ANDREA SCHEEL is a Mexican dance artist trained at AREA, espai de movimento; (Barcelona, 2006-2008) and the dance conservatory of Sevilla (2009-2010) and CAD – the Centro Andaluz de Danza in Sevilla, (2010-2011) where she worked with Choreographers including Johan Inger and Isabel Vasquez. She has trained in Contact Improvisation(CI) since 2008, and since 2013 has facilitated spaces and events for the investigation of somatics, biomechanics and evolutionary movement on land and water.
Andrea has trained in aquatic therapies including Aguahara and Wasser Tanz and has been organizing Contact&Flow since 2013, an international festival for aquatic movement research and contact improvisation (previously known as Liquid Flow). Part of her mission is to create safe spaces for facilitating creative, collective and performative processes of inhabiting the body. Andrea is also a passionate drawer, painter and handpoke tattooist. For more information, click here
MANUELA BLANCHARD is an aquatic therapist, WATSU® practitioner & Water Dance® teacher, trained in Healing Dance® (1000 hours of training in Aquatic Bodywork) and synchronised swimming as a teenager. She was certified in WATA® by Arjana Brunschwiler, her main teacher. As a Contact Improvisation teacher she has developed an interactive water dance form that she teaches since 2007 internationally. She is also trained in the Learning Love® method, used to support people with tools like inner child, non violent communication and trauma healing.
Is Water alive? is it conscious?
It makes up 60-90% of our bodies and the earth too. Some say water also holds memory ... and while we drink water to replenish our growth it seems that it is increasingly polluted and commodified. Given the climate crisis what might it mean to move with, feel and think with water?
In this presentation I will explore these questions with Manuela Blanchard (CH) and Andrea Sheel (MX), two aquatic movement specialists, professional dancers, somatic practitioners and teachers of Contact Improvisation.
The presentation will showcase video footage of their work and a discussion with the artists, investigating how they work with touch, how they draw on Contact Improvisation and what water means as both a collective concern and form of intelligence.
Facilitated by Rosalind Holgate Smith(UK/DE), Techne scholar, Dance Artist and similarly a long term Contact Improviser.