T E A C H E R S
CRUZ ISAEL MATA week 1
Cruz Isael Mata was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He started his dance training at the Instituto Superior De Danza Caracas, Venezuela in 1992 and continued his studies at the Central University of Venezuela, where he followed classes in theatre sciences, fine arts, and philosophy. He toured in Latin America as a solist and company member.In 2000 he came to Belgium, where he became a member of the X-Group in P.A.R.T.S., directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.Besides his dance education, he also studied circus techniques at the Ecole Nationale du Cirque – Academie Fratellini, physical therapy, and psychology in Paris.He danced with several dance companies: Espacio Alterno – Venezuela, Tim Feldman – Denmark, Michél Noiret Company – Belgium. He collaborated with artists such as David Zambrano, Roberto Olivan, Nadine Ganase, Virginie Thirion, Josse de Pauw, Maria Clara Villalobos, MeyLing Bisogno, and others.Cruz created the productions „Puzzle“ and „Casa“, which premiered in Paris in 2005.In 2020 he was the artistic director of the short dance film “couch me!”, which won 7 awards for the best experimental film and best director at international film festivals.
He has been giving company training to various dance companies, such as Ultima Vez – Wim Vandekeybus since 2010.
Cruz Mata has been teaching Flying Low, Acrobatic Dance, Release Technique, and Contact Improvisation in Latin America, Europe, and Asia for more than 22 years.
FLYING INTO GRAVITY SKILLS
Flying Into Gravity Skills focuses on developing and maintaining the body´s fluent and weightless movement patterns. Different exercises are exploring the relationship with the floor as well as towards other people, space, gravity, and towards one’s own mindset while experiencing oneself in the present moment. The body is being given the opportunity to activate the relationship between the center and the periphery with the aim of moving more efficient and using the ground as well as the gravity as support.
Cruz explores the principals of recreating movements of daily life and exploring the influences of voice onto the body´s movement. Figuring out what the body has to say in the moments when it doesn’t move and doesn’t produce sound is one of the main approaches, which is being achieved through dynamic dance sequences, partnering work, and diverse techniques including Flying Low and Release Technique.
"Answers are appearing, when we calm down the mind but open the space for the body to talk.”
RAKESH SUKESH week 1
Born in Kerala, India, Rakesh was introduced to yogic principles and practices early on, setting the stage for his transformative journey. Dance unexpectedly entered his life at the age of 15 when he began as a Bollywood dancer in local productions. In 2003, Rakesh joined Attakkalari India, marking a significant shift in his trajectory. In 2014, he became a certified yoga teacher through the esteemed Shivananda Vedanta Centre, a step that deepened his understanding of movement and holistic well-being.Over the past 14 years, Rakesh has dedicated himself to researching a movement method known as the IntAct-Method. This practical fusion of Kalarippayattu, contemporary movement, and yogic philosophy has gained recognition in reputable institutions worldwide. Rakesh has taken a hands-on approach in creating over thirteen dance pieces, each with its own distinct purpose. Currently, his focus is on developing a solo performance titled "Because I love the diversity (micro attitude we all have it)," scheduled to debut at the Push Festival in 2024. In 2020, Rakesh co-founded and assumed a leadership role at Sanskar, a global performing arts platform. This pragmatic initiative aims to foster growth and collaboration, especially in India and abroad.
INTACT-METHOD
IntAct is a training method generated through years of research, observation and adaptation to our current times, while also based on intrinsic human characteristics: breath, movement, emotion, thought, intention, environment. Its main goal lies on enhancing humanness in its most raw and genuine form. This method creates a safe and honest place that embraces and acknowledges our inner world, both weaknesses and strengths, to learn how to use them through reflection and striving for further development. It is an interconnected training system that utilises movement as a base to create, confront and play within crisis. It provides the timespace to get to know one’s personal form and how to use the body to broaden the range of movement vocabulary. As an holistic form, it is inspired by tools from specific lineages, such as breath, meditation and the inner mechanics of yogi principles, while also utilising the movement and philosophies from kalari payatt. This interwoven structure combines and rearranges these tools and ideas in a proposal for a new approach. In these classes, one can expect a dedication to raising awareness to individuality and inner workings, an awakening of the senses that leads to an ability to control and manage external triggers. In other words, taking charge of ones self.
