Watercontact

As far as I remember, I have felt well and safe in water all my life. I have always loved to be in the shower, the bathtub, the ocean or public swimming pool. In my childhood and in my youth I have spent hours playing and moving alone and together with others in water, training in the swimming club or laying in the bathtub. When I have started to dance and discover Contact Improvisation I have gotten to know waterdancing/watercontact almost at the same time in this context and started to explore it. Somehow it did not seem very special but rather natural and obvious to me to do that. In the foreground for me was always the joy and the pleasure of the freedom of movement that I experienced in the water as well as the softness, permeability and tranquility that it brought to my body, mind and soul. Over the years I have laughed, cried, screamed, loved, danced and researched in the water – mostly in pools but recently also more in open and natural waters. The water has become my home – or should I say it has stayed my home ?!

Basically, when I do Watercontact, I explore the same principles as I would do when dancing Contact Improvisation on land. The watery environment though is changing the experience immensely and also the research questions. Also, the water setting itself changes the explorations strongly. For example, it feels very different to be moving in a closed, calm and contained pool in comparison to moving in the big, open and alive ocean. Depending on how much dynamic and movement is already inherent to the water, I play with more or less surrender or more or less active movement. Watercontact and moving alone in water is very important and dear to me – a whole universe to itself that I love to share with others.