Movement is not only something we do. It is something we experience.
My relationship with movement begun through athletics and dance and has continued to evolve through more than three decades of practising performing teaching and working with a body.
Dance, Yoga, Qigong, functional movement, traumatic exploration and breath have gradually became part of the same conversation.
I am interested, not only in flexibility, strength or achieving a particular form, but in how we move - how we organise effort, how we find support, how we create space in the joints, how we breathe in balance, and how movement changes when we begin to listen rather than strain.
Sometimes this means moving more. Sometimes it means moving less.
Through awareness, alignment, breath, poses and subtle changes of attention, familiar movements can become completely new experiences.
The aim is not the perfect form, but a body that can respond with greater freedom stability and ease.
Movement for Dancers & Movers
My work with movement is deeply rooted in my professional background as a Dancer and Dance educator
Over the years, I have taught M.Cunningham Technique, Release Technique, improvisation and movement practices internationally, working with professional dancers, students and people from very different movement backgrounds.
Today, I continue to work closely with a professional Dance community. I teach weekly yoga and movement classes for dancers and movers at RadialSystem Berlin, as well as classes for the dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests. My teaching is informed by an understanding of the particular demands placed on a dancers body - training, performance, recovery in the need to remain both strong and adaptable.
I bring this experience together with functional anatomy, Yoga, Qigong, somatic exploration and hands on bodywork. I am particularly interested in helping dancers and movers understand their bodies more deeply - supporting sustainable movement, recovery and injury prevention.
At the B12 Dance workshop festival, I teach somatic and hands-on research for dancers and movers, drawing on the Five Elements philosophy of Shiatsu, together with exploring functional anatomy, movement and body awareness. Through partner work and hands-on exploration we investigate the moving body, injury prevention, recovery and different ways of listening through touch.
Children's dance and creative movement
For many years, teaching children has been an important part of my work within the Dance education program of Sasha Waltz &guests.
My classes invite children to discover movement through imagination, play, rhythm, improvisation and creative exploration.
Rather than focusing only on learning steps or reproducing forms, I encourage children to explore their own movement possibilities, develop coordination and body awareness, interact with others and discover the pleasure of expressing themselves through movement.
Movement becomes a space for curiosity, creativity in connection.
Yoga, Qigong & Body Awareness
Yoga and Qigong have a accompanied my own practising teaching for many years.
My experience includes Kundalini yoga, Hatha yoga, Yin and restorative yoga, Yoga Fusion and Qigong together with breath, meditation and relaxation practices.
Rather than approaching them are separate systems, I draw from them according to the needs of the person or group.
A session may be dynamic or quiet, strengthening or restorative. It may explore alignment and balance, mobility and stability, breath and attention - or simply offer the opportunity to slow down and reconnect with a body.
Moving with less effort
More effort does not always create more possibility.
An important part of my teaching is exploring what happens when we reduce unnecessary muscular effort and begin to support from deeper structures of the body.
Slowing down, creating space in the joints, changing the organisation of a movement, of the alignment, the attention or effort, or simply posing to notice can completely transform the experience of a familiar movement.
Movement can become more stable without becoming rigid, more spacious without forcing flexibility, and more efficient without losing expression.
Doing less, noticing more and allowing the body time to respond has become an increasingly important part of my teaching.
Practices I draw from
Dance and improvisation - functional movement - kundalini Yoga - Hatha Yoga - yin and restorative yoga - yoga Fusion - Qigong - somatic movement - breath and relaxation - meditation.
This practices are not formulas that I apply in the same way to everyone. They are different ways of entering into a conversation with a body.
The practice begins with a person in front of me.