west coast contact improvisation JAM
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wcciJAM
about
the
team
The West Coast Contact Improvisation JAM is created for dancers, by dancers. Come find us at the festival! Organizers past and present can help orient you, answer questions, have a dance.
© Rob Kunkle | Good Lux Photography
wcciJAM 2026 Team
Current Organizers
Rosemary Hannon
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Rosemary dances and makes performances exploring perception, perseverance, fear, femininity, the intersection of identity and aesthetic values, the nature of story and experience of the body within shifting cultural contexts. She also performs in the work of other choreographers, teaches and organizes dance events. ~ rosemaryhannon.com
Megan Lowe
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Megan Lowe (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, performer, aerialist, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, teacher, and administrator of Chinese and Irish descent, making dance art in the San Francisco Bay Area, situated on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Through Megan Lowe Dances, she creates courageous multidisciplinary dance works, rooted in care, that transform spaces with dynamic place-making, playful partner-work, and daring aerial/vertical dance. Megan is a recipient of 2 Izzie Awards, and her recent choreographies have been seen at Legion of Honor, ODC, Fort Mason, de Young, and 500 Capp Street, and in SF Aerial Arts Festival, USAAF, CAAMFest, SF Trolley Dances, and on KQED Live. Megan has performed with Flyaway Productions, Dance Brigade, Lenora Lee Dance, Scott Wells & Dancers, and more. She is a teaching artist for Joe Goode Performance Group, BANDALOOP, Flyaway, and her alma mater Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, where she works as the Program Associate. She regularly teaches contact improvisation, vertical dance, site-specific dance, and contemporary dance for organizations, schools, universities, and dance festivals around the Bay Area and California, and has also taught in Singapore, Ireland, and Japan. Megan has been a part of the wcciJAM team since 2016. ~ MeganLoweDances.com
Miriam Wolodarski Lundberg
Miriam is an experimental performance maker, dancer, improvisation teacher, organizer, and freelance translator. She is currently the director of the arts nonprofit Sense Object. senseobject.com
Andy Wolodarski Lundberg
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Andy is the manager of The Berkeley Finnish Hall (finnishhall.org) where he spends his time dancing the depths of site management, budgets, curation, organizing work exchangers and generally all things behind the scenes which includes the day to day joy of raising a 6 year old… He takes a deep interest in politics, history, place, and such things that bring joy and wonder to juxtapositions otherwise seen and felt.
wcciFAM
Past organizers have been an integral part in making wcciJAM happen over the years. Their knowledge and passion continues to shape future wcciJAMs.
René Alvarez
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René Alvarez, practicing physician, fire dancer, and erstwhile recreational slam dancer, is the founder of InterKinected LLC, whose mission is to investigate and promote Contact Improvisation through organization and sponsorship of classes, jams, festivals, intensives, laboratories, films and showings. ~ interkinected.org
Cathie Caraker
Cathie is an international dance artist and teacher based in San Francisco. She has been practicing/teaching Contact and other improvisation for over 35 years. She has worked extensively with Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, and others. Her interest in movement research led her to the School for Body-Mind Centering®, where she became a certified Practitioner of BMC with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. A pioneering teacher in the field of dance and somatics, she has shared her work at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, Contact Festival Freiburg, Movement Research NYC, the New York and Seattle Improvisation Festivals, Goa CI Festival, l’Association Hayyou’Raqs in Tunis, Contredanse Brussels, and ODC in SF. She has been on the organizing team of wcciJAM since 2013. ~ cathiecaraker.com
Merrick Jacob​
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Merrick is a lover of movement, continuously in awe of the body and its potential for delightful expression, wild creativity, & authentic connection. Influenced by her practices of contact improvisation, figure skating, acroyoga, and hand-balancing, she guides playful movement experiences as an opportunity for deep listening, research, and co-creation. Merrick hosts contact every 2nd & 4th Wednesday evening at The Center SF. Say hi here: merrickjacob.com
Rajendra Serber
Rajendra has had the privilege of collaborating with many wonderful artists including Sara Shelton Mann, Scott Wells, and The Residents. He was born the same year as Contact Improvisation and grew up wrestling as a playful and loving practice; Starting with his father, who was a national wrestling champion in Argentina, and continuing with his own two sons. He has studied a variety of physical and energetic forms including Contact Improvisation, Body-Mind Centering, and Release Technique. Some of his teachers have been Anna Halprin, Nita Little, Simone Forte, Daniel Lepkoff, and Cathie Caraker. Rajendra began teaching Contact Improvisation in 1999. Since 2012 he has been part of the organizing team of the West Coast Contact Improvisation JAM. ~ rjndr.net
Ronja Ver
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Ronja Ver is a dancer, dance maker, teacher, mother, and activist. A perpetual student of performance as a way of participating in community and a tool for social change, Ver is deeply inspired by Contact improvisation and its capacity to create deep and meaningful impact in themself and the world. Ver is proud to be spinning underwater in Steve Paxton’s DVD Material For The Spine. ~ ronjaver.net
Vitali Kononov
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Vitali Kononov, born in St-Petersburg, Russia, has been teaching CI since 1997. Vitali has completed Somatic Educator, Developmental Movement, Embodied Anatomy and Yoga programs from The School for Body-Mind Centering®. He teachers at Moving On Center – School for Participatory Arts and Somatic Research since 2002, and was a faculty member of American Dance Festival (2003-04.)
Karin Moriarty
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Karin is the Artistic Director of Dance-Is-It, a contact improvisation group based in Palo Alto. She is currently a Harbin Jam organizer/teacher and a regular teacher for the Berkeley Jam. She also teaches both modern dance and contact improvisation at DanceVisions in Palo Alto, Dance Odyssey in Santa Cruz, Ecstatic Dance in Palo Alto, and Stanford University.