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Partnering- The common Body
Olivia & Yochai established THE COMMON BODY, a versatile approach to movement and creation with a strong focus on partnering work. Their language offers the choice to discover a whole range of physical actions/variations with the awareness of an articulated body using creative pathways while moving/dancing with a partner. Their interest is to develop skillfulness in communicating through the body and expand our own physicality by having another body to dance-play.
Their movement language is inspired by contact improvisation, soft acrobatics, Feldenkrais, Ilan Lev, Vipassana meditation, NVC and floor work technique. Their tools have been harvested along many years of exploration, breaking down patterns, professional stage experience, several creation processes and many hours in the studio.
Their teaching moves from breaking down physical actions to details to an exploratory laboratory of different angles of how to look at the same thing.
Putting a magnifying glass on physical tasks refines movement's authenticity and integrity. The outcome is the alive and tangible presence of the dancer/performer.
The relevance of their work for today's dancers and movers is to find “real time communication” while having the ability to express ideas, tasks and concepts in a clear way. Their unique approach triggers the dancer/mover’s mind to become sharper without losing playfulness.
Their goal is to find the joy of improvising inside set choreographed structures by training the mind and body to be in a state of possibilities.
They are passionate about sharing their insights with curious minds, adapting to the needs of the students/dancers.
Olivia & Yochai are based in Israel and work as professional dancers and dance teachers. They have been collaborating together since 2012. They are partners in life as well and they practice how family-life-dance and art can coexist in the most inspiring way.
Teaching
Floorwork
Olivia's class focuses on discovering the potential of our bodies from different angles and propositions. Bringing awareness of how we can work more efficiently with our energy, learning for example how to disassociate our muscle tone in different parts of our bodies, or exploring important aspects of our breathing system, always re-understanding and respecting the anatomy of our constantly changing body.
Some of the basic principles which are constantly worked with are: using the floor as a main tool to find smoothness and different sources for movement, continuous movement flow, using the pelvis of the body as a motor to discover more mobility, being on and off balance, finding the clearness between resting and doing, using principles of arching and spiraling, staying resilient while being challenged.
The class increases physical awareness in order to be able to work with his individual limits and keep the body safe. Trusting the body, allowing the body to express, finding freedom to find new impulses and sources for new qualities.
The class will start with unlocking, strengthening and lengthening the body. Afterwars we will use different exercises alone or with a partner to discover a specific intention in our movement and in the way we relate to our dancing body.
We will eventually move on the floor and across the space celebrating our aliveness.
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