Workshops - Unplugged Dance

‘Embodying’ weeks

During this year’s program, we adapted the seven-week schedule to include 1:1 mentoring sessions, open discussions, and time and space for personal practice and integration, allowing all information and input to settle, transform, and reveal itself in unique ways for each participant.

Every Thursday will be dedicated to reflection, research, and questioning through personal practice time and horizontal open discussions with the groups and facilitators. This time is not only a pause for individual and collective processing but also an active practice of agency and collective care, where each participant is invited to take responsibility for their own learning and shape their own practice while supporting and being supported by the group.

All of this will organically lead to the last two weeks of the program, when participants will share the space and their time in a horizontally shared-facilitation format, allowing them to digest and integrate all the given input. This could take the form of a creation, a class or workshop, a lecture, a poem, a sharing, notes, or simply allowing things to be digested and embodied—emerging at their own pace—while reflecting, experimenting, or just existing with the group.

PILATES: mindful movement

Each morning for the second and third week, Eliane Roumié guides a Pilates-based practice integrating mindful movement, strength, and body awareness. Through a balance of structured exercises and exploratory movement, this class supports mobility, core stability, and recovery—offering a foundation for the day’s physical practice.

PILATES: mindful movement

In recent years, Eliane Roumié has become deeply involved with the Pilates method, and as an active dancer, she is eager to share the knowledge and experience she has gained in systematic body strengthening with others. In working towards her Pilates teaching certification, she conducted in-depth research and wrote a thesis titled Pilates for Improving Contemporary Dancers’ Technique. Through this research, along with her personal practice, she gained a deeper understanding of the importance of supplementary training in a dancer’s journey.

In her classes, participants have the opportunity to practice the Pilates technique, acquire fundamental theoretical knowledge on the method and body anatomy, and gain insight into the rehabilitation of body areas commonly stressed during dance training and practice. Specifically, in the first hour of each session, participants engage in a comprehensive Pilates Mat class (with or without small props like resistance bands). This segment focuses on exercises that deepen understanding of the body’s movement patterns while strengthening and toning all muscle groups.

Simultaneously, participants work on coordinating physical movement with breathing. In the second part of the class, they explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of key topics relevant to the body, such as effective warm-up techniques, muscle and joint recovery after strain or injury, and stretching methods.

The final session is suggested to be dedicated to practical exercises and discussions, offering each participant the opportunity to ask questions and receive personalized guidance tailored to their individual body.

About Pilates method

The Pilates method is named after its creator, Joseph Hubertus Pilates, a German-born fitness expert who developed the technique in the 1920s as an innovative approach to exercise and body conditioning. Pilates opened his first studio in New York City, located in the same building as the New York City Ballet. As a result, the method quickly gained popularity within the dance community. The Pilates method is based on principles and kinesiology closely related to those of dance and has become one of the most widely recognized forms of exercise today. Its primary goal is to improve the body’s functionality. Primary benefits include building muscle strength, advancing mobility, stability and flexibility, as well as developing a deeper understanding of the body. In a Pilates class, the continuous activation of the abdominal muscles, hip flexors, and gluteal muscles fosters the development of a stronger core. According to Bergeron (2018) and Amorim and Wyon (2014), key improvements that a dancer may observe after incorporating this method into their training include increased muscle strength, greater range of motion, correction of dysfunctional alignments, pelvis stabilization, improved spinal mobility, and clearer overall body movement.

Eliane Roumié is an artist of Greek and Syrian descent, born and raised in Athens. Her dual heritage has deeply influenced her artistic journey, often placing her in a state of “in-between,” where themes of transition and identity are central to her work. A blend of dance and Pilates, her professional practice intertwines artistic expression, body conditioning, and research, fostering a profound respect for the body and its potential for both function and liberation. Her choreographic practice is an evolving exploration, driven by both theoretical research and hands-on experimentation. Key tools include experiential evidence, documentation of the creative process, score-building, and collective feedback—each of which informs and shapes the development of her work.

Bouncing Between Viewing and Sensing

This workshop is structured between the space that unfolds in dancing and its viewing. It seeks the “air-bridges” between these two worlds, between choreography and practices that create dance while meditatively absorbing the feedback of their movement.

How do we reconcile with this gap that unfolds between the sensations when we watch human bodies dance and embodied practices?

How do we reverse the tendencies to cover it by experimenting between the space it leaves and precisely because it exists?

