Sabine Parzer (Austria)

MORNINGS:
CONTACT IMPROVISATION
M - F / 10am - 12pm
Rooted Exuberance and Structural Arcs

For professional dancers and experienced Contact Improvisation practitioners.

> Holistic Dance with a focus on technique and composition in Contact Improvisation practice.

In this workshop I will focus on the technical and compositional qualities of contact improvisation in relationship to the ability to stay connected to the flow of our dance.

In many contact duets I see a beautiful connection with the two people involved, but not a very strong presence to space, off balance or risk taking. On the other hand, I see a lot of dances that are the opposite: high risk adrenaline ridden but lacking listening, a range of movement quality and compositional elements.

So how do we manage to invite both high risk, upside down, off balance, falling, moving through space, lifting and being lifted and tricking each other with gestural, compositional elements, range of speed, levels, movement qualities. and body awareness?

We will work on:

• Lifting and being lifted on different levels

• Training our landing gears and reflexes

• Three dimensionality for travelling, supporting and composition

• Recognizing and extending our limits (when appropriate)

• Compositional elements such as gesture, repetition, theme and variation

• Definition of solo material within a contact duet

We will concentrate on the duet form working to refine our abilities, research together and dive into the depth of the movement and performance possibilities of this amazing improvisation form. Over these days we will continue to perform for each other and watch from a place of curiosity and exploration.

Early-Bird: $175 — Until Sept 7th
Regular: $230
Drop-In: $50 — *Drop-In Registration will open Sept 8th

AFTERNOONS
W - F / 1 - 4pm
Deep Blue Sea: Unwinding the Unknown

For professional dancers, experienced Contact Improvisation practitioners, and experienced movement artists.

> Holistic Dance with a focus on Improvisation and Somatics, including visionary cranio-sacral work, Feldenkrais, fascia release and Authentic Movement.

The Deep Blue Sea: Unwinding the Unknown is an invitation to feel, move and release into the depth of our being. Finding movement, compositional creative choices, expression through voice, touch and full body engagement is the goal, but not a must. We invite a sense of universality, a deep inner space to connect and to source from. This workshop expresses my need to create a safe space, where we invite sensorial awareness, internal anatomical understanding, exploration of unconscious movement and emotional states, cellular body memories of different ages and developments. Through dance, movement and touch related practices, we can find a deeper sense of ourselves.

In this high-paced, crisis-ridden and unstable time, I believe we need spaces where we can find safety, inner anchors and orientation in ourselves and in community. We need a container to unwind tension from the outside as well as what has been stored inside. We invite our personal and collective wisdom to articulate in a non-linear way, in a way we can activate resources to contribute to the processing of these contents. This provides a schooling for ourselves and helps our nervous systems find rest.

We work with anatomical and energetic structures such as the spine, pelvis and jaw, "domes and bowls" in touch and movement. The exercises provide the framework to work with “what is”, the process, movement and expression, which wants to unwind and transform.

Early-Bird: $160 — Until Sept 7th
Regular: $207
Drop-In: $75 — *Drop-In Registration will open Sept 8th

SATURDAY
Sat / 1 - 4pm
Improvisation & Somatics
Release.Activate.Connect

For all levels.

> Holistic Dance with a focus on Contemporary Dance Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, Feldenkrais Principles, Developmental Movement, and Somatics.

This workshop addresses our ability to be present with each breath, movement and connection, to dance in a state of deep release and immediate activation. Incorporating somatic principles, developmental movement and anatomical investigations with Improvisation, Release.Activate.Connect allows us to celebrate the mindfulness of our innate body wisdom.

Dancing works best when we allow ourselves to be soft and clear, in communication and connection to our own needs and others. Our goal in the improvisation is increased internal awareness, sensitivity, and connectivity that is available in the dance for self- referencing (anatomical/sensory) and connection, while dancing solo, with a partner or in group improvisations. We will work on Breath, Qualities of Connection, Fascia, the Spine and its 3Dimensionality and Developmental Movement patterns.
We will work on:

• Breath: first awaking impulse to connect and prepare

• Qualities of Connection: how, when, who to connect with

• Fascia: connectivity and interconnections

• Spine: 3Dimensionality and access to the nervous system

• Developmental Movement patterns: reconnecting and integrating the early stages

• Presence: attention with self, others and space

• Full bodied improvisation: articulation and expression

• Risktaking and Boundaries: listening and expanding

Early-Bird: $52.50 — Until Sept 7th
Regular: $75

Sabine Parzer is head and founder of the Holistic Dance Institute (founded 2010). In 2012 she created the Contact Festival Austria, which she has been the artistic director of until 2017. Her professional experience spans over 30 years of teaching, performing, choreographing and researching in the USA, Canada, Europe, Russia, Israel and Brazil.

Sabine is a dancer, choreographer, dance-pedagogue, bodyworker, organizer and author. Sabine has a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College Chicago in Modern Dance, and an education in Systemische und Integrative Bewegungslehre® (an extended Feldenkrais® Training). The in-depth practice of Contact Improvisation and Authentic Movement begins 1997. Ongoing trainings since 1995 in Kleintechnique, ZenBodytherapy®, Yoga, White Crane Silat, Rosen Method®, Kashmirian Massage, Psychotherapy and family constellations a.o. She is currently studying Visionary Cranialsacral Work with Hugh Milne and Shadow work with Robert Masters.

In her Holistic Dance Institute people from all different kinds of backgrounds, such as dancers, artists, bodyworkers, social workers, coaches and psychotherapists are trained in Holistic Dance Teachers Trainings, Advanced Teachers Trainings, Retreats, open workshops and single sessions. 

Her professional dance career began in Chicago, IL, in 1990, where she danced professionally in Mordine & Company Dance Theatre, Kast & Company and in many independent productions. She was a co-founder of Loop Troop and has been presenting her choreographies and improvisational scores since 1990 in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Moscow and Vienna, amongst other cities. She has recently collaborated with film maker Krisztina Kerekes on the experimental dance film “eMBODYMe” and the documentation about her work “Interconnections”. Her latest solo “Mayya Amore” will premiere in 2025.

Sabine teaches regularly at international dancefestivals such as Impulstanz Vienna, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien, Potsdamer Tanztage and has taught intensives at many international festivals such as Israeli Contact Festival, Moscow Contact Festival, Kontakt Budapest, Contact in Rio de Janeiro, Ibiza Contact Festival and more. Between 1999 and 2013 she was employed as dance therapist at a rehabilitation center for people after work and traffic accidents in Austria.