Lắc Lư Như Núi Gặp Sông: A Movement Workshop with Artist Michael Turinsky

You are invited to join a 03-day movement workshop in HCMC with Michael Turinsky – an Austrian choreographer and theorist, with practice revolving around disability – politics – aesthetics.

🗓️ Time
👉 Ideal participants should attend all 3 days:
Friday evening, March 27: 17:00 – 21:00
Saturday afternoon, March 28: 13:00 – 18:00
Sunday afternoon, March 29: 13:00 – 18:00

📍 Location: EMASI Nam Long School, Street No. 8, Nam Long Residential Area, Tan Thuan Dong Ward, District 7, HCMC
🗣️ Language: English (with Vietnamese & Sign Language interpretation)
💸 Participation fee: Free
👥 Quantity: 10–12 people

♿ Accessibility

The venue has an elevator & accessible pathways
Specialized volunteer team to support various disabilities
Successfully registered participants with disabilities will receive transportation cost support

📝 REGISTRATION FORM
https://forms.office.com/e/KsT15xWDHH
⏰ Deadline: 11:55 AM, March 17, 2026
📩 Results will be announced within 3 days.

🌊 Workshop Content
What if we view our bodies as mountains, valleys, rivers, treetops, stones, lake surfaces, or ocean waves?
What if the stage is a canvas?
What if we slow down completely to fully perceive the sensory layers—hearing, seeing, smelling, touching—intertwining and connecting the body with the environment?

Stemming from his artistic practice and referencing Sunaura Taylor’s recent book Disabled Ecologies, physically disabled choreographer Michael Turinsky invites participants—both disabled and non-disabled—to explore the relationship between body and landscape across sensory and ethical dimensions.

Through improvisation exercises, we will activate multi-sensory awareness. We will use choreographic language to explore the dimensions of our bodies in relation to the surrounding environment: breath, gravity, giving and receiving weight, shaking, oscillating, and waving.

The workshop will also explore voice and/or sign language in choreographic practice. Starting with creative writing exercises, participants will be invited to share their perspectives through various forms of verbal and non-verbal expression.

👤 Target audience: Ages 16 and up
💛 The organizers especially encourage participants with mobility, hearing, and visual impairments to register. The program will strive to provide all necessary support throughout the learning process.

👤 ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR MICHAEL TURINSKY
Michael Turinsky is an artist and theorist living and working in Vienna (Austria), and is physically disabled. His practice lies at the intersection of contemporary dance, performance art, disability studies, along with political theory and aesthetics.

Academically trained as a philosopher at the University of Vienna, Michael began his journey into inclusive dance in 2006.

Later, he questioned the very concept of “inclusion” and proposed his own term, “crip choreography,” to describe his unique artistic practice: an approach that works with the materiality of the body—which is specific and rich in resistance—in the processes of subverting, deconstructing, and reorganizing forms of movement considered dominant.

Widely known for his unique aesthetic language, ironic references to pop culture, the musicality of his work, and intellectual rigor, Michael’s significant choreographic works include: Heteronomous male (2012), My body, your pleasure (2014), Reverberations (2018), Precarious Moves (2021), and SOILED (2022).

Notably, his solo work “Precarious Moves” was awarded the prestigious Nestroy Prize for Best Off-Production in 2021.
In 2024, Michael Turinsky was honored as an “Outstanding Artist” by the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Arts.
🌐 Website: michaelturinsky.org

📌 During this visit, Michael Turinsky will meet Vietnamese audiences and artists through workshop programs and talks in Hanoi and HCMC initiated by the Goethe-Institut.

🎬 DON’T MISS:
THE BEAUTY OF IRREGULARITY: A dialogue on art for every body (talk and documentary screening)
🗓️ Monday, March 30 at 19:00
📍 2nd Floor, Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan, Ben Nghe Ward, HCMC
🎟️ Registration information will be updated soon!

🤝 Activities in HCMC are organized through a partnership between Goethe-Institut HCMC and the Life Is Beautiful Social Enterprise (DrD Vietnam), with support from EMASI Nam Long.

📧 For any inquiries regarding the program, please contact: thanhtoan.doan@goethe.de
📸 Cover photo: Performance of “Work Body” by Michael Turinsky, photo by: Loizen Bauer