In the organizer's words:

Every person is unique and has creative potential. At the Expressive Impulse Lab, we see this creativity as a resource. Pop music is omnipresent and familiar to many people. We use this proximity, play with familiar songs and put them into new contexts. We use dance to make music visible, translate sounds and lyrics into movement and give them new meanings. Content that initially seems far removed from the musical mainstream can be given a tragicomic and at the same time accessible dimension through the simple, often haunting language of pop music. For example, societal, political and social issues can not only appear rich in contrast, but can also be conveyed in an understandable, entertaining and open way. Based on these musical impulses, we begin to explore movement and link our own forms of expression with them. Together we get moving, explore the space and work with different levels, directions and speeds. In doing so, we explore our own possibilities and develop an initial feeling for physical expression, presence and contact within the group. Well-known songs serve as musical impulses from which qualities, moods and associations are translated into movement. We juxtapose these dance-improvisational impressions with a given movement phrase. From this, the participants develop short choreographies into which they incorporate their individual impulses from the previous improvisation and interweave them with a spontaneously given theme. The workshop is aimed at adults with previous dance experience.

As part of the MA Dance program at the DSHS, the workshop takes place in cooperation with TanzFaktur.

About Nicole & Francisco:

Nicole Hanke has been dancing since the age of three and has more than thirty years of dance experience. In the course of her career, she has led various school groups and dance clubs and now mainly teaches contemporary dance. She is studying for an M.A. in Dance at the German Sport University Cologne and has also completed the ADTV specialist dance teacher training in contemporary dance.

Francisco Bejarano Montes de Oca was born in Londrina (Brazil), the son of a Colombian actor and a Peruvian singer. After intensively exploring various dance styles in his home town of Saarbrücken, he moved to Berlin in 2011. He completed his professional training as a state-certified stage dancer in 2014 and subsequently worked on numerous dance and performance projects with various artists from the Berlin area, including Salvatore Siciliano, Friederike Hirz, Heidi Weiss, Alexandra Pirici, Sasa Queliz, Jair Luna, Nir de Volff/Total Brutal and many more. His international experience includes productions that have been performed in China, Israel, Scotland, Colombia, Poland and Germany. In addition to his freelance work as a dance creator, Francisco is currently studying for an M.A. in Dance at the German Sport University Cologne. His greatest concern is to develop interdisciplinary formats with social, intercultural and interdisciplinary content, to bring people into contact through movement