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TEACHERS & ARTISTS
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ANJELIKA DONIY (RU)
Anjelika Doniy is a dance improviser, choreographer and teacher focused on contact.
After 5 years of formal studies of choreography, ballet dance and other stage disciplines at the Higher School of Culture (St-Petersburg), she worked for 10 Years as a theater choreographer. Until…
"In 1997, I was at the Impulse Dance Festival in Vienna. There, I saw a wonder of CI, watched Steve Paxton on stage, flew into Andrew Harwood workshop where some 70 dancers were rolling over each other. This was unbelievable, the earth was becoming alive. I saw a realization of my dream of the world growing from connection, interaction, harmony between one and many.
It was love from the first sight. From 2002 I started facilitating first jams and CI workshops in Russia and initiated International Contact Improvisation and Performance Festival in Moscow in 2006–2010.
My path in CI as a teacher began as long journey of workshops for beginners. I love to guide people into the dance, inspire them with their own body, and awaken to what is already there. I love to surprise long-time dancers with secrets of the body as little keys opening a familiar dance into new spaces. This year, I am following a program of the Institute for Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy to go deeper into the body and its anatomy, to touch the cells, to breathe through the navel, and to use this resource in my practice.
My special interest in contact improvisation is clarity. Clarity towards the practice. Honesty towards how I move my weight in the space of Gravity. Attention towards clearing the dance from the personal. Letting things happen as they go.
I am grateful to have met and studied with such teachers as Regine Chopinot, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Danny Lepkoff, Benno Voorham, Lisa Nelson, Esther Gal, Yaniv Mintzer, Martin Keo and many others."
Anjelica taught over 200 workshops all over the world for all levels from complete beginners to professional dancers. Her teaching is rooted in many years of work of acquiring and transmitting technical skills and equally long path of meditation and mindfulness practice. She blends them into a life dance, contact improvisation.
INTENSIVE: Elastic Attention
​For complete beginners
For beginners
For those who continue
To dance contact improvisation.
Anjelika tells:
I am inspired to run a CI workshop-lab, and will create the conditions:
- Material that grows from the basics and moves participants to jam safely, with a reliance on technique.
- Jam secrets that will blossom like seeds and support your jam experience in the evenings.
- CI labs. I will create structures and let in the lab spirit that will allow not only my experience as a facilitator to manifest but allow teachers and advanced participants to unfold the beauty of their dance path.
- A variety of transitions from beginning level to advanced and back again, so that we forget how small or big we are while remaining innocent, light and friendly in the dance.
What do you need to be ready for?
There will be a lot about efficiency and intuitive following of what is happening right now.
Work with the body in pairs, trios, in the form of bodywork.
Exercises with alternating roles of leading, following and releasing that lead into the dance.
There will be fairytale-like, imaginative invitations with precise, physically understandable instructions.
We will learn to move from the state of student training skills to losing these skills for the sake of poetry that does not require the sense of completeness.
Through all of which we will try to meet Contact Improvisation.
Exercises are important, but they cannot be more important than contact, flow, interaction of forces, inertia, that is already happening right now.
By practicing "Small Dance" we will learn to focus our attention on the inner space of the body.
We will meet with moving, rolling, sliding of the point of contact, when contact of two bodies gives importance to the search for mutual spatial trajectories.
The secrets of dance are revealed in space. Pauses, back space, entry into and exit from the dance, beginning and end, emptiness and fullness. We will learn to change states. And those states will be many.
Touching the source of movement.
Feeling compassion that is disarming.
Recognition of your fire.
Courage to accept yourself dancing.
Ability to adapt physical touch.
Gifts and losses as we surrender to the movement.
Expedition for the secret that is on the other side of the dance.
BASTIEN AUBER (FR)
Since 2011, he teaches Contact Improvisation in regular workshops, maserclasses and festivals in France and abroad (Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, USA, Russia, Ukraine, India).
He trained in dance by traveling and working with many teachers of CI, instant composition and somatic techniques. Since few years, teaching CI is his main job.
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His approach to body dynamics is linked with the existing movements in nature (microcosm and macrocosm) and with the 5 elements.. spirals, and more.
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He is also a dance performer, a geologist, and a geo-biologist.
He practices meditation, contemplative dance, Authentic Movement, and he attaches a great importance to the poetry and the invisible in the dance.
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WEBSITE : http://bastien-auber.jimdo.com/
YOUTUBE : https://www.youtube.com/@BastienAUBER
INSTAGRAM : @bastienauber
BALANCING CENTERS : CI Fundamentals Workshop
In contact improvisation, the concept of "CENTER" is often mentioned.
For me, a center speaks of a notion of balance and creates a periphery, often associated with a sphere.
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We will use this term to develop a common vocabulary in our contact improvisation practice.
We will play at bringing together and balancing different centers:
​center of mass / anatomical center / center of perception ;
… and also the centers of the earth and the universe !!
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It is through games of balance of bodies, through encounters with others, that we will address technical and fundamental aspects of CI:
​foot positions, pelvic mobility, spinal axes, eyes support, and the precision of a lift.
