THE ARTIST'S BODY / Workshop

The three days movement research workshop features Gaga/people classes as well as improvisation sessions lead by choreographer and dancer Smadar Goshen. 

The sessions will focus on exploring a wide range of physical expression and linking between sensations and displayed movement. Out of getting to know our tendencies and familiar patterns, we will enrich our physical sentential vocabulary, connecting to movement which is both organic and limits’ expending. 

Gaga is the movement language created by Ohad Naharin. Gaga/people classes offer a framework for users to connect to their bodies and imaginations, experience physical sensations, improve their flexibility and stamina, exercise their agility and explosive power, and enjoy the pleasure of movement in a welcoming, accepting atmosphere.

Smadar Goshen is a dancer, choreographer and a teacher. As a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis trainer as well as a Gaga teacher, she is sensitive to the personal-individual expression of different bodies, which colours her approach when working with dancers in the studio. She completed her bachelor's degree in dance and her master's degree in choreography at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. Born in Israel, she shifted her center of living and working to Stuttgart in 2019.

Since 2011, she has been creating and performing her pieces around the world on various platforms.In the current yearbook of the magazine tanz, Goshen was honoured as one of the 10 most promising dance pioneers in Germany. In the 2024/25 season, she is invited to take part of the residency programme of the Réseau GRAND LUXE network with special support from the Theater Freiburg's dance department.

Often it is our habits and patterns of action that guide us. They manifest themselves in the entire organism and dominate our actions and activities - we often hardly know them. But especially in the creative process it is important to keep options open, to act calmly and with awareness in order to decide freely and constructively.

A first step can be to get to know these habits in order to experience more integration of feeling, thought and physical expression. The quality of the connection between head, neck and spine plays a special role. According to F.M. Alexander, it defines the quality of all movements. In this course we will focus on essential areas of the Alexander Technique:

• Who was Alexander and what did he find out?
• How can I stabilize my pelvis in the torso?
• What do my feet have to do with it?
• How do I achieve free mobility in my arms and legs?
• And what does my breathing have to do with it?
• What is outer movement and what is inner movement?
• What is presence and how can I find peace?

We will work on and explore these and other questions theoretically and as much as possible practically to experience Alexander's principles in a relevant and joyful way. In doing so, I will guide what is usually taught through the hands of the teacher in a comprehensible way. Basics of anatomy, physiology and psychology will play a role as well as interesting facts from the latest research.
Please note the following:

• Please wear comfortable clothing.

Be Here Now! is for all those who wish live more in the present, make clearer momentary decisions and instantaneously compose stunning expression. Starting with physical and mental exercises of the Action Theater™ method, you expand your perception of the present. You integrate the experience of space into your perception. Your body awareness refines, you become aware of the different qualities of attention. The more you become aware of where your attention goes, the deeper you dive into the present. Once you learn to stay present in challenging moments, the unexpected happens. Change becomes possible, not because you wanted it, but precisely because you have abandoned the desire to change.

 

Sten Rudstrom, Improviser/performer/choreographer,  Berlin. He founded Action Theater™ Berlin; two improvisation ensembles: Streugut; and EAT (International Action Theater Ensemble). Recent performances: SAAL FREI/ Stuttgart (2021); ONCE! Festival/Freiburg (2019); 48Hours Neukölln (2020). He is the artistic director of the NOW! Festival of Improvisation/Berlin; Jury Award Winner 2022 Solo/Duo Festival, Barnes Crossing /Köln; and supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste, and Dis-Tanzen Solo. His workshops are exciting and challenging.

Please register bindingly at tab@orga.hfmdk-frankfurt.de until 14 days before the start of the workshop. Please state your name, course of study, department and semester number in the mail. All courses will again take place in presence with mask.

Due to the limited number of participants, early registration is recommended. The indicated course times include breaks. You will be informed by mail about short-term changes of the course dates. Participation on individual days is only possible by prior arrangement with the workshop leaders.

The workshops are aimed at students and lecturers from all departments.

Participation in the workshops and in the offerings of THE ARTIST'S BODY / daily can be credited as course work in the corresponding modules.

Due to a limited number of participants, early registration is recommended. The indicated course times include breaks. You will be informed by mail about short-term changes of the course dates. Participation on individual days is only possible by prior arrangement with the workshop leaders.