Tanzfabrik
Berlin
School
School
School
School
Kreuzberg 4
Möckernstr. 68
10965 Berlin
School
School

Small Dances / Big Impacts

Workshop with Nica Portavia
In the frame of WinterTanz 2024/25

This intensive is a space to study and explore contact improvisation as a practice of awareness, agency, and solidarity. Where can we feel the smallest perturbation? How can the smallest movement create a big impact on our dance? How does the smallest change affect the whole system? How does a big impact influence our sensations? These are some of the questions we will bring into the space to begin our research. We will approach the body as a community, a web of relationships impacting both inner and outer spaces. We will explore a somatic-anthropological approach that will allow us to access the smallest details, researching how a small impact can revolutionize the way we perceive and move on this planet. We will investigate how our personal stories influence our movements. Our research will treat contact improvisation as a practice of sensation, revolution, choice, and small/big impacts. Diving into our tissues, skeletal system, and breath, imagining together as we roll, fall, fly, and jump—being ready for any changes and dancing in the present moment. We will dance in cooperation with gravity, space, and the support we receive from living on this planet. By researching relationships, we will practice staying human, softening our hearts, and creating space to meet.

Accessibility Note 
The workshop will be conducted in spoken English. Follow-up questions for clarification and group discussions about the exercises can be translated into Italian and Spanish. This inclusive event welcomes individuals of all bodies and identities to partake in a transformative journey. In the context of Contact Improvisation, participants will regularly engage in touch and body contact. Some exercises will feature recorded music, and written language will be used to develop improvisational scores. The workshop will include a variety of exercises, ranging from calm activities to help participants connect with their bodies, to more daring material. If needed, a free workshop place for an accompanying assistant will be facilitated for participants with disabilities. Information about our location & studio access in Kreuzberg can be found here. We offer solispots (solidarity places) for people living in a financially precarious situation, including people from regions in crisis, BIPOC, trans*, queer, disabled people. For questions or more information, please contact Zoé Duflot at workshop@tanzfabrik-berlin.de

Nica Portavia

Nica Portavia is an Italian dancer, teacher and researcher of Contact Improvisation, who fell in love with Contact Improvisation very early on. She mainly trained with teachers including Steve Paxton, Daniel Lepkoff, Charlie Morrissey, Angelika Doney, Asaf Bacharach, KJ Holmes, Anya Cloud. She is an organizer of national and international dance events, including the Italycontactfest (International CI Festival which takes place in Italy and has now reached its tenth edition:  www.italycontactfest.com); Being Touch Festival (www.beingtouch.org), and as part of a group the Ecite 2022 Portugal, she is also a communicator for the CI Global Calendar project. More info at https://nica-portavia-dancer.jimdosite.com/project
Level: Open, beginners welcome
In English
Fee: 230€/200€*
*Early bird bis 12.12.2024

Possibility to pay a solidarity price
as a means of co-support for individuals who lack the financial means to attend the workshops (including people from regions in crisis, BIPOC, trans*, queer, disabled people)