Connecting with the creative aspect of Contact and Improvisation

Feldenkrais/ Contact/ Improvisation We will begin our days practicing body awareness with the Feldenkrais Method (Awareness Through Movement ) and principles of Neurophysiology. Both of these are gentle and powerful approaches to movement which deepen the sense of how we move, increase the quality of coordination and assist the development of a balanced postural tone. We will prepare our bodies to be supple and responsive, to trust ourselves, the partner, the floor, to play with momentum and maintaining equilibrium while dancing in disorienting, ever changing relationship to the ground. In a playful environment we will experiment with speed, falling, landing, leaning, giving and supporting weight. In the afternoon we will focus on the body performative potential playing with specific improvisational skills and facilitating a variety of dance explorations from solo to group. The dance studio is open to the landscape and sits up on a hill. There is a breeze allowing for dance in the mornings and evenings and there is time for the beach in the middle of the day. The beautiful Ostuni is the closest town. Meals: Lunch and dinner are prepared by a cook. Delicious food typical of the Apulian region. Price: €360 before June 1st, €390 after - price includes workshop, accommodation and meals Closest airport: Bari or Brindisi Casina Settarte is a calm and peaceful residency for artistic research, rehearsal, and workshops, immersed in nature between olive, fig, and almond trees. Beaches nearby. Different type of accommodation. Registration: [email protected] Tel. +39 348 8629254 www.casinasettarte.org Simonetta Alessandri is Italian dance artist based in London. She teaches at Trinity Laban, London Contemporary Dance School and Goldsmiths University. Her work is informed by more than 30 years of dancing, teaching and choreographing. Her choreography has been for dance companies, student pieces, large scale opera, improvised performance, site specific and movement direction for theatre. She was one of the few dance practitioner in Italy who began working with CI in the 90’s. She taught for more than 20 years in Italy and kept Contact Improvisation alive in Roma for 10 years with her classes and jams. She has been a guest teacher in Germany, Colombia, UK, Norway, Israel, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Taiwan. She obtained the Postgraduate Diploma in Choreography at London Contemporary Dance School, she is qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method and she holds the Teacher Certificate of the Royal Academy of Dance. � Adalisa Menghini is an Italian choreographer, performer, dancer, teacher, based in Berlin. She studied at S.N.D.O. Amsterdam, holds a Postgraduate degree in Neurophysiological Psychology and is a practitioner of the Feldenkrais method.Adalisa is performing improvisation, creating pieces and has been collaborating with different artist including Dieter Heitkamp, Nita Little, Keith Hennessy, Kirstie Simson, LaborGras, Sasha Waltz and Tino Sehgal. She create choreography for professional and non professional dancers including children and elderly people. Twice she was awarded best director and choreographer of “Giocabriga”, a popular theatre genre in Italy. Her choreographic work with schoolchildren in Museums, received twice the price “Kinder zum Olymp” . Adalisa is teaching composition and choreography at the University of Art (UDK) Berlin and Contact Improvisation at Tanzfabrik Berlin. (Photo: Michele Cipriani)