Teaching
Trailer for Victoria’s contemporary class
Connecting to self, other and community
With 15 years of teaching experience, I bring pedagogical training and my own artistic practice to each class.
Teaching Philosophy
No matter what I am teaching, my eye is on relationship, on in-between spaces, connections. Whether professional training or beginning students, I cultivate awareness of self and others, body and space. My classes are thoughtfully structured to lead participants through warmup, elements of technique, improvisation, and, when appropriate, learning phrase work. Always connecting mind and body in order to expand dance vocabulary, my aim is for participants to investigate physical textures and individual movements as equally as experiencing healthy alignment and moving efficiency, so we can enjoy the full range of dynamics in any dance technique.
animate materials
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spots still available
for
animate materials 〰️ spots still available for
Kunstdünger Sommerakademie, July 2024. Photo — Victoria McConnell
Weekly Classes:
Wednesday - 18.15-19.45 - Contemporary (beginner) - Tanzfabrik Kreuzberg
Thursday - 20.00-21.15 - Contemplative Groove (open level) - Tanzfabrik Wedding
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Workshops & Specials:
6 Jan - 17 Feb, 2025 | Animate Materials — Performance Project at Tanzfabrik
Dates: Mondays & Wednesdays 20.00-22.00 Showing: Monday 17.02.2025 / 21:00
Animate Materials is a moving dialogue for textiles and bodies. This performance project is a creative process which invites a shift in our self-perception and the material objects we encounter every day. Familiar and literally hautnah (up close, near the skin), how much do we know about the textiles we use? Could the garments we wear become partners in movement? Can elements of sewing become an outline for creating dance? At the intersection of dance and textile arts, this project seeks new partnerships with material and clothing while questioning consumer culture. We will map relations between our bodies, fabric and garments through somatic exercises, sewing tasks, contemporary improvisation, and dance composition tools. With the participants, Victoria will build a performance which invites people to cherish textiles and uses the fabric of our own skin, muscle and bones to imagine fashion cultures that care for people as well as material.
Level: Open / Sewing skills welcome, not required.
Language: Primarily English, German also possible
Fee: 210€ / red: 190€ / professional dancers: 170€
Combi price with the contemporary class before the project: 290€ / red.: 270€ / professional dancers: 250€
Registration: schule@tanzfabrik-berlin.de
Phone: 030 786 58 61
8 Feb 2025 | Contemplative Groove Deeper Groove Session
Details: Saturday, 10.00-14.00 | Tanzfabrik Kreuzberg Studio 3 | Open Level | 35€
Deeper Groove Session offers the chance to go deeper into the embodied mindfulness and joyful physicality found in Victoria’s weekly class. If you haven’t yet joined a class, Contemplative Groove brings together elements of contemporary dance practice, yoga, task-based improvisation, movement research, dancing in clubs, and meditative practice.
For this workshop-style format we divide the time into mini-sessions and move through different themes to create more space for exploration and re/connecting with the body, to your sense of creative flow and cultivating awareness of self and others.
By tuning in to thought patterns and to bodily sensations while moving and dancing, the workshop develops the idea of listening as a corporeal and mental practice. We will attune to our own body first and then we can broaden our awareness outwards into the space and towards others. Elements of dance technique emerge as a vehicle for exploring an idea and submerge again in improvisation. Reflecting and exchanging are equally part of the process through pauses between movement sessions as well as writing prompts, one-on-one dialogues or group chats.
Trailer from Contemporary Dance Intensive - Kunstdünger Sommerakademie July 2024
Types of Courses:
Contemporary // Improvisation // Mindfulness into Movement // Modern // Ballet // Jazz
Course Descriptions
Victoria's Contemporary class begins with guided improvisations to warm up, ground and center the body, while becoming aware of the breath. The class continues to move through structured exercises activating the core, emphasizing alignment and engaging large muscle groups while flowing in and out of the floor. Weaving improvisation with technique, each class focuses on a movement theme which returns throughout the session. As her class progresses across the space with spirals, floorwork and turns, there is a mix of exploration tasks and short phrases to integrate improvisation with more complex movements. Bringing all these elements together Victoria's class culminates in phrase-work, integrating individual movement qualities into the structure or choreography.
Contemplative Groove is a movement experience where all are welcome. No matter what your background — whether you dance in clubs, do ballet, or don’t dance — you can join. This class is designed to be a welcoming space for all who are curious about mindfulness, like to move, or want to dance up a sweat. In Contemplative Groove, Victoria brings together her training and experience in contemporary dance, yoga, improvisation, and meditative practices to offer a joyful guided-flow.