Bence Gáspár

  • Pronounce: [ˈbɛnt͡sɛ ˈɡaːʃpaːr]
    Pronouns: he / ő

    • Open Floor Teacher and Biologist (PhD)

    • Open Floor International (OFI) Working Member (2021– )

      • Serving on the OFI Board of Directors (2023–)

    • Born and raised in Budapest, Hungary

    • Based in Berlin, Germany

    • Open Floor Teacher (trained 2017–2019)

      • Ground Floor Lab Faculty (2024, 2025)

      • Assistant Faculty and Mentor in Teacher Training (2022–2024)

    • Dancing since 1998

    • Yoga practice since 2004

    • Vipassana meditation since 2016

    • 2014–2020: PhD in Plant Evolutionary Ecology

    • 2007–2013: BSc and MSc in Biology

    • 2007–2013: Member of the College for Advanced Studies in Social Theory

    • 2005–2009: Studies in Economics, International Relations

  • 2026

    • weekly Open Floor Movement Practice sessions
      at an ambulant psychiatric clinic (Berlin, DE)

    2025

    • Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training co-taught with Deborah Lewin, OFI founding member (6 days, Berlin, DE)

    • A Curious Paradox
      weekend workshop with Audrey Boss (Roodt-sur-Syre, LU)

    • Integration & Orientating
      (weekend workshop, Berlin, DE)

    • Open Floor
      class at the Conscious Dance Festival (Berlin, DE)

    • Move & Include
      2 online fundraisers for OFI

    • DJ Strategies for Open Floor Teachers
      Lifelong Learning webinar

    • Morning Movement Meditation & Spring
      class series (Berlin, DE)

    2024

    • Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training co-taught with Jane Belshaw & Deborah Lewin (6 days, London, UK)

    • Embodied Mind, Embodied Emotions, Embodied Soul
      series of 3 weekend workshops (Erfurt, DE)

    • Embodied Choices
      weekend workshop with Audrey Boss (Miersch, LU)

    • Open Floor
      class at STRETCH FESTIVAL of queer masculinities (Berlin, DE)

    • Assistance & Mentoring: Open Floor Teacher Training (2022–2024)
      Faculty: Deborah Lewin, Lucie Nerot, Sarah Davies OFI founding members (online; Bilbao, ES; Forest Row, UK; Reichenau, AT; St-Martin-de-Londres, FR)

    2023

    • Following Cycles
      series of 4 weekend workshops (Weimar, DE)

    • Open Floor
      class at STRETCH FESTIVAL of queer masculinities (Berlin, DE)

    • Embodied Nature
      class series (Berlin, DE)

    2022

    • Layers / Rétegek
      4-day retreat with Gyöngyi Beer (Csemő, HU)

    • FLUX
      weekend workshop (Tallinn, EE)

    • Open Floor
      class at STRETCH FESTIVAL of queer masculinities (Berlin, DE)

    • Wild Garden
      class series (Berlin, DE)

    • FLUX – Meditation In Movement
      class series (Berlin, DE)

    • Reconnecting
      online class series

    2021

    • Spirit Matters
      weekend workshop (Tallinn, EE)

    • Becoming Nature
      4-day retreat with Eeva Kallis (Prangli, EE)

    • Open Floor Movement Practice
      Beyond Chocolate training with Audrey Boss & Sophie Boss (1 week, Ostuni, IT)

    • Open Floor
      class at STRETCH FESTIVAL of queer masculinities (Berlin, DE)

    • Layers
      online class series

    • Assistance: Libido Ongoing 2020–21
      Open Floor workshop series with Lucie Nérot (4×4 days, Berlin, DE)

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor workshop with Jonas Klingberg (5 days, Budapest, HU)

    • Assistance: Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training with Lucie Nérot & Sarah Davies (5 days, online)

    • Assistance: Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training with Deborah Lewin & Heather Ehlers (5 days, online)

    2020

    • Becoming Nature
      4-day retreat with Eeva Kallis (Aegna, EE)

    • Midday Moving Meditation & Dancing Back To Nature
      2 class series (Berlin, DE)

    • Dance Rebels
      online class series with Maegan Gorbett

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor workshop with Jonas Klingberg (4 days, Tallinn, EE)

    • Assistance: Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training with Deborah Lewin, Jenny Macke & Lucie Nérot (5 days, online)

    2019

    • The Eye Of The Storm
      workshop with Kaia Hawkins (1,5 days, Budapest, HU)

    • Open Floor
      class at Jedentanec Festival (Prague, CZ)

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor workshop with Lucie Nérot (4 days, Paris, FR)

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor workshop with Sarah Davies (3 days, London, UK)

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor workshop with Cathy Ryan (3 days, Budapest, HU)

    • Assistance: Libido
      Open Floor retreat with Jonas Klingberg (6 days, Gotland, SE)

  • 2025

    • Sensory Experiencing: Touch & Trauma
      Somatic Hands On workshop with Jane Okondo (6 days, Berlin, DE)

    • Bare Bones
      Open Floor workshop with Audrey Boss & Jane Belshaw (3 days, London, UK)

    • Embracing Change
      Open Floor workshop with Deborah Lewin (5 days, Findhorn, UK)

    2023

    2022

    2021

    • Embodiment For Social Transformation
      with Christa Cocciole, Michael Romig & Pablo Escorcia (6 months, Berlin, DE)

