The 35th Winter Dance School in Maribor

Maribor, 21 - 24 February 2020

WORKSHOPS AND TEACHERS

BALLET FUSION – TINA (MARTINA) DOBAJ

BALLET FUSION I & II

Tina's ballet fusion is a combination of stylized classical ballet with the softness of modern dance, different dynamics, power, sharpness, and volume of movement.
Ballet Fusion is a workshop tailored to the needs of the contemporary dancer and looks for parallels to the mechanisms in contemporary dance directions. The introductory part includes Pilates and floor barre exercises. The bar exercises are set through the understanding and proper use of anatomy (body placement) through ballet exercises, foot use, and extensions. Middle exercises cover coordination, transitions, space integration, and elevation dynamics. The final part is followed by exercises for strength and stabilization of the body on the ground.
Ballet fusion is suitable for all dancers, with more and less dance experience.

TINA (MARTINA) DOBAJ, dancer, choreographer, dance pedagogue,  graduated from the renowned dance academy P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. After finishing her studies she was accepted into the professional group ROSAS led by the famous Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for the performance Drumming, soon followed by the engagement in the performance The Vile Parody of Address by the choreographer William Forsythe.
After her return to Slovenia, she began teaching professional classes in Ljubljana and at the National Theatre in Maribor, while keeping in touch with Brussels, leading different trainings and workshops there. She also taught at the High School for contemporary dance - SVŠGL in Ljubljana, where she also works today as a contemporary dance and ballet teacher. She was also involved in the preparation of the dance curriculum for the art college in Ljubljana.
Since 2014 she also worked as a pedagogue and choreographer at high school Ptuj, where she helped establish the »Musical« department. She received two national dance awards called "Povodni mož" for her debutant choreography piece »Cesta« (»The Road«) and München festival award for her author piece Geiko (2004), followed by two more shows produced by Flota production - Ring in Kore wa tada no sen desu (2006 in 2007). Tina also collaborated with the renowned Slovene choir leader and conductor Karmina Šilec, producing very successful (and often-copied) choir choreographies for Carmina Slovenica's performances of Adiemus (2003) and CS LIGHT (2007). She collaborated with Slovene dancer Gregor Kamnikar in two very creative dance pieces "Odprto od do" and "Kapital". The latter was invited to the Brisbane festival in Australia (2011), where they led workshops at Queensland University and integrated students into the show.
In April 2013 she taught classes at New Jersey-based dance school MADLOM of choreographer Maja Milenović Workman, with whom she later collaborated as a dancer in her piece "Namišljena resnica - Virtual truth" premiered in September 2013 at »Stara elektrarna« in Ljubljana. In the same year, she also collaborated in improvisation projects in New York, performing with jazz legends Reggie Workman and Ken Vandermark, under the direction of Maja Milenovič Workman.
Since February 2014 she created performances as LaMuG-Zi performance collective, joined by a musician Andrej Hrvatin. Tina now teaches her classes with corepetitor Andrej Hrvatin in Slovenia and abroad.
In 2016, she carried out the project M - Touch in the production of the Federation and Silhouette with the financial assistance of the Municipality of Maribor in the Minority Church. She presented her work also in Choreographic international collaboration in Udine in 2018 and get a prize for choreography Silhouette. She taught Einstein the Yoseida Shiatsu
Tina is also trained in Shaolin and Wudan Kung fu and she is teaching Qi gong and she works also as a shiatsu therapist.
Tina is holding the professional classes at the National Ballet Company in Theatres in Slovenia, Austria, and Croatia and she teaches also contemporary technics at the Conservatory of Ballet in Maribor at the moment.

YOGA, CONTEMPORARY DANCE 1, CONTEMPORARY DANCE 2 WORKSHOP – MAJA KALAFATIĆ

YOGA

foto Nikola Jankovic

Each class will have its own theme, so in four days we will focus on the hips, back (backbends), arms and inversions (inverted positions). Through awareness-raising exercises, working in pairs, assisting each other’s we will aim to stabilize the body, as well to open and strengthen muscle tissue. We will enjoy dynamic sequences as well insights into individual positions and the integration of yoga into dance practice.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE 1

Contemporary Dance 1 focuses on mastering the basic principles of contemporary dance techniques (floor work, release techniques) and somatics. We will work on the articulation of the body and the relation towards the space in and out of the body. The first part of the lesson is dedicated to warming up, work in pairs and floor work, while the second part focuses on different sequences through which we work on the quality of fluidity. Particular emphasis is placed on the musicality and performance of the dance / movement material.

foto Bučinel Borut BUC

This workshop has no specific level. It is suited to address a wide range of individual possibilities and different qualities of movement, thereby avoiding the limitations of high dance requirements and focusing on and emphasizing the strengths of each dancer.

