Diffractive Dialogues: The Somatic Eye // BACKPULVER – Ariel Uziga (AR/AT), Lena Maya Turek (AT), Josefina Zuain (AR)
Mon–Wed 8.6., 9.6., 10.6.2026 // Mon–Tue 10.00–14.30, Wed 16.00-21.00
Image: BACKPULVER
Mon–Wed 8.6., 9.6., 10.6.2026 // Mon–Tue 10.00–14.30, Wed 16.00-21.00
Peer-to-peer artistic exchange
Bräuhausgasse 40, 1050 Vienna // pay as you wish // Please register via this link // Participation on all days is recommended but not mandatory (spontaneous drop-ins possible if there is enough space)
With Ariel Uziga and Lena Maya Turek, moderated by Josefina Zuain.
BACKPULVER
Artistic Direction, curation, coordination: Alberto Cissello, Martina De Dominicis, Sara De Santis
Communication support: Juli Müllner
Artistic documentation: Franziska Zauner
Communal meal preparation: Luigi Guerrieri
BACKPULVER is supported by MA7 – cultural department of the city of Vienna.
Special thanks to the following organizations for supporting BACKPULVER in recent years by providing affordable studio space:
tanztheaterperformance WUK, Rraum 33 (Elio Gervasi), Bears in the Park, RAUM für TANZ, Das LOT, Im_flieger, eindorf Kunstraum, Tanzquartier Wien, Liquid Loft Studio, Angewandte Performance Lab, Tanz*Hotel
Diffractive Dialogues is a three-day immersive gathering where three teaching artists are invited to exchange practices, ideas, and gestures in a shared space of ongoing inquiry. Inspired by the notion of diffraction, this format investigates how artistic material shifts as it moves through different perspectives, bodies, and sensibilities. Over three days, the artists will guide the group of participants in dialogues rooted in their distinct practices. By exploring commonalities and differences, this exchange aims to foster a collective critical approach, encouraging insight-sharing, the challenging of assumptions, and the enriching of shared knowledge.
Diffractive Dialogues is a format open to all artistic professionals with diverse backgrounds, interested in movement-based artistic research and willing to engage into collaborative artistic processes.
Monday, 8.6.
10.00–12.00: Ariel Uziga – Practice sharing
12.00–13.00: Lunch break
13.00–14.30: Lena Maya Turek – Diffractive Dialogues
Tuesday, 9.6.
10.00–12.00: Lena Maya Turek – Practice sharing
12.00–13.00: Lunch break
13.00–14.30: Ariel Uziga – Diffractive Dialogues
Wednesday, 10.6.
16.00–18.00: Ariel Uziga & Lena Maya Turek – Co-facilitated practice session
18.00–18.15: Short break
18.15–19.45: Josefina Zuain – Wrap-up session
19.45–21.00: Resonance, drinks & informal exchange
BACKPULVER – Think and Practice Tank for Contemporary Dance emerged as an independent initiative in 2019 with the primary goal of enhancing the quality of contemporary dance training and fostering a professional platform for peer-to-peer exchange. Central to BACKPULVER’s mission is the exploration of peer-to-peer feedback methods within artistic practice, alongside a continuous inquiry into how feedback can cultivate shared artistic knowledge within the local performing arts community.
Ariel Uziga (AR/AT) is a father, dancer, artist, and certified Feldenkrais teacher specializing in somatic movement, improvisation, and poetry in action. Based in Vienna, Uziga works as an independent performer, creator, and teacher, offering improvisation and dance classes. His collaborations extend to various institutions, festivals, and social and cultural projects in Vienna, including ImPulsTanz, SpaceLab WUK, Kind in Motion, Danse Brute, Tanz die Toleranz, Expanded Garden, Caritas, Dschungel Wien, Semmelweisklinik, ToZomia, Flucc, Rote Nasen, DANCEmotion, BACKPULVER, and blind_date_collaboration. Ariel offers workshops throughout Europe and South America and promotes exchange and dialogue through poetry in action. www.arieluziga.com
Josefina Zuain (AR) is a dancer, writer, and art historian. She has studied modern techniques (Humphrey Technique), composition, and improvisation through somatic techniques (Feldenkrais, Eutony), stretching, and ballet for biomechanics (Gurquel Technique), among others. She has trained in Twerk and Sexy Style, Bounce, and Heels techniques in Madrid, Salamanca, Rome, and other cities. She coordinates writing workshops for artists and works as a consultant on projects related to art and related fields. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Buenos Aires and in 2019 successfully completed her master’s degree in advanced studies in Art History at the University of Salamanca. She is currently developing her doctoral research at the University of Salamanca, examining historical dance documents from the medieval era alongside moral judgments and discourses that criticize Twerk. Her research explores the arguments used to justify the persecution of certain ways of dancing. She is the editorial director and creator of 2da En Papel Editora, a publishing house specializing in the dissemination, creation and distribution of content related to dance. In 2009, she created cuadernosdedanza.com.ar ISSN 22508708, a virtual platform that stores 14 years of writing about, on and from dance in archive format. @segundaenpapel, @josefina.zuain
Lena Maya Turek (AT) is a freelancer at the intersection of pedagogy, performance, and body work. Based in Austria, she looks back on a decade of teaching dance and movement to kids, teens and adults across Europe and Latin America. In recent years, her focus has been contemporary dance, contact improvisation, Play-Fight and somatic practices. She studied dance pedagogy in Vienna and holds a post-graduate diploma in Community Dance from Trinity-Laban, London. She is a biodynamic cranio-sacral therapist, a non-dogmatic hatha-yoga teacher and a enthusiastic human being with a mission to create safer spaces to support and foster relational bonds. www.lenamaya.com