Kerstin Kussmaul & Barbara Roitner
Myoreflextraining for Dancers
Prevention of injuries and the creative potential of Myoreflex therapy

Myoreflex therapy works with the muscle sensors as a tool for regulation, thus reaching through this deviation the control center – the brain.

This physiological connection can be used to perceive specific muscles and to activate them in movement. Our brain’s capacity to discern, to modify and to complement is almost infinite. In this way we create new opportunities to translate our internal experience into movement.

Using specific touch and movement, we will clarify anatomical functions, details and relationships. We will focus on some notorious muscle groups that, depending on the kind of „use“, can create problems even in other regions in the body. As an example the inefficient use of the muscle goup psoas /adductors /tensor fasciae latae can arise as knee or lower back pain. Regulating the muscle tone will increase the range of motion and the functional muscle strings will work more efficently.

Muscle tone regulation can be achieved through exercises called „Kraft in der Dehnung“ („how to strengthen a muscle while stretching it“). This is a principle also well known in Hatha – Yoga which we will incorporate as well as the perspective of traditional chinese medicine, as the functional muscle strings relate to the meridians as recognised by the TCM.




Gravity Happens: Principles of Movement

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.


Kerstin Kussmaul & Michael Bruckner-Weinhuber
Labor: Musik/Bewegung

We will consider music and movement as equal partners and beyond the traditional understanding of this connection. What kind of relationships can be found between music and movement if music doesn't accompany movement? We will use principles of Authentic Movement - i.e. the non judgmental watching and listening of others and yourself for our questions. To realise our reactions to auditive and visual perception as conditioned by nature, culture, and personality and to deal with this as consciously as possible will be part of the reflexion about the process. In this sense this workshop is also a perception lab.

We also will experiment with synaesthetic perception (to see music, to listen to movement) for our creative process. And we will explore silence. 

Live music: E -guitar and (prepared) piano, bodies and environment.

The workshop adresses dancers (advanced and intermediate level) as well as musicians with experience in movement arts.


Kerstin Kussmaul
Kerstin Kussmaul is dance maker and Somatic Movement Educator. Her artistic focus is on music/dance projects and the development of new formats for the mediation and investigation of movement, such as "Vexations: we call it work", a music/room/performance installation which was premiered at ImPulsTanz 2009. She studied Pedagogy of Music and Dance, Somatic Movement Education and TCM in Berkeley/USA, Myoreflex Therapy and Yoga and teaches in Europe and the US. She is founder and director of IDOCDE (International Documentation of Contemporary Dance Education) a two year long project with 12 partners which is supported by the EU.