Open Floor Teacher Training (EU)
April 2027 - March 2029 ~ RAX, Austria and ZARAGOZA, Spain
Teaching Faculty ~ Deborah Lewin and Lucie Nérot
For those who have encountered Open Floor and recognise it as a body of work they want to teach, carry, and transmit.
This is a professional pathway into teaching the Open Floor curriculum.
There comes a point in practice where something shifts.
Where you are no longer only participating, but listening in a different way.
Where you begin to sense not only what the work does for you, but what it makes possible for others.
Where you recognise: This is something I want to offer.
This is a practice I am willing to learn, deepen, and stand for.
This training is for that moment.
The Teacher Training Program
A note from Deborah
This training is about learning to teach.
Learning to teach from a deeper place of listening, clarity, and presence.
You need willingness and a commitment to the practice.
A note from Lucie
Open Floor is a resource-based practice with both structure and flexibility.
This training supports practitioners to develop the skills to teach and hold groups in an embodied, responsive, and grounded way, while staying connected to aliveness, creativity, and relationship.
FAQs
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A complete, mentored pathway into becoming an Open Floor Teacher.
You will learn how to teach the Open Floor curriculum with clarity, integrity, and embodied understanding.
This includes developing the capacity to:
Design and lead Open Floor classes and processes
Hold groups in a grounded, responsive, and attuned way
Work with what emerges in real time, individually and collectively
Stay connected to the curriculum while meeting the uniqueness of each group
Facilitate embodied learning, not only personal experience
Learn how to create textured soundscapes
This is not only about learning the material.
It is about learning how to transmit it.
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120 hours of instructed study in Conscious Dance *
To support your embodied understanding of the Open Floor curriculum, at least 60 of those hours must be in Open Floor Movement Practice and include one Ground Floor Lab (30hrs). If you have not completed them, please list your plan for completion before April 27th 2026.
You can find in person and online offerings by Open Floor Teachers all over the world in our calendar of events.
You can also further familiarise yourself with Open Floor Movement Practice by reading through the curriculum material on the Open Floor International website.
* Conscious Dance Practices such as: Open Floor, Body in Soul (BISO), Soul Motion, 5Rhythms®, Movement Medicine, Freedom Dance, ZeroOne, 360 Emergence, Azul, Tamalpa Life/Art, Continuum, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, Biodanza, Dance Awake Conscious Dance.
If you have studied, practised or trained in a physical practice that is not listed here let us know what we’re missing and detail it in the application form.
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Open Floor is a resource-based movement practice with a clear structure and a wide range of applications.
In this training, you will come into a direct, embodied relationship with the curriculum so that it becomes teachable.
You will learn:
The foundations and architecture of the Open Floor curriculum
How to work with its resources in a clear and coherent way
How to translate the material into teachable experiences
How to adapt the curriculum across different contexts and groups
Over time, the curriculum moves from something you understand to something you can teach with confidence and precision.
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A deep, embodied understanding of the Open Floor curriculum
The skills to design and lead classes, workshops, and group processes
Confidence to choose music that supports your dancers on the floor
The capacity to hold individuals and groups with clarity and presence
Experience teaching within a mentored and supported structure
Ongoing feedback to refine your facilitation and teaching
A professional pathway toward graduating as an Open Floor Teacher
A community of peers and mentors within the Open Floor network
This is both a personal and professional training.
Your development as a practitioner and your development as a teacher evolve together.
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This training is for those who want to teach Open Floor.
You may be:
An experienced Open Floor mover ready to step into teaching
A facilitator, coach, or therapist who has engaged deeply with the practice
A practitioner who recognises Open Floor as a modality you want to carry forward
You do not need to already be teaching.
You do need:
A genuine connection to the practice
A willingness to learn how to teach it
A readiness to take on the responsibility of holding others
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Over time, something reorganises.
Not only in how you experience the work,
but in how you lead and hold it.You become:
● More grounded in your presence as a teacher
● More precise in how you guide groups
● More confident working with what arises in the room
● More able to stay with complexity without losing clarity
● More connected to the intelligence of the body as a teaching resourceParticipants often describe:
Growing trust in their ability to lead
A clearer sense of their voice as a teacher
Greater capacity to hold groups with steadiness and care
A deeper relationship with the Open Floor practice itself
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The training unfolds across four phases over two years:
Phase 1 – Common Ground and Physical Embodiment
Phase 2 – Common Sense and Emotional Embodiment
Phase 3 – Common Knowledge and Embodied Mind
Phase 4 – Common Good and Embodied Soul
Each phase includes:
Immersion training
Practicum and teaching practice
Small group development
Webinars and mentoring
Ongoing feedback and support
This is a progressive, mentored pathway into teaching.
“In these three years of the Open Floor teacher training I turned over thirty years of experience, some just life experiences, some traumatic events that I thought I’d left behind me.
