Tag Archives: ImPulsTanz

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Yoga + Shibari at ImPulsTanz

Very happy to once again be making the journey to Vienna this summer, my fourth time at ImPulsTanz. Dasniya is teaching Yoga + Shibari in the third week, and I shall be tagging along to help out.

Shibari + Yoga
Week3: July 30 – Aug. 3
17:00 – 20:00
Aresnal F
ImPulsTanz Workshops 2012 – Dasniya Sommer

Nawa Shibari means to wind, to knot or to bind with ropes. It refers to the ancient Japanese practice to tie up a person and was originally developed by Samurai in the 16th century. Today it is a technique to play physically, to perform or to experiment with the body and restriction. The workshop combines principles of Yoga with the tying technique Nawa Shibari. This Japanese term is usually translated as winding, knotting or binding a rope. Today it is a technique to play physically, to perform or to experiment with the body and restriction. The styles in Shibari are noticeably versatile, yet one can say that there are basic figures to use ropes effectively.

A crucial aspect of this is the combination of functionality with aesthetic rules. There are particular shapes and angles to tie ropes, which create a certain look and a sense of solid limitation at the same time. This is comparable to a moment of embracement, which supports the body and enables the tied person to relax into the ropes. In this sense the material can be understood as an extension of arms. A firm hug.

By starting a 3 hours with a short Yoga practice, the perception of the body gets refined before we engage into partner work. The Asanas (Yoga postures) focus on the effcient use of muscles or on alignment of the torso, head and limbs. Rotation of the spine or balance exercises can be tried in variously challenging postures.

Then there is the Kinbaku side in Shibari which is more concerned with the biochemical or psychological effects. In Japanese tradition they speak of capturing a persons heart, to connect to the partners spirit or to touch them soulfully. This experience of fragile intensity can happen in both directions. The tying person and the person being tied can direct the scene from their individual angle. The notion of power shifts within the constellations and is often not as straightforward as it appears from the outside. To guide the mind in an enjoyable way and to bring it back on the ground is a matter of sensitive touch with ropes and care. To shape the figure from inside is an equally minimal and a seductive task. Beside the serious and almost orthodox way of Shibari technique there is an utterly playful and animal like experience in ‘play’.

Bring comfortable clothing, a snack and your own ropes if you have.

Dasniya Sommer

Dasniya is based in Berlin. Her present focus in choreography is ,Shibari‘-Japanese rope bondage. Her work gained wider recognition in contemporary dance through her solo performance MA√ 15 { idiosyncrasy } || sin x = ly – fx²¯, using ballet, meditation, and self-suspension techniques, presented by Tanztage Berlin in 2009, Arte and City of women Festival (Ljubljana).

In 2011 she was part of the artistic team in Roméo Castellucci’s staging of the opera Parsifal at La Monnaie | De Munt in Brussels. Dasniya coached Shibari for the theatre production “BurkaBondage” by Helena Waldmann. In 2010 she was invited to perform this piece in India and Sri Lanka. Initiated by Tudelisuuden Tutkimuskeskus the Museum of contemporary Art Kiasma in Finland presented Dasniya‘s participatory rope installation as part of the Theatre Now Festival.

In 2012 she continued to collaborate with the finnish theatre group.The first showing of “Archetypical Encounter” was shown this year at the Performance Centre (Helsinki).

Her research is strongly influenced by her theoretical studies in philosophy, analytical feminism and aesthetic, which she undertakes at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She reflects on questions of body concepts and ethics in her stage work as well as her teaching. Her current artistic collaboration with the performer and choreographer Frances d’Ath focuses on structural aspects of Shibari, without following traditional notions of gender roles and its fetishised aesthetic.

Dasniya Sommer (Foto Patrick Siboni) Dasniya Sommer (Foto Patrick Siboni)

Yoga + Shibari at Charleroi Danses Yoga + Shibari at Charleroi Danses

Table Shibari at Alte Kantine Wedding Table Shibari at Alte Kantine Wedding

Shibari Installation Brussels Shibari Installation Brussels

Dasniya tying Thomas Dasniya tying Thomas

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Yoga & Shibari May

Yoga and Shibari for May! The usual Wednesday classes, plus the now- regular monthly self-suspension workshop, and two things I’ll write about separately shortly: the installation performance in Berlin, and Dasniya and I at ImPulsTanz.

