Workshops

Day 1 – June 3

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Practical Workshop: From Static to Dynamic
10.00 – 12:00

What potential for movement can a stationary body position have? What is hidden in the seemingly static architecture of stopped motion? When and how does the body movement start?

Through a somatic research and improvisation tasks, we will play with different initiations of body movement. Our creative exploration will take place on the border of static and moving body. That is, at the moment when we do not see the movement yet, but it has already been decided. We will discover how slight changes in the initiation of the movement sequence will affect its quality. The movement workshop will have the character of movement research. Each creative assignment will have as many solutions as we will encounter in the studio. It will be interesting what they will have in common.

Juraj Korec (Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava)

Performer and choreographer Juraj Korec is currently a teacher at the Department of Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and presents his artistic collaborations at home and abroad under the brand Yuri Korec & Co.

He has collaborated with many renowned dance artists while his dance career abroad, including CieLaroque / Helene Weinzierl, Cocoondance / Rafaele Giovanolla, Movoir / Stephanie Thiersch, Pablo Ventura, Jean Abreu or Stephanie Schober. He is the co-author of internationally awarded dance films The Day (2004), Darkroom (2008) and VoiceS (2010). Among his recent works we should mention the duet d-BODY-m (2017), which has had successful Slovak and foreign tours. He used his doctoral research in the field of physicality and performance in his solo Not a solo (2018). His work Habibi 2196-18 (2018) is a new version of Habibi Problem (2008, Cielaroque / Helene Weinzierl), a critical piece opening a discussion about LGBTQ+ and human rights. The latest, a currently presented performance for 7 dancers and one DJ is Sapiens Territory (2021).

Juraj is also Certified Advanced Rolfer®, the first therapist of a somatic method Rolfing® in Slovakia and a board member of PlaST, Platform for Slovak contemporary dance. 

Practical Workshop: Classical Ballet
10.00 – 12:00

Anastasia Dancevska (University of Goce Delchev, North Macedonia)

Anastasia Dancevska is a contemporary artist and dancer. She completes higher education in Skopje Dance Academy at ESRA University. She actively participates as a dancer in the overall repertoire of Skopje Dance Theater since 2014, performing in the country and abroad. Since 2017 she has been working as an assistant demonstrator for Classic ballet & repertoire, at the Department of Contemporary Dance of the Film Academy at the University „Goce Delchev“, where she is currently studying for a master’s degree in dance pedagogy.

Theoretical Lecture: Development of software for creating choreography
10.00 – 12:00

The lecture is based on research into the use of digitalization in the performing arts, namely, the art of dance, as well as the possibility of programming software to create computer-generated choreography, with a focus on contemporary dance, its justification and use in a broader sense.

Risima Risimkin (University of Goce Delchev, North Macedonia)

Risima Risimkin is one of the leading Macedonian choreographers and artistic director of Dance Fest Skopje, Skopje Dance Theater and full-time professor PhD, at the State University „Goce Delchev“ in Shtip, North Macedonia, where she founded and become Dean of The Contemporary Dance Department.

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Practical Workshop: Contact Improvisation
14.30 – 16:30

After all this time of social distancing, how will we dare to touch other bodies, to move and to breath together? How can we fall and find balance with another, support each other’s weight, create playful dialog thought movement? I invite you to immerse into contact improvisation – a delightful way of getting to know each other through contact, falling and flowing together in space.

Giedre Jankauskienė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)

Giedre Jankauskienė is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. Since 2014 she is teaching contemporary dance and movement improvisation in Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy and is actively involved in forming program and curriculum of dance studies. Her dance practice was always driven by curiosity into endless possibilities and approaches towards movement.

Practical Workshop: Duncan Method
14.30 – 16:30

The workshop offers its participants elements of the Duncan method. It will consist of two parts: the first part of the workshop will be very physical, with focus on the development of physical strength and stamina, coordination, and orientation in space. The second part of the workshop will take the form of improvisation with given assignments. We will focus on the development of control and continuity of movement, dominant, subdominant and partner relationship.

Zuzana Sýkorová (Duncan Centre Conservatory, Prague)

She graduated from Duncan Centre Conservatory, a dance school that specializes in contemporary dance, where she currently works as the vice head and teacher. She is an active dancer and choreographer and gives workshops for dancers, actors, and teachers of dance. For many years she has been working with Min Tanaka.

Theoretical Workshop: Presentation Skills
14.30 – 16:30

How to present an artistic idea briefly and effectively to team colleagues, partners, clients, or sponsors in English. We will use the method of elevator pitch technique, learn how to give, and accept feedback and share tricks on overcoming the nervosity of public speaking.

Mgr. MgA. Lucie Hayashi, Ph.D. (Academy of Performing Arts, Prague)

Mgr. MgA. Lucie Hayashi, Ph.D. is an artistic manager, dance researcher and journalist. She works as the Head of the Dance Department of Academy of Performing Arts, where shefinished master and doctoral studies in Dance Science/Dance Theory and got her master degree also from Japanese Studies at the Charles University in Prague.