In my experience of the teacher training I learnt that it’s not about doing the work and letting go, it’s about including all the cracks that life has left in me, and making a wonderful collage out of them.
Becoming a teacher felt like an added bonus to this collage, but really, it was very much about learning to live life fully, with compassion, gratitude and love.”
The Practicalities
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PHASE 1
Immersion April 12 – 17 / 2027
Practicum June 24 – 27 / 2027
PHASE 2
Immersion Nov. 3 – 8 / 2027
Practicum Jan. 20 – 23 / 2028
PHASE 3
Immersion April 24 – 29 / 2028
Practicum June 29 – July 02 / 2028
PHASE 4
Immersion Nov. 27 – Dec. 2 / 2028
Practicum March 8 – 11 / 2029
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IMMERSIONS:
Flackl-Wirt, Hinterleiten 12, 2651 Reichenau / Rax, AUSTRIA
Venue website: https://www.flackl.at/en/
PRACTICUMS:
La Casa Toya, C.K.26, 50322 Aluenda / Zaragoza, SPAIN
Venue website: https://www.lacasatoya.com/
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This training requires commitment.
Time, attention, practice, and resources.
Because learning to teach and hold others in this way develops over time, through experience, reflection, and guidance.The Heart of Our Pricing: A Commitment to Economic Justice
The pricing structure of the Open Floor Teacher Training 2027 aligns with our core value of inclusivity. We recognize that there are significant differences among our participants—geographically, in social status, and in access to privilege. By offering flexible and inclusive price options, we aim to embody economic justice and ensure the dance floor remains open to all.
Choosing Your Tier
We invite you to self-select the tier that honestly reflects your financial reality:
Generosity Rate – This rate allows you to go beyond basic support. It also supports scholarships and lower rates for those facing financial hardship.
Regular Rate – This rate covers the basic costs of running the program, ensuring it remains viable. It’s for individuals who can comfortably meet their financial needs and wish to contribute fairly.
Accessible Rate – This rate is for participants with limited financial capacity or who are currently experiencing financial difficulties. Contributions from generosity-rate participants help subsidise this option.
Paid in Full
One-time payment at the beginning of the course.
Generosity: € 9,900 | Regular: € 8,200 | Accessible: € 6,550
Paid in Instalments
Total cumulative payment through the instalment plan.
Generosity: € 10,500 | Regular: € 8,600 | Accessible: € 6,850
Instalment Plan
1st Payment — Due: 30 days after your letter of acceptance
• Generosity: € 3,400 | • Regular: € 2,800 | • Accessible: € 2,250
2nd Payment — Due: 30 days before the start of Phase 1
• Generosity: € 2,800 | • Regular: € 2,300 | • Accessible: € 1,800
3rd Payment — Due: 30 days before the start of Phase 2
• Generosity: € 2,500 | • Regular: € 2,000 | • Accessible: € 1,600
4th Payment — Due: 30 days before the start of Phase 3
• Generosity: € 1,800 | • Regular: € 1,500 | • Accessible: € 1,200
TOTALS
• Generosity: € 10,500 | • Regular: € 8,600 | • Accessible: € 6,850
+ plus an application fee* – 100€
* A one-time non-refundable application fee is required for all Trainee applicants. This fee covers the administrative cost of processing your application and is non-refundable, regardless of the admission decision.
What IS Included in your Tuition costs:
In-person Teaching: 4 Immersions (120 hours total) and 4 Practicums (80 hours total).
Online Live Learning: 20 specialised webinars held over the course of the training
Assignments: include teaching practice classes, developing music skills, taking electives, reading, and writing reflections.
What IS NOT Included in your Tuition costs:
Room & Board: Paid directly to the venues for all immersions and practicums.
Mentoring: A minimum of 6 individual sessions (at €110 per session), paid directly to your mentor.
Optional Resources: Pre-recorded webinars available for voluntary purchase from OFI.
Beyond the Tiers:
We aim to do our best to ensure that financial barriers do not stand in your way of becoming an Open Floor Teacher.
If the Accessible Rate is still unaffordable for you, please contact Jorge Xapa at info@openfloortrainings.eu to let us know.
Crew Discounts We have a few spots available with an additional 50% tuition discount for Crew based on our Regular Tier.
If you are interested, please contact Jorge Xapa at info@openfloortrainings.eu before registering to receive specific details and to request a Crew place. -
Prices are per person, per night and include all meals (Full Board – Vegan / Vegetarian).
Immersions at Flackl, AUSTRIA
Shared Room* starting at € 88.70 up to a Single Room** € 123.70
Practicums at La Casa Toya, SPAIN
Shared Room* starting at € 59.00 up to a Single Room** € 95.00
* Shared room with shower/WC in the corridor
** Single room with private shower/WC
Room & Board will be paid directly to the venues for all immersions and practicums.
