Open Floor with Bence Gáspár

The Longer Version

When I was 5 years old – inspired by David Attenborough’s documentaries – I already knew I wanted to become a biologist. I just recently realised that already at the same age I was dancing at home to music videos I was watching on MTV. My love for dance and biology accompanied me all the way from those times. And what a gift to do as an adult what I was already passionate for as a child.

I grew up in a family where weekend hiking, the love for nature, and sports were self-evident. By the end of my teen years I was finding out what kind of movement I really enjoyed, so swimming, water-polo, tennis, volleyball, and skiing were gradually replaced by dancing (first folk dances, hip-hop, and ballroom) and yoga.

Funnily enough, my enthusiasm for biology lead me to study first economics and international relations – which sounds like a weird detour but actually was one of the most fortunate bad decisions of my life. I joined a special kind of student organisation that provides its members professional education while living together as a community in a university dormitory. A life-changing six-year immersion in critical social theory, forging of friendships lasting ever since, and experiencing true belonging for the first time in my life.

This was also the time when I finally started studying biology, and modern/contemporary dance. Often struggling with the imagined need to choose between the two, I finally decided that biology will be my profession, and dance a hobby. Then after six years of choreographed dancing, I opened up to improvisation and self-exploration in 2012. It was a moment of realisation: I was looking for this kind of authenticity and being-myself-in-my-body-experience in parties, concerts, clubs and festivals throughout all those previous years…

Moving to Germany in 2014, the support of a PhD-position opened up the possibility to travel across Europe and the USA to participate in a multitude of conscious movement workshops. When I stepped onto an Open Floor for the first time in my life, I arrived home. I clearly felt I didn’t need to choose between biology and dance anymore. This field is so allowing and supportive of integration: it took me to previously unimaginable depths and layers of becoming myself. I wanted to live my life in this space and invite as many people as possible into it, so I became an Open Floor teacher.

The space I hold is simple, I’m not trying to offer anything more than I can. My teaching of embodied mindfulness cannot be but infused by my background in critical social theory and evolutionary biology. Our common exploration on the edge around what is knowable is supported by my love for fractal beats, heavy bass, and twining melodies, opening up a variety of pockets of creative embodied investigation.

Looking forward to meeting you in the co-creation…