"Isn't it really quite extraordinary to see that, since man took his first step, no one has asked himself why he walks, how he walks, if he has ever walked, if he could walk better, what he achieves in walking... questions that are tied to all the philosophical, psychological, and political systems which preoccupy the world." – Honoré de Balzac
Every day we shift the weight for about thousand times from one foot to the other and use our feet to connect with the floor, the earth. Walking is the most elementary and most repeated coordination, showing almost all the locomotive principles of the complex human movement. In this workshop, we examine and rediscover walking as a multi-faceted daily practice and re-sensitise the feet as organs of touch, feeling our environment. Walking also provides a kind of "posturing" that creates a dynamic awareness for posture, anatomical alignment and habits. Through floorwork and sensory experiments we will prepare for walking. In various walking and running motives as well as small sequences we will – at times analytically, sometimes meditatively, sometimes exuberantly bring walking into dancing and dancing back into walking. The analysis of walking is a fundamental concept of the Axis Syllabus Research. Participants are invited to get inspired by the art, analysis, history and alchemy of walking. We will be theoretical, draw something, walk of course, also go out and dance.
Kira Kirsch
