26 Feb-2 Mar 2025 Berlin / Winter Intensive with Joerg Hassmann

THE CONTACT BODY … and MIND

For experienced Contact Improvisers

A vision from Katja Mustonen often resurfaces in my dancing and teaching:
“I wish to be available at any moment with all my body parts for multiple directions.” I find this an intriguing proposal for consistently having enriching and satisfying dances.

My primary approach to finding greater availability in my dance is by calming the busy mind and softening into the body’s liquidity – like water, always ready and willing to flow in all possible directions. And there is also another kind of availability, one with a higher tone: a readiness in the body and an alertness in the mind, prepared for, even expecting the unpredictable. How do we engage the muscular system to transform effort into juicy strength, without losing that fluid, water-like availability? How do we get the pelvis ready to follow in all directions – also against gravity? How do I access the willingness to run, jump, and fall? And when is it actually time to not be available? When do I need to retreat, to rest, to disconnect from others and potter around in my own bubble?

The end of February is a special time. We’ve grown weary of the long winter and the first signs of spring are beginning to emerge. We’ll feel more of that and we can embrace this shift by supporting one another in activating our bodies and minds. I envision flow, strength, quirkiness, questioning habits, spaciousness, fun, and depth as flavours for our time together. My wish is for an explorative, supportive space that holds us in our humanness, welcoming whatever each of us brings to the day.

Participants should be very familiar with Contact Improvisation technique, which will be our common language for this Intensive. For your orientation: We imagine a regular practice of at least two years. In case of doubt, check in with us.

⏰ WORKSHOP TIMES
26.2.-2.3.2025
Wed 10-17:30
Thu 10-18
Fri 10-17:30
Sat 10-18
Sun 10-14
(2 hrs lunch break each day, on Sun only mini break)

💶 FEE
480-310 EUR (as you can)

💡  INFO & REGISTRATION
[email protected]

📍 LOCATION
EDEN***** Studios
Breite Strasse 43, 13187 Berlin-Pankow

🌐 Visit Joerg’s homepage & blog www.joerghassmann.com

📷 Photo by Andrei Berezki

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29 Dec 2024-1 Jan 2025, Drawehn / T&P New Year’s Get Together

Touch & Play / New Year’s Get Together

29.12.2024-01.01.2025 @retreat centre Drawehn, Lower Saxony

What about celebrating softly?

From 29th of December till the 1st of January we will gather in Drawehn, nested between Berlin and Hamburg, to welcome the new year in a parasympathetic way.

This means, we get inspired by the part of the nervous system that is responsible for resting and digesting.

Think: Bodywork, slow dancing, whispering sweet nothings, cuddles, naps, endless foreplays, meditation, focus, a choir of relieving sighs, silent jams, belly massages, sauna, letting go…

– Only for those with Previous Touch&Play Experience –

Register here: https://germany.touchandplay.org/

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14 & 15 Dec 2024 Berlin / Cycles of Reflection & Intention

Cycles of Reflection & Intention

The transition between two years is a natural time for reflection and renewal. As the old year comes to a close and the new one approaches, there is  a unique opportunity to pause, revisit the lessons and experiences we’ve lived, harvest what we’d like to keep and mindfully release what no longer serves us.

Over the years, we’ve made it a tradition to gather with friends during this “in-between” time to reflect and share our thoughts. These group encounters have become not only a joyful but also meaningful ritual for us. This year, we’ve decided to offer our guidance in a workshop setting, providing a space and offering suggestions for self-reflection and connection through group sharing.

This period of transition allows us to honor the past while creating space for new intentions, aligning ourselves with the energy of fresh beginnings. By consciously engaging in this process, we can enter the new year with clarity, purpose, and a deeper connection to ourselves and the world around us. 

Join us for this two-day workshop to reflect on the passing year and set meaningful intentions for the year ahead.

On the first day, we will focus on collecting and closing — revisiting the experiences, lessons, and meaningful moments of the current year through meditation, body awareness, reflective exercises, and sharing in a supportive space. We will honor what has been and create space for what is to come.

On the second day, we will orient our awareness toward opening and creating — exploring wishes and  possibilities for the new year stimulated by movement, bodywork exchanges and intention-setting practices. Through a loving connection with ourselves and through sharing with others, we will explore personal visions for the future while staying grounded in the present.

 

This workshop is for you if

  • you would like to consciously reflect on the past year and intentionally invite the new one
  • you would like to dive into sharing words, touch, movement as well as moments of stillness and nourishing food 
  • you would like to surround yourself with a supporting group of people during wintertime

 

Nina & Dino
As siblings with a shared interest in somatic practices and personal development, we’re excited to combine our approaches and offer this workshop together. Nina, a Body-Mind Centering® practitioner and innovation trainer, encourages curiosity and new perspectives, blending somatic work with creativity and communication. Dino, an Alexander Technique teacher with a long-term meditation practice, supports others in finding body awareness and ease through a grounded and fine approach. Together, we’re excited to create a space for reflection and connection – an opportunity to pause, set meaningful intentions, and move forward with more clarity. We’d love for you to join us on this journey!

