TEACHERS AND ARTISTS
RAY CHUNG
USA/NO
NINA MARTIN
USA
ANYA CLOUD
USA/DE
IWONA OLSZOWSKA
USA/DE
ZUZANNA BUKOWSKI
DE/PL/TH
KATARZYNA BURZYŃSKA
PL
Klara Łucznik
PL/UK
TOMASZ DOMANSKI
PL
FILIP WENCKI
pl
Jesus Alonso
ES
Christian Dohr
DE/TH
Xindi & Candy
CN
JANIS POVILAITIS
LT
Christos Litsios
GR/DE
Marta Iucci
IT
Katarzyna Brzezińska
PL/DE
Kieran Mitchell
AU
SOUNDSCAPE
Julia Partyka
PL
Daniel Zorzano
PL/MX
Olga Skrzypek
PL
Marcin Bożek i Danny Kamins
PL/USA
Ilya Semashkevich
PL/BY
RAY CHUNG
USA/NO
Ray Chung is a performer, teacher, engineer who has a passion for dancing which he likes to share with other people. His main focus is improvisation and he has worked with Contact Improvisation since 1979 as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement.
Ray has worked with the leading proponents of Contact Improvisation including Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, Nita Little, Lisa Nelson, Peter Bingham, Chris Aiken, Andrew Harwood, and regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists. Ray has also been certified as an instructor of shiatsu by the Shiatsu Education of America in 1982, and has studied with Wataru Ohashi, Ryuho Yamada, and Shizuto Masunaga.
His work has been featured at numerous national and international festivals and venues. Currently based in San Francisco & Sweden, Ray regularly teaches abroad.
MORNING INTENSIVE: READY
What does it mean, and what is necessary to be ready to engage in CI physically, mentally, emotionally, and creatively? What level of mobility, agility, and flexibility can widen the spectrum of possibilities in one’s practice? Which cognitive faculties, both conscious and unconscious, facilitate a wider range of choice making? Could one’s level of experience be a deciding factor on how and what one wants out of their practice? How do we inform our practice via our experience?
These and related subjects will be the focus of this intensive. We will delve into various practices to activate and enable new ways of engaging in habitudes. The act of practising can tend to form habits and patterns of movement that repeat themselves. Such habits or patterns may be undesirable, but by totally embracing these movements that arise from such improvisations, one is embracing the unconscious and trusting in it.
NINA MARTIN
USA
Nina Martin is a choreographer, pedagogue, dance theorist, and performer. Centered in the phenomena of perception, composition, and spontaneous movement, her research springs from 40 years of embodied research and applied dance. She is an artist member of Lower Left Performance Collective engaged in cooperative inquiry and with whom she developed dance systems: Ensemble Thinking and ReWire Movement States. This research complements her long practice in Contact Improvisation. Moreover, Nina is a professor of dance at TCU School of Classical & Contemporary Dance and hosts Performance Labs in Far West Texas in the cultural center of Marfa. She has served on the faculties of UCLA’s Department of World Art and Cultures and New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing as well as guesting at universities across the US and in Europe, Asia and Canada since the 70s. She has worked and studied with artists such as Steve Paxton, Deborah Hay, Simone Forti and Lisa Nelson.
http://www.ensemblethinking.com/
MORNING INTENSIVE: BIG PICTURE PERFORMANCE LAB – CI through a Performance Lens
Nina Martin
Nina and the participants will immerse themselves in dancing that focuses on forms naturally occurring in improvisational dance performance: Solo Body, Contact Improvisation Body, and Ensemble Body. Improvisational dance in performance challenges us to move comfortably within all three of these forms to embody the performance of improvisational dance as an art form.
Dance systems: Articulating the Solo Body, Contact Improvisation, and Ensemble Thinking (developed with the Lower Left Performance Collective from Martin’s embodied performance research practice) prepare dancers to experience the deep satisfaction of dancing as part of an ensemble that recognizes and supports the dancing of every individual in the group while also functioning as a cohesive performance ensemble. Warm-ups in Solo and Contact Body practices flow into Ensemble Thinking concepts as a frame for our open score dance in performance.