Through paradigms I have visited as a choreographer and workshop facilitator, we will focus on how to bring movement into the foreground in front of our eyes and before any meaning is created. By calming down and releasing any expectations, by allowing the meaning of movement to continue to slip in just as it does when we move, but always by maintaining the tendency for these two worlds to communicate, we will research primal movement initiations by otherwise inviting the various “eyes” of the viewers. By unlocking synesthetic and kinesthetic channels of communication we question how the viewers and we can witness movement processes and gently touch the aesthetic forms that are created.

Practices that humans have trusted and maintained over the years, relations that unite the different parts of our body, and ways in which we perceive our sensory body- as part of this world, are some of the ways in which we are proposed to observe the new intelligences that emerge and thus create “meaning”.

On an experimental level – that does not formulate choreographic pathways that have bridged the gap between “seeing and feeling”- , here I share some efforts that highlight that the empty space between the two worlds is necessary and dynamically present, with many times these two realms even being strongly contradictory to each other. But so I suggest that they allow for movement and continue to vastly recharge magic; they continue to recharge the multiple truths that exist between the visible and
invisible and their healthy coexistence. As well as the Bodies that with care, respect and with curiosity explore and contemplate movement.

Androniki Marathaki (GR) is a choreographer, performer and dance teacher. For the last three years, under the title “Let’s be comfortable in our own skin” she has been developing a dance improvisation practice that cultivates the relationship between sensory stimuli and movement.

Captured Body

Captured Body workshop invites participants to engage in collective and critical choreographic research on the concept of the Captured Body. Rooted in colonial practices of control—biometrics, occupation but also dance notations—the image of the captured body reemerges in contemporary systems of digital regulation such as surveillance, logistics, and social media. Together, we will explore how these systems shape our understanding of the body and its movement.

Building on Andre Lepecki’s expanded notion of choreography as a “technique designed to capture actions,” we will examine choreography as a medium that abstracts movement into data. This perspective allows us to interrogate the tension between body parts that are captured, tracked, or disciplined by external systems, and those that escape such control. Dance will be approached not just as an art form, but as a critical and creative practice that can reveal and resist mechanisms of capture.

The workshop creates a space for artistic and critical interaction with various systems designed to capture or track the body. We will explore an alternative history of choreography as an expanded practice—a method of sensing, tracking, and recording movement. Participants will delve into traditions of movement notation in dance, labour efficiency manuals, biometrics, and surveillance technologies to uncover what these systems are tuned to detect—and what they are designed to miss.

Through embodied practice, we will investigate how scores, systems, and notations shape, constrain, or direct movement, while also revealing embedded power dynamics. By engaging with movement notation systems, rehearsing or re-enacting scores, and creating personal methods of notation, participants will discover how practices of embodiment can highlight the forces acting on their bodies.

Finally, the workshop will ask how these systems of body capture can inform personal choreographic creativity. How can we decipher, reinterpret, and reimagine notational methods to create our own approaches to tracking and documenting movement? Together, we will explore the ways choreography can serve as a tool for both critical reflection and a practice of creative resistance.

Daria Iuriichuk (she/her) is a dance artist based in Berlin. In her works informed by visual and performance studies, she explores political dimensions of performativity, labour politics in arts and body politics within the various economic regimes.

The Nature Within us

Connecting movement, healing, and creativity through the five elements theory.

This workshop invites participants to explore the moving body through the integration of dance and Shiatsu (Japanese pressure-point bodywork), promoting the natural flow of energy and uncovering new creative pathways. By engaging with the healing principles of Shiatsu and improvisational practices inspired by the Five Elements Theory—Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire—we will awaken our dancing bodies and expand our creative potential.

In Eastern philosophy, the flow of energy, or qi, is fundamental to maintaining balance and health. This energy travels through pathways called meridians, each associated with one of the five elements. These elements reflect qualities we encounter in daily life: for example, our need for warmth and connection relates to the fire element, symbolizing compassion and vitality.

Participants will learn to locate and explore the meridians physically, practicing self-bodywork and partnering techniques rooted in Shiatsu to balance energy. Building on this, we will use improvisational tasks and imagery to embody the qualities of each element—grounding, fluidity, adaptability, compassion, and more—transforming this awareness into movement. This practice not only fosters physical and emotional harmony but also serves as a foundation for discovering choreographic ideas, individually and collaboratively.

Through these explorations, dancers will deepen their understanding of how energy and movement intertwine. They will gain tools to access balance, creativity, and inspiration within their own bodies, connecting their physical and emotional selves to their artistic practice.

