Gravity Happens: Principles of Movement
gravity just happens

This workshop is designed for movement beginners who would like to feel more at home in their bodies before starting a dance workshop. It is also a tool for promoting well-being in everyday movement and for preventing injury in dance and sports, as it analyses movement patterns and enables movers to develop efficient pathways.
We will focus on sensory development, flexibility and strength. There will be time to ask and discuss questions, and the class will be adapted according to what is important for the group.
Movement principles are based on the mechanics of the human body moving in a field of gravity. Our nervous system deals with a vertically aligned structure of bones, muscles, joints, organs, liquids, tissue, and more. When moving, all these body systems are involved in a dynamic conversation.
Some essential aspects of this conversation we will break down into exercises and explorations:
- how to develop efficient centre strength and stability?
- how to let go of unnecessary tension by using deep muscles while releasing surface muscles?
- how to articulate spinal movement?
- how to move the body as a unit and how to isolate movement?
- how to integrate the ground into moving by folding/unfolding the body?

Our newly acquired knowledge will be incorporated in small choreographies and improvisations.
In this practice your body will become more connected developing physical intelligence. Be prepared to work as much with your mind as with your body.




SCORE!

In this workshop scores will be used as rules for the reorganissation of our surroundings.

Each rule is to be understood as a link of actions as well as a limitation of actions and is a foundation for the improvisation structure. Therefore a set of scores, rules, develop certain characteristics and offer various possibilities for creation in a playful way.

Premises for a successful shaping of scores is a differentiated awareness of the body, the group, time and space. In order to enable this awreness we will work on our senses in a specific warm-up. Adequate for people with or without movement experience as the workshop is built on a sef-aware examination of its content.

Scores can be a subtext for improvisation in performances, but even so in other situations like classes for children and adolescents.




Kerstin Kussmaul
Kerstin Kussmaul is a choreographer, bodyworker and musician. She received her M.A. in music and dance education and studied Somatic Movement & Participatory Arts as well as Acupressure in San Francisco. She has been practicing Contact Improvisation since 1995 teaching in the U.S. and Vienna. Her teaching philosophy is driven by the desire to develop smart, versatile and mindful bodies. From 2002 to 2005 she was artistic co-coordinator for ImPulsTanz workshops & research.