September 13 – December 13, 2025
Zagreb: Šestine Local Committee, Ribnjak Youth Center, Zagreb Dance Center

The autumn cycle of SomaHut gatherings begins on September 13 with a series of three study sessions led by Mia Štark, a dance and visual artist and trainee in the licensed School for Body-Mind Centering® program. The study sessions will take place on Saturdays, September 13, 20, and 27, from 11 AM to 1 PM at the Šestine Local Committee, Šestinski trg 10. The core of these study sessions is formed around questions and inspiration emerging from the educational program, connected with developing awareness of deep, often forgotten layers of the body and movement.

Participation is open to everyone, with a recommended donation according to individual possibilities. Due to organizational reasons, interested participants are kindly asked to register at: somahut.mmk@gmail.com.

In October, a workshop with guest artist Gabriel Hensche will follow, along with his lecture presenting the project how to love many in many ways.
Registrations: somahut.mmk@gmail.com

In November, we are expecting an intensive workshop weekend with Eszter Gal, dance artist, choreographer, educator, certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique, with more than 25 years of experience in the practice and teaching of contact improvisation*. The workshop will take place in collaboration with the Zagreb Dance Center.
*more information coming soon

Also beginning in November and continuing in December is a workshop cycle led by Ana Jelušić, dance artist and Feldenkrais practitioner. This series of workshops is based on the Feldenkrais Method® and will take place on Saturdays, November 15 and 29, and December 6, from 11 AM to 2 PM, at the Šestine Local Committee, Šestinski trg 10.

The autumn cycle concludes with the Annual SomaHut Meeting on December 13, 2025, also held at the Šestine Local Committee.

Schedule:
September 13, 11 AM – 1 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Mia Štark: somatic session cycle Where Does Bodily Experience Begin
September 20, 11 AM – 1 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Mia Štark: somatic session cycle Where Does Bodily Experience Begin
September 27, 11 AM – 1 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Mia Štark: somatic session cycle Where Does Bodily Experience Begin
October 4, 5 PM – 8 PM / Ribnjak Youth Center / Gabriel Hensche: how to love many in many ways, workshop and lecture
November 15, 11 AM – 2 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Ana Jelušić: Feldenkrais Method® workshop cycle
November 22 and 23 / Zagreb Dance Center / Eszter Gal – contact improvisation and somatic practice workshop
November 29, 11 AM – 2 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Ana Jelušić: Feldenkrais Method® workshop
December 6, 11 AM – 2 PM / Šestine Local Committee / Ana Jelušić: Feldenkrais Method® workshop
December 13 / Annual SomaHut Meeting

The SomaHut program is co-financed by the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme.
It is organized in collaboration with the following partners: Šestine Local Committee, Voćarska Local Committee, Kontejner – Bureau of Contemporary Art Praxis, Zagreb Dance Center, Ribnjak Youth Center, Wiener Tanzwochen – ImPulsTanz, and Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC).

An Erasmus+ project focused on the professional development and capacity building of the organization’s educational and teaching staff, empowering the local community through somatic / embodied practice and education, fostering decentralization and regional networking, and connecting the local community of somatic practitioners and educators with international colleagues and organizations.

Project activities include:

Professional development activities

1. Learn Functional Integration from Moshe Feldenkrais – Explore the original FI material with Jerry Karzen

June 13–15, 2025

Feldenkrais Institute Vienna

participant: Ana Jelušić

2. Reflexes, Reactions, Responses (RRR)

June 27 – July 3, 2025

Somatic Movement Education Program of the School for Body-Mind Centering®

moveus GbR

participant: Mia Štark

3. Subcellular System, Psychophysical Integration, Professional Development

September 13–28, 2025

Practitioner Program of the School for Body-Mind Centering®

moveus GbR

participant: Zrinka Šimičić Mihanović

Activities for disseminating and sharing acquired knowledge within the organization and in collaboration with organizations in other cities in Croatia

