How do I sign up for the jam?

Step 1: Fill out the Registration Form once or anytime your basic info changes

Step 2: Secure your spot the week of the jam on the Sign-Up Sheet. 

• Sign up opens at 9 am the Monday before each jam for Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and multiracial jammers only. 

• Everyone may sign up starting the Tuesday before each jam at 9 am.

Pre-pandemic, jams had a come-and-go-whenever-you-please feel. Now, in order to limit exposure and spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses, the Sunday jam will be capped at 30 people. Additionally, we will all start together in a warm-up class before the open jam to help us mindfully return to dancing in physical contact with each other. No matter how much experience you have with contact improvisation, we are all new to this version of the Sunday jam, all new to practicing CI during a global pandemic. We hope to create a focused container for the study, practice, and enjoyment of CI. For these reasons, sign up is required every week. 

How should I prepare the day of to dance? 

• The jam will begin at 11:45 am with a 45 min to 1-hr warm-up class, led by rotating teachers. 

If you arrive more than 10 minutes late, your spot may go first come first served to someone else.

• Bring a KF94, KN95, or N95 mask or $2 to purchase one (limited supply, please bring your own if you can). 

  • See latest COVID-19 protocol - We now have one jam per month that is mask optional! read the updated doc for info about unmasking for those jams! 

• Bring cash if you're able to make a donation ($10-20 suggested, no one turned away for lack of funds)

• If you come down with any COVID, monkeypox (rash, fever, swollen lymph nodes, aches), or other cold/flu symptoms, please stay home (if you're able, delete your name from the sign up sheet)

• Choose clothing that will help you dance with ease. See What should I wear? 

Why jam?

The purpose of the jam is to practice contact improvisation (CI), an evolving movement practice in which we communicate spontaneously “through touch, weight, balance, impulse and movement, in partnership with the physical forces” often by following the rolling point where two bodies connect (From Caught Falling, p. 77). 

What happens at the jam? 

The Sunday jam opens with a structured class with a teacher, followed by a minimally structured “Open Jam” typically without music, facilitated by members of Jam Support. 

Brand new folks are encouraged to attend!

Location

Links Hall:  3111 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

Schedule

Most Sundays, see dates above

11:30 -11:45  Arrive

11:45 -12:45  Opening Circle and Class

12:45 - 2:15  Open Jam

2:15 - 2:30  Closing Circle

Requirement to attend class

We require all participants to be present for class prior to joining the Open Jam portion. Please note that if you sign up for a spot at the jam, it will not be held for you after 11:45a. 

Actively observing from off the dance floor is a valid way to participate in class! 

Circle up!

The Opening Circle is a place to state your name, your pronouns, your access needs for the day (conditions that will allow you to fully participate), any wishes you might have for future dances, and other useful information for people to know, such as recent injuries you’d like others to be mindful of. One might offer “My left ankle is injured, please be gentle when sharing weight with me” or “I do not want to be lifted today.”  This is a place to practice saying what you might say again during a dance. 

The Closing Circle is a place to reflect, connect, and make announcements before parting.

Who organizes the jam? 

This jam is run by a collective of volunteers who work within committees and make decisions by consensus. To learn more about how we are organized, see Collective Governance. To contact us, please see Contact the Jam.