born 1962 in a little village south/west of, Germany, living in Freiburg and Strasbourg
I’ve always liked movement, acrobatics and physical practices, I’ve never liked couple dances, but I enjoyed “free dancing” in parties and discos. I was born and grew up in a small village without any contemporary artistic culture until I saw one day the world of the contemporary dance on the stage in Freiburg, Germany. It made me try out CI in a studio in 88’. This was a revelation that flipped my life upside down. Gradually, from being a social worker, I became a dancer, performer and a teacher, traveling throughout the world to share my experience. I teach CI regularly since 1994. My work was first influenced by the very physical playing with my five brothers, then by gymnastic and acrobatic practices, and later Laban-Bartenieff-Fundamentals, Release Technique, Flying Low material of David Zambrano, the Improvisation work of Julyen Hamilton and in CI by Bernd Ka, Alito Alessi, Nancy Stark Smith among many others…since 15 years i co-teach with Daniela Schwartz…lately I practice yoga.
more see: www.dani-ecki.com
The art of sharing weightless weight
In this workshop you will get a small taste of a longer research that i have done around the topic of lightness. investigates the relation of our body to the “UP” and the “DOWN” in stillness and movement. We explore the bones system and its relationship to gravity, as the weight falls through the architecture of the body into the floor, and we project from the ground into the three dimensionality of the space, finding the alignment of each situation. We investigate the use of the floor, of the architecture of our bodies and other bodies and the internal/external space. Accessing the breathing as a tool to invite the active release to happen: into the touch, into the down, into the rising up and into the direction of the movement, all at the same time, will offer us mutual support in the physical communication from the inside of our bodies.
Integrating this principles supports us to be in the present moment as we are listening to the momentary needs of the bodies moving together, between earth and sky. My wish is to share tools to find more ease, lightness and freedom in the dance and comfort as mobile under dancer/over dancer while we modulate the weight and tone of our body to open possible ways to relate to someone else.
Intuitive systems for contact improvisation
This workshop offers you a short introduction to the dialectic between „technique“ and „sensation“. In CI both worlds need to melt. On a technical side I offer a movement training, inspired by Laban/Bartenieff movement fundamentals as well as David Zambrano’s flying low technique, as a tool to organize our body in a more efficient and economical way. This technique is based on the exploration of the center-periphery connection (starfish) as a key principle to connect and separate the limbs from the center, the right from the left side and/or the diagonals.Through the action of releasing and activating, reaching and folding, spiraling, etc, we develop different movement patterns, that help us to let go from old and non efficient ones to find ease and flow in our own pathways along the floor and through the different levels.
On a more sensational level by listening to our minimal weight shifts, the change of weight or pressure, sensing the direction of weight and its resistance…we will open up our fine tuning trying to find the inner flow, connected with our breath and emotions.