Defne Erdur

is a mover, researcher and a therapist working in the fields of performing arts, health and education. She is trained in Contemporary Dance (PhD), Sociology (BA, MA), Inter-model Expressive Art Therapy and Creativity, Meditation (World Peace Initiative), and Trauma Healing (Somatic Experiencing, Integral Somatic Psychology, Full Embodiment, TRE, Deep Tissue Release and Trigger Point Massage Therapy). 

Having worked with pioneers in Somatics and different theraupeutic modalities, she is actively practising and researching towards a deeper understanding of the body as a bio-psycho-social whole. Invested in building safe, inclusive, and collaborative creative environments, she offers workshops (Hunting Gathering Cultivating, Every Body Knows, Consent Improvisation) and residencies (MA-Pregnant Nothingness, Moving Library) around the world. In 2016 she completed her PhD thesis in Turkey (DANCE EDUCATION ON THE TRANSITIVE LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND ART: Contributions of the Technique, Methodology and Pedagogy of Contact Improvisation to the Physical, Artistic and Psycho-social Development of Amateur Dancers).

She travels and works with different populations ranging from professional and amateur dancers to therapists; from women and LGBTQIA+ people to migrant children and youth. In the last years, she prioritised founding and coordinating humanitarian task forces for trauma prevention and healing (SE Turkey Covid-19 Support for Health Practitioners, SE Ukraine Task Force, World Human Relief-SE Turkey Earthquake Solidarity). Today she is recovering from burnout, reconnecting to her own resources and building her home in nature. She believes in joy.

theme of the first workshop:

Consent Improvisation - Reclaiming Contact with Care

We come to dance from very different places; with different abilities, tendencies and expectations, needs and most importantly with different shades of sensitivity. Today more than ever, movement spaces call for more attention to our differences and deeper study of what co-existence entails, especially if we get in "contact" with each other, if we "touch" each other. And aren’t our dance & movement sanctuaries our exploration labs for life?

Hence, you are invited to find calm and focus and delicately touch — physically, mentally, emotionally, politically — upon issues relating to co-existence. Through the lens of the nervous system, practicing self-regulation and setting boundaries as we dance, we will inquire some of these questions :

* Can we seriously study the sliding scale between a "yes" and a "no"?

* How do we know?

* How, when and why do our answers change?

* When we are able to answer?

* When we are confused and/or unable to communicate clearly?

* When we are able or unable to read others?

* How can we develop physical and verbal language to express our ever-changing choices?

In other words, we will be working towards developing skills to be aware and able to sense our physical states and to be informed about our mental, emotional and chemical states; and how they take shape in and around our interactive dances. We will be studying ways to become more the masters – rather than the victims – of our own choices and our partners’ choices in any given moment. We will move towards developing instant, multi-layered compositions with each other that may allow us to stay in the dance for the dance. And we will fail and repair!

All for co-creating a brave safe space in and around our dance floors and beyond!

Seriously joyful, joyfully serious…

Second workshop:

The Unbearable Lightness of Falling — 

Playful Disorientation in Contact Improvisation

In this class we will focus on the principles of falling dynamics, balancing and support. This time together, we turn our attention to exploring lightness and joy as we fall.

This class is open to all bodies who love to move freely, who are willing to let go of a search for stability and explore “balancing” in constant motion. Who is curious about ways to deepen their body sensations and telescoping their awareness to inner and outer space as they dance is welcome to play with us. 

We will begin our inquiry with Small Dance; we will tune into the micro-movements of the body balancing in “stillness”. As we focus on impulses of falling in our bodies and explore easy and effortless ways to move from, we will find tricks to prepare for bigger falls, disorienting explorations in different levels and open up to challenging moments with partners. 

We will discover how to make friends with gravity; how to ride gravity in 360 degrees and direct our flow of movement with a sense of trust. We will for sure experience giving (pouring) and receiving (transmitting) weight and allowing the dynamic dance to merge as we “fall” into each other.

At the heart of this class is cultivating self-trust and mutual trust; supporting one-self and each other; and staying effortlessly connected. Whether you are new to Contact Improvisation or an experienced dancer, bring your child spirit.