WHERE THE BODILY EXPERIENCE BEGINS

a series of somatic sessions led by Mija Štark

September 13, 20, and 27, 2025

Community space Šestine, Šestinski trg 10, Zagreb

THE GROUND BENEATH THE EAR

a series of workshops led by Ana Jelušić

15 and 29 November and 6 December 2025

Community space Šestine, Šestinski trg 10, Zagreb

FROM CELL TO COMMUNITY

a series of Body-Mind Centering® workshops led by Zrinka Šimičić

24 January, 14 February and 14 March 2026

Community space Šestine,  Šestinski trg 10, Zagreb

FREE SPINE – THE SPINE AS A CHAIN

Facilitator: Ana Jelušić

January 20, 2026, Filodrammatica, Rijeka

In collaboration with the Prostor Plus association from Rijeka

SOMATIKUM PRAKTIKUM – LISTENING TO FLUIDS

Workshop facilitator: Mia Štark

February 28, 2026, Youth Center Zadar

In partnership with the Zadar Dance Ensemble

THE BODY’S AXIS – EXPLORING THE SPINE THROUGH SENSATION AND MOVEMENT

Facilitators: Mia Štark and Ana Jelušić

February 6 and 7, 2026, ELeMent Center, 49 J.J. Strossmayer Street, Osijek

Organized in collaboration with the association “ELeMent, Center for Recreation and Education” from Osijek

BASIC NEUROLOGICAL PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT AND BODY CONNECTIVITY

Facilitator: Zrinka Šimičić Mihanović

February 24, 2026, DV Varaždin, Dravska 1, Varaždin

Organized in partnership with Varaždin Kindergarten

IMMUNITY AS A PROCESS

Facilitator: Zrinka Šimičić Mihanović

February 28, 2026, Ferdo Livadić Music School, Samobor

Organized in partnership with TRUPA TO association from Samobor

ONE TO ONE SOMATIC AND STUDY SESSIONS

with Zrinka Šimičić, Ana Jelušić, and Mia Štark

at MO Šestine, Zagreb

Activities for the dissemination and sharing of acquired knowledge in an online format

SOMATIC WORK NOTEBOOK

Activities focused on networking and collaboration with international partners and organizations.

ŠkArt, Montenegro

Nagib, Slovenia

minima somatica, Italy

Szome, Hungary

moveus GbR, Germany

Feldenkrais Institut Wien, Austria

9 and 10 May 2026

KONTEJNER / BUREAU OF CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE

Odranska 1/1, Zagreb

SomaHut is an initiative launched in 2020 under the umbrella of the Zagreb-based art organisation Multimedijalna koliba. It is dedicated to connecting people and to the development and dissemination of knowledge arising from the exploration of the phenomena of body and movement through different approaches, disciplines and fields of human activity: art, science, education, care…

This year’s SomaHut festival is a two-day event which, on 9 and 10 May, gathers international and local artists and somatic practitioners in the premises of KONTEJNER in Zagreb, Odranska 1, to share through performances, workshops, ‘warming up the audience’ and conversations with visitors the results of artistic processes, as well as the impulses and questions that guide their research.

The festival is centred around an interest in the body as a place of conditioning, imperatives and fears – fear of stopping, of the future, of the unknown – but also of their continuous processing, transformation and opening of new possibilities. For two days, KONTEJNER will thus become a space of encounter, socialising and exchange of somatic experience, performative possibilities and knowledge.

The Saturday programme begins with the CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP led by Sylvain Méret, dance artist, movement and dance therapist, educator and somatic practitioner, whom Zagreb audiences have already had the opportunity to encounter through the Improspekcije festival.

In the afternoon there will be an experiential anatomy workshop for children between 6 and 10 years of age on the theme WHAT ARE BONES FOR?, led by Marina Brajdić and Zrinka Šimičić.

The evening programme brings the performances SHIFT INTO AN UNKNOWN PAUSE by Anja Bornšek, dance artist and somatic movement educator, VOLUME OF MEMORY by Tina Valentan, dance artist and trainee in expressive therapy at the Tamalpa Institute, and HOW CAN WE WATCH? by dance artist Ana Kljujev, a final-year undergraduate student of Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb.