MANUELA BLANCHARD (CH)
Dancer, WaterDance® teacher, Watsu® practitioner with a large experience in Healing Dance®, Manuela Blanchard has been teaching Contact & Dance Improvisation in Switzerland since 20 years. CI in water grew out of her wish to combine the interactive intelligence of contact improv with some techniques of aquatic bodywork. She was one of the first to share in international festivals.
In 2017 she created "Aquatic Bodywaves", involving dance improvisation as a way to learn aquatic bodywork more playfully and intuitively than the classic water trainings. Her work links intimately emotional process and tantric tools to aquatic research.
Fascinated by fluidity, whether in human relationships or in body language, she likes to combine improvised dance with a search for a connection to one’s deepest nature. Her teaching supports everyone in their own discovery of vitality, authenticity, openness and presence.
Her enthusiasm for organic and expressive qualities of movement led her to explore Butoh, Authentic Movement, Body Mind Centering, Synchronized Swimming (intensively as a teenager) and Tango among many other artistic fields. She is also Esalen Massage practitioner with experience in emotion coaching process.
WATER INTENSIVE (Intermediate & Advanced)
Flying Fishes - Subaquatic Contact Improvisation
Dive into the poetic world of subaquatic contact improvisation.
In the warm water, you will explore spirals, suspended lifts and fluid partner dances that arise from the body’s center. Disorientation becomes an invitation to trust, play and discover new dimensions of movement beneath the surface.
Like flying fishes, we glide between gravity and buoyancy, breath and suspension.
Outdoors, the exploration continues in a sensual encounter with the landscape — where skin, senses and environment become part of the dance.
KATYA PODOPRIGORA (KATE RIORA) (RU/HU)
Dancer, performer, coach, bodywork therapist.
I am dancing most of my life on land, in the air, in the water and on the ice. I am in love with Contact Improvisation for 18 years now, and have studied many bodywork and improvisation techniques. I am a water therapist and for many years practicing spontaneous massage.
I have studied various somatics approaches, including Body Mind Centering, Somatic Experiencing, Skinner Release Therapy. Currently I live, work and dance between Budapest, Moscow Corfu and Thailand
LAB: Authentic Movement
The Authentic Movement lab will be about a unique possibility to contact our nature without looking for something specific or having a purpose. We will work solo/ or in pairs where one person (a mover) will be given plenty of time with closed eyes to dive into their inner world and present moment at the same time, and from this state perhaps something will appear: impulses to move, desire to explore, dance or simply to rest The other person will give their focused attention to support the mover and witness whatever may arise in the moment. This lab will be a unique possibility to come back to the roots of own existence and to explore in a safe way different aspects of self in connection with the environment.
Hands-on Bodywork: Awareness and Release
This short class will be about bringing awareness into our bodies. Through conscious breathing and touch we will be looking for possibilities to notice and release unnecessary tensions. We will learn to differentiate various types of touch and bring to life different body parts Through gentle work with a partner or in trio we will record into our systems new patterns of body awareness: skin, muscles and bone structures. You do not need to have any experience of body work or massage.
WATER INTENSIVE (Beginners)
Dancing with Water and Others
This workshop will be about exploring the physical and emotional aspects of our bodies in contact with water and with each other. We will be looking for possibilities to move our bodies in the warm water through the light movements, releasing and floating. We will observe how our bodies get tense without any reason and learn how to notice and release unnecessary tensions and body patterns. Through gentle work with a partner or in trios we will record into our systems new patterns of movement in the water, hopefully leading to free dance and joy. You do not need to have any experience of body work or massage. Come with open eyes and hearts.
ELISABETH ANDRIO (GR/DE)
Growing up by the shores of the Mediterranean, lulled by the sea, Eli has always felt a deep sense of belonging in water. In 2013, her encounter with aquatic bodywork opened a gateway into a path weaving together her curiosity for movement, bodywork, healing, and inner exploration. Water became both her teacher and her home. She spent a few years dancing in the water on her own before she discovered that there are other human creatures who share her passion! Contact Improvisation came into her life before that but it only landed for her when she saw it as a continuum of water dancing. Nowadays she is fascinated by the potency of CI practice both on land and in water. She is the creatress of the Flying Pool Project in Corfu, a heated pool dedicated to the aquatic arts, and stewardess of Nymphæon—a sanctuary for embodied remembering and reconnection to essence. Her work invites a homecoming to the body, the elements, and the intelligence that moves within all of life.
WATER INTENSIVE (Open-Level)
Somatic Water Dancing — moving from sensation
This intensive is open to all levels and invites us to release ideas of how we should move in the water—whether experienced or new.
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The intention is to allow movement to arise from within. Discovering the relationship between the nervous system and movement and observing how our patterns of movement reflect our patterns of thinking and vice versa. Sensation becomes our guide as we listen to subtle impulses and the body’s intelligence.
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In dialogue with water and other bodies, through touch and shared weight, we explore new territories.
Water offers support, softness, and suspension, while the interplay of gravity and buoyancy invites multidirectional movement.
