Dancing with the Seasons: In Conversation with Berlin Based Artist Vivian Koch

Something shifted for me this winter. Living outside of California for the first time in a decade, I actually felt what it means to be in the dark season. Not as a concept. As a lived experience in my body. And what I noticed is that the longer I let myself actually rest, the more I could feel something building underneath. A pressure. A readiness. Like something was preparing to move.

So when my friend Vivian, a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist and intuitive guide, and I sat down to talk about our upcoming collaborations, that's where the conversation went. 

We started talking about spring as an energetic threshold, not just a season change. We talked about 2026 as a fire year and what that asks of us. We talked about hunger, the kind you suppress when you've been doing too much inner work and not enough living. And we talked about the difference between the noise of fear and the quiet signal of creative truth.

Q&A

Millana: I'm curious, what's your take on the energies shifting into March?

Vivian: It’s still a time to rest and integrate what’s left of 2025. The astrological year typically begins at the end of March, so the shift between these two months invites the end of a cycle, maybe more solitude, giving both your mental as well as physical health space to recalibrate.

The last year has been a time of letting go, grieving and preparing. 2026 will be a fire year, where we’ll be experiencing new leaps in many forms. I think this year will be wild and unpredictable but I wouldn't be scared. I just think it will ask a lot of us. So being still this month is really about preparing the nervous system for what's to come.

Millana: What do you think people need to do individually right now, as we step into spring, to be in a position where they can do that inner work?

Vivian: It's such a simple answer, but I think it's very important to stay grounded and not get lost in all the noise and entertainment that’s happening right now, no matter how chaotic or frustrating things might seem. It’s a dance between staying connected to your own truth and path, and not getting overstimulated by the ‘supposed’ outside world.

Millana: I love the idea of a "dance," stepping in and stepping out. How are you doing that dance when it comes to your creative work right now?

Vivian: Recently, I feel like I am dancing with that feeling of pressure. Let’s say the illusion that we constantly have to deliver, show ourselves, or post all the time. What concept is that actually? Who created that? So many people talk about this struggle, but it has already influenced our system. It seems so obscure to me at the moment. I'm someone who tends to decide things very intuitively. Sometimes I write three times a week, and sometimes I cannot write for a month. The other day I made music for 3 hours and got loads of ideas done whereas there are times I just cannot sit down for that. I move in these cycles, which is not the easiest in a culture and society that still worships consistency and rigid plans. It feels so small to even think that way. Even though I like to have my little routines throughout the day, letting myself have these seemingly random bursts of creativity is actually its own kind of consistency. It’s just a perspective.

And this is what I mean by dance: Is there internal pressure because something really wants to get expressed through me? Or does the pressure come from another source?

Millana: How do you decipher between the two?

Vivian: The volume. If that feeling is really loud, it almost becomes a mental carousel that keeps revisiting the same thoughts. Which feels very collective. But as soon as it's a subtle voice visiting me every day for a period of time, but very quietly … then I know. It doesn't punish me, even if I decide to not follow it immediately. It always has time. Whereas fear punishes with nonsense thoughts.

Millana: That feels like a really potent distinction. The inner muse tends to be quiet and subtle. You have to go to it and attune. Whereas comparison and lack and fear is so loud.

Vivian: Yes! The more grounded, the wider life becomes, and everything you ‘need’ is always right here. Whereas comparisons and fears lead you to a tunnel where your view gets dimmed. That’s also a dance. Experiencing the spectrum of narrowness and vastness. But you can’t really do something for it nor control when it happens. That’s the beauty and play of life, I guess.

Millana: You mentioned something about your hunger, the feeling that something really wants to be expressed through you. Can you describe what that hunger is?

Vivian: Hunger for expression. For life. For adventure. For dance. For just playing around. For the past few years, I’ve been internalizing a lot, just absorbing whatever I could. Which is totally fine. At the same time, though, there’s some hunger to externalize and express more when it’s time, of course. Which again – you can’t really choose or control.

Millana: It brings us back to the seasons. When we really allow ourselves to be in the seasonality of time and nature, we sync up to that natural change. If you let yourself really winter long enough, eventually you feel like you want to burst out of the ground.

Vivian: Absolutely. That's why Aries season invites the new year and chapter. I mean we all know that sign. They can operate almost like little children – in a good sense. They eventually even become the pressure in order to finally move. If something's there, they just do it, go out and play around.

But 2026 will bring more than just play. Humanity has spent a long time experimenting around, while still being asleep. It’s time to wake up, and the darkness we see in the world right now is simply a reflection of how far we’ve come collectively. 

Millana: And what's the fine line between healthy pressure, the kind that moves you, and pressure that's just a mechanism to feel more worthy or productive?

Vivian: Is it truly aligned with me to take action now? Does it come from within, or is it just another mechanism to do something in order to feel better for two minutes? I am on that path to figure this out as well, but I think it’s a fine line about dancing with curiosity and exploring how you actually function as a human being. Staying open to your own essence – and therefore to others – without overthinking or forgetting to really live. I mean it in a very lighthearted way.

Vivian is a Berlin-based sound artist and musician whose work sits at the intersection of fashion, beauty, and the soul. She is also part of Millana's Preferred Practitioner Circle and will collaborate with Millana on an immersive sound and breathwork experience later this spring. You can book an intuitive astrology reading or sound session with Vivian via her profile here.