From Contemporary to Basic Contact Improvisation
with Slovenian dance educators - Goran Bogdanovski & Sandra Anais

Touch - Flow & Let It Go:

The workshop will start with warm up based on small inner dance and body awareness exercises. They will focus on somatic principles combined with exercises from experiential anatomy. Participants will also get some written material on anatomy to get better visual understanding of how structure (bones) and “meat” (muscles) support each other. Gradual focus will move from personal body alignment to observation, sensation and understanding of “others” bodies. Shifting awareness on how to relate with others. They will introduce basic principles of contact improvisation, with special focus on “light” partnering without implying weight. The range of possible connections between participants will go from mere sensation based contact (eye contact, closed eyes contact, reading, following, adjusting...) to more explicit use of touch and sharing “one body” experience. Participants will also learn from active imagination. Shifting their awareness from relationship (and possible reactions) on how to relate to your inner “world”. Participants will then focus on expressing personal states. Where am I today? How can my fragility become strength? The range of exercises will go from working in pairs, detecting each others movement habits, improvising solos to empathetic shadowing / repeating of movement sequences. 

In the workshops you will focus on improvisational tools that can be efficiently used in your other dance practices:
*Opening the senses, trusting yourself and contact
*Basic tools for contact improvisation - the language of touch
*How to use space in improvisation
*Improvisation as Dance of Presence
*Putting the Mind, Body and Emotions in Motion - you will learn how to deeply sense the body, mind and emotions and how to be present and wide awake enough to let go, so creation can happen through you and your partner in dance

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About Sandra & Goran: 

Sandra Anais 
Dance ecology, in addition to build a bridge between nature and culture through dance, also aims to expand the perception of contemporary dance practices in spiritual and emotional sense and encourages to revitalize forgotten wisdom of sacred traditions and bring them back in to dance education. It also raises the awareness of the need to transform the man through body work and through revival of poetic discourse and interdisciplinarity within different artistic practices. Sandra Anais, the culturologist that works, researches and develops programs in the field of dance, which she understands as an interdisciplinary field of artistic, scientific and spiritual practice. She is active as a dancer, teacher, organizer, producer, curator and coordinator of the festivals. She is currently exploring the physical practices of other cultures, embodiment of thoughts, contemporary performative practices and nomadism in relation with urban rituals, new age practices and creation of urban communities / tribes. In the field of dance and somatic practices, she studied with renowned pedagogues in Slovenia, Great Britain, China, Austria and Georgia.
MORE: http://sandraanaisvidim.wix.com/dance-ecology

Goran Bogdanovski
Performer & choreographer, teacher, curator and artistic director. 
As a peformer he has worked successfully since 1989 with more than 70 choregraphers and directors in many different fields of performing arts – classical ballet, physical theatre, contemporary dance, film and video. Bogdanovski opened his own company Fico Balet in 2000 that carried his choreographic ideas and projects. He choreographed and produced 15 dance productions, toured extensivly and has given workshops in 25 countries around the world. Teaching methods he uses are synthesis of dance techniques and tools, that he has intensively experimented with and developed throughout the last 20 years. Ranging from classical ballet to martial arts, from modern to contemporary dance, from Tai Chi and Qi Gong to Kundalini and Dynamic meditation, from contact to theatre improvisation and from artistic experience he had working in his own creations and collaborations other choreographers and directors in the field of performing arts. 

When people ask him what they will do on trainings or workshops, he usually says: We will train our body, mind and spirit through dance and creation. 
http://goranbogdanovski.wix.com/goran-bogdanovski