SINNESWÜSTEN

Everybody Can Dance is a collaboration between the Teatrul Muzical Ambasadorii (Bucharest, RO) and DasCollectif (Vienna, AU). This project started from the wish to improve the professional skills of the artistic staff of the theater, acquire new skills, and harmonize the artistic relationships between vocal soloists, actors and dancers. The main event was a 10 day workshop from March 8-17th, 2023 at Palatul al Copiilor, in Bucharest with 25 members of the artistic team of Teatrul Muzical Ambasadorii. Led by Irina Pauls and Sara Wilnauer, the workshop was based on Pauls’ practical implementation of Laban Movement Analysis and enriched by the Sound and Voice practice from Sara Wilnauer.

Beginning by touching on Laban’s social context, the workshop introduced Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) as a tool to appreciate and understand different aspects of movement, not only through sensing, but also through observation. Through the different embodied practices, the intention is to clarify the connection to one’s own body and, in turn, the body’s relation to the environment around it. Irina and the participants discussed the organization of the body and breaking dance down to its essential elements through the terminology of LMA: body, space, shape, effort, phrasing, and relationship. Through the warm-up, vocal session and movement practices in different spaces, we cultivated deeper awareness of the body in space through exercises with the body, with the voice and working with architecture.

Over the course of the workshop, a stronger sense of unity within the group has grown. For the work-in-progress showing Irina placed various combinations of groups and solos from the Architecture in Space Structured Improvisations together on stage. Through these simple compositional choices, participants who were not dancing could witness their peers’ own, small creations and observe how the Laban elements refined, structured, and enlivened the movements on stage.

Teaching Artists:
Irina Pauls (Choreographer), Sara Wilnauer (Music and Dance), Victoria McConnell (Dance and Dokumenting)