The class time will be distributed as follows: the first hour will be a technical class, where we will explore the elements of the release technique, Flying Low, Passing Through, Counter technique, Limon and

contact dance. This will be very useful to develop coordination, strength, flexibility, laterality, spatial and body awareness of the students.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE II

In this workshop, the students will learn several technical-creative-interpretive elements, derivatives of contemporary dance. This will provide the students the necessary tools for developing a creative process that leads to knowing one’s body and establishing an intimate dialogue within themselves. We will focus on movement qualities and the use of the space and time in order to discover the narrative of the dance: movement as a nonverbal communication. The relationship with music will also be one of the main focuses of this advanced class: the use of polyrhythm in the body and understanding music as a tool to improve dance technique.

Both workshops will be enriched by live DJ Dušan.

ALICIA PAULINA OCADIZ ARRIAGA, MA, received her master’s degree in Dance and Motion Arts in 2015. Her topic was researching the meeting points between Indonesia and Mexico at the San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia in Murcia, Spain. She graduated in Contemporary Dance from the National School of Classical and Contemporary Dance of Mexico and is a certified dancer at the prestigious Rotterdam Dance Academy, CODARTS, in Rotterdam, Holland, and the Beijing International Arts School in Beijing, China. She has performed as a choreographer, dancer and circus artist in various stages, theatres and festivals in countries such as Mexico, Holland, France, Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, Slovenia and China. She has been a member of the 2Move Dance Company (Holland), NANA + NA (Panama), Foco al Aire Producciones (Mexico), Ashley Meeder Movement Project (USA), Circus Kansky (Slovenia) and other independent collectives. In 2009 she won the "Mexico City Youth Award", which put her on the list of young talents of the city government, and in 2010 she won the Niewe Maan award for creating and executing the best show for Gallery within the Framework of the Museum Nacht, in Rotterdam, Holland.
In May 2019, she presented very successful a dance debut Assemble Yourself in production by Plesni Teater Ljubljana.

More: http://ptl.si/majmay-2019/2019/4/9/13-14-in-15-5-2000-alicia-paulina-ocadiz-arriaga-assemble-yourself-sestavi-se-premiera

FREESTYLE- URBAN DANCE CYPHER – GAŠPER KUNŠEK

FREESTYLE- URBAN DANCE CYPHER I & II

After that, we'll use this knowledge to create a personal style, emotion or feeling, and through the so-called Cyphra communicate with the entire collective of participants in this experience.

foto Bučinel Borut BUC

GAŠPER KUNŠEK is a self-employed choreographer, dancer, and teacher. In his early years, he participated in a plethora of festivals, events, and competitions, where he achieved excellent results. Soon after he discovered musical, dance performance, interdisciplinary project, comedy, children's performance, conceptual performances, street shows, dance battles, and in general with different kinds of techniques of performing, set in different eventful places, later on with short films and choreographed theater performances.

With 14 years of age, he started working together with Žigan Krajnčan. Together they research universal systems of movement, life, ways of living, and working. Through the strengthening of their skills in performance, mostly improvising, though the fusion of the lives principals of movement like Hip Hop, House, Modern dancing, Freestyle, contact improvised yoga, alchemy, Krump, Shamanic dance, Newstyle, Bboying, Smashing, Yoga, Locking, and Popping they developed their own way of expression.
They designed a nonverbal conversation or "Talking through the telepathy of movement", which in their case gives them their originality.

In the year 2016/2017, they began creating their second author duet called Alien Express, which concept grows from performance to performance. In the last 2 years, they already performed more than 50 shows with the duet abroad. They've been working together for 6 years now. In the year 2017, the Ministry of culture gave them the status of independent culture artists.

CRITICS: 
ALIEN EXPRESS : 
http://aerowaves.org/springback/reviews/article/alien-express

POPPING, LOCKING and WORKSHOP URBAN & CONTEMPORARY FUSION – ALEX TESCH

POPPING, LOCKING and WORKSHOP URBAN & CONTEMPORARY FUSION

The styles Locking and Popping, also referred to as Funkstyles are Dance Styles born in the 70s on the Westcoast of the USA. With the rise of funk music and dances and the Show Soul Train, these Locking and Popping were inspired by cartoons and movies to develop into the funky and entertaining dances we love today.

foto Matic Trepelj

Alex Tesch, in the dance scene also known as Loftex, has been dancing since the age of 7 and has studied urban styles all over the world and competed, won and judged competitions internationally. He graduated from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and is working on his bachelor of Arts at the Royal Conservatory of Dance in Antwerp. He is currently based in Ljubljana were he is transmitting his knowledge and experience of 10 years of teaching dance.

BAREFOOT FLAMENCO – URŠKA CENTA

BAREFOOT FLAMENCO

Under the name of barefoot flamenco, flamenco workshops are hidden without traditional footwear. We dance it barefoot, in direct contact with the soil and the primitive, historical roots of the flamenco. The workshops are designed to get to know his movement technique, to raise awareness of the body and to learn how to use his own anatomical structures, and are suitable for all levels of flamenco dance skills - you will find yourself in the flamenco for the first time. The structure of the workshops is based on the development of a sense of musicality and rhythm, spaciousness and geometry of dance, where through the technique of classical flamenco we explore our own movement creativity and expressiveness and follow our personal movement instinct. The workshops consist of warm-ups, technical movement exercises and dance sequences, rhythmic and melodic flamenco exercises, clapping, creative dance tasks and choreography. The teaching is based on the technique of the dancers and educators of the Madrid Academy of Flamenco Amor de Dios - Merche Esmeralde, Belen López and Conche Jareño, and combines it with the personal movement approach of the teacher of Urška Centa.

