WORKSHOPS
​RESONANT MATTER
Resonant Matter is a workshop open to everyone interested in exploring tools that foster a state of perceptual openness in the body. Drawing from the Feldenkrais Method, Instant Composition and Contact Improvisation, participants investigate the relationship between perception, movement, space and other bodies in motion. The workshop offers a protected space for listening and vulnerability, where the body can manifest in its full complexity and three-dimensionality. Through deep listening and permeability to internal and external stimuli, participants are invited to rediscover the poetic and political dimension of movement, connecting with the collective’s artistic practice rooted in instant composition.
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MACULA is an artistic research collective from Italy founded in 2021 by Edoardo Sgambato and Priscilla Pizziol, with the sonic contribution of Walter Laureti since 2022. The collective
operates in the field of performing arts with a transdisciplinary approach, navigating a liminal
space between dance, theatre, visual arts and somatic research. The body is conceived as sensitive, permeable, and vulnerable matter, guided by perception, and choreography is understood as a neuroplastic, open system of relations between bodies, objects, and space. Since 2023, they have created several stage pieces and curated Landscapes for Composition, a professional training project involving over 50 dancers from across Europe and led workshops in more than 30 venues, for both professional and non-professional participants in Italy and abroad. - Workshop guided by Edoardo Sgambato & Priscilla Pizziol
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From Body-Mind Centering© into Improvisation
Flowing with the Inner Sea - Heart, Blood and Cellular Tides
This workshop invites you to move from the fluid landscapes of the body — from the inner sea of cellular fluids to the rhythmic circulation of heart and blood. Through somatization, gentle self-touch, mindful hands-on exploration with a partner, and fluid movement, we explore how inner currents and waves support and organize movement from within.
Beginning in a contemplative, restorative state, the practice gradually unfolds and opens into improvisation. Step by step, inner sensing becomes outwardly articulated, leading into a more dynamic, spatially engaged improvisation with refined presence. There is no right or wrong — we meet ourselves where we are and, from there, venture into new territories of sensation, play and flow. A practice that moves from Body-Mind Centering© into improvisation and creation in the instant moment, cultivating clarity, responsiveness and ease.
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Mareike Steffens is a freelance dancer and teacher, instant composer, and body-based researcher from Germany. Her work weaves together somatic research, contemporary performance, and ecological perspectives, inviting movement to be experienced as a source of presence, relationship, and connection with the living environment. Through her teaching practice, she opens and holds experiential spaces in which curiosity, embodied experience, empathy, and imagination can grow. As a performer, Mareike composes in real time with great enthusiasm, weaving movement, voice, and poetry into fleeting compositions of the moment that invite resonance and reflection. Over the past 16 years, she has realized numerous interdisciplinary collaborations with poets, filmmakers, actors, and visual artists.
Oceanic Body - Embodied improvisation practice
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Oceanic Body is a container that allows all that is to be present and connected to the one. Oceanic is inspired by the essence that the ocean is one. It studies and researches different aspects of the oneness of the body — from static to movement, from subtle to dynamic. The practice seeks to settle into the inner fluidity of body tissues. Fluidity is often misinterpreted as imitating fluidity in form, yet the Oceanic Body seeks fluidity in the mind and adaptability by knowing that we are contained within the one. So it studies principles of attention, perception and action.
The class moves in three stages. First, the embodied practice of touching, listening, moving — attending to the support of the physical anatomy, allowing each individual element to reconnect to oneness. The next stage is the playground: a research improvisation space where we practice principles of movement. Finally, the third stage is making — composing material, crafting water into solid forms of expression that are tangible, clear and whole, in duets, trios and group forms.
During the class we use touch, anatomic kinetic images and voice sounding.
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Sarantoula Sarantaki is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, researcher, and geographer from Greece, based in Berlin, Germany. Her practice centers on somatic movement and improvisation, weaving together dance, theater, and visual art into immersive, layered experiences that explore body, presence, and environment. She founded and artistically directs Roh Collective. She has taught in vocational dance training programs in Freiburg and Kassel, as well as at international festivals. Her approach draws from somatic practices and is rooted in instant composition and contact improvisation. All her classes are dedicated to presence and the art of the moving body, engaging with instant expression in time and space.
IMPRO & PERFORMANCE LABS
Impro Lab
An open improvisation format in which participants can research, explore, and experiment together — following curiosity, staying with uncertainty, and discovering what emerges in the shared space of movement and presence.
