People and Content

BIO
Keith Hennessy, is a dancer, frolicker, and witch, working in the fields of experimental performance, gay sexual healing, and anti-capitalist housing. Raised in Canada, he has lived in Yelamu/San Francisco USA since 1982, and tours internationally. He started dancing CI in Montréal in 1979 and has been practicing-teaching-studying-critiquing improvised dance and CI cultures ever since. With a focus on the poetics and politics of relationship, Keith’s work prioritizes collaboration and community process. Collaborators include Ishmael Houston-Jones, Sarah Crowell, Snowflake Calvert, Meg Stuart, Peaches, Peiling Kao, Jassem Hindi. Keith has an MFA and PhD from University of California. www.circozero.org




CLASS DESCRIPTION
"Dancing as Political Healing"
Prioritizing improvisation and collaboration we will play with the possibilities of healing, politics, and dancing together. This laboratory will welcome your curiosity and concerns. What’s up? What inspires you or prevents you from dancing more freely? What activates or impedes your healing potential? How is your body responding to new wars and embodied traumas? How can dancing and care be activated as anti-capitalism, as a new ethics of relationship, pleasure, and shared power? We will invite the prophetic ancestors Gustav Landauer and Octavia Butler into the studio to renew our dancing.

BIO
Nayeli Špela Peteriln is a dedicated Contact Improvisation Dancer with a profound commitment to the practice since 2017. Alongside a career as a psychologist and psychotherapist, she stands as a beacon in non-formal education, employing movements to nurture social skills and emotional resilience among young individuals. As the Founder and President of Moave - Psychology in Movement, an international organization seamlessly weaving together art, psychology, and somatic practices, she pioneers initiatives that champion mental health and overall wellbeing. Nayeli curates and leads international training programs tailored to empower professionals with the tools necessary to integrate these practices into their work.




CLASS DESCRIPTION
"Dancing in sensitivity"
I believe that when we dance, we dance with all the stories we carry inside our bodies.
We dance with information and with memories.
But I also believe that while we dance, we can make new memories and leave new imprints inside our bodies.
I love to work with attention and intention. Receptivity and sensations. This helps to create quality of movement and also allows different ways of meeting each other and cocreating the dance. To enter the flow requires to sense the currents that are already there… inside the body, inside the space… in between us.

BIO
Born in Barcelona. Since young I've practiced a great variety of sports and different kinds of disciplines such as martial arts, acrobatics, parkour, dance and gymnastics. At the age of 18 I started my acting studies with the idea of getting to know myself and transmitting better to others. That was the beginning of 6 years of studying and working in BCN and NY. It was also when I discovered CI, which was taught as a tool for physical listening within physical theater. Some events made me question and redirect my path towards traveling and focusing more on movement, contact and facilitation. I´ve been traveling, dancing, and facilitating workshops on CI and conscious movement since then.




CLASS DESCRIPTION
Lecture 1
On partner caring
We start by landing through relaxing our bodies and surrendering our weight to the ground. We will start moving slowly focusing on the weight of different parts of our body, specially the head.
Coming to partners, we will offer some bodywork on head and neck and will start sustaining it as the partner moves through the space, enjoying being sustained. We will change roles, and merge them into dance.
We make a circle of sustenance as one person moves within blindfolded changing direction with the touch from people in the circle.
Keeping the circle, we will have one person in the middle falling to sides and being sustained, and maybe even offering them the possibility of being elevated.
After some variants working on trust, presence and listening, we will go through a technique exercise focusing on the slowness and care of the partner.
We will finish with a trio exercise (algui and currents), having a trip where two people will be sustaining and moving the third one (who will be blindfolded) through the space.

Lecture 2
CI & Conscious Movement
Conscious movement is a personal approach I give to CI by mixing different disciplines to play with and creating specific pathways to walk. The objective of this approach is to create a better consciousness of our body and how we move, so that we can choose and not move out of default (conditioning). It is also aimed to give tools, working on agility, balance, orientation/disorientation and technique, which will empower and open new possibilities in our dances.

BIO
Rebecca Plattner-Wörgartner was born in Kitzbühel (Austria) started dancing at the age of 10 with Ballet and gradually got in touch with different dance styles and techniques such as Afro, HipHop, Jazz (Funky, Lyrical, Latin) Modern ( Horton, Limon, Graham) Musical and Contemporary Dance (floor release, counter technique) Improvisation (Instant Composition,Sasha Waltz, Kidd Pivot,Gaga).1993 she graduated in a pedagogical dance education in Munich at the Iwanson Dance Center and since that time she is teaching, dancing and choreographing at the „Tiroler Ballettschule“ and „Bad Reichenhaller Ballettschule“.
The first time when she experienced CI which is nearly twenty years ago was with Willi Dorner (Bodies in Urban Spaces) and since this workshop she has not been able to let go of this kind of contemporary dance form and it continuously caught her attention and interest.



Description of solo Impro Contemporary Class

My Contemporary Class is based on different modern techniques , for example floor release, limon, weiss-Mann technique.
And I am also inspired by Afro dance and different kinds of Latin styles.
In solo impro we will work with a lot of volume in our movement, while going through different levels.
"The most important thing in my classes …to go with the flow.
So let's come together to seek an atmospheric flow!"