Practical information

Book your place by writing to [email protected] or [email protected]

Workshop times
Sat 14.12. & Sun 15.12.
Both days from 11am – 5pm, including a lunch break of 1.5h

Place
Park Studio
Am Treptower Park, 42
12435 Berlin

Price
250-120€, pay as you can

The sliding scale: We think 250€ is an appropriate price for this workshop, knowing that several people might not be able to afford it. You don’t need to ask for paying a lower price. It’s your choice and you have your reasons and that’s fine.

A deposit of 50€ via bank transfer is due right after you have received a confirmation of registration to secure your place.

Cancellation
In case you cancel until 30.11.2024 we keep 50€.
In case you cancel after 01.12.2024 the whole workshop fee applies.

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Nov/Dec 2024 Berlin / Dich Einsammeln, Collecting yourself

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22-27 Oct 2024 Hamburg / Nordtanzfestival

Nordtanzfestival

Amidst a cozy & caring festival atmosphere, we create a relaxed learning space for 110 experienced and beginning CI dancers. Over 6 days we’ll meet in the west of Hamburg to deepen Contact Improvisation techniques in workshops and to improvise together in the jams. More info coming soon, we’re looking forward already!

Find all information on the website of Nordtanzfestival

I will be teaching an intensive during the week:

Intensive With Dino: Curiosity in Motion – An attempt to find nuance and connection

In my dancing, physical sensations are such an important driving force. They serve as a gateway into never-ending movement, into curiosity, into pleasure, and also into tasting some edges of discomfort and friction. I will share some practices that I find helpful to access a place of listening and heightened awareness, out of which playfulness, curiosity, and a hunger for sensing oneself and other bodies through touch and movement seem to arise quite naturally.

Recently, I’ve been inspired by making an effort to share verbally with my dance partner(s) what I actually desire, wish, want, or do not want from this particular meeting, with this particular person, at this particular moment. I do not find it all that easy to find my words for that, yet I find the attempt always very enriching. It often deepens the connection to my partner(s) and makes me engage in a different way. I’d like to weave some structures of verbal sharing and negotiation into what we’ll be doing during the two classes. And don’t worry – you do not need to know or think about in advance what you want or don’t want, but you might gather some insights along the way.

As a base and place to start, we’ll probably use some CI basics: simple yet complex proposals that involve sharing weight, leaning, and listening, while moving through space and levels.

You’ll probably get the most out of these classes if you also feel comfortable moving on your own and if you feel somewhat comfortable with technical aspects of the form, so you’ll have some capacity left to dive into sensing, subtlety, and to negotiate various dynamics with your dance partner(s).

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3-6 Oct 2024 Freiburg / CI Herbst Jam

Contact Improvisations HerbstJam in Freiburg

From Thr 3.-Sun 6. Oct 2024 at Studio ProArte

I am very happy already to be dancing a lot during this jam 😉 I will also give a tuning in at the beginning of one of the jam slots.

Find all information on the registration form

or on facebook

 

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12-18 Aug 2024 Berlin / RESPONDING with DELAY vs RESPONDING with INTUITION with Joerg Hassmann

RESPONDING with DELAY vs RESPONDING with INTUITION

I wonder how these two modes of depth and connection go together:
On the one hand it is a game changer if I allow myself to properly arrive, land and connect to what is there before I respond or act. Arriving in the space, the body, the touch. Tapping into the elasticity of body and time, where I can respond with a delay that is nourished by a deeper connection to myself and my surroundings.

Another mode to truthfully respond is instant. We might call it intuition. I respond almost before I know what the offer of the other will become. The magic match, almost reliable coincidences, the lack of any hesitation. It needs a huge permission to get it wrong when we work on it – ease and fun with failure, missing the bus, not meeting each other.

I envision more spaciousness and freedom in our dancing, forgetting what we know, trusting more when it is not obvious what’s going to happen … balanced by detailed explorations in the somatic wonderland, alone and with a supportive bodywork-ish curiosity. Responding with delay is easier to find through touch and shared weight. The intuition mode with instant responses I find easier to get when working without touch. We’ll see how the bodies bring these two different worlds of acting and responding together and live & witness it with delight.

Participants should be very familiar with Contact Improvisation technique, which will be our common language for this Intensive. In case of doubt, check in with us.

TIMES
12.8.-18.8.2024
Mon-Wed & Fri-Sat 10-17:30 (2 hour lunch break, shorter when it’s raining)
Sunday 10-14
Thursday is free!

