Contact Improvisation
Maker of dance, mime and physical theatre
Since the Corona period I have been a member of Concert Curieus, a dance and music collective. We use improvisation to create performances for 0-6 years old. We are performing in theatres, and local daycare centres for both the children and the parents.
My in-depth CI program will start for the second time in october 2025. It is a 6 month program designed to dive into somatics and yourself as a dancer within Contact Improvisation. You can send me an email if you are interested in joining for the new round in september 2025.
I developed this program out of a wish to share my experience and knowledge. I wish to offer a pathway into the deeper layers of dance and the creative being for people to follow, and together we can discover more of ourselves in dance. CI can become an extraordinary rich experience in itself and valuable for our lives with our bodies. To share this process with like-minded people is a great experience! More info here.
6 months refining your mobility and danceability
This series of Contact Improvisation workshops offers multiple entry points into the practice - somatic awareness, technical exploration, and creative improvisation.
With six ways in, we have a varied landscape of possibilities for movement with each other, inspiration for practice and profound experience. This series is intended to open pathways to clarity, agency and enjoyment of dancing - revealing the many layers of Contact Improvisation as a creative practice of emergent dance.
More info and tickets here:
https://hipsy.nl/shop/robin-berkelmans-dans-en-bewegingstheater
Every first week of the new year I am invited by Renate Müller-Procyk from Freiburg to co-teach a 4 day CI Intensive. Our workshops are designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of age or experience. Whether you’re new to Contact Improvisation or a seasoned dancer, you are welcome to our warm and supportive environment.
Our approach emphasizes that our existence is shaped by how we relate to the world around us. Together, we’ll deepen our connections to the floor, each other, and ourselves, opening up new possibilities in how we move and experience dance.
For 30 years I have been a dancer and a movement enthusiast. My work is to perform and to teach people various movement practices on a almost daily basis - the most important ones are Contact Improvisation and performing improvisation.
I have been performing professionaly for 25 years now and at the moment I am performing with the improvisation collective Concert Curieus. And I have been teaching for over 20 years in various forms of movement - at several dance and theatre academies or universities, and also with people who are professionally involved with dance/movement. Next to that I enjoy teaching in movement for dance enthusiasts who want to dive in for the sheer joy of it and the value it gives to their lives.
I love to research my relationship with my body, to research and develop natural functional movement and to nuance the experiential side of it. This all develops into a refined meaningful, authentic, sponteneous, aligned and embodied experience of myself.
Whether it's related to art or to something else in life, it is always very fulfilling for me to guide people develop more insight into and useful ways with their movement and bodies.
Educator
Classes
September 2015 – 2020 / Dance teacher at Vooropleiding Hedendaagse Dans
September 2012 - 2020 / Dance teacher at Fontys Dance academy - danceteacher department – / Artistic coaching / solo and group improvisationSeptember 2008 - now / Dance teacher at Amsterdamse School of the Arts - mime education, - Contact Impro around risk and high dynamics
September 2006 - 2025 / physical performer education at De Trap, a private theatre school in Amsterdam - Improvisation for solo and groups
Others notable ones
Oktober 2007 – juni 2008 / Movement teacher & Choreography at 5 o’Clock Class West / Rast Theater for 18-25yrs
December 2004 – juli 2006 / Movement teacher & Choreography at Amsterdamse Jeugdtheaterschool, a dramaschool for 10-20yrs.
Oktober 2004 – juli 2006 / Movement teacher & Choreography at Jeugdtheaterschool ZuidOost, a dramaschool for 10-20yrs.Workshops
I give / have given many workshops in dance, movement, somatics, Tai Chi, Chi Kung and Thai Massage. The most important
ones I noted down below.
2016 - now / Establishing the CI community in Tilburg, main co organiser dutch CI festival, workshops abroad2015 / Lecture on Chi Kung and Contemporary dance at Conference on Dance and Somatic Dance practices, Coventry University, Great Britain
2016 / Teaching at Contact Impro festival Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany
2014 / Floorwork for the Dance Conservatory Ankara, Turkey
2013 / Dance technique and research K3 in Hamburg, Germany
2013 / Lecture on Chi Kung, somatics and contemporary dance Impulstanz Vienna, Austria
2016 / Floorwork and Contact Impro for Tanz Weiter in Karlsruhe, Germany
Relevant other
2020 / member of Improvisation Collective Waterapen
2012 - 2014 / Keyteacher of the IDOCDE project / European project for contemporary dance education and documentation, a research and exchange between dance educator of Europe
2015 - 2016 / Board member van artist collective KUDDE
2011 - 2020 / Dutch representative and teacher of l’Art du Chi, a french based school for Tai Chi, Chi Kung and Meditation
2019 - 2020 / Teacher of Tai Chi for Fysio Plus OSS
2019 - 2020 / Teacher in Je Burn Out Te Lijf, an initiative for coming out of burnout by FysioPlus OSS
2014 - 2018 / Co creator of the Thai Massage Collective and Somatic People
2014 – 2016 / Teacher of Thai Yoga Massage, ITM style
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