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24 April 2024
Fashion.at's selection of three workshops at the Vienna International Dance Festival 'Impulstanz': Unambitious Stripper, Young Girls Wanna Dance Their Spirit, and Countertechnique
Fashion.at browsed through the online program of the Vienna International Dance Festival 'Impulstanz' (July 11 - August 11), which today opened its digital ticket shop for more than 250 workshop and research projects. It's almost a tradition at Fashion.at to write a short article about the annual festival highlights with a selection of some of the courses. This time it took longer than usual to browse the site, because the texts are interesting and worth reading from beginning to end. The texts were mainly written by journalist and media and theater expert Oliver Maus, who built a bridge between the information he got from the teachers of the workshops and his knowledge about dance, the body and the power of dance to break the limits of one's own abilities and to redefine the limits of society through movement. To cut a long story short, what Oliver Maus wrote for the workshop program of the Impulstanz Festival reads like a compilation of philosophical thoughts about dance as an art form practiced in communities with reflections on the self and society.
Fashion.at visited for example the page with more information about the workshop 'Unambitious Stripper' by Impulstanz teacher Isabel Lewis, who focuses on her performance practice with an emphasis on interpersonal encounters. She explores 'erotic sociability,' a term developed by feminist sociologist Roslyn Bologh, as an alternative to the competitive relationships that dominate consumer society. The title of the course is described as a metaphor. Oliver Maus writes about the meaning of this strip on https://www.impulstanz.com/en/workshops/id6483/: "Rather than stripping off their clothes, participants will use their imaginations to turn their attention inward, toward the surface of their own skin and imagine playfully peeling away or adding on layers of social construct and identity."
The program texts continue in this style, such as for Lilach Pnina Livne's workshop entitled 'Young Girls Wanna Dance Their Spirit,' which is guided by the question of whether dancers can really express themselves freely when they're observed. The course is based on the choreographer's special method called 'Spirit Dance', which allows the dancer to experience one's own performance in the interplay between the choreographer and the audience. The aim of the workshop is to cultivate awareness and to challenge the performers to constantly reflect, reconstruct and choose their identity in the midst of the performance. The dates of the workshop and a video of a 'Young Girls Wanna Dance Their Spirit' class can be found at https://www.impulstanz.com/en/workshops/pid6572/.
A third example from the program, which consists of special classes for different ages and dance levels as well as numerous inclusive workshops for all abilities, is the 'Countertechnique' workshop by Eva-Maria Schaller. Countertechnique is explained as a way to prepare a dancer's body to move more fluidly and expansively while gaining strength and flexibility. It's a kind of pre-training that can be used by professional dancers as well as amateurs. According to the announcement on https://www.impulstanz.com/en/workshops/pid6515/, the class is very accessible and suitable for participants of all levels. Tip from Fashion.at: Even if there's a move that can't be performed exactly - this workshop is about training individual balance and energy, not about stylish pirouettes. Even though Eva-Maria Schaller was trained in classical ballet at the Academy of the Vienna State Opera.
Image: Eva-Maria Schaller (AT) 'Countertechnique'. Photo: © Alina Fejzo.
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