LAB FOR ADULTS

In the introduction to this site, I described the ingredients with which I nourish my research. Here, I outline some of the technical elements I share in my laboratories.

DMT (DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY) Argentine dancer Maria Fux created this method, which I learned at the dance school in Florence where I also taught. Maria enters the hall on a rainy day and she brings a surprise with her; turning her ear to the rain she asks "What is your dance?” The listening turns into singing "TIC TIC TOC" while her hands show how the drops fall from above: small drops, a big downpour, hail. Each drop has its own rhythm which immediately turns into movement. Maria can therefore transform any object into movement, using words as poetry. This is her lesson: everyone has a rhythm inside themselves and since everyone can express this, dance is for everyone.

BUTOH (JAPANESE DANCE) I have studied Butoh with various masters including Yumiko Yoshioka and Masaki Iwana but it's Atsushi Takenouchi's Jinen Butoh that has most influenced my practice; I was an assistant at his school for three years. Two dancers meet from afar, look into each other's eyes as they walk towards each other and retrace their lives from the very first breath to the last sigh of death. As with many Eastern theatrical traditions, Atsushi's Butoh has transformative potential: material is discovered in the darkness of the invisible and by journeying through deep meditative and dreamlike states, this darkness can be brought to light. Jinen Butoh is an art form with performative purpose: an audience is necessary to witness and support the dancer and encounter the images present within the dance.

NOGUCHI TAISO (JAPANESE GYMNASTICS) Originally created in Japan by Michizo Noguchi, I practice this form of Japanese Gymnastics with the Butoh dancer Imre Thormann. It is a study of water, weight and the dynamics of movement designed to relax the body and make it natural, elastic and flexible…as fluid as water. And as with many somatic practices, it starts with walking. One step after the other, slowly and with a very fine quality of attention, one returns to the body, breathing gently. One discovers how the body reorganises itself upon its foundations, the place from which movement originates and the close interconnection between different body parts. The practice teaches us how to breathe in the dance, relax and let movement flow in the body.

SOMATIC The study of the senses emerged naturally and spontaneously in my practice. Using myth as a starting point, I began developing work on emotions and gradually became interested in the way in which emotions arise. My artistic residence in India supported this research process, where due to the language barrier, the language of the senses became essential and gave me access to other forms of communication. With blindfolded eyes, I am in an empty room that's filled with sounds. I become those sounds. I therefore develop different practices in which each stimulus is perceived by different sensory channels. The experiences reveal themselves poetically, such as hands that see, eyes that listen, and smells that have the taste of silence.