I am an artist, choreographer, dramaturg and Somatic Movement Educator in Body-Mind Centering®, based in Vienna. My artistic research focusses on intersections of embodiment, ecology, neuroaesthetics and performance.

Besides Body-Mind Centering, I have also studied the Six Viewpoints (the work of Mary Overlie), Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies and Chinese Martial Arts. I hold a BA Hons in Choreography with Community Practices from Dartington College of Arts.

Sebastian Bechinger

An Introduction to Neurodiversity and Neuroinclusion for Dance and Movement Educators

6th of June at 10am-4pm
Bikes & Rails, Emilie-Flöge-Weg 4, 1100

We all have different brains. Some brains are more different than others, deviating from a "norm" of cognitive function to such an extent that we don't consider them "typical". Some of these variations are given diagnostic labels, such as ADHD, dyslexia, autism, etc. Sometimes, they emerge "subclinically". In any case, the incidence of neurodivergence in the population is high, with estimates ranging from 10-20%.

⠀The aim of the workshop is for you to become aware of the gaps between your current pedagogy and a neuroinclusive pedagogy and to help you identify how you might adapt your pedagogy and the best practices for doing so.

“…Artists are, in some sense, neurologists — studying the brain with techniques that are unique to them, but studying the brain and it’s organisation none-the-less.”
—Semir Zeki

Ongoing enquiries

Neuroaesthetics

If there is a biological basis for perception, what implications does this have for this thing we call “the arts?”

If the arts have a biological function, what is it?

 

Somatic Philosophy

What if we approach practices of embodiment, not so much as a vehicle for “health and wellbeing” but about a way of knowing?

 

Deconstruction and Composition

What happens when you reduce the thing we call “performance” to it’s bare bones and make from there...? How can we enter into a dialogue with what Mary Overlie calls the “primordial materials” — the ever present materials of perception, movement and space which have a life and a mind of their own?

 

“When friends unfamiliar with our work ask me what we do, I tell them: we use text, but not to tell a standard theatrical narrative or story; and we use movement, though it’s not what you would expect by the term “dance.” And combining those texts and movements creates something beyond those individual components of text and movement, and the best word we have for that is “performance.”

Matthew Goulish — Letter to a Young Practitioner, Goat Island

Newsletter / Blog / Podcast

I put out a weekly newsletter/blog with musings on art, choreography, and Somatics. Please check it out — you can look at it before you subscribe. There is a possibility of just getting irregular updates about stuff I’m doing — classes, performances, etc.— if you don’t want the weekly musings.