ANYA CLOUD
USA/DE
(she/they)
Anya is originally from Alaska and currently resides between Berlin and Colorado. As a queer white person, they orient their work towards cultivating radical aliveness as an artist-activist practice, with intersectional collaboration at the core of their work. With 20 years of experience in contact improvisation, they consistently teach, practice, and perform internationally, approaching contact improvisation as a fundamentally queer form.
Anya is devoted to practising, researching, teaching, and performing experimental contemporary dance, contact improvisation, and somatics through anti-oppression methodologies. Her work has been produced/supported by various entities such as Movement Research at the Judson, Tanzfabrik, Dock 11, Workshop Foundation, ImPulsTanz, freeskewl, La MaMa, Los Angeles Performance Practice, REDCAT, Tanzquartier, SFDI, WCCI Jam, The Field Center, and Guatemala Department of Culture, among others.
Anya co-directs The Love Makers, a project-based experimental dance company, alongside Makisig Akin. Anya has collaborated with and/or performed for Sara Shelton Mann, Nancy Stark Smith, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Karen Schaffman, Eric Geiger, Karen Nelson, and Nhu Nguyen. Holding an MFA in Dance Theatre and trained in the Feldenkrais Method® under the direction of Elizabeth Beringer, she is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder.
MORNING INTENSIVE: CONTACT IMPROVISATION AS A HIGH-RISK PRACTICE
This contact improvisation workshop will research strategies for cultivating queer wildness in our dancing bodies.
We will develop athletic endurance and soft patient specificity. We will foster round and permeable bodies as open systems as we cultivate pathways of aliveness, agency, and imagination. We will work with rolling, sliding, falling, flying, disorientation, momentum, duration, soft collisions, weight support, composition, and more. This will support and be supported by detailed work around sensitization, pressure, intention, tone, direction, timing, quality, and sequencing. We will develop skills for more attenuated listening, consent, boundary setting, and risk-taking. Some things may feel boring and some things will be thrilling — it will all inform the range and humanness of our dancing.
This workshop will be deeply physical and deeply political. We will expand the possibilities of what a contact improvisation dance can be through intimately being in the unknown together. We will work with contact Improvisation as a high-risk practice that activates bravery, collective care, chaos, transformation, specificity, accountability, and more. We will question, we will research, and we will play. We will dance with the bodies that we have as the people we are.
IWONA OLSZOWSKA
PL
Iwona wears many hats in the art world – she is a dancer, improviser, choreographer, and a dance teacher. As a Somatic Movement teacher following the approach of Body Mind Centering®, she passionately shares her knowledge in this field. Iwona is also the founder and artistic director of the Eksperymentalne Studio Tańca (Experimental Dance Studio, EST) in Cracow, PL.
She dances, performs and teaches at workshops and festivals all over Europe. Notably, she performed at the Improvisation Festival at the Judson Church in New York, at the George Washington University and at the Dartington College in England. Currently, she shares her knowledge at places like Hurtowania Ruchu and dance degrees in Łódź and Cracow among others. Iwona’s artistic and teaching style blends contemporary dance techniques with somatic methods.
Iwona gained her knowledge at George Mason University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Calgary. Her portfolio includes choreographies, improvisational and site-specific projects, as well as collaborations with musicians. She teamed up with the musician Marcin Janus and the designer Grzegorz Kaliszuk, and created improvisation projects with Renata Piotrowska, Michael Schumacher, Natalia Iwaniec, Anna Haracz and Paweł Konior, and Jacek Owczarek’s Pracownia Fizyczna.
MINI-INTENSIVE: RESONATING – SENSING ACTIONS IN SITE-SPECIFIC
During our site-specific labs, we’ll play with various approaches to the environment we encounter on our way. Our intent is to deepen our understanding of the space, stretching the duration of our exposure to specific stimuli. We’ll connect with the surroundings. And with time, we’ll explore how we could possibly deepen and develop such connection further.
