Metamorphic Objects

An improvisational dance and composition workshop

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

In this 2-days workshop we will work with touch, weight, axis, gravity, space and other sensory tools of improvisational dance and composition. We will shape our body in the body of an object and we will become witness of its presence, to the point of having the perception of being danced by a movement we are intimately connected with but that, at the same time, exceeds the boundaries of our sense of self. By combining a deep attention with a vivid imagination, we will observe how the emergence of an emphatic relation with the vibrant materiality of the object changes our relationship with the body, both our body and somebody else’s body. The interwining of elements from the Tango dance and Contact Improvisation will provide us with a useful and inspiring platform for exploring the sense of reciprocity with objects and others as an enabling constraint through which creativity is channelled and expressed.

PROGRAM:

Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 December: h 10.00/13.00 Class - 13.00/14.00 Lunch Break - 14.00/16.00 Class

COST:

The workshop cost is 100 euros.
Booking is essential by Thursday 2 December by sending an email and communicating name, surname and phone number.

BOOKINGS AND INFOS:

CosiArte Lungomare Lutazio Catulo 14 Presso Pinetina Beachvillage Ostia Lido Roma
Tel: 06/87 69 16 33 – Rozenn 333 31 03 553 – Silvia 338 13 58 655
Mail: cosiarte@libero.it – rozenn.corbel@libero.it
Facebook: CosiArte https://fb.me/e/4wYXJwZfy

VIDEOS OF THE PRACTICE:

The reciprocity of perception https://vimeo.com/473417865

Is the chair dancing you? https://vimeo.com/453970270

Encountering an object as the witness of your dance https://youtu.be/Js5Nc2YMXIU

Dancing with a witness and watching your dance being mirrored https://youtu.be/jWMp3ZQWF4k

TEACHER’S BIO:

Raffaele Rufo (PhD) is a movement artist and scholar. In the last decade he has been teaching, researching and performing different forms of movement-based improvisation and partnering in Europe and Australia. His current practice interweaves tango, contact and contemporary dance improvisation with performance, ecology, the Feldenkrais method, phenomenological intuition and depth perception language to explore the reciprocity of human and more-than-human processes and agentic forces of embodiment. In 2020 Raffaele was awarded a PhD in dance and performance by Deakin University for the somatic study of touch in tango as an experience of kinaesthetic listening between the dancer’s inner and outer worlds. His academic research was published in the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, in the Journal of Embodied Research, in the Journal of Public Pedagogies and in the book collection Thinking Touch in Partnering and Contact Improvisation (edited by Malaika Sarco-Thomas). His recent experiences also include teaching and facilitating the teachers gathering at the International Festival of Contact Improvisation and Tango in Wuppertal, curating the session on The Public and Touch at the Melbourne Conference of Public Pedagogies, leading workshops for the creativity and communication program of Melbourne University’s Master of Entrepreneurship, and creating/performing The Tango Touch exploration at La Mama Theatre and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Raffaele’s goal for the future is to develop and disseminate new ecosomatic techniques and perspectives of embodiment which support and promote the role of dancers and movers as grassroots agents of ecological consciousness and cultural change.

Email: raffaele.rufo@gmail.com