#51 Residency in Croatia

Something old, something new, something borrowed…

First week of residency is behind me. Upon my arrival we introduced ourselves, explained a little what we had on our mind and what we were expecting of this residency. 

The good thing is that our group comes from diverse backgrounds, and everyone has a vast experience in different fields, so we offered to exchange and share our knowledge.

For that, Žak led our first workshop which was a mixture of natural warm up authentic movement praxis and embodiment of whispered text, so we can become more familiar with each background and body movement. That was something old but taught in a new refreshing way.

The second day Alexandra led a nice class of her oven practice in which part of the whole body warm up consists of nonstop motion and fluent movement from the beginning to the end.

Then we learned the basics of House dance practice from a contemporary dance approach led by Justyna which was new for me but also fun. It also gave me an insight of the House culture from the beginning and a completely new and serious approach to that part of urban culture.

And for something borrowed I led a class that I based on towelling exercises of Anna Halprin and basics of water dances in the sea. That kind of exercise gives a really deep relaxing feeling and freedom by increasing range of motion. I usually do not give classes in water but having a sea and a task of sustainability gave me an idea to show how we can use a water as a new media for movement research. 

By Jasna Čižmek Tarbuk

Nešto staro, nešto novo, nešto posuđeno…

Prvi tjedan boravka je iza mene. Po mom dolasku predstavili smo se, malo objasnili što nam je na umu i što očekujemo od ove rezidencije.

Dobra stvar je što naša grupa dolazi iz različitih sredina i svatko ima veliko iskustvo u različitim područjima, pa smo ponudili razmjenu i dijeljenje našeg znanja.

Za to je Žak vodio našu prvu radionicu koja je bila mješavina prirodne prakse zagrijavanja autentičnog pokreta i utjelovljenja šaputanog teksta, tako da se možemo bolje upoznati sa svakom pozadinom i pokretom tijela. To je bilo nešto staro, ali poučavano na nov, osvježavajući način.

Drugog dana Aleksandra je vodila lijep sat svoje vježbe u pećnici u kojoj se dio zagrijavanja cijelog tijela sastoji od neprekidnog kretanja i tečnog pokreta od početka do kraja.

Zatim smo naučili osnove prakse House dance-a iz pristupa suvremenog plesa pod vodstvom Justyne, što je za mene bilo novo, ali i zabavno. To mi je također dalo uvid u House kulturu od početka i potpuno nov i ozbiljan pristup tom dijelu urbane kulture.

A za nešto posuđeno vodila sam tečaj koji sam bazirala na vježbama brisanja ručnika Anne Halprin i osnovama vodenih plesova u moru. Takva vrsta vježbe daje stvarno dubok osjećaj opuštanja i slobode povećavajući raspon pokreta. Obično ne držim nastavu o vodi, ali more i zadatak o održivosti dali su mi ideju da pokažem kako vodu možemo koristiti kao novi medij za istraživanje kretanja.