African Expressive Dance Beginner
creating new body energy

Creation is movement: and the sacred dance arises from the need to identify with the eternal round of the creative forces in the cosmos. In this class the traditional form of the circle is used to bring the students on contact with the energies of the group. It is a meeting point in which we celebrate dance and prepare different ideas and body movements. The foot contact with the ground in connection with the vibration of the pelvis and the extensions of arms unlocks the torso, making way for repetitive movements. With this repetition dancing intensifies awareness, allowing us to say the unspeakable and to get to know the unexplainable, simply from the fact of sharing a movement with the group. Playful exercises will allow to dive into a search of body memories making way to a renewal of our personal dance vocabulary.



Modern Flow
a sensation of vitality

Moving beyond the mechanics and releasing into the intention that drives every movement. A careful warm up not only prepare muscles and joints for rigorous movements but focus your mind and energy.

This class is inspired on the modern dance technique created by Lester Horton in combination with a range of an organic form of exercises aimed to the quality of your relaxation, breathing, and rhythm. There is an incorporation of meditative exercises, each of which increases bodily awareness and sensitivity. Special attention is given to the flow of movement from verticality, spirals and ground touching. A simple movement at the moment you bend your knees brings the energy in the body to radiate up and out creating a sensation of vitality. The idea is to use the ligaments in the body as elastic bands and imagine water on the functions of joint articulations. Furthermore a special attention is given to increase the flexibility and release in the upper torso, a sharpness of movement of arms and legs. Preparing the body and freeing the mind to the richness of movement experience.



Ismael Ivo
Ismael Ivo, born 1955 in São Paulo/Brazil, was given the Trofeu Pirandello São Paulo, the prize for the best solo dancer already in 1983. A scholarship for Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York followed in 1983/84 before he moved to Berlin where he has been living since. Ismael created numerous solo pieces including "Phoenix" (1985), "Under The Skin" (1986), "Delirium of a childhood" (1989), "Die kreisrunden Ruinen" (1991) and "Apocalypse" (1992). He got internationally wellknown through the choreographies "Francis Bacon" (1993) and "Othello" (1996), both productions directed by the German dance theater choreographer Johann Kresnik. He has cooperated closely with Johann Kresnik and the Japanese choreographer Ushio Amagatsu, who has been the director of the recognised Sankai Juku Ensemble. These different experiences have merged with his Afro-Bazilian roots.
From 1996 to 2000 Ismael Ivo was heading the dance theater company at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar where he choreographed eleven pieces. Particularly in the 1990ies he cooperated with theater directors including George Tabori, for several groupworks. 1999 he started his artistic cooperation with Marcia Haydée. The duets "Tristan und Isolde" (1999) and "M.- wie Callas" (2002) were created as well as choreographies for Ankara, Rio de Janeiro and Vienna. 2006 the production "Die Zofen", created with Koffi Kôkô and Yoshi Oida in 2001 and based on the text of Jean Genet received the Time Out Live Award of London.
Ismael Ivo has been the artistic advisor of ImPulsTanz Workshops since the beginning in 1984 until today. Since 2005 he is also the artistic director of the Biennale di Venezia Settore Danza. 2010 he was awarded the Ordem do Merito Cultural do Brasil, the highest cultural award of Brazil.