On Sunday morning the CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP continues, while the afternoon programme begins with a discussion on SOMATIC EDUCATION AND THE SOMATIC IN EDUCATION, bringing together members of the SomaHut study group, teachers from the Department of Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art, somatic practitioners, educators and everyone interested in the processes of embodied learning and teaching.

The evening programme presents the performance work KONTAMINA by Mateo Babić and the ritual performance FLUID i T by Sylvain Méret.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, 9 May 2026

10:30-13 h CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP with Sylvain Méret

13–15 h Lunch break and social gathering in the KONTEJNER courtyard

15–16 h WHAT ARE BONES FOR? Experiential anatomy workshop for children with Marina Brajdić and Zrinka Šimičić

18 h  SHIFT INTO AN UNKNOWN PAUSE, performance-experiential work by Anja Bornšek, with an introduction to the performance by Tina Valentan

VOLUME OF MEMORY, performance work by Tina Valentan, with audience warm-up  by Anja Bornšek

21 h  HOW CAN WE WATCH?, performance work by Ana Kljujev

Sunday, 10 May 2026

11 – 14 h   CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP with Sylvain Méret

14-16 h Lunch break and informal gathering in the KONTEJNER courtyard

16-17:30 h Round table: SOMATIC EDUCATION AND THE SOMATIC IN EDUCATION

19 h  KONTAMINA, performance work by Mateo Babić

20 h  FLUID i T, work-in-progress performance by Sylvain Méret

Conversation with the performers and the audience

The fee for participation in the Continuum Practice Workshop is €90, or €60 with an early registration discount (until 30 April 2026).

All other programmes are free of charge, with donations according to your possibilities.

To participate in the workshops, please register at: somahut.mmk@gmail.com

Initiator and programme director of SomaHut: Zrinka Šimičić

Festival programme and organisation: Zrinka Šimičić and Mia Štark

Assistance in organisation and promotion: Lara Šercar

Production: Multimedijalna koliba in collaboration with KONTEJNER – Bureau of Contemporary Art Practice

Visual identity: Vanja Cuculić

Production: Multimedijalna koliba, 2026

The SomaHut 2026 programme is co-funded by the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the European Union.  

SomaHut is part of  INTERLACE: Art and Action in Contemporary Dance Education, a project funded by the European Union, Erasmus+. INTERLACE aims to provide dance educators with learning environments and peer-to-peer exchanges for knowledge transfer and for developing inclusive methodologies for teaching creative dance to diverse local communities. The INTERLACE project provides dance educators with an environment for learning and peer-to-peer exchange, with the aim of transferring knowledge and developing inclusive methodologies for teaching creative dance in local communities.

Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or OeAD-GmbH. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Sunday, 10 May 2026, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

SomaHut festival 2026

A round table conversation with members of the SomaHut study group, teachers at the Department of Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art (ADU), somatic practitioners, educators, and everyone interested in processes of embodied learning and teaching.

As part of the SomaHut – a space to meet, learn and care project, Zrinka Šimičić, Ana Jelušić, and Mia Štark invite you to individual sessions and study meetings lasting 30 minutes.

On Saturday, March 7, between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM (by appointment),
at the Šestine Local Committee, Šestinski trg 10.

This event offers interested participants the opportunity to explore, in a half-hour session, something of personal interest related to their body and movement, anatomy, possible movement challenges, or another current focus.

Zrinka Šimičić: Body-Mind Centering® hands-on sessions
Ana Jelušić: sessions based on the Feldenkrais Method® (FI)
Mia Štark: study meetings related to specific topics within BMC® learning

You can register via email: somahut.mmk@gmail.com

Participation is free and open to everyone until all spots are filled.

Please indicate in your application which session you are applying for and what time would suit you.

SomaHut – a space to meet, learn and care is a project by Multimedijalna koliba, co-funded by the European Union.

