“THE PROCESS” – intensive dance seminar  –    August  2026

 
 
 
 
 

JURE GOSTINČAR began his dance education in Koper with Siniša Bukinac and Fiona Johnson Kocjančič. After finishing grammar school, he joined Kjara’s Dance Project in Ljubljana. He gained experience in the United Kingdom, Spain, and at Ballet Junior de Genève in Switzerland. In recent years, he has worked with international dance companies such as Żfin Malta, Of Curious Nature, and Skånes Dansteater, where he continues to create today. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with numerous renowned choreographers and in 2012 received the Slovenian Dance Association Award for Dancer of the Year.

Workshop description
The workshop is based on guided improvisation and the exploration of raw movement through activation, body isolation, and the relationship to weight, gravity, time, and space. Through sensory awareness, we will create living compositions and explore the body as an instrument of movement, play, and presence in space.

CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS is an award-winning American choreographer, performer, and visual artist based in London. He holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Choreography from Trinity Laban.

His performance works have been presented internationally, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Sadler’s Wells, Art Night 2018, Yorkshire Dance, Enclave Gallery, Arbyte Gallery, ]performance space[, and Chisenhale Dance Space. As a performer, he collaborates with artist Trajal Harrell on national and international projects. He also appears in the Oscar-winning film Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu, as well as the upcoming film The Magic Faraway Tree.

Workshop description:
The workshop begins with a classic jazz warm-up, drawing from the styles of Mattox, Giordano, and Fosse. The warm-up focuses on building a strong technical foundation through set combinations that activate key muscle groups, allowing the body to dance from its muscular system. It gradually develops into a full-body movement experience.

Each session concludes with a choreography that blends organic and “thrash” movement qualities, developing precision, speed, and performative skills in the participants. Movement is deconstructed to help dancers understand how to build on the goal of the warm-up – activating the muscular body. Each combination is designed to develop the dancer’s performativity and access to the emotional core of expression. A strong emphasis is placed on cultivating artistry while maintaining technical precision.

VESNA WOLF is a dancer, graduated physiotherapist, and graduated kinesiologist, and a member of the creative team of Studio for Free Dance. Her professional work includes rehabilitation, injury prevention, and physical conditioning. She has experience working with both recreational and professional athletes, as well as collaborating with various sports organizations.

As a dancer, she comes from hip-hop, street dance, and contemporary dance, and is active in the project group Ursus Dancers. In her work, she connects dance and the science of movement, raising awareness about the importance of proper physical preparation for dancers.

Workshop description

The workshops are based on contemporary approaches in kinesiology and physiotherapy and focus on developing dancers’ physical preparedness and preventing dance-related injuries. The dancer is approached holistically – as both an artist and an athlete, where the quality of movement stems from well-developed motor abilities.

Who are the workshops for: dancers of different styles and levels , dance teachers and mentors

Workshop goals

  • improving dancers’ physical conditioning

  • development of motor skills (stability, strength, coordination, flexibility, mobility)

  • improving movement control and body awareness

  • reducing risk of dance injuries

  • transferring knowledge into everyday dance practice

VITA OSOJNIK is a freelance dance artist, choreographer, educator, and street performer. She graduated from the Secondary School of Music and Ballet in Kranj and studied contemporary dance and choreography at SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance.

She works in various educational and artistic contexts (including Qulenium, Alma Mater Europaea – Academy of Dance, and ŠUGLA), and has been a guest professor at SEAD. She has collaborated with institutions such as the Tisch School of the Arts in New York and the Dantzaz collective in Spain. Her choreographic work includes full-length productions such as Del mene je narejen iz stekla, Horda, Začasno zadržana telesa, and Vse kar se je že zgodilo. She is currently working as a movement creator in the theatre production Komarji (dir. Maša Pelko) and teaches at En Knap.

CONTEMPORARY BALLET

Contemporary ballet is adapted to the needs of contemporary dance, moving away from classical rigidity while exploring parallels with contemporary techniques. The focus is on anatomical alignment, coordination, strength, and movement organization through barre and centre work, including transitions, elevation, turns, musicality, and dance quality.

This workshop also includes movement research through Laban’s Cube, where participants create solo material, develop group formations, and explore spatial relationships (levels, directions, distances). The process may culminate in a short public presentation. Each session begins with warm-up and individual movement exploration. The workshop is open to dancers of different ages, backgrounds, and levels.

ANDRAS MESZERICS is a dancer, singer, poet, and performance artist who combines movement, voice, and poetry into hybrid artistic practices. He developed his artistic research within the underground improvisation scene in Budapest and later studied contemporary dance at SEAD in Salzburg. His work merges sound, text, and movement, exploring the boundaries between disciplines, where performance unfolds as a living, multi-layered experience.

TOMAŽ SIMATOVIĆ is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and educator working internationally in the field of contemporary dance and performance. He studied at SEAD Salzburg and holds an MA in Choreography from ArtEZ Arnhem. His work focuses on solo composition, improvisation, and the exploration of the body as a space of perception and expression. As an artist and educator, he has worked internationally for many years, particularly in Austria and Slovenia, developing interdisciplinary projects that combine performance, teaching, and movement research.

Needy Expressions – Through Sensation to Composition

The Needy Expressions workshop explores the expression of inner emotional states through movement, voice, and the body. Using a somatic approach, participants develop kinesthetic awareness, a listening body, and ways of translating sensation into dance composition.

The focus is on transforming emotional energy into movement quality, exploring perception, impulse, and feeling through short solo creations presented in an open sharing at the end of the workshop.

Approach

The artists introduce their methods “bodyspeaking” and “Somatic Listening”, which investigate embodiment through movement and voice and deepen bodily awareness. The workshop is part of the research project Lament and Community, developed during the Move in Dance residency (Izola) in collaboration with Laboratory for Participative Imaginaries (Salzburg).

The project explores lament as a physical and vocal practice, opening space for emotional release, catharsis, and community.

Themes

  • body, emotion, and voice

  • expression of sorrow and longing

  • lament as artistic practice

  • the body as an instrument of expression

  • community and empathy

REGISTRATION