LUCIANA LUSSO ROVETO week 1
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, she began her career as a dancer, director and choreographer, studying dance with Elsa Piperno, Nicoletta Giavotto, Boris Nikish, Lucia Latour, Malou Airaudo, Felix Ruckert, Finola Cronin, Enrico Tedde, Dominique Mercy, Beatrice Libonati, Jim May, oriental choreographic techniques with Tapa Sudana and theatre with Vittorio Gassman, Marisa Fabbri, Dominic de Fazio.
She has worked in theatre with G.Cobelli, A.Zucchi, N.De Tollis, L.Biondi, G.Montaldo, G.Proietti, U.Gregoretti, M.Missiroli, H.Yamanouchi, F.Ricordi, J.Savary, in cinema with F.Fellini (La città delle donne - La nave va), F. Brusati (Il buon soldato), P. Sorrentino (La grande bellezza).
He has worked in television with T. Shermann and I. Leoni.
Choreographer and adaptor of theatre texts, she has worked for the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, for Franco Ricordi at Teatro Ghione.
She has choreographed for fictions, films, shows, operas such as Turandot, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1991), Carmen, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro dell'Acquario, Rome (1992), Schiaccianoci Teatro Brancaccio (1992), Il ballo delle ingrate, directed by I. Nunziata, Spoleto Festival (1993), Romeo and Juliet, directed by F. Ricordi, Teatro Ghione, Rome (1995), Hamlet, directed by F. Ricordi, Teatro Ghione, Rome (2001), I ragazzi del muretto, directed by T. Shermannn (2002), Medico in Famiglia, directed by I. Leoni (2003), Edipo Re, directed by F. ricordi, Teatro stabile dell'Aquila (2004).
In 1981, she founded the Cultural Association D.M.A. Teatrodanza, of which she is the director and choreographer and through which she has directed artistic projects such as "Arte Ecistica" (1999-2008) and "Superdiverso" (2002-2017).
She has participated in the Limassol International Dance Festival (2006) and the Marrakech International Theatre Festival (2006; 2007; 2014;). In 2017, he won migrArti with the project Teatrodanza di Frontiera.
In 2023 she directed 'Kandalama's gift', a show with Aziza Essalek and Paola Sarcina.
She trained as a Gyrotonic trainer with Pietro Gagliardi and Silvia Frosali. Today she is a certified therapeutic trainer.
She has regularly teaches contemporary dance and dance theatre for more than 40 years in various centres and trainings, such as the Actors Academy in Rome.
She is co-creator of Altrefrontiere.
THE BODY, THINKING THOUGHT
Dance Theater Workshop | with final performance
‘The frivolous invention of luxurious and superfluous gadgets is indicative of the domination of necessity in the interests of exploitation. The imagination, freed from the slavery of exploitation, can turn with its strength to the reconstruction of the universe of experience. Society as a piece of art. The form of freedom finds expression in the individual relationships between people, in their language and their silence, in listening to their bodies and their history, in their gestures and their appearance, in their sensitivity, in their love and their dislike.’
H. Marcuse
An exploration into the concept of freedom.
Can we process the ethical way of ‘feeling free’ while all around us in other places in the world some events deprive others of the same experience?
Perhaps not forgetting this can help make us different in content and form in order to change direction, for a society as a piece of art.
With this pretext, Luciana's research proposes tools for exploration and composition, inviting thematic improvisations that are subsequently codified and assembled.
...
