From the Psoas muscle to Joyful Dance
Two complementary workshops with Kerstin Kussmaul and Fabiana Pastorini in cooperation with ImPulsTanz - Vienna International Dance Festival
From the Psoas muscle to Joyful Dance
Core Connections for Radiant Presence
This retreat offers an encounter of precise somatic experience and creative freedom.
With Kerstin, you develop deep awareness and regulation through the core of the body: the psoas muscle. Working with psoas releases held emotions, supports the organs and breath, and moving through space. Her approach grounds you in a resting presence with yourself, restoring the body’s innate intelligence for movement and resilience.
With Fabiana, this embodied grounding unfolds into exploration and play. Through dance, breath, and mindful improvisation, movement becomes a living language of joy, expression, self-discovery and connection.
Together, they create a field where structure supports flow, and freedom naturally arises from embodied experience. You learn to move from your core not as an idea, but as a felt, lived experience. Radiant presence is not something to strive for. It emerges effortlessly as your natural state.
Choose both workshops for maximum experience, or take either the Psoas Connection or the Joyful Dance to enjoy more unstructured daily time. Each workshop consists of approximately 100 minutes of activity daily. Shared Moments are for participants of both workshops and are included with the registration to any of the two workshops.
The Psoas Connection
An experience of ease workshop with Kerstin Kussmaul
This workshop approaches the psoas as a powerful gateway to self-discovery and embodied presence. The psoas complex connects us to our deepest core; physically, emotionally, and energetically. By releasing the psoas, we stabilize what is closest to the body’s central line while freeing the surrounding fascia and musculature.
The result is greater balance and range of motion, a deeper and more responsive breath, and an expanded ease of movement. Participants often experience a grounded, confident physical presence that carries into everyday life. Chronic discomfort in the back, pelvis, knees, and neck frequently softens or resolves through this work.
Our physical tissues hold the stories of how we live, move, and respond to the world. Small, subtle shifts can create profound change. Through mindful movement and skilled touch, we invite these embodied stories to surface, reorganize, and transform.
When we lose connection to our continuum of experience, sensation fades—not always as pain, but as numbness or disconnection. This workshop offers a clear pathway to reclaim that connection, restoring sensation, presence, and freedom in the body.
Duration: Approximately 100 minutes daily
Joyful Dance
A joyful empowerment workshop with Fabiana Pastorini
Dance has long been a powerful tool for self-discovery, allowing us to connect with our bodies, spaces, others, and our inner selves. It's a journey of self-expression, where we can uncover hidden emotions and thoughts, and tap into our creative potential.
In this workshop, we will embark on a journey to redefine happiness as a state of being, rather than a destination to be achieved. From Afro-Brazilian ethnic dance to trance dance, improvisation and dance meditation a combination of movement, reflection, and awareness exercises, we'll cultivate a deeper connection with our bodies and the world around us.
By embracing dance, we transform our bodies, brains, and perspectives, leading to a healthier and more fulfilling life. We'll use the 5 Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a framework to guide our exploration. This perspective allows us to explore our „energy body“ as main key for our physical/emotional/ and mental health.
Together we will dive into the world of dance to explore new ways of feeling, moving, and thinking, that positively impact our overall well-being and happiness.
Duration: Approximately 100 minutes daily
Shared moments
In their Shared Moments, Kerstin and Fabiana come together to co-create an open and supportive space for exploration and discovery in the studio and in nature. Each day, participants’ wishes, insights, and questions are collected and woven into a dynamic, collaborative session involving everyone’s voice.
Shared Moments include trips to nearby waterfalls and medieval towns.
“Creativity offers a path to happiness through self-expression, flow states, a sense of accomplishment, and emotional catharsis. Simultaneously, happiness is fertile ground for creativity to flourish, as it reduces stress, boosts problem-solving skills, and promotes social connections.” (Francois Coetzee)
Duration: Approximately 100 minutes daily
Workshops can also be booked individually
Meet your workshop leaders
Kerstin is a dance researcher, teacher and mentor specializing in somatics and improvisation. Her artistic doctoral research at the University of Auckland, New Zealand explored myofascia in movement. Her most recent work, the matter of fascia, emerged from this research and can be viewed at www.fasciamatters.info. Prior to this she explored creative processes in contact improvisation using embodied cognition.
Kerstin leads the Embodied Myoreflex Practitioner training - in collaboration with Dr Mosetter (Konstanz) and ImPulsTanz – of which the second cycle begins at the end of 2024. Part of the training takes place at Artis Umbria, which she is building as an ecosomatic place for movement and ease (artisumbria.com). She founded IDOCDE with the associated symposium, which today operates as the Lace Symposium at ImPulsTanz. She is mentor for the ImPacT program at ImPulsTanz.
Fabiana studied ballet at the National Ballet School in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Graham and Horton Technique in New York, USA. In 1991 she met Isamel Ivo, with whom she worked and remained artistically connected until his death. After a back injury she embarked on a new path - dance now took on a new role and transformed itself into a means of inner realization and a tool for dissolving energetic blockages.
Her many years of dance experience, her studies in kinesiology together with training in integrative breathing techniques, as well as the influence of Ismael and the experience with the indigenous people of her native country led to the development of her own Dance for Health technique.
