Adrian Russi

About

Adrian Russi (Switzerland) has spent more than twenty years deeply engaged in exploring the body and many aspects beyond it while staying connected to its physical base. Alongside dance, he has practiced martial arts (Wu Chi, Tai Chi, Escrima, Kung Fu), bodywork, and energy work. He began Contact Improvisation in 1992, followed soon after by New Dance and Open Improvisation, and dance has stayed with him ever since, deeply influencing his life. After completing New Dance studies at bewegungs-art in Freiburg, Germany, he began teaching Contact Improvisation and New Dance and founded "Arte Schoki," a company working with open improvisation on stage that became the basis for his later performance work. His training continued through workshops, festivals, and labs with many teachers, including Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, who began developing Contact Improvisation in the early 1970s with a group of other dancers, and he was strongly influenced by Lilo Stahl, Andrew Harwood, and David Zambrano. He also studied Craniosacral Bodywork, important to his understanding of subtle connections within the body. Based in Switzerland, he teaches freelance to a wide audience and is regularly invited to international festivals and workshops across Europe. His teaching emphasizes technical aspects of movement (ease, precision, and strength), questions of perception (sensation, connection between inner and outer space, top and bottom), and creativity rooted in precise body awareness, alongside playfulness, deep engagement, and respect for others — with room always left for a sense of humor. As a performer he works with many international artists, with performances based mainly on free improvisation including Contact Improvisation, dance, dance-theatre, voice, and live music. He also regularly organizes jams, festivals, and exchange gatherings with teachers and performers from Switzerland and abroad.

Events