Resonance - sensitive connection between voice and body

Charlotte Zerbey
19 - 23 October 2024
Resonance - sensitive connection between voice and body

The aim of the work is to bring the participant into contact with the creative authenticity of voice and movement. The sensitive connection between the voice and the body reveals how gestural and vocal expression also arose from the awareness of movement, at the basis of every vital action. Expression with the voice is fundamental in daily life and when sufficient attention is paid to its use, other possibilities may be discovered.
This intensive amplifies the perception and intuition that links the study of movement and voice to personal and artistic creativity and communicativeness.
Work is on the convergences between the expression of movement and voice, beginning with the breath and vocal emission. Vocality and gesture are explored in relation to the perception one has of the surrounding environment, as this tends to facilitate the willingness and sensitivity to observe resonant spaces/places.
In particular, the work focuses on "natural" vocal expression, without effort and without pretense, opening possibilities to contact one’s own critical vision, personal patterns and preconceived ideas.
Exploratory modes and techniques of listening to movement will be used to perceive organically, improving awareness in each action, in each creative choice bringing one in touch with their own presence for on stage and off.

Charlotte Zerbey trained in modern and classical dance at the University of Utah (USA), and from 1979 to 1982 worked in Europe with Katie Duck's Group/O, Company Gaby Agis (UK), Company Hamilton (UK, NL) Parco Butterfly (ITA). In 1989 she founded Company Blu together with Alessandro Certini and is its co-director and choreographer.
She has collaborated with Sasha Waltz and Guests (D) from 1994 until more recent years.
Charlotte was also influenced by the study of techniques such as Contact Improvisation, Ki - Aikido, Alexander Technique and Authentic Movement, Voice with Tomasella Calvisi, taking her choreographic creation beyond conventional codes, developing work on 'physical presence', the voice and composition in real time.

Generation of movement material and intuitive composing

Lilo Stahl
14 - 18 Dicember 2024
Generation of movement material and intuitive composing

On the foundation of a specific and joyfully mobilizing training, which integrates spontaneity, lightning-quick decisions as well as the play with chance, movement material is generated and an intuitive approach to composing is practiced.
The work focusses on sensitizing perception and sharpening physical and mental presence. On the basis of specific tasks, movement material is invented, its atmosphere and emotional connection are examined, and potential movement patterns are identified and being worked on.
The application of these useful tools helps to open up access to creative resources and thus the emergence of diverse movement material. Within the examination of compositional principles there is space, for spontaneous events - solistically as well as in diverse group constellations.

Lilo Stahl, dancer, instant composer and freelance teacher, she stages work since 1981 and is an essential co-creator of developments in new dance as well as establishing improvisation as a stage form.
Co-founder of Bewegungs-art Freiburg (1979), from 2006 - July 2021 co-director of TIP – state-approved professional school in Dance, Improvisation and Performance.
Danced and created solo and ensemble pieces, 1987-91 member of Anzu Furukawa's company Dance Butter Tokyo; since the mid-90s instant composition performances in international line-ups; constant: duets with Harald Kimmig, Quintet - Trio Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin & Lilo Stahl-Michael Schumacher.
Current: “what if”, part of a solo research “Stille & Lärm” sponsored by DIS-TANZ-SOLO, Premiere at soundance-festival Berlin.

Body / Space / Time - Multiple methods for generating movement material

Renate Graziadei
15 - 19 Febbraio 2025
Body / Space / Time - Multiple methods for generating movement material

Each day of the research will start with a warm up introducing concepts and aspects from several anatomically based movement systems which will prepare the body and mind to be receptive and prepared for moving in a logical, detailed and precise way without loseing once own individual expression. We will work on achieving an efficient body alignment as a base to move from. As the warm up gets more physical we begin to train various muscle groups, connections and actions working with gravity as our partner until we finally approach a choreographic material in which all the previous concepts can be applied.
After the warm up I would like to work in a lab type format to be able to experiment and explore with the participants different aspects of the Theme "Body, Space & Time“. Within the 5 day research we will be mostly concerned with - short term constructions - in order to explore multiple methods for generating movement material in relation to the Theme, its logic, and how it reads to an “Audience“. The evolution of the research will be mostly determined by the results of each day. New tasks for the next day will be formed within the group in response to our previous explorations, questions, findings and group discussions.