For English please scroll down/ Please forward to people who might be interested

Bonsoir liebe Kolleg_innen!

inspiriert aus Paris findet Ihr anbei unsere Maiveranstaltungen. Jeden Mittwoch geht es in Berlin mit ‘Yoga & Shibari’ weiter, sowie mit einem jungen Performance Projekt zum partizipieren. Es handelt sich um eine Seilinstallation für die wir noch experimentierfreudige Teilnehmer_innen suchen. Außerdem freuen wir uns diesen Sommer beim TanzImPulsFestival in Wien zu unterrichten. Für mehr Details bitte runterscrolen.

Herzlich,

Dasniya und Frances

  1. Yoga & Shibari Berlin
  2. Self-Suspension Workshop-Berlin
  3. ‘Jute Disintegration’ 
  4. Einzelunterricht
  5. Sommerprogramm

Foto: Self Suspension Workshop Berlin, in den Uferhallen TEATRIS / Alte Kantine Wedding.

1. Yoga & Shibari 

Dieser vierstündige Workshop kombiniert Yoga mit der japanischen Seiltechnik ‘Shibari’
Workshoptext
Yoga Der Yoga Kurs kann unabhängig vom Shibari/Bondage besucht werden.

Termine: Mittwochs 9.,16.,23.,30. Mai 2012
Von: 19-23 Uhr
Ort: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine Wedding / TEATRIS, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin
U8 Pankstr/U9 Osloerstr.
Kosten: 20/15 Euro

2. Self-Suspension Workshop am Sonntag den 27. Mai, 14-20 Uhr. In diesem Kurs behalten wir die Seile in den eigenen Händen. Üben Aerial-Multitasking, das bedeutet Seil- und Atemtechniken mit physischen Intensitäten, Entspannungsmomenten und Kraft zu koordinieren. Und verwenden knotentechnisch traditionelle Figuren, sowie unseren liebgewonnenen Anarcho- Style.

Ort: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine Wedding / TEATRIS, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin
U8 Pankstr/U9 Osloerstr
Kosten: 50/40 Euro. Anmeldung und Info: email hidden; JavaScript is required

3. ’Jute Disintegration’ – Eine partizipative Seilinstallation

Es gibt viele Leute und viele Seile. Einige sind verflochten/binden sich selbst an/auf/unter und um einen langen Tisch herum; andere seilen sich zur Hälfte oder gänzlich in die Luft/bleiben ebenerdig. Wieder andere haben Seile um sich drapiert. Zeit vergeht und diese Dinge verändern sich. Möglicherweise bewegen sich Personen an andere Stellen, suspendieren Körperteile oder landen. Spiel mit oder lös die Gruppe auf!

Wann: Sonntag 13. und 20. Mai. Mehr Infos zu Proben und Teilnahme hier.

4. Einzelunterricht oder kleine Gruppen können flexible organisiert werden.

Mehr Infos unter: email hidden; JavaScript is required

5. Sommerprogramm 

Shibari/Yoga Workshop beim TanzImPulsFestival Wien: 30. Juli- 4.August; Mo-Fr jeweils 17-20 Uhr

Im Juli werden wir vorraussichtlich in Brüssel unterrichten. Die Infos gehen asap raus!

Bonsoir chère colleagues et amies!

back from Paris and happily inspired you find enclosed the May prgram. Every Wednesday there will be ‘Yoga and Shibari’ in Teatris, Berlin. Additionally we are working on a young installation performance and are still looking for people who want to participate. We are also happy to announce that we’ll be teaching at ImPulsTanzFestival this year. For more details please scroll down.

Hope to see you there!

Dasniya & Frances

1. Yoga & Shibari

The workshop combines principles of Yoga with the tying technique Nawa Shibari – Workshop Text (english) May 2012.pdf.
Yoga- Yoga can be practiced independently from Shibari /Bondage

When: 7-11 pm
Dates: Wednesdays, May  9, 16, 23, 30, 2012
Location:  Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine Wedding / TEATRIS, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin
U8 Pankstr/ U9 Osloerstr.
Costs: 20/15 Euro

2. Self-Suspension Workshop on Sunday May 27th, 14-20 Uhr. We will take apart the complex art of self-suspension. Coordinating rope technique, strength, breath, relaxation and physical intensities while being suspended with ropes. Using traditional tying figures and our beloved anarchic improvisation.

