Contemporary Technique
playful and sensitive interplay with the body

What do I perceive? What surprises me?
The training offers a playful and sensitive interplay with the body. In the frame of a creative dialogue with the self, everyone will have the possibility to finetune his/her training and discover his/her individual way of dancing.

On the one hand we will explore the "availability“ of silence, movement, sound and touch, in order to find ourselves in the many facets of dance. Thus the term "empty" as a "not previously fixed idea" is the centre of our examination and a base for being responsive towards space.
On the other hand we will learn how to "finetune" ourselves and experience coordinative flexibility and ease. We will have the opportunity to sharpen and finetune our awareness of focus and its quality.
How much of my focus do I use and where do I turn it?

The practical exercises we will work with are from Yoga, Chi Quong, Cranio Sacral Therapy and Alexander technique. The goals are the strengthening of the spine (our axis) in relation to space and presence, the awareness of focus, free coordination of the body, find oneself with the appetite for movement and strengthening the body in a physical way.


Dance is something that we do
point of view as a view

“This is what we do” is a point of view (statement, opinion, declaration) of how we can delve into dance. We will open up the space for observing dance, as well as see ourselves in dance.
By recognising the own action in dance per se and by establishing points of reference, we can acquire clarity in order to facilitate the development of an individual movement vocabulary. A gesture can have various points of reference and we enter the arena of different statements and meanings of the gesture. The role of the observer and the action of observing itself are supposed to have the same value as the one performing an action and the action itself. It is about the action in dance (the movement), the observation of dance and the shift from observation back into action.

The body, the listening, the close look, the perceiving, the receiving, the deliverance and the arrangement are tools available to us, as well as the space, the joy, the curiosity, the unknown and the discovery of possibilities. We will discover all of these tools through opening up to and the recognising of the action.

My background in improvisation and composition is based on the long lasting collaboration with William Forsythe and Michael Klien. My curiosity of looking sharply has been finetuned by my deep studies of Cranio Sacral therapy.


Nicole Peisl
Nicole Peisl, born in Austria, has been working as a freelance-dancer, performer, choreographer and teacher since the mid-nineties.
She is a member of the Forsythe Company. She also was a member of the Ballett Frankfurt (from 2000 to 2004) and has worked as a freelance dancer with various choreographers under which Anouk van Dijk, Joseph Tmim, the Episode Collective and with Daghdha Dance Company in Limerick.

She collaborated with colleagues from the Forsythe Company in the creation of "Hue", which premiered at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt in 2007. Her work "Vielfalt", which was commissioned by The Forsythe Company for Motion Bank, premiered at Lab Frankfurt in October 2010. She is now at work on a new choreography, "Ueberblick", commissioned by The Forsythe Company, which will premiere in June 2011 at Festspielhaus Hellerau.

Peisl is committed to her teaching practice. She has taught at Rotterdam Dance Academy, the HfMDK in Frankfurt, the University of Limerick, the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversitaet Linz, the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, as well as at the ImPulsTanz Festival.
She has completed a training in Visionary Craniosacral Work a noninvasive hands on bodywork and now studies Somatic Experiencing developed Dr. Peter A. Levine.
Since 2009 she has an ongoing creative, research and teaching collaboration with the author and philosopher Alva Noë.