YONEL CASTILLA SERRANO week 2
Yonel Castilla Serrano, Cuban, bàbáláwó, dancer, choreographer and teacher, trained at the National Dance School of Cuba, at the Provincial Sports School of Havana, he studied Martial Arts. With a vast experience, Serrano, has worked in several companies among them: Danza Teatro Retazos, National Contemporary Company of Cuba, Danza Combinatoria Company, Trash Company, StationZuid, Meekers Uigesproken, United-C. He has also performed in several artistic projects by renowned choreographers such as: André Gingras, Angelika Ui, Sylvain Emard and Marina Nabais, currently she works with choreographer Olga Roriz. His choreographic repertoire includes: "About the size of a piece", "Memórias", "Memorias de um Homem de Pedra", "Illegal", "West Love Story", "Igualdade", "Expediente 174", "Rastro", "Raizes", "Canimal", "Humanitos" and "Golden Puma". As a teacher he worked in the institutions: Teatro Cine de Torres Vedras, ASA, Academia Espaço Dança/ILÚ, Performact, Conservatório de Dança de Coimbra, Academia de Dança de Alcobaça, Escola de Dança do Conservatório de Lisboa, ESCO and in the gyms, Bodies, Sirona Health Club & Spa, Artez, Fontys.
PRISMAS
It is time to remind ourselves of who we are. Of the place we occupy in this infinitely defined universe, full of a thousand colours and one feeling: the feeling of life, the awareness of being here, now, with a unique opportunity to grasp the treasure of the present. Where the ephemeral nature of events leaves us in an embrace with ourselves, where an extremely individual movement leads us to look at the power of the collective, thus transforming Bodies into Hopes and Dancing Lights.
Under this pretext, Prismas is an invitation to step out of our comfort zone through movement, to discover a ‘never-ending’ of new combinations creating a free world of creative feelings, while always respecting our surroundings.
TIJEN LAWTON week 2
Tijen’s main body of works spans over a period of 30 years as a professional dance artist. Her work shifts between performing, teaching, mentoring, coaching, researching and co-creating in diverse artistic and academic contexts.
Artist and educator, she delves into the body as an archive, merging artistic practice and teaching. Through research and commitment to the unexplainable in movement, she cultivates heightened senses and ignites creative potential.
Tijen studied at Arts Educational School London, The Place LCDS London, The Juilliard School New York.
For 15 years, she was a constant presence in all of Jan Lauwers & Needcompany’s work performing, creating and touring worldwide. Also performing, touring & collaborating with Caterina & Carlotta Sagna, Mauro Paccagnella & Wooshing Machine, Pierre Droulers, Erika Zueneli, As Palavras / Cie Claudio Bernardo, Greet Vissers & Kunstz, Mokhallad Rasem & het Toneelhuis, Marco Toricce, Lisaboa Houbrechts, Andrew Graham, laGeste, Sofiane et Selma Ouissi.
Films : Goldfish Game - Jan Lauwers/Nico Leunen, Ma Mère I’Oye - Thierry De Mey & Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, After The Trojan Women - Cristina Dias / As Palavras, Ruin - Lore Loyens / Timur Magomedgadzhiev
MINDFUL STAMINA & CONSCIOUS RISK
Searching for a Conscious Risk and Trust in the Body - A Hidden Physical Morphology
Tijen's classes and workshops use a physically & emotionally demanding movement methodology designed to encourage, inspire and build awareness and connectivity in the constant search for movement.
When we direct the mind or attention to different areas of the body and initiate movement from these areas, we change the quality of our movement. Through a dynamic movement language we will embody a sensory awareness of our own physical possibilities to let go of one’s patterns and preconceptions about the moving body.
Tijen will guide us to work from the awareness of the relationships between our mind/body as a starting point for action.
The merging of these two - awareness and action - can allow for a conscious risk; a constant fall and abandon in the body combined with an understanding and availability to trust. By defining and refining independent movement materials for different parts in our body and segregating those parts from each other and by investigating a certain sequential order of the body, we can explore multi-dimensional movement and visit new and unfamiliar ways to move.