Some of it will come from resonating with the place – to reveal more about what this space is holding; what moves us there.
Some will come more from our senses and our mindful presence – clear and ready to choose what we want to play with.
Some from quickly reacting to what we are passing – taking it as the landscape provoking a certain way of moving.
Some could come from observing patterns of movement already existing in the space – matching them and developing further.
So, we will attune our bodies to be ready to observe, manifest, express, and create.
We will work with short scores – having some samples and mini-play-like performances.
ZUZANNA BUKOWSKI
DE/PL/TH
Zuzanna Bukowski started dancing at the age of 4 and continued her embodiment practices through martial arts, ballet, yoga, modern dance, and Axis Syllabus. She has been deepening her embodiment practice under the influence of various international contact improvisation and contemporary dance teachers.
Currently, she is deeply interested in applying movement principles highlighted by the Axis Syllabus into the practice of contact improvisation, as well as the Underscore structure. She is passionate about the impact of connection between body and mind, which she continues to discover through her work in coaching, IT, and dance.
Teaching dance, co-organizing the Thailand Contact & Movement Arts Festival, Warsaw CI Flow Festival and working as an IT Consultant gives her the balance between headspace and movement art.
MINI-INTENSIVE: MOVING ME, MOVING YOU – SOLO INTO CI
In the workshop we will dive into the world of researching our own movement patterns and breaking those, before we get into contact with one another. We will focus on different CI principles using the lens of the Axis Syllabus to refine our movements and create more potentiality in our moving structures. Exploring those alone, in specific patterns and partner work shall deepen the understanding of the concepts.
We will dive deeper into the concepts of landing pads, tensegrity and how our bones are moving in the body. Asking questions like: How can meeting the floor be a soft experience? How does biodynamics can make our moves smooth and strong at the same time? And how can we keep our own flow while moving with someone else? We will jump, roll, research, soften, listen to good music and have fun with great music. We’ll also incorporate choreographic patterns to smoothly transition into solo movement, ensuring a mix of learning and fun throughout the workshop.
KATARZYNA BURZYŃSKA
PL
Katarzyna is a psychologist who has completed a school of integratively oriented DDA/DDD psychotherapy. She practices dance and movement – improvisation, contact improvisation, and body awareness techniques, which she uses in her work with the artistic collective SzurSure, in psychotherapeutic sessions, and in everyday life.
She explores movement and touch as an alternative form of communication and a tool for personal development in adults and children. In her practice, she combines knowledge acquired in the realm of classical psychology with body-oriented work, which gives her a broader perspective on the human psyche and the processes that occur within it.
In 2018, she completed a course in experimental choreography at the Center in Motion.
CLOSENESS IN MOTION
Cultivating relationship through movement in a one-hour workshop for children and parents
“Closeness in Motion” is an opportunity to connect with your child and with yourself. Parents and children will have the chance to experience a different form of communication and strengthen their parent-child relationship through movement activities based on elements of contact and improvisation, as well as working with metaphor. Touch is one of the most important elements of human development and the most important element of “Closeness in Motion”.
The fundamental principles of our meetings are pleasure, presence, and mutual mindfulness. This is a lesson in conscious and authentic movement, which is co-created in the parent-child relationship. Through movement activities, focusing on the body, and working with imagination, we integrate the activities of both hemispheres of the brain. This allows us to deepen the most important relationship in a child’s life and build it on safe touch, closeness, and trust. All of this is to be able to share experiences and needs, develop a sense of worth, being seen, and taken into account – important elements in a child’s life.
We will run, jump, roll, breathe, fly, and fall, laugh, and develop spontaneity. These are tools helpful in developing the four important elements of a good and supportive relationship: readiness to play, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy.