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Spirals, glides, and lifts may—or may not—emerge.
This practice invites deeper listening:
to ourselves, to others, and to the space in between.
A space to notice how we move, relate, and respond.
An explorative, expressive, relational field—
where curiosity leads and new possibilities unfold.
ŽAN PERKO (SVN)
For Žan, movement is a language of the soul - a way to listen, release, and return home. As a somatic therapist, interdisciplinary artist, water therapist, Molchanovs freediving instructor, OceanDance instructor, he explores the fluid meeting points between body, emotion, and consciousness.
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Žan’s path has been shaped by therapeutic, artistic, and contemplative disciplines. With a masters in authentic movement, voice, and impulse, he creates experiences that invite participants to soften, feel, and rediscover their natural state of presence.
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He is the founder of Primal States, a living field of exploration where movement, awareness, and emotional integration meet.
His work, including Beyond: Field Dynamics, opens spaces for deep connection: within oneself, with others, and with the living environment.
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Through movement in the water and somatic flow, he invites a return to the primal. To the rhythm of the heart, to surrender, and the subtle intelligence that moves through all life.
www.primalstates.com
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WATER INTENSIVE (Intermediate)
Movement, Soma, and the Intelligence of Water
This intensive is an invitation to go deeper. Into water, into body, into the layers of memory and movement that live below the surface.
We will explore what it means to move with water, to yield, into the water and into each other. We will listen to the water around us and to the waters within: the fluid rhythms of the body that most of us have forgotten how to feel.
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We will work with early developmental movement patterns, the first gestures of a forming nervous system, shaped in the weightlessness of the womb. These patterns are still alive in us. In the water, we can find them again.
Through somatic principles and the sensory-motor and feedback loop, we refine our capacity to feel, to notice sensation, follow impulse, and respond. This becomes the ground for a practice of dancing in water: not performance, but live inquiry. Movement as conversation with an intelligent element. Movement as a regenerative practice.
Memories may surface. Older states of being. The water has a way of returning us to ourselves.
This intensive is for people who already feel at home in the water, those with experience in water therapy, aquatic movement or somatic practice. It is not a beginning. It is a going further.
ZUZANNA BUKOWSKI (DE/PL)
Zuzanna Bukowski started dancing at the age of 4 and continued her embodiment practices through martial arts, ballet, yoga, modern dance, and Axis Syllabus. She has been deepening her embodiment practice under the influence of various international contact improvisation and contemporary dance teachers.
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Currently, she is deeply interested in applying movement principles highlighted by the Axis Syllabus into the practice of contact improvisation, as well as the Underscore structure. She is passionate about the impact of connection between body and mind, which she continues to discover through her work in coaching, IT, and dance.
Teaching dance, co-organizing the Thailand Contact & Movement Arts Festival, Warsaw CI Flow Festival and working as an IT Consultant gives her the balance between headspace and movement art.
WORKSHOP: Axis Syllabus into Contact Improvisation
In this workshop we will dive into the world of researching our own movement patterns and breaking those, before we get into contact with one another. We will focus on different CI principles using the lens of the Axis Syllabus to refine our movements and create more potentiality in our moving structures. Exploring those alone, in specific patterns and partner work shall deepen the understanding of the concepts.
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We will dive deeper into the concepts of landing pads, tensegrity and how our bones are moving in the body. Asking questions like: How can meeting the floor be a soft experience? How can biodynamics make our moves smooth and strong at the same time? And how can we keep our own flow while moving with someone else? We will jump, roll, research, soften, listen to good music and have fun with great music. We’ll also incorporate choreographic patterns to smoothly transition into solo movement, ensuring a mix of learning and fun throughout the workshop.
IDO MARON (ISR)
Ido is a longtime movement enthusiast, exploring movement via Capoeira, Tai-chi, classic dance, contemporary dance and even folk dancing. He has been performing in various kinds of dance-theater creations - from Operas to children’s fairy tales brought on stage, contemporary, commercial, and more.
Today he is mostly fascinated about the influence that emotional patterns have on movement patterns and vice versa.
Ido has been teaching contact improvisation since 2021, focusing on the different ways in which increasing a dancer’s physical awareness of their own body can generate a richer and a more comprehensive understanding of the connection between them and their partner/s.
Class: The Endless Fall – Weight Sharing in Contact Improvisation
Most of the time, we carry our weight on our own. CI, however, invites us to share it with others — generating a unique connection and understanding between moving bodies.
In this class we will explore how weight sharing can help dance partners:
Understand each other better.
Expand physical possibilities.
And eventually — generate the momentum that can translate into flying.
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Class: Arrive and Dissolve – From Stability to Flow in CI
In this class we will touch the magical tension between stability and freedom in CI. As a weight-aware practice, CI invites us to create stable structures that can support weight. At the same time, it invites fluidity, freedom, and softness. We will explore how to arrive in stable moments together with our partners, and how to dissolve from them into the continuation of the dance, keeping flow and connection — until arriving in the next one.
I find that the more confident I am in these transitions, the more safety and pleasure I can find in my dance.