Collaboration on Contact Quarterly Magazine (2009)

MALLORCA, SPAIN, is the biggest of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. In 2006 it wasn’t connected to the CI network. I was a "contact improv traveler" and had somehow chosen to live there. Body to body communication was a necessity in my life. I felt a mission to share my experience in CI with the islanders. I grew up in Buenos Aires, a city made and influenced by migration. Maybe that is why I always had curiosity about different cultures.
In Mallorquin there is a popular expression about how the culture moves: "poc a poc," which means "gradually." Poc a poc, classes and JAMs formed—spreading in that fertile land the seed that was in my body. Every JAM, people without experience came, so we always started with a circle: names, experience or not in CI, questions, suggestions… I encouraged people who had jammed to say what they think people should know to improvise. In that way we made premises that informed and transformed JAM to JAM. One which is very important to me is the Silent Spirit. Sometimes we use time structures inspired by the Underscore, or start with a round robin, or just set a closing circle time. We meet once a week. Our biggest JAM so far was part of the June 2008 CI36 Global Underscore Solstice. About 25 people came.
MENORCA and IBIZA have their own stories of how CI arrived. In each island we are JAMming with this new form of communication and exchanging experiences: the Balearic Islands are now connected to the body to body network.[Carolina Becker, Mallorca, Spain; carolinabecker7@gmail.com]