Fighting is energetic, dynamic, honest, and freeing. Play fighting keeps all that but without the destructive aspects of fighting. And adds fun and joy. You get an idea what play fighting is about, if you think of puppies fighting playfully. So it’s not about winning or loosing, fighting against each other, it’s about frolicking around, having fun with each other. It means laughing a lot and can be wonderfully wild. Play fighting is a consensual bodily confrontation that allows us to feel our power and our partner’s power, to feel how physical we are in a unique, intensive way. Play fights open up a protected space for us to playfully experience issues, situations and feelings that we might otherwise not take a look at.

We’ll in this workshop experiment with different forms and aspects of playful fighting. These friendly confrontations don’t always have to look like wrestling matches (don’t worry: we won’t have a lack of wrestling). They can origin in an everyday situation with rules that we invent as we play around – and these rules may change at any time. But do you get them? And if you don’t? There can be everything between very intense body contact and no contact at all. Play fights may, like pillow fights, include objects. And they can, as we’ll experience, be very sensuous and quite sexy.

Conceiving both as forms of dynamic body encounters, we will take a closer look at play fighting from the perspective of contact improvisation. A main goal will be to gain an enhanced level of awareness, which contributes to heighten intensity – and thus delight. Amongst others time will be an essential instrument of exploration.

No prior martial arts experience is necessary to take part in the workshop, nor do you need to be particularly fit. However, please make sure you have the basic level of health necessary to take part in general sporting activities. Please bring soft knee- and elbow pads, or comfortable clothing that covers your knees and elbows.

Frank Taherkhani (born in 1969) studied philosophy, German literature and economics; for his Master’s degree he wrote his thesis on ‘Prejudices’ and is writing on the same topic for his doctoral dissertation. Frank has been practicing various martial arts since 1984 (incl. karate, jiu-jitsu and WingTsun since 1991). He is a self-defence teacher and runs his own martial arts school.

Gabriela Tarcha (born 1981) began her dance and theatre studies in Brazil before she moved to Europe in 2002, where she is active as choreographer and performer. In 2010 Gabriela earned her Master’s degree in Choreography (Dance Unlimited Arnhem); she is based in Berlin and Cologne and currently pursues further studies on dance science at the Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz in Cologne.

www.play-fighting.com

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