Contemporary dance- Axis Syllabus

Workshop with Irina Hortin

Classroom classes will only take place live with participants at the tanzhaus. Should it no longer be possible to continue the face-to-face classes due to pandemic restrictions, the remaining dates would be cancelled.

Irina combines elements from diverse contemporary dance techniques and from contact improvisation, always with the aim of supporting the self-perception of the body and its functionality in dynamic situations. In Irina’s classes, the participants learn to mindfully observe their bodies and to examine them via movement research, change of perspective and by repeating different sequences. “What happens when I turn my hand, how does the torso react, how does my hand react? Where does my movement lead me in conjunction with gravity?” Irina is fascinated by the ability to let certain body parts fall and how doing so creates a motor for movement. She also directs the gaze inward and invites participants, independently of prior dance experience, to admit themselves into what is there. 

Axis Syllabus
US-American dancer Frey Faust is the author and initiator of the Axis Syllabus information archive. This movement dictionary is based on a holistic understanding of human movement. Information from biomechanics, anatomy, physics and medicine are taken into account in their interdependence and put into practical use to analyse movement and to research and train a functionally meaningful coordination in one’s own body. An Axis Syllabus class provides space for playful experience and personal research in a collaborative learning environment. Anatomical visual aids, structured partner* improvisation and choreographed movement sequences serve as sources for inspiration. It is all about an easy and intense feeling of movement, not only in dance, and about a respectful contact with oneself as well as with one another. Not least, it is, of course, about the joy of dancing.

Irina Hortin

Irina Hortin

Show courses (1)

Irina Hortin first studied linguistics and literature in Germany, France and Argentina before going on to study contemporary dance in Cologne and Munich. She performs internationally, regularly choreographs for Schalktheater in Zurich, heads youth dance theatre projects and teaches contemporary dance, contact improvisation as well as tango at international festivals. The encounter with Frey Faust, an important figure within French contemporary dance and editor of movement dictionary Axis Syllabus, was of special importance for Irina’s vocational biography, and Irina, as a certified Axis Syllabus (AS) teacher, references the dictionary. The interdisciplinary AS research network surveys the functions of the human body in motion. In the process, information from biomechanics, anatomy, physics and medicine come into use to analyse our motion apparatus and to have it start to move in a functional and caring way. The focus always lies on a respectful contact with oneself and others – and, of course, on the fun in dancing!