Ori’s teaching emphasizes dialogue, encouraging dancers to connect personally with the material and find their unique voices. Using humor and vivid imagery, he creates a supportive environment where participants can explore, experiment, and discover freely.

Ori Flomin is a NYC-based dance artist, shiatsu and yoga practitioner.

Embodied Voice Flow

Embodied Voice Flow is a vocal-physical process that invites you to rediscover an intimate relationship with your original voice and its sensitivity. Each session opens a space to connect with the joy of creating music with breath, voice, mouth, body and with the innate instinct for expression through sound. Core somatic practices include Deep Listening, experiential anatomy of the breathing/vocal body, embodied vocality, pulsing/tuning and Collaborative Vocal Improvisation. We combine these practices to create different forms of vocal improvisation whilst grounding within presence and awareness, expressing our vital creativity through sound and movement, and listening with the whole body at the same time we start to cultivate the art of living in the present moment.

The workshop is open to artists, movers, sounders, and anyone who feels called to reconnect with their expressive voice and the body’s intelligence through gentle and playful somatic practices.

Alessio Castellacci (ΙΤ) is a vocal dancer, teacher, sound composer, coach/therapist.

Voice Somatics

Voice Somatics shares a somatic approach to voice as a deeply physical, expressive, and connective practice. In the workshop, participants explore the interplay between voice, perhaps even spoken word, and movement — to connect with their bodies as instruments that can be finely tuned at the intersection between sound and movement. This approach invites participants to discover the body as the source of voice, the voice as an extension of movement, and the spoken word as a bridge between inner sensations and external expression.

Participants embark on an embodied journey from Feldenkrais into the dynamic nature of vocal expression — discovering how sound and movement arise together, shaping and amplifying one another. Through guided explorations, they uncover how voice resonates in the body, and how spoken word emerges naturally from physical impulses and emotional landscapes. Voice and movement are deeply interconnected; every sound made stems from breath, vibration, and motion. By engaging with this connection, participants learn to navigate the balance between control and release — letting go of unnecessary tension while embracing the raw, authentic textures of their voices. Spoken word becomes a somatic dialogue, linking inner experience to outer communication. Through movement, breath, and vocal techniques, participants can unlock new possibilities for sound-making, physical presence, and using words as a physical playground. The workshop fosters awareness of how voice, movement, and words combine to create rich, multidimensional expressions of self, both as individuals and in connection with others.

Antoinette Helbing (she/her) is a German dance artist, Feldenkrais® practitioner and member of the artist-run platform Dance CooperativE in Copenhagen (DK).

The Feldenkrais Method® was developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984) as a gentle and intricate embodied educational process concerned with self-awareness and improved capacity. It uses movement, sensation and reflective experience as coherent learning modes to support the ability to interact with the world in new ways with comfort, ease and curiosity. As a somatic movement practice it expands the ability to rediscover and retune. The method invites to slow down and to listen and to playfully explore the world of internal sensation. Supporting the nervous system to form new pathways beyond its habitual capacities. The Feldenkrais Method® is taught in ‘Awareness Through Movement’® group lessons, guided through verbal instruction, and one-to-one touch-based ‘Functional Integration’® lessons as dialogues between learner and practitioner.

Sculpting Body-Images

During this morning class, we will awaken the body through experimentation and game-like movement situations. We will focus on the moving body and work both alone as well as in groups, in order to test our bodily structure, gain resilience and agility, while having fun and reconnecting with the child within.

We will observe, embody and exchange knowledge through physical contact, while stimulating our nervous system, developing our motor skills and improving our coordination, rhythm and elastic footwork skills.

It is a practice that creates a safe, family-like learning space, where the participants are guided to support and motivate each other· freed from prerequisites of age, backgrounds and disciplines, all stories matter: they nourish our interaction with others and our connection with ourselves.

Sculpting Body-Images is a movement workshop of intense physicality, shaped to challenge the known bodily patternsof each practitioner and to bring awareness to the conscious act of seeing and perceiving the body in relation to interchangeable elements. Whether in real life or on stage, whether through the bare eye or through the lens of the camera, our body is a dynamic instrument in constant transformation. However, in order to sculpt the form, we need to play and provoke its limits.

Through the use of spatial, temporal and physical constraints, as well as game-like situations inspired by Fighting Monkey Practice (founded by Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek) we will engage into constant movement and test our bodily structure.