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Performance Lab
​An evening of improvised performance and open jam, existing at the intersection of art, play and performance. A space where the boundaries between performer and witness dissolve — where structured presence meets spontaneous exchange, and every moment is both offered and shared.
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Sound & Music
Both Labs will be accompanied with live percussion & sound by Raphael Keuschnigg, a musician from Austria — whose sound holds, provokes, and moves the space, weaving an ever-shifting sonic landscape that breathes with the dancers and opens new dimensions of improvised dialogue.
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Raphael Keuschnigg is a musician and sound designer based in Vienna, Austria. He began his musical journey at an early age with accordion and vocals before eventually discovering his passion for drums. He studied percussion at the jazz program of the Tyrolean State Conservatory and at the Vienna Music Institut in Vienna, where he has since made his home and works as a musician and drum teacher. Having performed with a wide variety of music ensembles over the years, his focus now lies in jazz, groove, and electronic music. Over time, he also found himself drawn to the dialogue between sound and movement, accompanying and performing alongside dancers and movers.
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MEDITATION & REFLECTION
The starter
A gentle opening to the day — morning meditation, group reflection, and first movement impulses to settle into the body and awaken the senses. A dedicated time to arrive, to listen inward, and to transition slowly from rest into presence. These morning rituals create a shared foundation from which the day's explorations can unfold with clarity, intention, and ease.
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Led by Rosalie Kubny, who holds the morning space with care and attentiveness — guiding participants through stillness, breath, and subtle movement to find their ground before the day begins. Drawing from her somatic practice and research, she offers simple yet profound tools for tuning into the body's intelligence, cultivating presence, and arriving fully into the moment. Each morning becomes an invitation to meet oneself — and, through gentle verbal and movement exchange, to meet the group anew.
STRUCTUR
Your festival in numbers: 16 hrs of workshops · 10 hrs of jam · 3 hrs of morning practice · 29 hours of practice in total.
FESTIVAL INFOS
Festival Fee
Early bird
€190
Until June 1st -
secure your place
Regular
€230 – 280
Sliding scale -
pay what feels right for you
Helper places
€120
Limited spots · 8 hrs collective care — space, kitchen & facilities
Festival Food
OPTIONAL · PER DAY
100 % vegan
Full day · 3 meals · 30 € / day
We believe nourishment is part of the practice. For €30 per day, you can join our communal vegan meals — a warm breakfast to ease into the morning, a grounding lunch, and a shared dinner to close the day together. All meals are lovingly prepared with seasonal, plant-based ingredients. We source locally where possible and cook with care.
Meals are not part of the festival ticket! If you'd like to join us at the table, simply book the meal package when you register.
Accomodation
The festival does not provide on-site accommodation, so we encourage you to plan ahead.
Peiting offers a range of options to suit different budgets and preferences.
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GRAFICUM - festival sleeping room - a simple shared room with basic facilities at the nearby GRAFICUM, available exclusively for festival participants. Bring your own sleeping mat, sleeping bag, and pillow - €8 per night - limited spots. Book your spot when you register for the festival.
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Van & camper parking - arriving by van or camper? You're welcome to park at the nearby car park for camper. Just a few minutes by foot to Zegala. Find directions here. Please note: no parking is available at the festival venue.
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Local guesthouses & hotels - a curated list of options in and around Peiting is available here.
Venue & getting there
Peiting, Oberbayern · Toilets & showers on site
The Zentrum für ganzheitliche Lebensart is a space of possibility. Born from the transformation of a former cinema in 2003, this 200 m² hall soars to a ceiling height of over five metres. A resonant wooden sprung floor and radiant wall heating make it an exceptional environment for movement, creativity and shared practice.
By train: Direct connections to Peiting station.
By plane: Fly into Memmingen or Munich, then take the train to Peiting.
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Further infos
The festival welcomes everyone — from first steps to seasoned practice.
ImproArts is a festival dedicated to dance improvisation, instant composition, and the art of shared practice. A space where creative expression, somatic awareness, and reflection come together — not as separate disciplines, but as one living practice. Whether you are new to improvisation and instant composition or have been moving and creating for years, you belong here. What brings us together is simply a shared curiosity — for movement, for encounter, for what emerges when we practice and explore together.
If this speaks to you, you are warmly welcome.
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The festival language is English. If you would like support in German, please don't hesitate to reach out.
We warmly invite you to join us.
To register, simply send us an email to festival@bodys-telling.art.
We'll get back to you with all the details you need to prepare for your arrival.
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See you soon!
This event is made possible by the Bavarian State Association for Contemporary Dance (BLZT) with funds from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.