ZOO/Thomas Hauert

This workshop introduces some foundational tools from ZOO/Thomas Hauert’s work: exercises, scores, games, and concepts.

The aim of this workshop is to explore the body’s vast, intuitive knowledge; its capacity to sense and generate movement beyond conscious thought. Through progressive improvisational tasks, solo or with partners, participants create complex forms, rhythms, and movement qualities that surpass the mind’s deliberate planning.

The workshop also emphasizes group dynamics, exploring how individual movements can combine into collective structures. Participants learn to lead, follow, and simultaneously contribut to the emergence of shared patterns, developing awareness of both personal and group movement intelligence.

The workshop focuses on composing while improvising, shaping dance in real time. Drawing analogies between music and movement, participants explore rhythm, timing, counterpoint, and tension-release in both solo and group work.

As in an orchestra, dancers learn to connect movements to create unity, harmonies, and dissonances. The workshop emphasizes the intelligence of the group as an instrument for creating interactive, complex structures that extend beyond individual imagination, fostering a shared musicality in movement—both with and without music.