Mirva Mäkinen | Breathing the Movement

About Mirva:

I am a 36-year old dancer. I graduated (MA) from the Dance Department of the Theatre Academy of Finland in 2000, before that I completed my masters in Physical Education in University of Jyväskylä. After my studies I have worked widely in Finland as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. My true passion is in movement. In 2010 I was chosen to do my PHD in the Theatre Academy in Helsinki, Finland. My research is about the "Aesthetics of Contact improvisation".From 2000 onwards I have been a dance teacher and lecturer for dance at the Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts in Finland. I have also taught at different international dance and contact improvisation festivals. As a dancer I have worked in several different dance companies, at the moment in Karttunen Kollektiv, Circo Aero and with Joona Halonen. 2010 we made a duet together with Frey Faust. We have been performing Balance Project in Finland, Austria and Ukraine. In dance I am interested in the feeling of flow and soft movement. I love to investigate movement, its rhythm and different ways of inhabiting the body. A feeling of dancing is created by being able to switch the body from total relaxation to extreme intensity and tension. I call this the body’s ability to breathe and create movement. My ideal is total presence, which makes every moment true and meaningful. During 2011 I have been traveling in USA as a Fulbright scholar.

Greenhouse Intensive Teachers:
Angela Dony (RU) &

Yaniv Mintzer (IL),
Mirva Makinen (FIN),
Bo Madvig (DK),
Natanja Den Boeft (NL),
Itay Yatuv (IL)

Breathing the Movement

Intermediate

What makes your body feel alive and awake? For me it is dancing in different forms and breathing through movement. I would like to share some contact improvisation and movement techniques in this workshop.

I think the body is designed by nature and has evolved in nature. It is like the landscape and moves with great efficiency. Like the landscape we are breathing and changing naturally. I wonder if we can become aware of how we use breath while we move? Breathing can also spark new ideas for the way we move our bodies. We will learn different warm up techniques, a series of floor work, different combinations moving through the space, principles of movement and creating dancing dialogue by using breath, touch, movement, weight and balance.

How it is to have breathing and movement techniques as a warm up for contact improvisation or vise versa? What ways do learning a series of movement influence your contact improvisation technique and how might your way of moving in CI change when you learn movement phrase from someone else? How do different techniques come together in your body? After learning something can we separate one technique from other? Or is it just that we learn different skills and after learning it becomes one in your body? What it is to embody something?

I am curious how do we move our center when we move alone or together with a partner. How can we continue movement after loosing touch with a partner? Is there any gap between? I tell myself to breath with all of my questions ☺ Where is movement coming from and where it is going? Is there a difference when I am moving alone or with a partner? I guess some part of our body is always in stillness.

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About Mirva: <div align="left" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">I am a 36-year old dancer. I graduated (MA) from the Dance Department of the Theatre Academy of Finland in 2000, before that I completed my masters in Physical Education in University of Jyväskylä. After my  studies I have worked widely in Finland as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. My true passion is in movement. In 2010 I was chosen to do my PHD in the Theatre Academy in Helsinki, Finland. My research is about the  "Aesthetics of Contact improvisation".From 2000 onwards I have been a dance teacher and lecturer for dance at the Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts in Finland. I have also taught at different international dance and contact improvisation festivals. As a dancer I have worked in several different dance companies, at the moment in Karttunen Kollektiv, Circo Aero and with Joona Halonen. 2010 we made a duet together with Frey Faust. We have been performing Balance Project in Finland, Austria and Ukraine. In dance I am interested in the feeling of flow and soft movement. I love to investigate movement, its rhythm and different ways of inhabiting the body. A feeling of dancing is created by being able to switch the body from total relaxation to extreme intensity and tension. I call this the body’s ability to breathe and create movement. My ideal is total presence, which makes every moment true and meaningful. During 2011 I have been traveling in USA as a Fulbright scholar.</div>

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Greenhouse Intensive Teachers:<a href="../../../../../../../en/AngelaYaniv"> </a><a href="/en/AngelaYanivGH">Angela Dony (RU) &</a> <a href="/en/AngelaYanivGH">Yaniv Mintzer (IL)</a>, <a href="/en/Mirva">Mirva Makinen (FIN),</a> <a href="/en/BoGH">Bo Madvig (DK),</a> <a href="/en/NatanjaGH">Natanja  Den Boeft (NL),</a> <a href="/en/ItayatuvGH">Itay Yatuv (IL)</a>