Klara Łucznik
PL/UK
Klara specialises in being ‘in-between’: in between art and science, in between dance and psychology, in between embodiment and running thoughts, in between improvisation and the need for structure.
She started by studying theoretical physics but obtained an MA in Choreography and Dance Theory and completed a PhD in psychology. Her PhD thesis explored creativity and flow experience in group dance improvisation (University of Plymouth, UK). For the last few years, she has carried out empirical and embodied research on the role of contact with nature at the University of Plymouth and the University of the Philippines (Open University).
She has now decided to try to be a little more sensible and coherent in her interests, so she has returned to researching dance as a research fellow at the University of Warsaw, focusing on the role of embodied communication, touch, and all positive side effects that come from practising dance (contact) improvisation.
She is also a curator and organizer of Warsaw CI Flow, Movement Labs in Warsaw (Poland) and co-organiser of CI Totnes Jam in the UK. She has collaborated with ColLab in Bristol since 2018. She continues living, dancing and researching between Plymouth and Warsaw.
Photo: Inna Arya Pavlichuk
UNDERSCORE
Underscore is a mindful jam practice in Contact Improvisation developed by Nancy Stark Smith, one of the founders and global educators of CI. The Underscore structure allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expression, embodying a range of forms and changing states.
The Underscore practice is described and structured, yet unpredictable. It moves through a wide range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity, as well as other periods of higher energy and group dance.
Before the practice, Klara will lead a 45-minute introduction, during which she will present the structure and make us familiar with Nancy’s language, vocabulary, and ideograms describing the possibilities and states of Contact Improvisation.
Tomasz Domański
PL
Tomasz is a dancer, performer, and teacher who specializes in Contact Improvisation and partnering classes, as well as facilitating jams. Over the past seven years, he has been a co-creator of the Szur-Sure performance collective and the Oddaj Ciężar partnering group.
In the realm of Contact Improvisation (CI), Tomasz delves into the boundless possibilities of movement and explores various influencing factors: the dynamics of the partner relationship, intention, body awareness, and attention. He encourages everyone to cultivate a profound trust in their own bodies. Recently, his focus has shifted predominantly towards exploring the softness and calmness of the body in inverted positions.
CI LAB: CALMNESS AND SOFTNESS IN INVERTED POSITIONS
During the lab, we will explore how to maintain calmness and softness of the body while entering inverted positions with a partner. We will learn effective techniques for working with the body to support upside-down lifts. We will search for natural connections, using dynamics and weight transfer, which will naturally take us into inverted positions. Throughout the class, we will practice several transitions and lifts. The workshop is designed for movers with basic experience in handstands.
FILIP WENCKI
PL
Filip Wencki is an educator and devoted practitioner specializing in improvisation and Contact Improvisation techniques. As a kinetic artist and visionary of movement, for many years he has explored the realms of somatic communication, both in terms of performance and personal growth.
With over fifteen years of deep immersion in movement improvisation, dance, and physical theatre techniques, Filip’s creative journey spans directing, performing, and sharing his knowledge across the globe. He has had the privilege of working and teaching in various countries, including Ukraine, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, and more.
CI WORKSHOP: EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATION IN DANCE
Filip will share with us a distinctive approach to contact improvisation. He is intrigued by the delicate balance between allowing the body to respond naturally to a wide spectrum of stimuli, encompassing both the physical and emotional, the internal and external, and the necessity of exerting control. This is a state in which the body leverages acquired skills, such as the art of safe falling or fluid movement achieved through relaxation, alongside inherent reflexes and instincts, like evading potential collisions or injury-inducing scenarios. It represents the simultaneous coexistence of bodily autonomy and control, creating a unique state where the mind hovers in suspension while the senses sharpen to their fullest extent. It is a condition marked by total relaxation yet, paradoxically, an absolute readiness for movement. It encompasses working with a full spectrum of muscle tone, mastering the ability to harmonise with others while offering counterproposals. It represents a quest for beauty within motion, an exploration of the truth embedded in the body, and the electrifying force that propels expression and creativity. Well, it is fun too.