FEE
560-360 EUR (sliding scale)
INFO & REGISTRATION
[email protected]

LOCATION
EDEN***** Studios
Breite Strasse 43, 13187 Berlin-Pankow

Visit Joerg’s homepage & blog www.joerghassmann.com

PHOTO
Katja Mustonen & Joerg Hassmann by Alex Zampini

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Mar 2024 Dresden / Deep Listening, CI Workshop with Dino Spiri

Deep Listening Ready … to be ready … to be ready

9. März 2024, Physiotherapie 101, Dresden 

Ich bin fasziniert von den Qualitäten, die sich im Körper zeigen, wenn ich mir Zeit gebe. Indem ich meine Aufmerksamkeit zur Wahrnehmung bringe, indem ich spüre, wie Atmen passiert, indem ich den Kontakt zum Sofa wahrnehme, auf dem ich gerade sitze während ich diesen Text schreibe, indem ich mir erlaube wirklich zu sehen, was ich sehe, kommt mein System zur Ruhe und öffnet sich einem Entspannungs- und Entschleunigungsprozess. Hieraus in Bewegung und ins Tanzen zu kommen finde ich meist leicht, oftmals inspirierend und befriedigend.

In diesem Workshop möchte ich uns Zeit geben, um in das Universum der Körperwahrnehmung einzutauchen, das uns als unerschöpfliche Quelle für Bewegung und Neugierde zur Verfügung steht. Mithilfe einiger Ideen und Ansätze aus der Alexander-Technik erlauben wir Ausrichtung im Körper in Bezug zu Raum und Partner:in. Diese Orientierung bietet eine sichere Grundlage, um an CI Technik zu forschen, ohne die Anbindung zum Spüren zu verlieren. Ich möchte gerne einige Angebote machen, die mehr Genuss in die etwas spannenderen Situationen im Tanz, wie zB Upside-down Momente oder die Arbeit im Backspace, bringen können.

Vorerfahrung in Contact Improvisation ist hilfreich für diesen Workshop.

Dino Spiri tanzt und unterrichtet CI seit über einem Jahrzehnt. Sein Wissen über den bewegten Körper und sein Unterricht sind stark von der Alexander-Technik (Dino ist zertifizierter Lehrer der Alexander-Technik), Klein Technik, seiner Meditationspraxis und BMC®, und durch die intensive Arbeit mit vielen wunderbaren Lehrer:innen wie Yoyo van der Kooi, Dan Armon, Eva Karczag, Joerg Hassmann, Hanna Hegenscheidt, Friederike Tröscher und Jens Johannsen und Susanne Middendorf beeinflusst.

Anmeldung

https://www.lottejirka.de/workshopreihe101/deeplistening

Zeiten
10.00 – 13.00 // 15.00 – 17.30 Workshop
19.00 – 21.30 Jam

Kosten
50€ – 90€

Ort
Physiotherapie 101
Großenhainerstr 101
01127 Dresden

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Feb 2024 Berlin / Beyond Backspace, CI Workshop with Angela-Mara Florant & Dino Spiri

Beyond Backspace
24 & 25 February 2024, Studio 2 Mime Centrum Berlin – with Angela-Mara Florant & Dino Spiri

This workshop is an invitation to lean into the unknown, to gently stretch your comfort zone and to possibly discover something new.

The unknown in the dance is often that which we cannot see, that which is not in our field of vision. One metaphor for the unknown is the space behind us, the backspace. We will spend a lot of time getting to know the backspace by bringing attention to our backside and by activating the space behind us. Our backs are huge, they hold a lot of power and support, yet almost everything in our daily lives is about rushing towards something ahead of us. Also while moving, we often are literally ahead of ourselves and it is not infrequently that we lose a sense of connectedness, first of all within our own system, but also with others and in the dance. An orientation backwards opens up a different plane: it is necessary to sense more, prediction doesn’t work as well, something else has to open so we stay available for the dance. This can feel very grounding, new, exciting and satisfying. Can we find comfort and even a sense of safety by letting our backs lead us into movement and touch? What has changed if we orient ourselves towards the front again, including this support?Revisiting some basic elements of Contact Improvisation technique to create a common ground will be part of this workshop. Once we are tuned in we will play with giving up our sense of orientation as we allow ourselves to get lost in upside-down situations. Letting go of the need to control as we practice to dive under our partner to create surprising possibilities for changing levels and little lifts. Finding comfort in discomfort. Trusting ourselves, trusting our partner/s. Releasing into the backspace!

This workshop is for dancers with some previous experience in Contact Improvisation (approximately one year of regular practice). If you are unsure whether this workshop is for you, please check in with us.

facebook

Registration, information & questions:
[email protected]
www.dinospiri.com
www.angelamaraflorant.de

Times:
Saturday 11.00 – 18.00 (including 1.5h lunch break)
Sunday 11.00 – 14.00

Place:
Mime Centrum Berlin STUDIO2, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenpl. 2, 10997 Berlin

Price:
155 € – 105 € > early bird discount, if payment is received by 15.01.2024
155 € – 130 € > afterwards

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