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April 2027 to March 2029
Mentored, supported learning environment
Application required: Complete the Teacher Training application form [HERE]
Community Discounts
We have a few spots available with an additional tuition discount for Crew based on our Regular Tier.
If you are interested, please contact Jorge Xapa at info@openfloortrainings.eu before registering to receive specific details and to request a crew place.
Meet Deborah
Professionally, Deborah has been working in the field of movement and embodiment for 30+ years. She qualified as a Sesame Movement and Drama Therapist in her early 20s, soon broadening into the field of conscious movement and teaching 5Rhythms® for over 25 years.
In 2014, she was one of a group of 15 Founding Teachers of Open Floor International (OFI) and in 2016 attended OFI’s Therapy in Motion training with Andrea Juhan and Irit Ziv-Ron. In 2023 & 2024, she completed both the Foundation & Applied Training with The Centre for Systemic Constellations.
She has a blended professional life, working online and in-person, with large groups, small groups, and one-to-one. Her respect for the wisdom of the creative body is incisive and contagious.
“I am committed to personal development, and nurturing individual and collective transformation….. I hold the teaching space with deep attentiveness, clear instruction, and an absolute delight and love of movement.”
Meet Lucie
Almost 25 years ago, my hunger for dance, life and truth met the world of conscious dance and free movement. After teaching 5 Rhythms® for ten year to various audiences (adults, teenagers, people with “ability” and “disability”) in Europe, Asia and the United States, I contributed to the creation of Open Floor International, of which I am founding member, a teacher and a trainer.
It has been quite an adventure to co-create a movement practice that is built on our combined experiences as human beings and as movement teachers. It was a privilege to be chosen by pioneers like Andrea Juhan and Kathy Altman, and to be a member of a team of such experienced and brilliant colleagues.
Through this adventure I also learned about managing an organization using dynamic governance, and holding collective intelligence as a central value.
“The Immersions had all the depth of a teacher training but without any expectations or assignments. Working in a group of such committed dancers who were willing to connect with generosity, honesty and compassion made for a rich experience. The settings were an important element - stunning, inspiring locations that scooped us out of normal daily responsibilities - a holiday for mind body and soul! I would recommend Immersions to anyone wanting to work at depth and be guided and met in all the glorious and vulnerable versions of themselves.”
Ground Floor Lab testimonials
“Deborah is brilliant and super knowledgable - and passionate. Clearly a leader. She also dropped in and supported me in a way my body really needed, without me needing to ask or do anything - she’s very intuitive.”
“I felt an enormous amount of gratitude for the tremendous depth of Deborah’s teaching and experience. I was fascinated by her ability to shape the experience whilst enabling deep connection. I felt carried and challenged at the same time.”
“GFL gave me the confidence & structure to make the space feel supportive for everyone there, including myself. You helped me trust that I can do this.”
“GFL was amazing! It totally exceeded my expectations. I learnt so much, of which I am already incorporating into my daily life and have made amazing friends. This workshop is a must for anyone who wants to deepen their connection with themselves through embodied movement and to do so in such a rich and diverse community and with skilled and inspiring teachers. Highly recommended. Definitely will be back for more!”
“I think this was an amazing experience and insight into the training of open floor. I love the practice and I am curious to learn more about it. I love the openness, how i felt welcome and felt belonging. I felt guided and supported all the way from signing up for the course and well after i arrived home. The teacher team was so good and complemented each other perfectly. I felt belonging to the group and so much love and connection because of all the exercises we did together. The course material unfolded itself for me during the week together with my body expanding and embracing more. It was really a full and very rich experience that I am still digesting. So very thankful for having experienced this! ”
“I came to the lab shortly after experiencing one of life’s greater challenges and came away in awe of the power of collective embodiment. It gave me a wonderful sense of ease and stability and has inspired me to continue pursuing ways in which embodiment can enable deep connection, exploration and creation in my life. The program itself is explicit and at the same time seemingly limitless. What a joy!!!”
“The GFL was groundbreaking for me. To be in a space with people willing to work on themselves, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually for 5 days is powerful to say the least. To be seen and held individually is equally strong. And to be guided by excellent teachers and excellent musicians makes for a pretty unforgetable experience. This is deep work, this is movement practice in the purest and widest sense. I feel like i can be in conversation with my higher self, dance with it, and I also feel the invaluable force of the dynamic within the group, which is still settling and expanding within me, and will do so for the weeks to come....”
“The London Open Floor Lab team created a beautiful spacetime for us to explore the many dimensions of our embodied inter-being through dance/movement, intimacy, meditation, art and words/thoughts. The venue was a wee oasis of nature, nourishing food and plenty of space to be moved by the music of the city and its sound system. I left the week touched, thoroughly danced and feeling aspects of my inter-being that continue to rippling out through my life and those around me in ways that are very exciting and energising. Thank you!”
“This was an incredible 6 days of embodied dancing. There’s nothing else like it, and I heartily recommend it to all. This really is “dancing to learn”.”