Jesus Alonso
ES
Jesús Alonso is a CI Movement researcher and dancer. His work focuses on dance understood as an exploration of bodily sensations and the poetics of movement.
Jesús has participated as a teacher in the Warsaw CI Flow International Dance Festival (Poland) and the Mediterranea Contact Festival (Spain). He also teaches regular contact improvisation classes in Madrid.
He has been training with teachers such as Cristiane Bullousa, Diana Bonilla, Linda Bufali, Katja Mustonen, Mirva Mäkinen and in contemporary dance and movement research with Poliana Lima and Lucas Condró. Jesús has also explored Feldenkrais Method with Simonetta Alessandri and Julen Arévalo.
CI LAB:
In this workshop we propose a specific work of trios, an exciting work on a spatial, relational, interdependence and compositional level.
The trio opens a universe of relationships and complexities beyond the relationship as a couple, allowing you to explore bodily states, collaborations, constructions, rules, and games that accompany that number, compared to the more well-known, and perhaps simpler, duo form.
The trio as an opening to the group, beyond the couple, to space and detached dance.
Christian Dohr
DE/TH
Christina is a certified embodiment facilitator and coach, always curious to merge movement and psychology. Over the last ten years, her passion for contact improvisation evolved, and she began teaching at festivals and giving regular classes three years ago. Her previous experiences as an Aikido black belt, yoga teacher, consultant and coach infuse her work in that space.
She co-leads a coaching certification, teaching somatic techniques for coaching to hundreds of people. She leads workshops internationally using embodied enquiries that entail posture, movement and breath to generate deeper self-awareness and empower people to change their patterns in a playful way. Her focus is mainly centred around relational dynamics and the themes of boundaries and confidence.
Others describe her and her work as sensitive, perceptive, down-to-earth and balanced, with a lot of clarity, compassion and humour.
CI LAB:
A Workshop on Consent in Contact Improvisation
This workshop offers a dedicated exploration of the theme of consent within the context of Contact Improvisation. In the art of Contact Improvisation, where physical closeness is inherent, clarity on boundaries and consent is essential. To co-create a safe and enriching environment for all practitioners to enjoy the practice to its fullest.
Workshop Aims:
- Develop the ability to notice and honour your own boundaries on a somatic level.
- Learn effective non-verbal communication techniques to express boundaries.
- Gain a better understanding of consent within the framework of Contact Improvisation.
- Learn how to respond when faced with a perceived boundary crossing.
The workshop prioritises the somatic dimension of boundaries, laying the groundwork for clear and respectful communication. Through experiential practices, we will delve into the subtle cues of our own bodies, learn to discern our limits and preferences and explore choosing pathways to resolve situations that feel challenging.
Participants will engage in exercises focused on entering and leaving movement with sensitivity, fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Guided pointers will offer insights into navigating one’s own experiences with confidence, while leaving space for open dialogue and exploration of this vital topic.
This workshop invites us to engage in an important exploration of consent in Contact Improvisation. Together, let’s cultivate a culture of safety, respect, and empowerment within the dance community.
Note: This workshop is open to practitioners of all levels and backgrounds. No prior experience with Contact Improvisation is necessary. Participants are encouraged to approach the workshop with an open mind and a willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue.
Xindi & Candy
Xindi Chen (CN)
Dancer, choreographer, movement director in theatre, a core member of Beijing Contact Improvisation Team, Axis Syllabus learner. She got her MA degree from Beijing Dance Academy with a background in modern ballet and contemporary dance training. CI is gradually influencing how she looks at life, which for her is an initiative art and spiritual embodiment philosophy. Processing and sharing CI regularly nourishes her art. She co-directs the “Dinosaur and Whale” Creation and Dance Lab since 2019, which is about engaging in researching movements, theatre work creation, performance arts, and education.
