"If tomatoes are a fruit, isn't ketchup...

(Riedwaan Req Cassim)

Selecting workshops for ImPulsTanz is technically the land of milk & honey. So much and so much inspiration to chose from! Artists seem to like the atmosphere of exchange at the Arsenal venue, the possibility to meet colleagues, to try out things with an international crowd of students, and of course by doing so, they contribute again to this atmosphere.

And IDOCDE has just superboosted this professional life quality. An amazing garden in full blossom to stroll through, with the invaluable advantage, that no one is there to sell herself or himself, as anyone applying for teaching at ImPulsTanz would understandably do. Instead, in IDOCDE everyone is purely sharing her or his artistry, ways of teaching, means of movement mediation and still joy in the profession. One can wander around in this garden for hours and remain getting drawn into this abundance of approaches!

Emotionally, selecting workshops for ImPulsTanz is more like cough syrup. The bliss of choice amongst so much talent and enthusiasm turns to the pain of denial, denial of artists and their work, who and which we actually appreciate. For mere technical reasons. Not enough space. Too many offers for the same technique or department in the same period. When in doubt, than pro women, so to at least kind of mirror the ratio of humans active in the field. Re-inviting artists due to popular demand thus blocking new positions. Trying to balance strangers to the festivals and friends so to not turn too nepotic, mafia-like. Putting a priority on artists teaching who also perform at the festival as it is a speciality of ImPulsTanz to explore the work of artists both on stage and in the studio. Making sure that invited artists provide a healthy balance of self confidence (you should not get depressed about having only 15 students when David Zambrano next door has 45) and curiosity in the work of colleagues (our strongest emphasis at ImPulsTanz is to avoid artistic islands).

Having said all of that, I have to admit that I totally dig some types of cough syrup.

The artists we selected for ImPulsTanz from the recent IDOCDE call are:

Anouk Llaurens with "Documentation as a reflexive tool for movement and composition awareness"

Maria Probst with “Techniques of Wellbeing”

Thanks to everyone who enriched our professional lives here at ImPulsTanz with their proposals AND with their idocs…keep it up!

With warmth & respect & guacamole

Rio Rutzinger
Artistic Director ImPulsTanz workshops+research