Dance Improvisation & Body Awareness Workshop: Organizing the body, opening to contact
21 March, 14h – 17h
Studio Jojiinc, rue de la Glaciere 18
These workshops are open to anyone interested in exploring movement as a way to deepen body awareness, improve mobility and enjoy dancing in connection with others. The workshops offer an original blend of dance practices, combining contemporary dance, elements of Body-Mind Centering®, relaxation and mindfulness techniques,as well as capoeira, and a pinch of partnered styles such as forró, tango, and fusion dance.
Objectives:
- To unwind and enjoy improvised movement — with or without prior dance experience
- To deepen body awareness
- To develop connection with dance partners
- To learn techniques from various dance and movement forms and apply them in improvisation
- To stay active while having fun and sharing enjoyable moments
Topics of the workshops will be published soon!
Programme
Programme maybe subject to change.
Saturday
14:00 – Workshop 1: Body awareness for connection: exploring the spine (with Agnieszka)
This workshop explores the spine as a source of movement, presence, and relational responsiveness. Through guided exercises, we awaken and articulate the spine, moving from the floor to standing, exploring waves, spirals, and vertebral articulation.
We then bring this awareness into partner work, using gentle touch, shared breath, and subtle attunement to explore connection and resonance.
15:20 – Break and refreshments
15:40 – Workshop 2: Relaxing into contact (with Lemmer)
Drawing on Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges, this workshop explores the Social Engagement System — the physiological state in which our nervous system naturally opens toward connection, bonding, and relational presence.
Through guided movement and partner work, we investigate how dance can help us navigate toward relaxation, safety, and trust, allowing us to soften protective patterns that may hinder connection, such as excessive tension, self-doubt, or inner withdrawal. Rather than forcing change, we practice meeting these responses with awareness, kindness, and constructive support.
The workshop integrates short theoretical inputs with embodied exercises so that the concepts become directly tangible in movement and contact.
Registration
Presale (until 2 March):
22 EUR for both workshops
Bring a friend promo: 32 EUR for two people for both workshops
Online sale (after 2 March):
one workshop: 17 EUR
both workshops 30 EUR
Bring a friend promo: 47 EUR for two people for both workshops
At the door:
one workshop: 22 EUR
both workshops: 40 EUR
bring a friend promo: 50 EUR
Registration will open soon!
Facilitators
Agnieszka
Agnieszka lives and dances in Brussels. She began dancing at the age of five, starting with ballet training before transitioning to contemporary dance. She completed years of training in contemporary dance with a two-year instructor program, after which she received a diploma as a contemporary dance instructor, certified by the Polish Ministry of Culture. Additionally, she practises forró and capoeira, exploring the rich diversity of movement and expression. From experimenting with various techniques to immersing herself in different dance forms, movement has always been central to her life.
Lemmer
For more than twenty years, Lemmer has been passionate about Contact Improvisation. He has completed his PhD on “Contact Improvisation, mindfulness, and flow experience”. His most influential teachers were Jörg Hassmann (GER), Dieter Heitkamp (GER), Angela Dony (RU) and Nancy Stark Smith (USA). His dancing and teaching is based on a wide range of somatic methods including Body-Mind Centering ©, Shiatsu, Yoga, Meditation, body-oriented trauma therapy, and the program “Creating Dance in Education” at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Lemmer is a psychologist, body- and movement therapist, and Embodiment researcher. He sees self-consciousness & body awareness, empathy & self-care, and the courage for collective & authentic creativity as essential future skills that humanity must strengthen to build a sustainable and socially just world. For him, dance is a amazing teacher for this.
He teaches at the University of Emden/Leer with a focus on the body–mind interaction and its relevance for development, learning, and health. In his private practice he works parttime as a certified body-psychotherapist and family coach (www.Joerg-Lemmer-Schmid.de). He is co-founder of the international HOPE Network (GER/AU/CH), which among other things aims to establish “somatic practicies” and “art” as a central basis in (higher) education systems.
Contact
Got any questions, suggestions, or want to collaborate? Contact Agnieszka at atworkagnieszka @ gmail.com.