Biography
Izabella Luca began practicing CI in 2013 after attending a workshop with Alex Guex and Urs Stauffer while she was studying anthropology and psychology in France. She pursued her dance education in contemporary dance and choreography at Tanzfabrik as well as dance pedagogy at the University of Arts in Berlin. Over the years, she has immersed herself in the CI community in Germany, further deepening her practice through the Advanced Contact Improvisation Training with Jörg Hassmann and Daniel Werner. Her dance journey has led her to explore various practices, including Body-Mind-Centering, Klein Technique, Butoh, yoga, and authentic movement.
After returning back to Hungary, she co-founded Kontaktland together with Grégory Chevalier, teached CI basics and studied mental health and community building.
At the moment she develops further her improvisation classes she offers for women communities in the suburbs of Budapest, co-teaches with her partner András and facilitates movement-focused activities with Egyesek Youth Association. She is particularly interested in how embodiment and body-focused practices support creativity and cultivate loving connection, both with ourselves and with others. She is passionate about creating experiential spaces where people can explore movement in relation to different art forms, communication, and nature.
András Déri is a Hungarian choreographer, dancer, actor, stunt performer, movement researcher and teacher. Coming from the field of urban dance he has been making choreographies since 2006 in collaborations with musicians with an interdisciplinary approach. He studied at the Duncan Centre in Prague at the Rotterdam Dance Academy and he graduated from the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in 2014 in Brussels. In 2024 he received a dance pedagogy MA at the Budapest Circus Arts and Contemporary Dance College. As a member of the L1 Association, he makes his own work based in Budapest while freelancing internationally. He has been touring worldwide as a performer with companies like Cocoon Dance Company, Two In One Company, Tranzdanz, Daniel Linehan and others. (More info https://andrasderi.hu/en/about/biography/) In his choreographic work, he applies interactive structured improvisation using live music, unconventional topics, settings, and site-specific locations. https://andrasderi.hu/en/about/artistry/
In his teachings and his improvisation workshop, called Play in the now, he integrates various approaches of dance, improvisation, composition, awareness, and somatic techniques in a unique performative, and playful way. While teaching he applies the methodology of his artistic work, where the instinctual, somatic experience is in a constant dialog with analytical reflections back and forth or simultaneously. His main teachers of CI are Ákos Hargitay, Khosro Adibi and Martin Nachbar, while his practice is greatly influenced by masters such as Thomas Hauert, David Zambrano, Juliette Map, Francesco Scavetta, Salva Sanchez and others.
András and Izabella co-teach with the main focuses of body awareness and playful creativity. Together they have given dance and movement workshops (contemporary dance, improvisation, outdoor movement laboratories and contact improvisation) for various target groups, adults, children and young people in Hungary and in India. At the moment they give contact improvisation workshops for young people and hold Creative Family Dance workshops for children and their parents.