“The Listening Body” – Contact Improvisation Workshop
with Purnendra Meshram and Rebecca Narum | host bewegungs-art freiburg
The Listening Body is a Contact Improvisation workshop with a simple proposal: arriving without forcing, opening the body to listening and following where that openness leads. In the workshop, we explore how the body can be understood through minimal movement—how even the smallest shift, pause, or touch can carry depth and information. The workshop is intended for people with experience in Contact Improvisation or another dance field. Through guided explorations, participants are invited into a state where listening becomes visible, the body speaks in subtle ways, and space transforms into a playground of possibilities.
We aim to cultivate a listening body—creating a readiness so complete that, although nothing is planned, anything is possible. Opening the body so that falling onto the shoulder of another body becomes as natural as following it to the floor. Rather than forcing, we cultivate trust in the sensing body, to catch the opportunities as they appear and let go of them as they pass by. This practice does not aim to invent something new but instead to return more deeply to the basic principles of Contact Improvisation: giving time and space for the senses to heighten, and for the body to truly open.
This workshop is grounded in the ongoing research for Purnendra Kumar Meshram and Rebecca Mary Narum’s newest improvised dance piece, “Unwritten Bodies: Seen and Unseen".
Purnendra Meshram is an Indian contemporary movement artist whose passion for dance began in childhood. In 2013, he launched his professional career by joining the Attakkalari diploma program for Movement Arts and Mix Media, where he honed his skills in various contemporary dance techniques. In addition to contemporary dance, he is proficient in hip-hop and Kalaripayattu, a traditional Indian martial art. Purnendra has collaborated with esteemed choreographers in India and abroad and has spent a year as a performer at Dubai Parks and Resorts. He continues to perform, teach, and create his work, always seeking new creative avenues.
His choreography 2 Men has garnered several accolades, including first place in the Festival 10 Sentidos Choreographic Competition in Valencia, Spain, in 2019, and second place in the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) in Chennai, India, in 2018.
His dedication to his artistry has earned him the Serendipity Arts Residency 2024, Pina Bausch Fellowship 2023, and Artlink 100 Artist Grant 2022. Purnendra is an artist who continually pushes his boundaries and explores new artistic possibilities. He serves as an inspiration to aspiring dancers and artists by sharing his knowledge and expertise with others.
Rebecca Mary Narum is an American contemporary dance artist based in Freiburg, Germany since 2015. She began dancing as a child, training in ballet, jazz, and tap, and later performed on her high school dance team. After working with Misch Mash Dance Company in New York, she continued her studies in Spain from 2013–2015, where she also encountered contact improvisation. She then completed her professional training at bewegungs-art Freiburg / TIP – School for Dance, Improvisation and Performance.
Since 2017, Rebecca has worked as a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her teaching and artistic work draw from improvisation, contact improvisation, and a wide range of dance techniques. She is particularly interested in the interplay between clarity and precision with freedom and playfulness. She teaches regularly in the vocational programs at bewegungs-art Freiburg, at Profitraining Freiburg and Basel, and at various festivals, and evening schools.
With an interest to actively support the local dance scene, alongside her teaching she organizes the onCe Festival for Instant Composition and coordinates Profitraining Freiburg for bewegungs-art, and serves on the consultation board of Tanznetz Freiburg. As a choreographer and dancer, her works have been presented in Germany, Serbia, Croatia and the USA.
When: Saturday 10th of Jan 2-6 p.m and Sunday 11th Jan 11 a.m- 3 p.m
Where: Studio FE6a, Ferdinand-Weiss Strasse 6a, 79106 Freiburg
For whom: professionel dancers and experienced CI-dancers
Costs: 130 € Early Bird until the 30.12.25 after that 170 €
Language: English
Registration: workshop@bewegungs-art.de