Her exploration as a CI practitioner began in 2016, when she started learning from Adel Andalibi, Irene Sposetti, David Leung, who were her initial teachers. When in 2018 and 2019 she started thinking about bringing CI’s nature into contemporary dance, theatre and performing arts, Sasha & Dolores and Daniel Aschwanden helped her open her eyes to sense more possibilities about taking improvisation into composition. She participated in Michal & Giannalberto (Sasha Waltz & Guest) project as a creative dancer, which was based on the idea of introducing contact improvisation into choreography. In 2023, she started intensively learning from Anjelika Doniy, Yasukichi Suzuki, Sasha & Dolores and many others.
As a dance theatre director, she works with dance enthusiasts with different physical backgrounds and ages. Her main directing and creation of dance theatre works include “Whale Fall”, “In Parallel-We will meet again”, and “Upside-down”.
Shuyi Liao (CN)
CI and Feldenkrais Method teacher, theatre director, Beijing Contact Improvisation; BJCI / Touch Contact Improvisation Art Festival co-founder.
Her exploration as a CI practitioner began in 2009, and she learned CI from different generations, including participating in Nancy Stark Smith January Intensives in 2017 and 2018. In recent years, she has been developing materials with her Lab group partners, performing and teaching regularly in the community and for the public. In 2023, she started intensively learning from Anjelika Doniy，Yasukichi Suzuki，Sasha & Dolores and many others. New inspiration came, followed by the impulse to share with more people.
As a theatre director, she works with people from different communities, focusing on how somatic experience could interact with social issues. Her main works include “Still Here”, “MissUnderstanding”, and “Moving with out a background”.
The Moment of IN: Kinaesthetic, Composition & Performance Workshop
Dive into the essence of “In” in this enlightening workshop, where we will explore the pivotal moment of connection and expression in dance through the lens of kinaesthetic awareness, composition, and performance. What can be understood as a moment of “In”? How can “In” be shared, and in what ways? We aim to dissect this concept through three distinct layers, offering a comprehensive exploration of dance as both a personal and shared experience.
Some of the topics we will delve into include:
– Balancing Kinaesthetic Aspects with Compositional Awareness: learn to navigate the delicate interplay between movement and structure.
– Showing Off vs. Sharing With: distinguish between mere exhibition and meaningful engagement with audiences.
– The Communicative Power of Gaze: discover how gaze can be received as a resource for communication during the dance and how the elusive and discernible nature of gazing can be supported by a solid foundation.
– Beyond Self-Expression: how can we invite and discover our own resources and potentialities, shifting from endless self-expression to unlocking the vast potential within?
JANIS POVILAITIS
LT
Director. Performer. Contemporary artist
Studied acting at Theatrical University from 2004-2008 in Yaroslavl.
Additionally pursued two years of high education in acting and directing in St. Petersburg (2008-2010) under the guidance of teacher and director Lev Erenburg.
Studied Theatre Directing at Kama Ginkas’s course in 2017-2018 (Raikin High School of Performing Arts, Moscow).
Since 2010, began a career as an independent dancer and performer.
Currently pursuing a Master’s program in “Visual Plastics” at the European Humanities University in Vilnius (2022-24).
JAM INTRO
Christos Litsios
GR/DE
Christos is a behavioural scientist, conflict mediator and contact improviser. Contact
Improvisation combines his intellectual interests in negotiation, leadership and embodiment
with his passion for movement. Originally coming from highly competitive sports like Martial
Arts and Basketball, he enjoys dance for its cooperative nature and potential for almost
indefinite freedom and creativity in movement and expression. Driven by a vivid curiosity
and deep love for learning, he is used to being a beginner again and again. He, therefore
carries the “Beginner’s Mind” close to his heart and appreciates meeting people where they
are.
