What makes walking different from dancing?  Is it the direction in space? The body's axis in relation to the ground? The speed? The repetition? The efficiency? The musicality?  Is there, in fact, any fundamental difference at all? In this performance project we will shift constantly between walking/running and "dancing" in order to examine where these two activities meet, what they can gain from one another, and how they can exist simultaneously in the moving body. We will consciously work on bringing our daily bodies into the dance training. Movement sequencing that we innately understand from walking, can also inform and clarify movement patterns in other spatial relationships to the ground. By reminding ourselves to relate and draw our dancing from the daily movement and mental state of walking, we may find that our dancing develops an ease, strength, endurance, and clarity, and that our use of focus becomes natural and instinctive. We will also examine the way we are accustomed to look at other bodies in a pedestrian setting in order to understand how to guide the viewer's focus and interest in the transformation of the dancer's body. Through this working process we will structure a tightly scored performance work based on the techniques, improvisations, phrase work, and images from the training. Each dancer will be challenged to bring their dancing to a performance level while at the same time staying grounded in their personal interest and movement research.  

Application for the project: mueller@tanzfabrik-berlin.de | Fee: 170 € / red: 150 € / professional dancers: 130 €

Open Contemporary training: Mo & Wed 18:15 - 19:45  led by Marcela Giesche 5.1.- 11.2.2015  
The class is a combination of dynamic release techniques, qikung, spirals, and grounded animal-like floor work. The basic physicality of walking and running are studied and used to inform the dancer's movement quality, efficiency, and use of momentum in all spatial orientations. Continuous movement flow, and improvisational tasks with strong attention to the feedback of the senses, are used to bring the dancer into a instinctive state of availability while thoroughly warming up the physical body. Marcela gives strong attention to the use of the floor as a tool to form and inform the body in movement. This requires a constant negotiation of the body’s present momentum with a clear redirecting of intention into space. Through the specific buildup of the training, each dancer is able to find their own anatomical alignment, timing, and weight in the material. At the end of the class, these elements are brought together in a sweeping movement phrase where each dancer is asked to challenge the delicate balance between fall and control.

Fee: 10x card: 95 € / red: 90 € / prof: 70 €