Introduction to contemporary dance: from sensation to movement

In these classes, I will provide you with tools specific to contemporary dance to explore your body's potential by working on its rhythmic, textural, perceptual, spatial, and imaginative capabilities.

We will explore different qualities such as explosiveness, delicacy, precision, attack, restraint, ease, speed, and permanence to stimulate the imagination and thus find driving forces of movement in a space of group interaction and inspiration.

The general aspects we will work on in the classes are:

• Training a toned, flexible, and available body based on a knowledge of anatomy.
• Awakening body textures and physical qualities through sensations and mental images.
• Activating musicality and a sense of rhythm through different musical genres.
• Learning the necessary technique to move on the four levels: floor, mid-body, standing, and jumping.
• Understanding the rotation and spiral of the spine and its connection to the extremities.
• Sharpening memory and precision with music through choreographic phrases.
• Tuning in to the group through improvisations.
• Promoting body awareness, presence, and personal movement.
• Stimulate the imagination as a driving force for movement.
• Raise awareness of breathing and introduce basic tools for connecting with the voice (last quarter).

** Payment and class recovery policy: Each student can recover up to two classes if they take the full course and one class if they take half a course by attending a session of another course organized by La Visiva (Introduction to Contemporary Dance with Blanca Tolsá, Introduction to Contemporary Dance with Maria Hernando, or Practices around the Body and Creation). Once payment has been made, no refunds can be made, nor can sessions be saved for another course or quarter.

Biography

BLANCA TOLSÁ

Blanca Tolsá is a dancer and choreographer. After graduating from the Conservatori Professional de Dansa Institut del Teatre in contemporary dance, she began her career as a dancer with the Young Company ITdansa, where she toured internationally with repertoire by Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Sidi Larbi, Ina Christel Johannessen, and Montse Sánchez/Ramón Baeza, among others.

Since 2016, she has worked as a performer with Lipi Hernández, Ariadna Montfort, Raquel Klein, Robert Zappalà, Albert Quesada, Magdalena Garzón, Jacob Gómez, Anna Macau, Constanza Brcnic, Núria Guiu, Paloma Muñoz Siberia, Georgia Vardarou, and Joao Lima.

She has received the 2020 Butaca Award and the 2024 Critics' Award for Best Dancer for Raquel Klein's Wu Wei and Paloma Muñoz Siberia's La Quijá, respectively.

In 2019, she began her personal work as a maker, exploring intuitive associations between abstract voice and movement with the aim of deconstructing them and giving rise to new imaginaries. In 2021, she created her first piece, Ecoica, presented at the Dansa València and Dansa Metropolitana festivals. In 2024, she became an emerging artist at the Graner and a resident at La Visiva, where she developed Parafonías, her second group piece, which premiered at La Caldera as part of the Dansa Metropolitana 2025 Festival.

She is currently studying for a Higher Degree in Choreography and Performance at the Institut del Teatre.