I am a choreographer and dancer, with a performative practice rooted in interdisciplinarity.
I am trained in Bharatanatyam and graduated from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) with a post-graduate certification in choreography, while being a qualified journalist, with a strong interest and practice in writing. My artistic medium is therefore an amalgamation of these disciplines, with some influence of clown-theatre generated through my years of collaborative work with clown performers and trainers.
My artistic work is inspired by everyday topics such as people and their stories, as well as the metaphysical questions of the whys and the hows, matter and consciousness, and time and space.
I believe that in order to create impactful work we need a community that supports itself. As the founder and artistic director of INFLUX, my intention is to nurture a community of individuals, where differences can be celebrated, diversity can thrive and drive our creativity, where artists can work together in an honest, sustainable way.
Through INFLUX I want to contribute towards branching arts out into various aspects of life, into and beyond performance spaces and theatres, as an essential part of our daily lives.
Ursula Schwarz is a performing artist and theatre maker with a focus on clowning and physical theatre.
Many of her works have an interdisciplinary and improvisational character and focus on the connection with the audience, shifting boundaries between art and life. She uses humor as a universal and direct form of artistic communication and as an outlet to comment on this world, to understand it and to enter into an exchange that is less characterized by reason and more by empathy.
She studied with Lorenz Wenda, at the Atelier for Physical Theater in Berlin and with international clown teachers. In addition to her artistic work, Ursula also works as a theatre and clown teacher.
Being with INFLUX, her main interest is building a network and connection with different kinds of artists and find the tie points between people, different artworks and artistic ways of expression, because in her opinion art should make connections where others may not see them and inspire everyone to take action too.
Olivia is a Hip Hop and House dancer, choreographer and festival organiser. Her curiosity regarding African American influenced dance styles brought her to various dance productions and stages all around Europe and inspired her to create her own dance pieces with her company Potpourri.
As an artist it is her aim to move between the expressive richness of Hip Hop and House Dance Culture and Contemporary Art and to create platforms to highlight the dance forms.
When discovering INFLUX, she got caught in the freedom of improvisation and the awareness that it takes to be able to listen and react – and thus to grow as a performer and artist.
I am a performance artist in the field of music and dance performance, and theater. Primarily, I work in interdisciplinary and co-creative settings. Since 2019, I am a part of the ensemble of Toihaus Theater, and one of the co-founders of the collective „Kollektiv Diva“ and „LiSI*A (Liberating Structures for Improvised Art)“.
I studied music and dance education in the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and at Mozarteum Salzburg. Besides my studies, I have been working as a freelance artist in Vienna, lower Austria, Salzburg, Paris, Ljubliana and many other cities in Europe. My greatest teacher and the best education I found are in the different art scenes of these cities.
I am working mostly in projects and in different positions.
I perform, I create, I write, I listen, I advise, I teach and cooperate.
My main interest has been growing in the field of free Improvisation. I research on scores and structures, as well as on the mindsets and the preparation of the body, for an improvised performance.
On the one hand I am a freelance horn player working with orchestras in Austria and the UK. And on the other hand I run a social media and communication agency with a handful of clients in the arts as well as the beauty industry.
I love being creative and express myself through music. That is also how I came to know Influx. It is such a pleasure to improvise and collaborate with other people and disciplines than your own one. In my opinion this is how you can grow as a person and as an artist.
I do also love to organise and structure things and make strategies. With my agency arnold.creative.social I can fulfil this other need in me. And in the end these two branches complement each other just wonderfully 🙂