- Accommodation for 7 days (6 nights)
- 3 vegetarian meals daily
- 5 movement sesssions with Kerstin (~ 100 minutes each)
- 5 movement sessions with Fabiana (~ 100 minutes each)
- Shared moments: Sparkles (~ 100 minutes daily)
- Talks with the teachers
- Access to pool and all other amenities of Tenuta di Poggiolame
- Shuttle to and from train station Fabro-Ficulle
Total costs for 7 days (6 nights) per person: from € 1,205 to € 1,895 (single or double room, private or shared bathroom).
Upon receipt of a deposit of 400 euro, the retreat is bindingly reserved. Please take note of our cancellation policy.
Number of participants: max. 16
A retreat in cooperation with ImPulsTanz
our rooms
Scaleni
28m² fits 2 people
Scaleni is part of the historic building and sits on the upper floor facing north and east. It features an open fire place and an open beam ceiling. Two beds (a single bed and a 140cm futon bed) furnish the room. Scaleni is directly connected to Axis, of which the guests will have to pass through Scaleni to get to the shared bathroom.
our rooms
Axis
18m² fits 2 people
Axis is a cute little double room (two single beds) facing east on the upper floor. It features open beams with terracotta tiles. It is connected to the front room (Scaleni), through which one will walk through to get to the hallway and to the bathroom, which is shared with Scaleni.
our rooms
Mana double
16m² fits 2 people
Mana double room looks out towards the pool. It is part of the Mana apartment which is a bit away from the other rooms. It shares a bathroom with Mana single.
our rooms
Alba
18m² fits 2 people
Alba is a double room on the upper floor of the original building with open beam ceilings and faces east and south. Its doublebed (160 cm wide) features a canopy. It shares a bathroom with Psoas and Vitus
our rooms
Psoas
16m² fits 2 people
The Psoas is a double room located on the upper floor of the original building with a historic open beamed ceiling. The windows face south and west. Psoas has a double bed (160 cm) and shares a bathroom with Alba and Vitus
our rooms
Gracilis
18m² fits 2 people
Gracilis is a double room and looks out the west side towards Montegabbione. It contains a double bed (160 cm wide). It shares a wheelchair accessible bathroom with Soleus, with whom it makes up an apartment
our rooms
Amiata
30m² fits 2 people
Amiata is a double room apartment with a gallery. Upstairs: double-bed (160 cm) & bathroom. Downstairs there are two single beds and a kitchenette. Private west terrace with a lovely view of our olive orchards and Monte Amiata.
our rooms
Iris
30m² fits 2 people
Iris is a double room apartment with a gallery. Upstairs: double-bed (160 cm) & bathroom. Downstairs there is a single bed and a kitchenette. Private west terrace with a lovely view of our olive orchards and Montegabbione
our rooms
Atlas
35m² fits 2 people
Atlas is a double room and located on the upper floor of the main building with windows and balcony doors facing north and south. It has a private terrace of 30 m2 with a view from Monte Peglia to Monte Cetona. It also has a huge double bed (180x200) made of solid cherry wood.
our rooms
Mana single
14m² fits one person
Mana single is a single room looking towards the pool. It features its own terrace looking directly onto an olive grove and is part of the Mana apartment which is a bit away from the other rooms. It shares a bathroom with Mana double.
our rooms
Vitus
15m² fits one person
Vitus is a single, east-facing room on the upper floor of the historic building featuring original beams. The bed is 140 cm wide. Vitus has its own terrace and entrance (outdoor staircase). It shares a bathroom with Psoas and Alba.
our rooms
Soleus
22m² fits one person
Soleus is a single room and sits at the south west corner of the terrace, with its own furniture on the main terrace. It contains a medium size bed (140 cm wide) and a kitchenette. It shares a bathroom with Gracilis, with whom it makes up an apartment.
our rooms
Alba (as single room)
18m² fits one person
Alba is a double room on the upper floor of the original building with open beam ceilings and faces east and south. Its doublebed (160 cm wide) features a canopy. It shares a bathroom with Psoas and Vitus.
our rooms
Psoas (as single room)
16m² fits one person
The Psoas is a double room located on the upper floor of the original building with a historic open beamed ceiling. The windows face south and west. Psoas has a double bed (160 cm) and shares a bathroom with Alba and Vitus.
our rooms
Gracilis (as single room)
18m² fits one person
Gracilis is a double room and looks out the west side towards Montegabbione. It contains a double bed (160 cm wide). It shares a wheelchair accessible bathroom with Soleus, with whom it makes up an apartment.
our rooms
Piriformis
12m² fits one person
Piriformis is a single room with its own bathroom. Piriformis has a north-facing private terrace, which is pleasantly cool in summer. Piriformis is close to the kitchen and is therefore best suited to guests who like to get up early or who don't mind kitchen noise.
our rooms
Iris (as single room)
30m² fits one person
Iris is a double room apartment with a gallery. Upstairs: double-bed (160 cm) & bathroom. Downstairs there is a single bed and a kitchenette. Private west terrace with a lovely view of our olive orchards and Montegabbione.
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