Location:  Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine Wedding / TEATRIS, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin
U8Pankstr/ U9 Osloerstr.
Costs: 50/40 Euro.
Registration: email hidden; JavaScript is required

3. ’Jute Disintegration’ – Eine partizipative Seilinstallation

There are many people and many ropes. Some are tied/tying themselves to/on/around/above/below a long table; others are self-suspended/partially suspended/mostly on the ground; others might just have one rope wrapped around them. Time passes, and this changes. Someone/people might move from one place to another, suspend themselves or come to the ground, join or leave, form or disband a group.

It is an anarchy of shibari; repetition and difference. It is It is also somewhat baroque, or ‘dressed up’; something of an installation, something of a performance.

When: Sunday 13th und 20th May. For more information and participation here.

4. Individual training or small groups can be organized spontaniously.

More information: email hidden; JavaScript is required

5. Summer program

Shibari/Yoga Workshop at ImPulsTanzFestival  in Vienna: July 30th -  4th Mo-Fr from 17-20 pm.

In July we will most likely teaching in Brussels. We’ll send the updates asap!

Dasniya Sommer TEATRIS Self-suspension Dasniya Sommer TEATRIS Self-suspension
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ein blick über café prückel

The day after opening Parsifal, we went to Bar du Matin for breakfast, and of course who should be there but Hans and Harold. Hans gave me a copy of the DVD of Café Prückel, as well as sent me some screenshots. I’ve been meaning to put these here ever since, so for a complete change from the last two months blogging… “What I did last summer…”

i am i am

5 families 5 families

and i said: how are the children? and i said: how are the children?

let go of all possessions let go of all possessions

eine kleine braun, bitte? eine kleine braun, bitte?

good vibrations good vibrations

hahahahahahaha! hahahahahahaha!

in a forest in a forest

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opening … and so on

We opened. Friday. Yes, is now Monday and half-way through. Two shows a day in Café Prückel, and so I drink much coffee and spend the remainder of the day blllrrrblllrrr…

Opening found us later at the ImPulsTanz lounge. I seem to have been not so social this festival, and this was my first visit there. I expect likely to have one more, though am more excited about returning to Lainzer Tiergarten, where I went on Saturday, our day off.

Also a day of cold, grey rain and wind. I decided some 20km of walking up and down and back up again might be perfect, and standing atop the tower at Hubertuswarte, above the crowns of the forest, belted by the inclement storm and near swept off and become airborne myself … mmm perfect way to spend a day.

Café Prückel is going rather well, somewhat chaotic each time in different ways, and becoming more a bacchanalia each time also. Four more to go, then back to Berlin on Wednesday — it’s been a while since I was properly there.

Back to opening night, Lewis — who has absconded from Wellington — and I practice our feast and the beast scene. I haven’t been taking any other photos lately (even missing the families of wild boars in the Tiergarten), and anyway… he’s been an avid stalker of supernaut for years, so it’s only fitting he finds his way into here now.

lewis and frances feast + beast lewis and frances feast + beast

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afterhours in café prückel

Late into last night under Café Prückel, something of a tech rehearsal then beer and waiting while the sound crew set up in the café above. I wandered a little with my camera, before returning home to eating and some drinks till much later.

café prückel sound test café prückel sound test

café prückel chandelier and tables café prückel chandelier and tables

café prückel tables and lamps café prückel tables and lamps

café prückel panorama café prückel panorama

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café prückel

We open tomorrow in Café Prückel…

Café Prückel
August 06, 15:00+19:00
August 08, 15:00+19:00
August 09, 15:00+19:00
August 10, 15:00+19:00

Hans Van Den Broeck / Cie. SOIT (NL/BE)
Café Prückel

Warning! Belgians penetrating the quiet of a Viennese coffee house. The graduate psychologist and co-founder of the famous Les Ballets C. de la B., Alain Platel, mans Café Prückel on Ringstraße with performers from his own company SOIT and guests from the Vienna dance scene. They take their seats at five tables and start chatting. The audience attempts to slip into the role of a discreet eavesdropper, picking up parts of conversations and let-out secrets, parts of strange stories being told there non-stop. This way, the visitors are piecing together their own stories. An adventure similar to the one Hans Van den Broeck undertook with his “Settlement” project at ImPulsTanz in 2008.

