Mixed-abled Dance Class

Course with Paolo Fossa & Patrizia Kubanek

This course is about contemporary dance as a shared space of experience for people with and without disabilities aged 16 and over. In 90 minutes per unit, we explore movement, body awareness and expression - each with their own possibilities, at their own pace.
The focus is on cooperation and precise physical work: We work with clear movement tasks, improvisation and choreographic structures that are developed together. Different bodies and styles of movement are taken seriously and developed further. Movements are translated individually, depending on your own abilities, without creating any limitations. This means everyone can develop and expand their own potential.
At the same time, moments arise in which we dance together in synchrony - not through conforming to a fixed form, but through a shared understanding of timing, dynamics and presence.
The course creates a space in which everyone is challenged and supported. It's about looking closely, listening and reacting to each other - and developing quality in the movement together. The aim is to explore individual limits and go beyond them step by step. No previous knowledge is required.
This course is aimed at anyone who wants to experience dance as an open art form - a practice in which different bodies, perspectives and ways of movement not only have space, but also actively shape the artistic quality.

Portrait photo: Paolo Fossa

Paolo Fossa

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Paolo Fossa is choreographer, dancer and teacher. He has been working throughout Europe for the last 20 years, applying his knowledge of the body in movement to contemporary dance and improvisation. He teaches in many theatres, dance companies, at Folkwang University, Academy of Theatre and Dance Amsterdam University of Arts, Tanzhaus NRW in Düsseldorf, Fontys in Tilburg and DansArt Akademie in Bielefeld. In cooperation with these institutions he also realises choreographies that stand alongside his numerous independent productions. Some of his latest works: Körpererzählung (2019), Stray Dogs (2018).Due to his pronounced communicative and organisational skills, he has been running a dance education project in Shenzhen/China since 2017 together with the Giessen Dance Company, where he has been working as a ballet master for contemporary dance since 2015. The aim is to develop a curriculum for contemporary and improvisation techniques at the Shenzhen Arts School. Parallel to his work on stage, he works with private and city institutions and leads several social projects with young people. Together with the choreographer Gerda König, creator of the first project of the M.A.D.E. ( Mixed-Abled Dance Education ), he is working on the creation of a new method of studying contemporary dance, which will enable students and dancers with and without disabilities to pursue a joint education.