Cristina’s contemporary dance classes are addressed to people who want to enter into a dialogue with their body, who want to get to know it better with everything it has to show: emotions, limits, energy and the joy of breathing. In recent years her interests focused on composition and a research of anatomy through various techniques such as: Feldenkrais, Axis Syllabus, Contact Improvisation. The therapeutic part plays an important role in Cristina’s classes.

A regular contemporary dance course is divided into:

Warm-up and training where sometimes we will do exercises to strengthen the muscles and explore a healthy alignment of the body, and other times exercises for the best fluidity in movement, using free and relaxed joints of the hands and feet (inspired by techniques such as Feldenkrais, Axis Syllabus ). Thus, the vocabulary of movement will include: spirals, contractions and extensions, jumps, slides on the floor; we’ll learn to use the floor to push or slide, we will learn to fall effectively, etc.

Choreographic routines: We’ll work the sequences movement by movement, slowly building them into short choreographies.

Improvisation, working with emotion, with partners, with the energy of one’s own body, one’s own mind: There will also be improvisation games in which in which students can search for personal pleasure and interests  in movement; we will raise the issue of communicating with others through gestures, and the main focus will be on feeling and observing. We will seek to increase attention to your own sensations as well as what it means to feel pleasure in movement.

Relaxation, massage, stretching (Bodywork), in which we relax the body and enter into a relation of self care as well as caring for the other partners (most of the time we will work in two / three). We will experience what it means to give and receive sensations.

“The aim of the class is to raise awareness about our person both physically and mentally, to train in a way that body, mind and emotions are present, to be part of a warm and lively group . The atmosphere full of life and joy is one of the aspects that I especially want in classes, which is also evident in the way I work. ” Cristina

In recent years, Cristina has focused on intensive modules that revolve around a research topic of the moving body. Thus, a series of modules appeared such as:

Living System

The human body is built to be in motion. This is one of the statements made by researchers that opened up new perspectives and horizons, new needs for exploring the physical and mental level. Being inspired by the latest Body Mind Centering and Axis Syllabus classes I took, I’ve created a format for exploring the anatomy and the countless ways in which the body can find freedom of movement. Starting from images of the human anatomy, we’ll aim to widen our sphere of perception and to be in a more real contact with the message of our body.

For me, this space in which we discovers the internal mechanisms of our bodies that, sometimes seem magical or surprising, has always been a source of revelation and a “home”. What I want is to share with you this feeling of being alive in my own body, a feeling that seems to me to be a salvation in these turbulent times in which we live.

We’ll use guided improvisation, as well as short choreography elements to understand and explore in depth the chosen themes and especially to get out of the automatic patterns of the movements they practice. We will also explore in small groups, taking into account the distance imposed by pandemic norms and we will look for methods of effective communication, while remaining in a health safety framework.

The module will consist of 10 sessions, each of which is dedicated to a specific part of human anatomy.

Trailer:

– video by Alina Ușurelu

(Re) creation through dance

I invite you to a 5 session module in which the focus will be on creative techniques and composition through movement. You don’t have to be a professional in contemporary dance to participate in this module (but you can be) or to create with your own body, to understand the space around you, to feel the time in which we unfold.

Thus, through a series of techniques from Viewpoints (Mary Overlie), Real Time Composition, Tuning Scores (Lisa Nelson) and Logomotion (Simone Forti) as well as other forms of inspiration that we will find in our own body or in our daily life, we’ll explore how we can express through our body and communicate intimate parts of ourselves to the world.

The intelligence of the moving body

By consciously moving through dance, we let this memory of the body express itself, the interior calm down, and we gradually learn to follow our natural movements and make room for improvisation and flexibility.

From the passion for the moving body and the curiosity to discover in depth how the human body works in all its complexity, we have prepared a 6 – session module in which we introduce you to contemporary dance. The courses are open to those who want to become aware of their body, to observe themselves inmovement, and at the same time to deepen techniques of movement through space, body alignment, falls, jumps, etc.

Thus, the module will be a mixture of body awareness techniques, contemporary dance and Contact Improvisation meant to put us in touch with what our body has to transmit; we will find the joy of moving through improvisation and at the same time we will integrate fixed choreographic parts that organize the body.

Surfing the Space

Out of the fascination for energetic movement, for the exercises that awaken the body to life and make it move without inhibitions, we have created a module of five sessions of two hours each in which we explore the impulse that gives birth and nourishes the movement. Through a mixture of exercises that increase the level of energy in the body and methods of body awareness we get to enjoy movement in a very complex way; on the one hand we feel the joy of the momentum we find in motion, and on the other hand we become as aware as possible of everything that appears in the body, of everything that is built around us and with our intention.

We’ll work with both improvisation exercises and choreography. We will explore with exercises in which we focus on ourselves, on personal sensations, but also with group exercises in which we interact in various ways with our partners and discover how we can stimulate that energy impulse through the presence of the other. We’ll use exercises inspired by several contemporary dance techniques such as: Flying low Technique, Axis Syllabus, Contact Improvisation etc.

This module is addressed to those who want to know how to wake up their energy and use it to “build” the space they are in, to those who want to jump, run, “fly”, to those who want to feel the enthusiasm of their own body.

In and Out

Composition and Contact Improvisation

By moving consciously through a mixture of Contact Improvisation elements and body awareness exercises we let this memory of the body express itself, the interior calm down, we learn to follow our natural movements and make room for improvisation and flexibility.

Thus, the course will be a mixture of contemporary dance techniques and Contact Improvisation meant to put us in touch with what our body has to transmit and especially in a subtle dialogue with those around us. From this space of communication our dance will begin.

Building A New Spine

Together

We will start with some awareness exercises to understand the shape and possibilities, the flexibility of each individual spine. Slowly, as we discover what it means “to have a spine” as an individual in your unique dance, we’ll meet a partner. Then the fun begins! We will discover how to use our spine in certain lifts that appear in Contact Improvisation, how to keep it safe and at the same time and, most importantly, how to keep our individuality while dancing with a partner.

What does it mean to listen and propose in the same dance? What is a balanced exchange in a Contact Improvisation dance? What does it mean to be with your partner and at the same time listen to your needs? We will answer these questions together.

To find out more about the classes, modules and workshops held by Cristina you can access www.cursuridanscontemporan.ro, and to be up to date with the following modules follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dansulcristinei