Objects and Witnesses in Dance Improvisation

Online Workshops Program

Objects and Witnesses in Dance improvisation is a program of five workshops on zoom on the physical and affective connection that we can establish and nurture between our body, our self, others and more subtly and profoundly with the complex and mysterious sensuous world that lives inside the body and in which our body is embedded at the same time.

TRAINING DESCRIPTION:

“Reciprocity is the very structure of perception. We experience the sensuous world only by rendering ourselves vulnerable to that world.” (David Abram, Becoming Animal) Abram’s words refer not only to the interconnection between humans and other living beings and systems we have learned to call ‘nature’, but also to the things around us that carry the signs of aliveness and participate in our perceptual experience. What is sensuous about the human-built world we inhabit in our homes, offices, coffee shops, studios and the other indoor spaces where we spend most of our lives, mostly surrounded by objects which we mainly approach for their utilitarian functions? And what is sensuous about the experience of communicating with each other through the medium of a screen rather than direct physical contact, an experience which takes so much of our time to the point of being perceived as the default option? These questions have been there for us to grab for a long time. But only with the Covid-19 global crisis we are coming to terms with the urgency to ask and address them and to find creative answers.

As a practice of heightened somatic awareness, vulnerability and expression, dance improvisation can help us unveil the embeddedness of perception by unveiling the rich field of embodied connections that populate our experience of the human-built environment. In particular, in this cycle of five weekly workshops we will engage a range of improvisation embodiment techniques for encountering the objects in our domestic space and the distant partners connected through the computer screen as the witnesses of our dance. In this sensuous journey, we will approach the space between the inner and the outer worlds as a mirror through which the presence of others and objects can be revealed and expressed imaginatively as an experience of reciprocity and co-creation. 

PROGRAM:

Zoom Workshop#1 (Wed 7/10): Witnessing your dancing body in the domestic space 

Zoom Workshop#2 (Wed 14/10): Encountering an object as the witness of your dance

Zoom Workshop#3 (Wed 21/10): Negotiating the space between dancing body and object as a window into the imagination

Zoom Workshop#4 (Wed 28/10t): Dancing with a witness through the computer screen and watching your dance being mirrored

Zoom Workshop#5 (Wed 4/11): Negotiating the space between distant dancing bodies as a window into the imagination 

The five workshops will be led in English by Raffaele Rufo (Ph.D.) on Zoom. Workshops are open to dancers, movers, performers and practitioners of somatic disciplines and will be conducted in a safe and stimulating group situation.

BOOKINGS AND INFOS:

Expressions of interest can be communicated through this google form https://forms.gle/s5MLmAYsv5nczE9H9. If you are new to the Liquid Lead Movement training, in the form you can ask to attend a free session. For more Info you can send an email to raffaele.rufo@gmail.com or send a message to the LiquidLeadMovement facebook page www.facebook.com/liquidleadmovement. 

FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS:

“It was a beautiful excursion into the liquidity of resonance and dissonance, the approach, meeting, resistances and dissolution into flow of contact and partnership. It is equally luscious to feel the rub of resistance as it is the melding and fusing of flow. I’m eager to experience more! Thank you!” (Glenna Batson, dance and somatic movement international expert and lecturer at Duke University) 

I have been inspired by Raffaele's research and the group he leads. I felt so welcomed when I joined 2 sessions after the start of a series of workshops. I met Raffaele in Berlin nearly a year ago after he participated in a workshop I led, Eco-equitability, Somatics & Contact Improvisation during the Body IQ Festival in 2019. He spoke with me after the workshop and we talked about the concept of cells migrating towards the point of contact. The last session I attended was the day after the US Presidential Election and with Glenna Batson and I, being in North Carolina, it was quite an intense time. This has been a wonderful exploration that supports the idea that everything in the universe vibrates at different frequencies including that which we may find inanimate. I look forward to coming together again and exploring more with Raffaele's investigations of the soma connecting to the environment around us and allowing that to be in collaboration with our presence. (Ethan E. Balcos, Associate Professor of dance at University of North Carolina)

“I loved this class, I loved recognising and observing my body and feeling sensations, giving them a name. I loved being in the zoom breakout room with my two distant partners and listening to what they had felt during the exploration. And at the end of the class I loved the small dance with my favourite coat that pushed me in a little journey into my maternity. A lot of inspirations!” (Valentina Vitolo, tango and contact improvisation dancer and teacher and Feldenkrais trainer, Milan)

“It was very nice for me tonight. Quite unexpected to feel comfortable dancing with my chair for the first time. And with my cosy coat... Slightly more difficult with the cushion but still, it was very interesting to witness myself falling into the trap of wanting to be original rather than true! I found the idea of progressing in the weight and in the qualities of the three objects very interesting too. From the light cushion to the heavy chair, the weight of my coat and its fluidity reminded me of some beautiful dances. As for my chair, I will have to teach it how to be more flexible. I thank you very much for opening the door of dancing with objects in a smooth and organic way. Hopefully, I will feel more confident from now on!” (Virginie Bournaud, tango and contact improvisation dancer and teacher, Paris)

“We all want to be free but freedom means to take responsibility for your moves, for your partner and for the social context you are involved in. This is the added value that liquid lead movement brought to my dance: freedom and a multiple choice of options in moves and rhythms through listening and touch. There is music as a framework as a source of inspiration but there are also other rhythms, your inner rhythm that you need to combine with the other dancer/dancers in a wide harmony. It is a tough work that needs a lot of practice and we are just at the beginning... It is demanding and challenging and I am eager to know what comes next.” (Stefania Casucci, tango, contact improvisation and contemporary afro dancer, Milan)

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

Like a Turtle Waiting to Be Washed by the Sea, https://youtu.be/OCeTog35pYg

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