Grappeling Dance - with Patryk

Grappling Dancing is a practice that aims to connect and marry the two worlds of martial arts

(Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Wrestling) and contemporary dance, specifically focused on partnering and the art of communication with our bodies. Any form of play fighting, testing boundaries and limits, trying, failing and trying again is our most primal way to communicate, to socialize and to develop crucial skills in relation to our environment. This is true not only among humans, but among all animals as well. This understanding serves as a base for the practice of Grappling Dancing.The workshop builds on the foundations of grounding and listening, which are qualities that are crucial in martial arts, as well as in dancing. Through sets of tasks and exercises we will cultivate and develop both qualities. The features of martial arts will become elements that we can consciously apply to playing, practicing or improvising with other bodies in space. These features mixed with the open form of dancing or play fighting will help us to create a movement language that we all understand and can communicate with to expand in different areas such as, play fighting, acrobatics, dancing or practicing. The workshop will move through different stages from introduction of principles that are essential to understand in order to safely navigate in the play fight exploration and movement research, to specific tasks or movement riddles that will help to think outside the box and look for new solutions.

Some of the themes include:

- Grounding - our relations to the floor & gravity

- Giving & Receiving weight (push & pull principles)

- Receiving the floor - falling and rolling mechanics

- Microbatics - simple acrobatic ideas

We will introduce simple movement scenarios or games and will make them more rich and complex as we get more comfortable and confident. Finally we conclude with an open form of improvised dance or play-fight together, where we can freely apply all of the techniques and forms in space. This practice is for anyone who is interested in moving or dancing in contact with other bodies in space, for grappling practitioners as well as dancers, performers and movement artists.

Recommended for people with some movement experience.

Follow the link for a video:

https://vimeo.com/670189536