Heals Over Head In Fall With Me (CI Skills)
Let’s fall together! Oh yes, but not this way! Falling forwards head over can be a scary thing, but sometimes there is no other way to go. In this workshop, we develop ways to direct momentum on the frontal plane into and out of the ground. Starting from an unexpected key position, we discover rolling techniques from Judo/Aikido and carefully develop this valuable CI skill within our individual limits. Besides teaching the technique, the workshop tries to show how complex and risky movements can be broken down and studied, while staying in consent with yourself, and respecting your own boundaries. As we become more familiar with the new movements, we discover patterns that propose ways to apply them in duet with a partner.
Video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDf4Xy6spiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzjYWNqCY4&t=42s
Kieran Mitchell
AU
Kieran Mitchell is a dancer from Sydney, Australia. He has training in ballet and modern dance. He is involved in physical theatre, installation art, site-specific performance and contemporary dance theatre.
For over 12 years he has been a dedicated practitioner of Contact Improvisation (CI). He has taught CI in Australia, Germany, Denmark, Turkey, Thailand and Scotland. He has been invited to teach at major international contact festivals.
He teaches CI, organises jams and seeks out artistic collaboration where the body can tell its story.
INTRO JAM
Katarzyna Brzezińska
PL/DE
Katarzyna Brzezinska / PL, born in Poland; based currently in Berlin; working, teaching and collaborating internationally.
choreographer – performer, interdisciplinary artist, improvisation and movement teacher,
Ilan Lev method practitioner & coach
Katarzyna has dedicated around 20 years to her exploration of the body, dance and creativity, and she generously shares her passion and knowledge through teaching movement, contact improvisation, somatic performance research, instant composition & embodied choreography. In 2019 she has become a certified Ilan Lev Method Practitioner and ILM Movement Teacher and since then she offers ILM movement courses and treatments for movement amateurs, practitioners and professionals.
Her own work, teaching and artistic research includes: poetry, imagination and playfulness in relationship to tangible and scientific facts of reality; layers of human identity; “perfect imperfection”, physicality of attention, as well as states of presence.
More about:
https://www.brzezinska.space/
instagram:
@brzezinska_nearspaces
@ilanlevmethod_berlin
ATTENTION GRAVITY
Dynamics with Attention, Restful Flow, Contact Improvisation, Image
During the “Attention Gravity” workshop, we will focus on exploring solo, and in contact, layers and connections between our attention, imagery, play of internal physical structures, forces & tensions, as well as always “moving-living-flowing-changing” bodily and spatial relationships.
Through the fundamentals of the unique language of ILM, which focuses on effortlessness and efficiency in alive physicality, we will dive into basics of release & rest in movement, while stimulating the body in playful functional explorations. We will use it to travel towards rich & dynamic dialogues with gravity, through falling, leaning, spiraling & flying.
As we will simultaneously weave our explorations into dancing, we will uncover pathways in which the play with attention, gravity and own physicality, facilitates diverse processes of movement dialogues in solo, as well as contact improvisation.
Marta Iucci
IT
Marta is a passionate dancer, researcher, and teacher of Contact Improvisation and the Feldenkrais Method since 2011. She considers herself an eternal student and views learning as our infinite potential as human beings – to feel and sense deeply to stay fully alive and enter into a state of presence.
Her main inspiration and teacher in CI is Nita Little. She has also had the privilege of studying with Nancy Stark Smith in Italy and organising workshops with Ray Chung and Martin Keogh at Spazio Nu in Pontedera (IT), a space with which she has collaborated for nine years now. From 2016 to 2019, she collaborated with Asaf Bachrach, Matthieu Gaudeau, and Ema Bigé on the “F.A.R.” project in Paris (Feldenkrais, Alexander, and Rolfing in Contact Improvisation).
She currently lives in Tuscany, Italy, where she opened her Feldenkrais studio. She facilitates regular Contact Improvisation classes in Pisa and Livorno, in addition to teaching workshops elsewhere.
INTRO JAM
The weight of sensations
Maybe an inner landscape could be opened through the lens of our attention… Do we need to do something, or is everything already happening and existing, and we can simply notice it – in our bodymind as well as in the space, in this big body that we are creating together, sharing the space? Is it about doing or about being?