Through the awakening and following of the natural yet deeply hidden physical morphology we will facilitate an intertwined and many-layered space within the 4 dimensional body, to stimulate states of letting go, process, availability and allowing, fostering a non-linear and ever shifting practice of change.
When movement asks for full engagement, the connection with knowledge and resonance is inherent in the moving-thinking body, freedom appears naturally and knowledge swells.
This allows us to discover the relationship between the smallest level of activity within the body and the largest movement of the body, aligning the inner cellular movement with the external expression of dynamic movement through space.
We will engage in the dialogue of resistance, resolution, resonance.
MARIGIA MAGGIPINTO week 2
She began her professional career with the ballet company in the Foundation Niccolo’ Piccinni (J. De Min / Roberto Fascilla). In 1985 participated in the international tour with the dance company of “Danzatori Scalzi” of Rome, takes part in the movie ” Il Giovane Toscanini ” of F. Zeffirelli.
She studied in Rome with Viola Faber, Libby Ney (tecn. Limon) Andre’Peck, Roberta Garrison (tecn. Cunningham), Richard Haisma (Nikolais) Mudra ( Bejart), Matt Mattox (Jazz) e Martha Graham. She participates in the creation of the performance by Giorgio Rossi (Stop Palmizi / Carolin Carlson) at the Festival of Polverigi. She studies the techniques of Jean Cebron (composition / improvisation), Hans Zullig (tecn. Joss) at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen (directed by Pina Bausch).
She danced with Pina Bausch in 14 different choreography and participated in the new creations of the German choreographer: Tanzabend II (’92), Schiff (’93), Trauerspiel(’94), Danzon(’95) and Fensterputzer(’97). Leaving the company in 1999 but later returned as a guest participating in the festival Tanzteather (2000, 2001, 2002).
In the United States participated in the creation of a theatral work with the company Mutation Theater Project, and teached in the faculty of “American Dance Festival” at Duke University (2003, 2004, 2005). She works with Emilia Romagna Teatro (ERT) in the performance directed by Pippo Delbono, “Dopo la Battaglia”, winner of the UBU Prize as the best 2011 Italian theater performance.
Guest teacher at the Dance Academy: “Dancehouse” in Milano . Artistic director: Susanna Beltrami (2016).
She works in collaboration with Pina Bausch Foundation giving workshops in occasion of two big expositions dedicated to Pina at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and at the Gropius Bau in Berlin (2015-2016).
She create a solo in a project/ residence , sponsored by circo Vertigo in Turin by the title “ two but not two “ (2019)
And her last work directed by Chiara Frigo “Miss Lala al circo Fernando
Production of Opera Estate festival Bassano del grappa and Zebra culture zoo. (2021)
She works as freelance giving workshops and master classes in Italy and Europe.
Creation of a performance “ Miss Lala al Circo Fernando “ with the direction of Chiara Frigo and the dramaturgy of Riccardo De Torrebruna . Production of Zebra and XL anticorpi (2021/2022)
October/ November 2022 work in collaboration with PBF ( Pina Bausch Foundation ) and WAAPA ( West Australia Academy of Performing Art) in Perth Australia for the remounting a piece “ Tannhauser Bacchanal “ of Pina Bausch , with the students of the Academy.
2023 continuing Performing “ Miss Lala al circo Fernando “ in various theaters in Italy .
Gives workshops and masterclasses in Italy and Europe.
TANZLAB
Dance Theater Workshop | with final performance
Marigia's creative process begins with exercises designed to stimulate body awareness. Her choreographic research takes shape from questions and themes that are proposed to be answered through improvisation.
The artistic research that characterises Bausch's path is a process that focuses on Becoming rather than merely Feeling, with the aim of generating concrete action rather than acting it out.