Renate Graziadei was born in Austria and completed her dance training in Switzerland. She then moved to New York City where she studied, worked and lived for three years, dancing amongst others with the Nina Wiener Dance Company. After returning to Europe, she worked with Rui Horta at S.O.A.P Dance Theatre Frankfurt and later with the Hamburg-based dance group COAX. In autumn 1994, Renate Graziadei and Arthur Stäldi founded the laborgras collective. In addition to creating numerous original projects of their own, Renate also contribute to the creation processes of other artists. Her longest and closest collaboration has been since 1999 with choreographer David Hernandez. Renate has worked with Sasha Waltz & Guests as assistant rehearsal director from 2004 – 2019 and as a guest dancer from 2008 – 2019. In 2010 she was the critic’s choice for Dancer of the Year, awarded by ballet-tanz magazine. In March 2015, she received with laborgras the Kunstpreis Berlin art prize from the Akademie der Künste in the Performing Arts category. In September of the same year, she was nominated for the DER FAUST German Theatre Prize for her dancing in the production Transition. In 2016/17 she was a guest dancer with Susanne Linke Company – at the Theater Trier for the production Hommage a Dore Hoyer.

Straight, No Chaser - Contact Improvisation

Jurij Konjar
12 - 16 April 2025
Straight, No Chaser - Contact Improvisation

Jurij enterprets the role of teacher by creating an environment where an experiential learning processes can take place. Contact Improvisation (CI) is intended as a form of exploration in which we agree to share and co-create a working environment where each person can focus on what interests them, without preventing others from doing the same. CI as a teaching is transmitted by experience and discovery, rather than belief. An approach, for example, that arises through a combination of dedicated readings such as the Contact Quarterly, or by attending Jam Sessions.
The first issue to address is to understand and become familiar with one's limits and, from those limits, how to go further to follow one's interests, without necessarily knowing what they may become. We will work on reflexes and reaction, using the structural strength of each. The flexibility of the mind is then addressed, and adaptation and responsibility towards partners will be developed.
A group performance follows: “A discursive event with elements of dance performance and workshop”. Sunday 13 April at 5.00 pm, there will be a group outcome with the participation of Jurij Konjar.

Jurij Konjar is a Slovenian artist working in the field of dance. After his training at PARTS in Brussels, he moved on to create his first works. In 2007, following a head injury, he shifted his research towards the potential of the present moment.
In 2009, an in-depth observation of Steve Paxton's video Goldberg Variations sparked what became his improvisation practice and provided a basis for a rich dialogue still ongoing.
Collaborating with Steve Paxton (2010-2016), he performed Paxton's works Bound (1982), Flat (1964) and Quicksand (2016), as well as staged Satisfyin' Lover (1967). In 2014 he launched Habitat, a nomadic workspace for process-oriented practices. His latest work Biodegradables debuted in Ljubljana in April 2021. He has been practicing and teaching Contact Improvisation since 2012.

Real time composition - predictability and unpredictability

Alessandro Certini e Charlotte Zerbey
14 - 18 June 2025
Real time composition - predictability and unpredictability

This work refines the perception of the relationship with one's own experience and works on the immediate "audience-performer" connection. Attention is placed on gesture and voice, as well as touch, allowing a concrete awareness of places and states of sensitivity.
The work continues by focusing on dialogue and composition skills organized in small and large groups with guided sessions of dance improvisation as a collective act, from which physical narratives are generated that derive from a clear awareness of the context. This practice refines the ability to develop group work in a living system, a dynamic system of improvisational performance that uses the ability to "play" with the vitality of open choices, with the imagination, both personal and collective, that aim for a vital performance in the richness of the present moment.

Alessandro Certini began his dance training in Florence with Streiff Traut Faggioni (Wigman, Kreutzberg). He has been influenced by Post-Modern techniques, ballet and contact Improvisation. His professional career started in 1979 as a founding member of Group-O directed by Katie Duck, and has toured in Europe since ’87. Over the last 20 years Alessandro has worked with improvisation and choreographic skills that combine dance and theater to create a personal language and style. He has worked in many performances and productions with leading improvisers, dancers and musicians: K. Duck, J. Hamilton, M. Tompkins, S. Paxton, K. Simson, L. nelson, P. De Groot, C. Zerbey, F. Poulstra, T. Honsinger, S. Lacy, M. Moore, S. Noble, A. Salis. He has Taught at Dartington College (G.B.), SNDO (Amsterdam), Accademia d'Arte Drammatica (Milano), EDDC (Dusseldorf), Studio Area (Barcelona), Bewegungs Art Freiburg, Istituto de Danza (Caracas), Accademia Nazionale della Danza (Roma), studio Company Blu and many Italian dance venues. He is a professor at L’Accademia di danza di Roma.

Charlotte Zerbey trained in modern and classical dance at the University of Utah (USA), and from 1979 to 1982 worked in Europe with Katie Duck's Group/O, Company Gaby Agis (UK), Company Hamilton (UK, NL) Parco Butterfly (ITA).
In 1989 she founded Company Blu together with Alessandro Certini and is its co-director and choreographer. She has collaborated with Sasha Waltz and Guests (D) from 1994 until more recent years. Charlotte was also influenced by the study of techniques such as Contact Improvisation, Ki - Aikido, Alexander Technique and Authentic Movement, Voice with Tomasella Calvisi, taking her choreographic creation beyond conventional codes, developing work on 'physical presence', the voice and composition in real time.