Julia Partyka
PL
As a cellist, vocalist, improviser, and movement enthusiast, Julia has a unique approach to sound. She likes to break it down into its component parts, moving freely between them and viewing it from every angle. For her, there is no such thing as weird or inaccessible music or movement – everything is open to exploration.
Julia’s passions lie in music and dance, and she loves to immerse herself in their flow, allowing her impulses to guide her rather than her thoughts. When she creates music for dancers, she finds it especially rewarding, as they provide a visible reflection of the music she plays. Seeing the way the dancers move to her sound is just as important as hearing it, and together, they create a dynamic interplay that is truly magical.
Daniel Zorzano
PL/MX
Daniel was born in Mexico and graduated in viola da gamba and violone (double bass) at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, studying under Wieland Kuijken, Margaret Urquhart, and Philippe Pierlot. He also trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon with Marianne Muller. As a producer and DJ, he has performed sets and live acts in cities like Warsaw, Berlin, and Mexico City. He is also a musician and organizer of artistic projects and co-founder of the Artist Collective KICK PERFECT.
Olga Skrzypek
PL
With training as a sculptor, her background is in visual arts. She has been studying somatic practices for the past seven years, and these have been an avenue of departure for her movement practice, voice and sound work. In playing for jams, she wants to create a soundscape to support what is happening in the room and follow the composition, the rhythm and the energy that the moving people produce — shifting between the role of the observer being the musician and the physical participant in the jam. She is also interested in working with text and moments of silence.
Marcin Bożek i Danny Kamins
PL/USA
Duet porusza się w stylistyce muzyki swobodnie improwizowanej. Przyjęta przez artystów forma koncertu solo – solo – duo odkrywa przed słuchaczami najsubtelniejsze niuanse wypracowane przez artystów pracy z brzmieniem instrumentów. Obcowanie z dźwiękiem od subtelności poprzez bezpośrednią energię i mocny przekaz myśli muzycznej blisko ze słuchaczem to wizytówka duetu. Odczucie przepływu, rozmowy oraz nieoczywistości barw malujące się podczas grania duetowego niemal namacalnie dają publiczności odczucie flow.
Danny Kamins – improwizujący saksofonista mieszkający w Houston w Teksasie. Jego przedsięwzięcia muzyczne obejmują grę w różnych zespołach muzycznych, takich jak FireLife Trio, Relative Dissonance, The Plot, CARL, El Mantis, Prion i Etched in the Eye, a także kierowanie programem jazzowym na Rice University.
Marcin Bożek – muzyk, improwizator, nauczyciel. Absolwent Wydziału Jazzu i Muzyki Rozrywkowej Akademii Muzycznej w Katowicach, posiada dyplom magistra sztuki w zakresie gry na gitarze basowej 2003 r. Laureat wielu nagród w międzynarodowych konkursach i festiwalach. Etatowy basista Teatru Muzycznego w Gdyni od 2005 do 2015 roku. Współtworzy polską scenę muzyki improv, improwizuje z muzykami, aktorami, malarzami artystami, tancerzami oraz solo.
Ilya Semashkevich
PL/BY
A musician, composer, and sound designer of Belarusian-Polish origin, born in Brest in 1997. He began writing music in 2012 as a self-taught guitarist, later joining rock bands. In 2015, he transitioned to using professional software like Ableton Live. In 2016, he moved to Poland to study sound engineering at the National Academy of Applied Sciences, Nysa, and later at the University of Applied Sciences, Mittweida in Germany.
By 2018, he was performing original electronic music and collaborating on social projects in Germany and the Czech Republic. Returning to Poland in 2019, he wrote a thesis titled “Imaginative Mixing” and built a new home due to the situation in Belarus. In 2021, he co-founded a studio, creating music, installations, and engaging in video production. In 2022, he moved to Warsaw, working as an educator and releasing music that blends multiple genres.