Film project by Ukrainian artists from Ukraine during the festival

Three filmmakers and dancers from Ukraine (Serhii Semichev, Tamara Maksymenko and Yuliia Hryshina) will lead a series of workshops with a creative focus - filmography of movements - during the festival. As a result of this project, two/three short dance films with the participants of the festival.
The theme of the dance research on which the participants will improvise is: ASYLUM. What does it mean if you have never experienced real danger, and vice versa: how would the body react to such a harsh experience as war?
The result of these three short films will be presented at dance film festivals in 2025.

BIO

My work intertwines different movement techniques explorations and academic research framed in ethnomusicology. I am a current PhD candidate at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz focusing on music-dance relations. I have trained in ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, contact improvisation, afro-latin social dances, and West African dance. I attended the American Dance Festival in 2015, where I learned much about improvisation and composition. In 2016, I traveled to Norway to study the MA program Choreomundus - International Masters in Dance Knowledge Practice and Heritage. Since then, my perspective on dance changed drastically: I was challenged to have a critical perspective on all expressions of dance and performance. It allowed me to understand the power relations, identity debates, and philosophical concerns about dance. Hence, my academic career has always been intertwined with the way I approach the practice. From 2018 to 2023, I was mostly involved in local projects in Guatemala as a curator of contemporary dance and as an anthropologist doing fieldwork in communities about traditional games. This twofold experience of wide different contexts has multiplied my understanding of what dance can be and how it can be done. Since then, I find in contemporary dance the possibility for inquiry and exploration of movement boundaries.



Lecture 1
De-constructing inclusion: Contact improvisation in diverse contexts
Contact improvisation has spread around the world and is practiced as part of the syllabus of many professional dance programs internationally. In a globalized context where the aesthetics of contemporary dance are in dialogue with local understandings of dance and movement, the notion of touch can be controversial. In this interactive talk, we will open a dialogue as a safe space with participants about the multiple meanings that are related to touch. By acknowledging the singular experiences of our own identities that navigate tough political contexts as well as colonial inheritances, we will share the strategies that help us to express our boundaries and desires for connection in the contact practice.

Lecture 2
Eppur si muove: A historical overview of contact improvisation
Contact improvisation emerged at a particular time and place. At that moment, dance historians described how a particular group of dancers at the Judson Church challenged the current conventions of stage dance at the time and proposed new aesthetics of movement. Movement that highlighted stillness and quietness. What are we challenging now? what are we moving now? In this participatory lecture, we will explore how bodily aesthetics and the sense of touch are related to cultural values. Following the work of Cynthia Novack, we will revisit the historical motivations for contact improvisation to emerge within movement ideas that enabled an anti-hierarchical conception of dancing. We will reflect on how we can creatively address the history of CI by manifesting our shared interpretation of the key ideas that continue to move us toward a collectively challenging and nourishing practice.

BIO

Tamara Maksymenko is a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher of contact improvisation and contemporary dance for 17 years already. She has been teaching many workshops all over the world (Poland, Spain, Israel, Austria, Italy, Greece, Finland, Egypt, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, Bulgary, Sweden, Portugal, France, and Turkey). She is the founder of Motion Mode Dance Theatre (MMDT) and the creator of many dance projects.
28 years of dance experience (since the early age of 4). She got medical education in body therapy and sociology at Dnipropetrovsk National University and trained at the Physical Theatre in Intragna (Switzerland) with Thomas Mattler.
Now Tamara is a member of the Ukrainian Contemporary Dance Platform Association and she is a member of OFFTANZ Tirol Association (Austria). The founder of "Solo & CI Tirol Festival" and "West meets East".

BIO

"How can we
…exist in community & be ourselves at the same time?
…move freely respecting each other's boundaries?
…embody emotions & dance to flow?"



Nepomuk likes to generate questions. Since his childhood, he has felt the urge to express his spirit.
He has been deeply inspired by teachers like Xandy Liberato, Félix Arjona & Tamara, too.
It is now that he allows himself to follow his inner calling. In contact improvisation he has found a place where his creativity has free rain.

He studied psychology & educational studies. Nepo is a sharing circle holder & care worker for children. He has the quality to create an atmosphere in which a person can be oneself.

As a musician (guitar / handpan) & co-organizer of the festival he wants to manifest his visions & inspire other human beings.

BIO

I am playing the piano since I was a little kid, but found my true passion when starting to improvise and write my own songs and arrangements. I do street music, play on small stages and am part of a band. I also love the Soundscapes of Keyboards and use them in Live-Looping. When making music I always express feelings and pictures of the inner world - those that cannot be described by words. I aim to create an atmosphere where others can access and express their inner world as well.

BIO

Cristina Mercedes Schwarzkopf is a composer, intuitive singer, and guide for those who want to live their individual authentic expression. Her unique music emerges from a deep connection with herself and life. This is palpable when listening to her sounds. Cristina's voice touches on a level many of us have long forgotten, reminding us of buried knowledge and emotions within us & our individual way. It's as if the fog is lifting when the first sung note is heard.

"When I sing, I am. No more. No less. I feel one with life, with the people listening to me. One with myself."

This form of creation opens up new worlds, both in music and in everyone willing to listen—with all senses and a wide-open heart.