URŠKA CENTA is a flamenco dancer and stage creator who extends her field of activity from far to other artistic waters. She gained her knowledge at the Madrid flamenco academies Amor de Dios and the UFlamenco Academy, and at the Ljubljana Dance Academy she is finishing her studies of contemporary dance and choreography. Since returning to Slovenia in Ljubljana, she has been leading the 'Noches de tablao' cycle, with which she represents and interconnects renowned local and foreign musicians and dancers, thus creating a platform for the development of new projects that draw on the flamenco tradition and combine it with different world music cultures and music. other modern artistic guidelines. As a dancer, she performs on important stages and festivals at home and abroad, including with the music project 'MTF feat. Sub-Lime 'performs at the inauguration of the 59th Ljubljana Jazz Festival, with the Sufi music and flamenco project' Nairuz 'at the inauguration of the Grlom u Strawberry Jazz Festival Sarajevo, as a soloist at the 2019 National Day at the Ljubljana Urban Culture Center Shishka, however, staged four premieres between 2013 and 2018. He creates various projects ('Lorca, you and me', 'Sentido', 'Deblas / Goddess', 'Sacai', 'One ballad, please!', 'MTF', 'Nairuz', etc.), in which he collaborates with the exposed Slovenian and foreign artists. As an educator and choreographer, she works at the CoraViento Dance and Cultural Association and collaborates with other dance associations and institutions abroad.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZMVsFLgPw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHXprnYIpvE

SALSA FUSION SOLO – KATJA ČUK

SALSA FUSION SOLO

It will be a group/solo workshop, consisting of warming up, explaining and dancing the basic steps of salsa, body movement exercises, and dance choreography/routines. Poco a poco, we will learn a salsa routine that combines different salsa styles and elements of other dance genres.
The workshop is suitable for all dancers, men, and women, regardless of the genre of dance background. Modern, contemporary, jazz dancers and hip-hop dancers are invited - I'm preparing an exciting challenge! J

KATJA ČUK: Life has given me the opportunity and possibility to develop and consolidate myself in a number of fields: the most outstanding are dance and pedagogy. I was dancing since the age of 7 on various dance courses, seminars and winter and summer dance schools; completed my studies in pedagogy and sociology at the University of Maribor; completed my education for the Creative Movement and Dance Teachers at JSKD, and was educated in Colombia as a dancer and dance teacher of salsa and other Latin rhythms. Living in Colombia, I worked on many interesting dance, theatre, arts, and pedagogical projects: among others, I was part of two "Salsodromo" show parades in Cali (salsa parades on the streets of Cali, the third-largest city in Colombia and called also the world’s capital of salsa). I danced in numerous smaller and bigger performances in Colombia, Greece, and Slovenia.

I teach salsa and all its genres, like other dance rhythms and styles. I do recreational dance and movement workshops, private dance lessons; I offer performances and shows, animations and provide choreographic work.

DANCE is my element - it means dance is that space/activity where I feel me and where I am at home. For many years, I attended and danced at Winter and Summer Dance School workshops organized by JSKD. Today I am honored to be invited and participate as a dance educator.More: www.katyadanceeducation.com 

DANCE WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN (aged 5 – 7) and MENTORS’ WORKSHOP: Two Flying Ones and a Barefoot One – “THE FAIRYTALES” – SAŠA LONČAR

DANCE WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN – THE FAIRYTALES

Wandering in our daily routine steals our fantasy world. Stories mark our daily lives and draw a picture of life from them. But what's missing in this picture?
This time we will embark on a wonderful world of fairy tales, existing and fictional, which will be explored, shaped and narrated through different processes.
Our fairy tale will give birth to new heroes, who will embark on miraculous paths, with magical challenges at any given moment.

THE MENTORS’ WORKSHOP

SAŠA LONČAR is a renowned dance educator and choreographer, founder and artistic director of KD Qulenium in Kranj and Ljubljana. She annually organizes the Festival of Stage Arts Kalejdoskop and research and creative summer camp for children at Mašun. Through her creative processes, imbued with a vivid imagination, openness, daring and excellent leadership sense, she stimulates children’s dance creativity and enriches their personal expression of movement. Saša and her dancers take part in numerous important events and festivals at home and abroad (France, Indonesia, India, Croatia, Denmark, Serbia). 
She was awarded the Meta Vidmar plaque and the Ksenija Hribar Prize at the 9th Gibanica Biennale 2019 for artistic, creative and educational achievement.
More: www.qulenium.org