Barbara van Male is a dancer, movement researcher, and editor based in Amsterdam. Her path into contact improvisation began through contemporary dance and performance projects in public space and site-specific works. Her practice is informed by a range of disciplines she has trained in, including capoeira, tango, meditation, and ballet and judo from her childhood, alongside several intensives and trainings in contact improvisation, Axis Syllabus, Body-Mind Centering, and contemporary dance.
In Amsterdam, Barbara is part of the contact improvisation community through research, labs, and workshops, and she is also involved in labs and research for improvisation-based performances. Her workshops and facilitation explore either somatic material, such as moving from skin, fascia, muscles, and bones, or spatial material, working in and between bodies and with space itself as a partner, using the performative quality of contact improvisation as her underlying reference and orientation.
Rather than being based in a specific city, region, or country, Barbara teaches and facilitates workshops and jams across Europe, anywhere reachable by train, working on request and by offer. Her significant teachers and choreographers include Robert Eugene, Maite Volpato, Alex Guex, Leilani Weis, Frey Faust, Irina Hortin, Tom Goldhand, Bennie Bartels, Madieke van Dijk, Robin Berkelmans, Alessandro Rivellino, Raffaelo Rufo, Eszter Gál, Nayeli Spela Peterlin, Gabriela Zuarez, and Sofia Garcia Miramon.
