In 2026, we look at Contact Improvisation as both a physical and philosophical practice — balancing between stability and flight, weight and suspension, presence and risk. Through movement, conversation, and shared reflection, we ask:
What does it mean to be grounded — as artists, as humans, as communities — and what happens when we let go of the ground?
CI-Festival - August 21nd to 28th, 2026
On the theme of “Grounding and Off Ground”—I was able to let sounds emerge from the moment.
“Grounding – Off Ground” is a site-specific contact improvisation performance featuring teachers and organizers of the festival. The work emerged from a three-day artistic collaboration prior to the festival, during which the participating artists worked intensively on movement material, spatial composition, and performative structure.
At its core is an exploration of the interplay between weight and floating, gravity and flight, stability and risk. Gravity is understood not as a fixed condition but as a dynamic partner—the choreography moves between falling and catching, leaning and lifting, yielding and supporting. Balance thus always appears to be temporary and relational.
The partner can be the ground
A place to return
A sense of orientation (like a constant north)
The people I loveSense of calming down
Bones/ sceleton
Breathing
To be hereGrounding in not knowing
Grounding in impermanence
Grounding in a living systemAncestors and ancestral land
Grounding is an action, not static
Depends on awareness
Moving at the speed of your attention
Connection with myselfTo be allowed to be present in the moment
To be in a situation where you can really be doing what you are doing
SupportOff ground - rising
Flying freely
Opening up (flowers blossoming)
The piece is conceived as a living composition, shaped by place, time, and encounter—an invitation to observe bodies as they think, adapt, and reorient themselves in relation to gravity, space, and one another.
For the soundscape accompaniment, I limited myself to an acoustic setup, as this allowed me to respond more flexibly to the dancers. The music draws its life from the experience and presence of the moment—a foundation for grounding.
Accordion, clarinet, frame drum, jaw harp, voice, shruti box
August 26 at WEI SRAUM: Designforum Tirol, Innsbruck
Dance: Pedro Penuela, Sarah Sea Clarke, Charlie Morrissey, Tamara Maksymenko
Music: Michael Schrotter
From moment to moment, an acoustic dance with the movements in the space, with the mood of the people. A connection to the dance, rarely influencing the atmosphere—rather, picking up on it, supporting it—holding the space with soundscapes.
by Rumi
A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.
It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!
…
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
…