SomaHut is an initiative launched in 2020 under the auspices of the artistic organization Multimedijalna koliba from Zagreb. It is focused on mutual connection as well as the development and dissemination of knowledge derived from the exploration of the phenomena of body and movement through various approaches, disciplines, and fields of human activity: art, science, education, care…

This year’s SomaHut Festival is a two-day event taking place on May 24 and 25 at the KONTEJNER space in Zagreb, Odranska 1, offering a rich workshop–performance–discussion program, from Saturday at 10 a.m. to Sunday at 10 p.m.

The program gathers artists from various media to share with each other and with visitors their experience, practice, results of long-term artistic processes, inspirations, and questions that guide their research, sharing, and public engagement. The assembled titles revolve around the themes of boundaries, identity, immunity, the quality of space – between the personal and the collective, the indivisible and the shared – grounded in the experience of the body as movement and change, potential or impossibility, trauma and healing.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, May 24, 2025

10.00 Gathering

10.30 – 12.30 IMMUNITY AS PROCESS, workshop with Zrinka Šimičić, dance artist, somatic practitioner, educator in somatic and developmental movement through the BMC® approach, and Ana Jelušić, dance artist and Feldenkrais practitioner

13.00 – 15.00 ALCHEMY OF THE VOICE, workshop with Melita Lovričević, jazz vocalist, music educator, and music therapist

16.00 – 17.30 TRACING EACH OTHER, interdisciplinary workshop of movement and animation with animation artist Michaela Müller and Zrinka Šimičić

20.00 THE RAIN THAT FALLS ON NO ONE, performance, author: Margareta Sinković

Sunday, May 25, 2025

12.30 – 19.00 WHITE FLAG / Little School, video work, author: Tonka Maleković

13.00 – 15.00 HOW ORGANS SOUND, workshop with Mia Štark and Ivona Eterović

15.15 – 16.45 THE WOUND THAT WRITES, THE BODY THAT SPEAKS, presentation of artistic research through a workshop approach by Kristina Marić

17.00 – 18.30 SPACES OF TOGETHERNESS, presentation of artistic research by Tonka Maleković

18.30 – 19.30 Discussion between participants and visitors of the SomaHut Festival

20.00  CANOPY SHYNESS, performance, authors: Dubravko Mihanović, Michaela Müller, Zrinka Šimičić, Filip Šovagović

Participation in workshops requires registration via email: somahut.mmk@gmail.com.

For the performance The Shyness of Trees, due to limited seating, reservation is required via the same email.

The recommended participation fee for workshops is €10–20, depending on possibilities. The recommended donation for performances is €10, or according to possibilities.

Program and organization of SomaHut Festival 2025:
Mia Štark and Zrinka Šimičić

Initiator and program director of SomaHut:
Zrinka Šimičić

Production: Multimedijalna koliba in collaboration with KONTEJNER

Visual identity: Vanja Cuculić (Studio Cuculić)

Production: Multimedijalna koliba

The SomaHut 2025 program is co-financed by the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the European Union.
The views and opinions expressed in this program belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union nor of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). The European Union and EACEA cannot be held responsible for them.

As part of the project INTERLACE: Art and Action in Contemporary Dance Education, conducted by Wiener Tanzwochen in partnership with Milvus Artistic Research Center from Sweden and Multimedijalna koliba, we have launched the SomaHut Study Group in 2025.

Members of the SomaHut Study Group:

Zrinka Šimičić, Mia Štark, Marina Brajdić, Lara Šercar, Ana Novković, and Ana Jelušić

The SomaHut Study Group brings together six permanent participants. Members of the SomaHut Study Group are able to attend SomaHut workshops with local and international instructors free of charge, with at least five workshops planned for 2025 and five for 2026. They are invited to intern and assist in workshops for targeted, sensitive participant groups, led by artists/practitioners with experience with this type of work.

Members are invited to participate in organizational support for the SomaHut initiative (maintaining social media, website, communication, documentation, planning, etc. — the organizational work is compensated). For one person, funding (travel and accommodation) is provided to attend the INTERLACE conference at the ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna in July 2025, and for one person in July 2026.