Besides dance journalism and production, she works on anthropological research of Japanese dance. Hayashi is cooperating on Japanese theatre and dance productions and is lecturing Japanese dance and theatre at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and Academy of Performing Arts, where she is also teaching the Dance management and production and Performing Arts Management. She is the founder and editor of Taneční aktuality, an online Dance News Magazine, where she publishes regularly reviews, interviews or articles about dance.

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Day 2 – June 4

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Practical Workshop: Contemporary Dance Technique
10.00 – 12:00

Olga Zitluhina (Latvian Academy of Music, Riga)

Olga is a choreographer, dancer, director of the international contemporary dance festival „Time to dance“, professor of the Latvian Academy of Culture and director of the Bachelor’s program „Contemporary dance art“, pedagogue at Riga Choreography School. Member of the Board of the Party Party, Member of the Latvian Dance Council. Actively teaches and participates in international workshops, dance camps, conferences, and residences, organises creative residencies.

Practical Workshop: Assimilation and Processing Movement
10.00 – 12:00

Esther Balfe encourages you to utilise the body as a language facilitator within a choreographic construct, with the intention of applying a series of methods within the domain of sensation, imagination, creative thought and intuitive patterning. This workshop is 2 hours long.

Esther Balfe (Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, Vienna)

Esther Balfe was born in the UK but has Irish origins. She studied at Rambert School, West London, and has worked extensively in the UK, Germany and Austria. She has worked with all manner of Classical and Contemporary dance artists and performers and has enjoyed a fruitful career. To name but a few, she worked with Liz King, Michael Keegan Dolan, Benoît Lachambre, Willi Dorner, Jacqueline Kornmüller, Alex Gottfarb and was a member of William Forsythe’s touring company, ‚The Forsythe Company‘ for over a decade. Esther has been engaged at the Music & Art University of Vienna since 2012 and still continues to perform to present day.

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Practical Workshop: Entanglement in Motion
14.30 – 16:30

In the workshop “Entanglement in Motion” Verena invites participants to dive into her research questions around the artistic potential of kinesthetic empathy. As part of the warm-up, the sensorial experience of one’s own body in motion is emphasized, aiming for a place of heightened sensitivity and grounding. Gradually the awareness is extended to the other practitioners in space. Eventually leading up to a bilateral exchange in pairs, a negotiation between remaining connected to the self while simultaneously interacting and being inspired by the other is explored. This results in a shared language between two people which makes visible the entanglement of ourselves with the people and on a larger scale with the world around us.

Verena Alexandra Pircher (Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz)

The Salzburg based dancer and movement facilitator Verena Pircher holds a BA in Contemporary Dance Performance from Codarts University of the Arts, Rotterdam (NL). Between 2015 and 2019 she was a member of Norrdans (SWE), where she performed in works by choreographers such as Jose Agudo, Peter Svenzon and Mari Carrasco. In 2018 Verena became a certified Countertechnique teacher. Apart from teaching international workshops in Stockohlm , Berlin and Amsterdam, she has been teaching students at HfMDK Frankfurt (GER) Bruckneruniversität in Linz and Universität Mozarteum (AUT). In June 2020 she assisted choreographer Anouk van Dijk at Münchner Kammerspiele. Back in her hometown Salzburg, together with choreographer Rosana Ribeiro, Verena has recently co-founded the internationally touring dance theatre company Selva.

Practical Workshop: Take a Risk with Cunningham
14.30 – 16:30

Have you tried Cunningham technique? Tilting, twisting diverse leaps, leaping while tilting? Come and try these unique movements from American Avant Garde times. If you are not sure, do what Cunningham used to say: ´Don´t worry, flip a coin, take a chance, take a risk, and see. That´s what we do when dancing in Cunningham dance technique.

We will practice basic Cunningham back movements dancing into leg exercises which we will put together in variations in space. And who knows, we may end up with some juicy composition.

Mgr. art. Michaela Mihaľová (Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava)

Michaela started to dance when she was eight years old. She studied at Primary Art School in Michalovce where they focused on jazz, lyrical jazz and different dance styles. She continued her studies at Middlesex University in London, where she studied modern dance techniques – a technique of Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. During her three years of studying, she got a chance to have an internship at Richard Alston Dance Company, which worked on the Cunningham technique with its modification of British choreographer Richard Alston. She received a month-long scholarship for the summer intensive programme at Martha Graham Dance School in New York. She also participated in dance classes of Merce Cunningham technique in City Center Studios. Afterwards, she did her master’s studies at the University of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where she currently is pursuing her doctoral studies. Her research focuses on Merce Cunningham, his specific and unique dance technique as well as the principles of his creative process.

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