

 

6. Conscious Consumption

🎵”Look for the …bear necessities, the simple bare necessities!” 🎶

Water     Water is life. On playa, water is exceptionally precious. While we definitely encourage being properly hydrated, we also want to be mindfully conservative around any water use which creates gray water and waste. 

Food     We celebrate the extravagant abundance of fresh, epic food! And we also deeply respect the work it takes to bring it to playa by making an effort to only take what we need and not waste any of it.  Yes, lick that plate clean, you son-of-a-moose.

Shelter     Each year we provide shade for the entire camp. We consciously consume this shade by using this space in a mindful way that leaves room for other campers.

Community     We are a tribe of many and strive to support each other. Appropriate self care is highly encouraged so we can be properly resourced.

 

 

7. Healthy, Nutritious Fresh Food

We, as humans, gather around food.  From decadent, homemade, family-style meals, to impromptu 4am grilled sammich parties, food is central to our culture. We believe through communal cooking, lifetime bonds are made. The satisfaction of nourishing our fellow campmates reverberates throughout all we do. It is an epic labor of love for us to deliver a broad spectrum of fresh foods that heal and support our bodies. While we generously celebrate abundance, we strive to be mindful to make sure everyone gets some by not taking more than we need. 

 

8. Edge Play

Camp Contact is a place where it is safe and celebrated to go through experiences that foster growth and psychological safety.  We hold space for personal transformation and accept that sometimes this process can come with varying degrees of discomfort. We offer an emotional support team that’s mission is to help you feel more grounded and integrate everything that Burning Man can invoke. We also empower our citizens to lean into their own growth edges, explore and define their personal boundaries, engage in enthusiastic consent conversations, step out of their comfort zone and step into a new version of themselves with finesse. This includes leaning into leadership opportunities of many kinds, such as testing out new workshop ideas or taking on responsibilities within camp life. 

 

9. Academy of Stewardship 

Camp Contact operates as a place of learning to the extent that our primary offering is our robust and diverse workshop academy. Sharing knowledge helps us gain new perspectives on the world and ourselves, illuminating the relationships between responsibility, accountability, and empowerment. Through exploring the depths of our collective knowing, we can begin to understand how to better show up and collaborate as a team, creating a lasting ripple effect throughout our human experience. Shit will go sideways. It is your choice how you allow something to affect you and we are here to stand beside you as we navigate what shows up, together. We encourage homegrown solutions and healthy feedback culture, remaining open to reflections so as to iterate and strive for peak performance, while also leaving room for us to be perfectly human.

 

10. Union of Head and Heart

The Neocortex is an amazing evolutionary feature that has allowed for a lot of convenience and grounding, but it also blocks us from loving more fully when judgements stand in the way of our heart energy.  We work to cultivate deep understanding and appreciation by relying on limitless curiosity around pain points within our relations. We desire to make everyone feel included and  focus on “Right Relationship” as it relates to stress, stress management, awareness of our nervous systems, naming projections and disempowering assumptions, prioritizing curiosity and learning over efficiency of getting things done… to name a few (ha!). Our community is a “living presentation” - a dynamic and ever-changing entity where we get to broadcast, blossom, and share these highest values. 

 

11.  “…”  [yes, this is a principle!]