The SomaHut Study Group is co-financed by the European Union through the project INTERLACE: Art and Action in Contemporary Dance Education.

Project for Professional Development and Capacity Building

A project for the professional development of educational and teaching staff within the organization, strengthening the local community through somatic/embodied practice and education, and connecting the local community of somatic practitioners and educators with international colleagues and organizations.

SomaHut – a space to meet, learn and care is a project of Multimedijalna koliba, co-financed by the European Union.

Project Presentation:

December 21, 2024, from 16:00 to 18:30 at MO Šestine, Šestinski trg 10, Zagreb

Professional development through the licensed program of the School for Body-Mind Centering®:
Practitioner Program, conducted by moveus, Germany

Workshop Cycle:

DEVELOPMENTAL MOVEMENT – from the cell to the community
led by Zrinka Šimičić, dance artist and certified somatic practitioner and developmental movement educator (CMA-SP, RSME, IDME)

January 18, 10:00 – 14:00

BASIC NEUROLOGICAL MOVEMENT PATTERNS AND BODY CONNECTIONS

In this workshop, participants will explore the basic neurological movement patterns and body connectivity through the developmental path from the simplicity of the cell to the complexity of the organism. Developmental patterns are automated sequences of movement and body connectivity that emerge and are typically integrated during early childhood, influencing physical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive development. They shape how we relate to gravity, ourselves, others, and the world. If a pattern becomes dominant, it may inhibit the manifestation of other patterns. Exploring developmental patterns in adulthood provides opportunities to strengthen weaker patterns, modify dominant ones, and reintegrate to discover new possibilities, ease, and fluidity in movement.

February 8

REFLEXES – the alphabet of our movement

Through play, dance, and interaction with the group and environment, this workshop will focus on observing and stimulating reflexes, upright responses, and balance reactions — the foundation of all directed and effective movement. The aim is to open pathways for bodily connectivity, ease of movement, and the expansion of the movement vocabulary.

February 22

EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT – simplicity in complexity

This workshop returns to the very beginnings of our existence. By embodying some of the processes that shaped us, participants will rediscover the remarkable intelligence, complexity, and clarity that guided our path from the cell to the community.

Venue: MO Voćarska, Voćarska cesta 71, Zagreb

The workshops are based on the Body-Mind Centering® approach and learning, movement analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and the instructor’s years of personal experience in researching and teaching developmental movement.

Target audience:

Performing artists and educators, caregivers, therapists, parents, and anyone who wishes to:

• deepen their experience and knowledge of the body and movement for professional or personal reasons

• become aware of their own movement patterns and work on increasing availability and ease in the body and movement

• recognize some primary reflexes as a foundation for establishing more mature movement patterns

• explore the immense wealth of knowledge and experience stored in the body before birth, at the very beginnings of embryonic development

Information and registration: somahut.mmk@gmail.com

Individual Somatic Sessions

With Zrinka Šimičić, certified movement analyst and somatic practitioner (CMA-SP), registered somatic movement educator (RSME), and developmental movement educator (IDME).

Sessions are arranged individually via email: zrinka.simicic@gmail.com

SomaHut meetings

in the space of MO Šestine, Šestinski trg 10.

SomaHut meetings are a place and time for sharing and deepening experience and knowledge about the body and movement, and for affirming the specificity and benefits of somatic work through different approaches and methods.

Meetings are inclusive and open to all interested parties, regardless of age, previous experience, opportunities and limitations in movement.

Schedule:

28.10.

Zrinka Šimičić 

Fluid exploration based on the Body-Mind Centering® approach.

4.11.

Ivan Vuković

Fluid exploration based on the Body-Mind Centering® approach

18.11.

Nikica Viličić

Movement exploration inspired by the Authentic Movement discipline

25.11.

Vladimira Šančić

Introduction to the basic principles of contact improvisation

2. and 9. 12.

Ingrid Kecerin -Kasumagić

Bones for Life

For organizational reasons, please announce your arrival at somahut.mmk@gmail.com.

The recommended donation for participation is 8 euros, or according to your capabilities.