Guest teachers
Helene Düring Kjær is a freelance contemporary dance artist based in Norway and Denmark. Both a creator and performer who works in various artistic collaborations and as a dancer for choreographers. Holds a BA in contemporary dance from University of Stavanger. I have been dancing CI for some years and explored it at several intensives and festivals. I love the playful dialogues, exploration of gravity and exchange of energy. Since 2022 I am teaching CI in Aarhus (DK).
Šárka Benedová is a Czech performer based in Norway with a focus on contemporary dance and saxophone - as separate entities as well as fluid partners in expression. Šárka holds a BA in contemporary dance and pedagogy from the Music and Arts University of Vienna. Ever since I first experienced CI, I knew it will always be a significant part of my professional practice. I really enjoy the way you get to explore your own body in different contexts and situations with different partners, finding meanings without words. Over the years, I have gathered experience in facilitating CI to a wide spectrum of practitioners - from beginners to professional movers.
Sadhana Fichtner commenced her dance and performance studies in Germany in 2001 after being captivated by a stunning dance performance that revealed the beauty and depth of the art of dance. She spent seven years in intensive study, participating in two different professional training programs.
In 2011, Sadhana discovered the inspiring work of the Axis Syllabus while searching for a movement expression that would allow her to follow her own inherent body intelligence and experience more freedom. This encounter fundamentally changed her understanding of the moving and dancing body, and she has since dedicated herself to studying and teaching the information and perspectives offered by the Axis Syllabus ©. Sadhana has been a certified Axis Syllabus teacher since 2023.
She teaches dance classes and workshops regularly, sharing the perspectives and principles of the Axis Syllabus with aspiring dancers and movement enthusiasts in Berlin and France.
Corinna Stache is a dancer, dance teacher and mother of two wonderful children. Dance has been her constant companion, means of expression and language since early childhood. At the age of 21, she gained the courage to put dancing at the center of her life and began an education as a dance teacher at the Lola Rogge School in Hamburg (focus on modern dance and improvisation). Since graduating in 2002, she has been teaching at various schools and pursuing her own courses and projects. Driven by her irrepressible interest in dance, she continues to educate herself always discovers new facets and possibilities for expression. In addition to her work as a dance teacher, she played a key role in the creation of the Contact Community in Rostock/Germany. She organized workshops with guest teachers, taught workshops and regular classes, organized regular jams, as well as jams with live music and beach jams. She is particularly fascinated by the connection between dance and nature
experience. Her classes are characterized by lightness, presence and creativity in dealing with the most diverse means of expression from different dance styles and individual research. Since July 2023 she is living with Florian and their two sons in the southwest of France at the Atlantic (Capbreton). On an idyllic spot on earth, they are just starting to build a new meeting place for dance and nature enthusiasts.
(Corinna on Instagram: cori.danse)
Roland Nordeck (Göttingen/Germany)
"I have been practicing CI for about twenty-five years. My first full time dance studies happened in
San Francisco - with Keriac (and many other teachers). Later I studied contemporary dance in
Outokumpu (Finnland) for three years full-time (2005-2008).
Aikido is an important part of my movement background and my understanding of grounding and
relating to impulses.
For many years my interest in Shiatsu massage has been affecting my dancing. I am considering
both CI and Shiatsu to be touch-arts and practices to deepen perceptive touch and intuition.
Bodywork and improvisational dance complement my general interest in communication.
I am involved in “Tanztheater Göttingen” – mostly in the role of teacher and choreographer.
I live, dance, teach, choreograph and offer bodywork in Göttingen."
Baja Kostrunkova is a curious dancing being, inspired by connection, touch, body memory and the ocean’s waves. She lives in Berlin and Portugal.
Baja works in the group culture and mindfulness field. She has co-funded the nonprofit organisation „Imagine“ to offer MBSR (Mindfulness-based stress reduction) online classes.
She has been dancing and studying Contact Improvisation for many years with various great teachers and movers from all over the world. Baja studies Body Mind Centering©, focused on infant development and it’s relation to movement patterns in an adult life. She loves BMC© for being an embodied practice that re-balances body and mind through movement, awareness and relating.
Mathilde Mensink is a dance artist, maker, singer and CI practitioner. She studied Contemporary Dance at Iceland Academy of the Arts and Tanzfabrik, Berlin. In her artistic practice, she works with various mediums, but always anchored in the body. She has practiced CI for 10 years and has studied the practice with Dorte Bjerre, Juli Gabor, Matan Levkovich, Thomas Kampe, Noam Carmeli, Hagit Yakira, Ivona Olszowska and others. Her practice is rooted in a somatic approach to the body and movement. She dances with soft sensitivity and playful wildness.
Maria Elste (Berlin, GER) studied contemporary dance in Finland. She fell in love with contact improvisation in 2001. Since than she is researching the principles of instant composition on the
border between theatre and dance, teaching contact improvisation and Shiatsu.
Her dance is influenced by martial arts, authentic movement, Shiatsu, nature and the people she met throughout her life.
„I'm fascinated by the composition happening each moment and curious to understand it's principles. The motivation for my teaching comes out of my deep interest in connections
and movement. I want to encourage my students to evolve their own questions in an aware and joyful atmosphere. Lately I'm mainly teaching and giving Shiatsu – combining shiatsu
and dance became my current passion“
Esther Berias (*1973) is a dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, Pilates trainer, yoga teacher and bodyworker.
"For as long as I can remember, I've loved exercise. For me, movement is an expression of vitality! My main interest is in contact improvisation, both as an art form and as a principle of life!”
Studies: Choreography & Postmodern Dance (Diploma) at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Amsterdam, Netherlands (1997-2001)
Since 2001 working as a freelance artist.
Since 2006 teacher for special tasks at the HMTM Hannover, drama department.
Teaching area: Movement, modern and postmodern dance.
https://www.bewegung-tanz.de/