    2020

    2019

    • Open Floor Teacher Training Module 3
      with Kathy Altman & Lori Saltzman (10 days, Port Townsend, US)

    • Libido: Desire & Ice
      Open Floor workshop with Andrea Juhan (4 days, Kisslegg, DE)

    • Art Murmur
      Open Floor retreat with Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman & Cathy Ryan (6 days, St-Martin-de-Londres, FR)

    • Libido: Desire & Ice
      Open Floor workshop with Andrea Juhan (4 days, Mountain View, US)

    2018

    • Open Floor Teacher Training Module 2
      with Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman & Andrea Juhan (10 days, St-Martin-de-Londres, FR)

    • Libido Ongoning Group (2016–18)
      with Andrea Juhan & Vic Cooper (5×6 days, St-Martin-de-Londres, FR)

    • Open Floor workshops
      Cathy Ryan, Sue Rickards, Nele Vandezande & Kurt Pattyn (3 weekends)

    2017

    • Open Floor Teacher Training Module 1
      with Kathy Altman, Lori Saltzman & Andrea Juhan (10 days, St-Martin-de-Londres, FR)

    • Open Floor workshops
      Andrea Juhan, Deborah Lewin, Nele Vandezande & Kurt Pattyn (4 weekends)

    • Vipassana
      10-day course (Mont Soleil, CH)

    2016

    • Open Floor workshops
      with Kathy Altman, Sarah Davies, Deborah Lewin, Rivi Diamond (4 weekends)

    • Applied Anatomy & Physiology of Yoga (YogaSynergy)
      with Simon Borg-Olivier & Bianca Machliss (12 weeks, online)

    • Weight Flow Contact
      silent retreat with Gábor Goda & Gyöngyi Beer (5 days, Bátonyterenye, HU)

    • 5Rhythms workshop
      with Silvija Tomcik (1 weekend, Budapest, HU)

    • Vipassana
      10-day course (Triebel, DE)

    2015

    • Ground Floor Lab
      OFI foundational training with Rivi Diamond & Sarah Davies (5 days, Prague, CZ)

    • Open Floor workshops
      with Andrea Juhan & Kathy Altman (3 weekends)

    • 5Rhythms workshops
      Silvija Tomcik (3-weekend series), Adam Barley (2 weekends)

    2014

    • Weight Flow Contact one year training
      ongoing group with Gábor Goda & Gyöngyi Beer (10×2 days, Budapest, HU)

    • 5Rhythms workshops
      Lucija Glagolic, Amber Ryan, Dagmar Cee (3 weekends)

    2013

    • Weight Flow Contact one year training
      ongoing group with Gábor Goda & Gyöngyi Beer (10×2 days, Budapest, HU)

    • 5Rhythms workshops
      with Amber Ryan, Jonathan Horan, Lucija Glagolic (3 weekends)

    2012

    • Weight Flow Contact foundational training
      2 weekend workshops with Gyöngyi Beer (2×3 days, Budapest, HU)

Picking up trash on Aegna island in Estonia <3

I am a dancer, mover, meditator, lover, rebel, walker, wanderer, wonderer, nature-lover, learner, critical thinker, researcher, communicator, sharer, listener, feeler, enjoyer, appreciator, time-bender, seeker, survivor, transformer, shaper, sense-maker, observer, contemplator, navigator, resourcer, and teacher.

I am trying to find a way through this life, and feel good in my skin. Every year is better than the one before. The overflowing gratitude in me for all the gifts and opportunities I have received from this world motivates me to share the tricks I learned with others.

~ • ~

Every milestone on my journey came with a feeling of home—right there wherever I was. In these moments, I feel more complete and at ease. There is less physical tension. There is less worry. Every time a little (or big) piece of me finds its way home, the energy previously used to keep it away becomes suddenly available for me to live with. I suddenly have more resources and possibilities. And it feels more as if I had a place in this world.

One of these moments was when I first stepped on an Open Floor in 2015. Andrea Juhan welcomed me, and I felt immediately at home.

~ • ~

I have been dancing (folk dances, ballroom, hip-hop, ballet, Limón-technique, contemporary, contact improvisation) and meditating since my childhood, and practicing yoga since I was 17. And since I was 5, I wanted to be a biologist. Every now and then the idea came to dance professionally, but then studying biology and critical social theory ‘won’. Dancing, although a very important part of my life, remained a hobby. At the age of 25 I was ready to start my healing journey—choreography gave way to movement improvisation; psychedelic trips to psychotherapy, retreats and ceremonies; ‘just enjoying’ and pleasing others to self-discovery and striving for integrity.

As a queer person with Jewish and Roma ancestry and a childhood in post-socialist Hungary, I experienced trauma, injustice and inequality in countless forms, so it was inevitable that I seek ways of using the privileges I had to empower myself and others. My first access to that was through education and intellect, and then the psychological and somatic followed. When I learned that inclusion, diversity, equity and social justice are inherent values of the Open Floor movement practice, my commitment to this modality and community was decided.

During my doctoral studies in biology–still trying to find my way in the image of the world that I received at the beginning of my life–I understood that the Open Floor was wide enough to make space for both worlds... I didn’t have to choose anymore between dancing and studying. So I trained to be an Open Floor teacher, and this container is spacious enough to be a medium for anything I can transmit—only what I have experienced myself.

~ • ~

Today, my training and over a decade of inner work support me to confidently hold space for transformative processes and encounter others authentically. I’m looking forward to working with you.