Milan Tomášik

Poetic Body

Where attention goes energy flows – Poetic Body workshop represents a body that is fully present, alive, and engaged. It is an ongoing, immersive practice built on experience of Happy Feet and Playful Presence that draws on inclusive approaches and techniques such as contemporary dance, improvisation, and composition. It incorporates the concept of the body as an instrument or medium capable of expressing and embodying diverse movement qualities, rhythm, tension, emotions, and immaterial. Poetic Body is about the ability to execute any desired action fully, passionately and with ease.

We bring action by waking up the body & mind through different physical games, by getting the body attuned to the moment, the space, connecting to ourselves and the environment. I love to create a friendly atmosphere where we respect the differences and nourish the individuality. In such atmosphere, the learning potential is enormous and even the most sophisticated movement seems easy.

I offer a holistic approach to dancing, in which the practise of spontaneous and set movement is intertwined, technique meets with passion and wellbeing is priority. The emphasis is on rhythm and musicality, but we also pay attention on articulation of the different body parts, precise execution of the movement, the foot work, jumps, and spins. I guide you through the exploration of contrasting movement qualities such as range of body tension and we’ll investigate the connection between emotion and motion. I have been teaching for over twenty years and my practice is developed, interconnected, and mutually influenced around the craft of choreography, dance and teaching.

Milan Tomášik’s biography:

Milan Tomášik (SK/SLO) is a choreographer, performer, teacher and artistic director working internationally in the field of dance and performing arts. His training includes J. L. Bella Conservatory Banská Bystrica (SK), the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava (SK), Moving Academy for Performing Arts (NL), and P.A.R.T.S. (BE), directed by Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker. Currently, he is attending the Master program Contemporary Choreographic Practices at Alma Mater Europaea (SLO).
Milan has performed professionally for twenty years, collaborating with artists across Europe such as Eva Weissmann, Katarina Zagorski, Iztok Kovač, Mala Kline, Maja Delak, Magdalena Reiter, Anja Zag Golob, Andreja Rauch Podrzavnik, Sláva Daubnerová, Agostina D’Alessandro, Aleksandra Pavlovič, Charlie Brittain. He is co-founder of the Les SlovaKs dance collective with whom he created and performed three works that acquired international fame. The first piece is Opening Night (2007), then Journey Home (2009) and Fragments (2012).

His choreographic work is performed internationally, has delivered commissions for Krakow Dance Theater (Treatise, Poland), Scenario Pubblico (Intrecciato, Italy), Divadlo Štúdio tanca (Besi, Veselosti minulosti, Slovakia) and tri4 association (Pokrm, Slovakia). In 2022, Milan collaborated with a director Sláva Daubnerová on adaptation of George Sand’s novel Gabriel at Badishes Staatstheater in Karlsruhe (Germany). In 2014 he founded his own dance company Milan Tomášik & Co and created three dance performances Hunting Season (2014), Silver Blue (2015) and Fight Bright (2018) performed on various European festivals. The Hunting Season performance has been selected and supported by Dancenet Sweden to tour nationally, the piece has also received two awards for the lighting design (KioSk festival, SK and Gibanica festival, SLO) and Ksenija Hribar Award for the best dancer (Tina Valentan, Gibanica festival, SLO). Milan’s authorship and unique stage presence is best represented in his solo performances Within (2006), Off-beat (2011), Solo 2016 (2016), and Arms That Never Knew Me (2024). Since 2018, he collaborates closely with British artist Charlie Brittain on productions Echo (2019), Indefinite Frequency (2021), Unchanging (2022) and Arms that never knew me (2024). The dance concert Indefinite Frequency with the Slovenian Percussion Project (SToP) was selected and supported by the Pan Adria network in 2021.

Milan is regularly invited as a guest teacher around the world to deliver his signature workshops Happy Feet and Playful Presence, in 2023 fused in Poetic Body. During 2023-2024 season he is partly employed at dance gymnasium (SVŠGUGL) in Ljubljana. His teaching includes Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (AT), Le Centre national de dance contemporaine Angers (F), The Danish National School of Performing Arts Copenhagen (DK), Stockholm University of the Arts (SE), Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts/University of Zagreb (CRO), Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (DE), Belgrade Dance Institute (RS), Alma Mater Europaea (SLO), Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LT), Academy of Theatre and Dance/Amsterdam University of the Arts (NL), School of Fine and Performing Arts Tilburg (NL), London Contemporary Dance School (UK),
Training with one Dublin (IE), The Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava (SK), B12 Berlin (DE), Deltebre dansa (ES), La Central del Circ Barcelona (ES), El Graner Barcelona (ES), La Raffinerie Brussels (BE), Danse Centrum Jette Brussels (BE), P.A.R.T.S. summer school Brussels (BE), Out of the Toolbox Ghent (BE), Kaserne Basel (CH), Tanzwerkstatt Europa München (DE), Akropoditi dance festival Syros (GR), Dance Days Chania Crete (GR), Platforma Nest – research cycle Ljubljana, Dance Theatre Ljubljana (SLO), Vibra Ljubljana (SLO), EN-KNAP (SLO), Divadlo Štúdio tanca (SK), Akram Khan Company (UK), Ultima Vez Brussels (BE), Theatre Bielefeld (DE), Yucatan dansa Merida (Mexico), Rosario, Tucuman (Argentina), Kazan, Yekaterinburg (Russia), The New Beijing (China), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and CoDa21 San Juan (Puerto Rico), among others.

Milan was an associated artists of Scenario Pubblico in Catania (IT) and an artistic curator of Out of the Toolbox workshop festival in Ghent, (BE). He was a recipient of the Dance Web Scholarship at ImpulsTanz Festival (AT), was awarded the Prize of the City Prievidza (SK) and received an award for the solo performance Off-beat at international festival Cortoindanza in Cagliari, Sardinia (IT).
www.milantomasik.com

Dates and times:
October 21-25
14:30 – 18:30

Price:
50 € registration fee
200 € total

Package deal:
In the same week David Zambrano is teaching in the mornings. You get a 15% discount for registering to both workshops.

Picture by Vlado Veverka