Martin Keogh & Sabine Parzer
Hope Beneath our Feet or Can We Save The World With a Dance?

Hope Beneath Our Feet or Can We Save the World with a Dance? In this Coaching Project we invite you to research, play, intuit and explore our world entwined and tangled with nature, through improvisation, writing and touch. This Coaching Project draws from contact improvisation, authentic movement, somatic practices (based on the Feldenkrais Method®), creative writing and composition within the context of ecology, sustainability and political action. By finding the quiet thread in nature: • What does negotiating with physical forces such as gravity, momentum and polarities have to do with ecology? • How do my inner structures, such as bones, organs and joints relate to outer structures? • What does our place nature teach us about aging and dying? Is there such a thing as sustainability in our body? • With nature and humankind endangered what is my responsibility as an artist and dancer? • Can we save the world with a dance? We will allow ourselves the luxury to explore, in a safe and structured surrounding, the mysteries of our relationships between our earth and our creative body. We will work with the essays from Martin's book, "Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World" to highlight issues, explore forms of expression, and give us specific impulses for dance making. We will work in the studio and in nature in exceptional settings in and near Vienna. This Coaching Project is designed for people with a strong base in contact improvisation and for those who already have experience in somatic practices and authentic movement. Martin Keogh is the founder of The Dancing Ground, an organisation that produces conferences and symposia on gender, race, and mythology. He has taught and performed contact improvisation dance in thirty-two countries on five continents. For his contribution to the development of this dance form he is a Fulbright Senior Specialist and listed in Who's Who in the World. Martin has spent time travelling to monasteries in Japan and Korea and was the director of the Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley before discovering the world of dance. He has co-facilitated Teacher's Conferences on five continents and is the author of "The Art of Waiting" and "As Much Time as it Takes", and the recently released anthology: "Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World". More information at www.martinkeogh.com Sabine Parzer (Fabie) is a dancer, choreographer, Holistic Dance and Movement teacher and works in a dance therapeutic setting. She is head and founder of the Institute of Holistic Dance and Movement Pedagogy, where she educates artists, therapists, doctors, and pedagogues as part of her Teachers Trainings. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, she spent ten years abroad (USA and Germany). In Chicago she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance (with honours) and danced professionally a.o. at Mordine & Company Dance Theater and many independent productions in the US and in Europe. Her choreographies and improvisational structures have been performed a.o. in New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico, San Francisco, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Budapest and Tel Aviv. Sabine has taught at numerous international festivals and institutions including: ImPulsTanz Vienna, Tanzquartier Vienna, Israeli Contact Festival, Kontaktbudapest, Poland Contact Improvisation Festival, Freiburg Contact Festival, Moscow International Contact Festival, Osterimpro Göttingen. She teaches improvisation, release/ holistic dance technique, contact improvisation and authentic movement. Since 1999 she has been employed at a rehabilitation centre in Austria for people after work / traffic accidents and neurological diseases, where she teaches body awareness. Sabine is also a practitioner of Systemische und Integrative Bewegungslehre® (an extended Feldenkrais Method) and ZenBodytherapy® in her private practice. More information: www.holistic-dance.at, www.sabfab.com, www.somaticdance.net