The point of view of the spine
Contact improvisation and Axis Syllabus© study group.
Bologna
March 15, 2025
with Nica Portavia and Yiskah Jessica Cestaro
The point of view of the spine
We will orient ourselves in our relationship with space and bodies starting with the spine, looking at its architecture, function and behavior. We will research the relationship the spine has with the rest of the body in its biomechanical, anatomical and somatic aspects, identifying ways to support our dance for efficient movement. We will consider different models to expand the vision and perceptual experience of our body. The axis syllabus© archive, somatic research and material for the spine will inform the body in weight management both in relation to kinetic energy and contact, in falling and flying. The workshop will consist of moments of solo, bodywork and contact improvisation.
Nica is a dancer, teacher, researcher and performer in the field of Contact Improvisation. She encountered CI many years ago following a contemporary dance training and fell in love with it from the first moment. She has trained mostly abroad and teaches in France, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Russia, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, and Portugal. She collaborates with Tanzfabrick in Berlin, holding intensive contact improvisation workshops and is an organizer of national and international events, including Italycontactfest and Being Touch Festival. She was part of the organizing team for Ecite 2022 Portugal and as a communicator for the CI Global Calendar project. She currently teaches together with Karen Nelson Faking it with gravity, presenting the performance 'Smaller' between Europe, USA, Mexico.
Yiskah is a dancer, teacher, performer and researcher in the field of contemporary movement and somatic languages. She is a practitioner in bio-natural, biodynamic craniosacral, mindfulness and somatic disciplines. She has studied and worked in Italy and abroad and is currently in the certification process in Axis Syllabus, conveying the role AS can play in movement ethics and health as applied to life and body arts. In 2015, he founded the Soma Center in Bologna, a place for research, reflection and action in which to share a conscious attitude to the body, health and life, through practices of presence, dance and bio-natural disciplines. From this context, she gave birth to Salotto Somatico, a training program that meets dance as an ever-living and interdisciplinary research process, implicitly placing somatic practices and AS in research.
SATURDAY 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. with break
Where: LaCadeMia Bologna, via A. Costa 131/2b
Registration by March 9 with down payment of 20 euros.
Choose your contribution: 35 - 60 euros
