Summer dance intensive

Free of charge!

With Hector Palacios and Stella Blanc from Track Dance Ensemble.

This workshop combines set material and improvisation through daily four-hour training sessions. Each class explores a range of movement codes, challenging the conventional vocabulary often found in contemporary dance training. We focus on uncovering the authentic ways dancers move, paying close attention to the innate capabilities and personal explorations of their bodies.

Rather than dismissing existing approaches or limiting transformation, we aim to create space for evolution. We engage with the undefined and embrace the nonsensical, placing emphasis on transitional states—the in-betweens, the processes, the shifts between
intention and intuition.

Every session weaves together structured material and improvisational tasks, offering participants the opportunity to experience movement in two distinct but interconnected frameworks. This dual approach encourages a deeper, more nuanced understanding of
motion and presence.

Hector Palacios

Hector Palacios, a graduate of the Beijing International Art School and the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD), has forged a path in the fields of dance and visual arts.

His journey as a dancer led him to collaborate with prominent figures in the classical music and opera scenes, including Shirin Neshat, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Kent Nagano and Riccardo Muti.

As a visual artist, Hector has showcased his compelling work at venues such as the F.O.R.M. “Festival of Recorded Movement” in Vancouver, Canada, the Next Dance Cinema in Seattle, the Stockholm Dance Film Festival, Photo Bastei Gallery in Zurich, Galerie Joseph le Palais in Paris and Fondazione Luciana Matalon in Milan.

His artistic endeavors have also received recognition in renowned publications, including Photo Vogue Italia and Issue 27 of Musée Magazine, a leading voice in photographic culture.

The years 2022–2023, he received awards from esteemed platforms such as the Tokyo International Photography Awards, the Minimalist Photography Awards, the Budapest International Photography Awards, the IPA (International Photography Awards), and the Vienna Photo Awards.”

Stella Blanc

Stella Blanc, born in 1993, is a contemporary dancer and choreographer from Stockholm, Sweden. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Dance Performance in 2015 from the University of the Arts in Stockholm (UNIARTS). Shortly after graduating, she continued her studies at the

Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) in Salzburg, Austria, where she completed her training in 2016. From 2017 to 2022, Stella was a member of the dance faculty at the Mozarteum University’s ORFF Institute, as well as a lecturer in dance at the Thomas Bernhard Institute. Alongside her teaching, she served as co-director of the TRAK DANCE ENSEMBLE, a contemporary dance company founded in 2016 by Hector Palacios in Salzburg, Austria.

As a dancer, she has performed in numerous productions by the TRAK company since its inception, as well as at the Salzburg Festival and in works by choreographers such as Jefta van Dinther, Jos Baker, Emanuel Gat, Ryan Mason, and Barnaby Booth, among others. As a choreographer, Stella has created works for the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and for the New Education for Contemporary Dance (NEFCD) in Härnösand, Sweden.”