Duration: 30 minutes
Price: € 15,- | Reduced: € 12,-

— ImPulsTanz

Hans Van Den Broeck / Cie. SOIT — Café Prückel Hans Van Den Broeck / Cie. SOIT — Café Prückel

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lainzer tiergarten

I took off away from the city yesterday, as I’d been planning since before I arrived, remembering wandering in the hills around Vienna during DanceWEB and needing some noise of forests and trees. Much looking on maps and planning where to go took me along the U4 from Stadtpark to Lainzer Tiergarten, the 500 year old hunting ground of the Ferdinand I.

First walking from Nikolaitor upwards until arriving at Wiener Blick, much like Waterfall Gully, but Eucalyptus replaced by Walnut, Ash, Plane, Furs and others, not a few close to the age of the park itself. Then I got a bit lost. Somehow I’d decided I’d started from Lainzer Tor and had the idea I’d walk to Rohrhaus then circle back around via Hubertuswarte. Instead, finding myself approaching the end far too early, I discovered I’d in fact begun from Nikolaitor and was now at … Lainzer Tor. Lucky my idea of a good time is 5 hours by foot.

Considering it’s only been the last couple of weeks my hip and knee have calmed down (thanks to a rather good physio in Wedding) enough to cycle, yoga, and walk for hours after months of annoyance, a gentle walk of this long in rolling hills was enough to make me moan with pleasure at aching hips and legs. I really want to be enjoying days on my own in the mountains again, and soon.

Returning via St. Veiter Tor, I saw first a wild boar cross my path, silhouetted by a gash in the forest at the apex of a small rise. We were both as shocked as each other and tottered off with a bit of a gallop. Later, a pair of Fallow Deer, much less interested in humans than the ones behind the fence near Hermesvilla.

wien from wiener blick wien from wiener blick

fallow deer, looking for food fallow deer, looking for food

fallow deer in enclosure fallow deer in enclosure

forest near st veiter tor forest near st veiter tor

forest near nikolaitor forest near nikolaitor

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rehearsing in café prückel

Today in Café Prückel, in the cellar, in the theatre. Filming some of the performance and performing some of it also. This is the second half of the work, after the upstairs half at café tables with opaque, anxiety-inducing, self-involved monologues. I felt as if I was back in Settlement again, the intensity of long physical improvisations with little to start with but somehow Hans has given enough that things happen of their own accord. Lewis liked it so much he’s thinking of staying.

Last night seeing Louise Lecavalier in Akademietheater, performing Children by another choreographer I have strong euro-memories of — Zürich in SiWiC, where all the people… began and where I managed my first proper Europe life (well several months of) — with Nigel Charnock. Barrel rolls and amusing to see where ADT got its aesthetic from, though what it did with the idea, and what subsequent choreographers and dancers have done with the idea…

Anyway, more to think upon what kind of dancer I’d like to be in my fifties, and in Louise having something of a real ideal to aspire to. When I think of people who are still in their peak in their fifties, it tends to be climbers and other non-dancers. It’s difficult to find someone who manages dance and who doesn’t look compromised because of their age. So, hopefully when I am 52 I will be learning new things in movement and not slowing down.

And Hans. We have a little over a week till opening (I think), and much of it came together today. A long day underneath the café. Not much to say on what we do yet, as it still feels private and unformed (and unlike last year, ImPulsTanz haven’t found out about supernaut yet), shall wait yet. Shall wonder on what I shall be doing also…

Some photos then (and suddenly unsure whether to covet Panasonic’s new LX5, or their impending 3D lens for their Micro Four Thirds cameras — well the latter is looming as a purchase if I ever earn enough anyway…).

café prückel - 5 café prückel – 5

café prückel - 6 café prückel – 6

café prückel - 7 café prückel – 7

café prückel - 8 café prückel – 8

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rehearsing in the schauspielhaus

A long day finally with everyone together working through what has been until now individual and separate. Also the arrival of the final two who were not here last week — a full compliment. We are in a small, low ceilinged room above the ground floor, but not quite the first floor, an over-the-shop workroom. Wooden floor, rough, and a bank of windows along the length. Tables and chairs set up inside and out, down the stairs in the corridors to give some approximation of where we might be in café Prückel in under two weeks. Some photos…

café prückel - 1 café prückel – 1

café prückel - 2 café prückel – 2

café prückel - 3 café prückel – 3

café prückel - 4 café prückel – 4