Within a safe-learning space and based upon each participant’s personal physical abilities, we will focus on stimulating the nervous system, increasing stamina and developing motor skills that improve agility through coordination, rhythm and elastic footwork skills.

Sculpting Body-Images is about approaching the body from a 360° view and consciously choosing the perspective we want to present, based upon what we want to communicate with the world.

All stories matter: they nourish our interaction with others and our connection with ourselves.

This physical practice invites the participants to keep the body in the center of attention and explore movement tasks through improvisation, collaboration and integration of various tools.

Penelope Morout (GR) is an interdisciplinary dance artist interested in creating hybrid projects through the fusion of various mediums.

11 – 18 AUGUST 2024 | The Body The Player The Journey

The Body The Player The Journey set the ground for the interplay of people, moving what pulses within and between each other, an invitation to co-create with every single (multiple) participant a space for potential, inspiration, exchange, and support.

The Body The Player The Journey stimulates practitioners to dance their authenticity—an invitation to modulate the dancing through mechanisms of perception, approximating each individual to their personal and collective landscapes. Charting the multidimensional anatomy of desires and tuning to its particularities, we cultivate an authorial, negotiable, collective, and physically sustainable process.

The Body The Player The Journey is dedicated to movement practices that access and expand a repertoire of senses linked to cognitive, subjective, and imagetic layers in each individual’s learning process.

The exploration of movement begins by delving into the sources of our living body and its intricate interrelational systems (at this moment, expect lots of images!). Within this dynamic sensorimotor network, we orchestrate the body and its relationships by scanning information from inner and outer connections, accessing the available resources to play with from personal bodily experiences.

The work focuses on the body’s mobility from the perspective of biotensegrity, aiming to expand awareness of the body as an integrated living ancestor network. Through mediums such as improvisation, scores, games, and procedures rooted in the fields of perception, people will be exposed to and experience the following principles:

(1) sensitive & systemic mapping of the body, (2) gravity & body axis, (3) distribution of tension & modulations of tone, (4) the folds of the body, (5) the fabulous universe of spirals, (6) multidimensionality, (7) asymmetry, (8) body pulsations.

Decoding the body’s geography by hacking information from the present, the individuals, and the contextual space around us – we witness, hold space, and charge a large spectrum of shape-shifting sensations within ever-evolving decision-making instances.

What to Expect

• An immersive playground of movement exploration

• Investigation of the term interconnection in extended layers

• Expanding & deepening sensory awareness

• References, anatomical images, texts, and tactile experiences

• Co-creating a space for inspiration, exchange, and support

• A playful yet profound journey through movement and the environment

• Opening many doors to revisit our bias and interact with different perspectives

• Exploring potentials, desires, questions while creating new memories

Rafaela Sahyoun (BR) is a Latin American from São Paulo, working in the field of arts as a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She spirals through these roles within the ever-evolving landscape of performative practices, community, and context.

All Unplugged Dance workshops are open to everyone who wants to meet, share, dance and self-explore through movement and creative process. There is no need for previous experience in dance classes, although if there is one, it is welcome.

“The Body The Player The Journey” workshop shares the week with “espaciopropio.augenblick” workshop

BOOK YOUR SPOT

Incognito Body

Workshop Laboratory for Body Exploration and Creative Practices on Improvisation departing from practices of espaciopropio.augenblick, towards a skeleton dance.

In this workshop, we propose a creative laboratory inviting you to dive through possible cartographies of the body-space where we can reveal misty potentialities that are born and move us beyond the margins of the usual.

The meetings begin with practices of espaciopropio.augenblick, with the purpose of bringing our attention to the body-space, and ways of aligning ourselves in contact with our submerged geology: the bones that support us and their multiple deep interconnections.

We will propose concrete experiences of exploration and improvisation based on possible maps that offer a certain orientation for listening, wandering, and being in subtle contact with the question of how the unknown can be embodied, as a stranger, becoming other, fully entering into creative processes where the body and what happens between bodies becomes an access to the terra incognita that we are.

As sensitive explorers, we will navigate through the creative experience, opening ourselves to singular and shared territories where questioning is never exhausted, where our changing perception is always at play, and where the use of improvisation as a resource and procedure unfolds multiple spaces and lets go of the moving imagination to weave common worlds.

From the unknown body to the world as an unknown.

Explore, re_map, investigate without conquering, enter into terrains for elusive experiences, follow the flows, slopes, and channels of movement, smell and intuit, rest in the shadow, approach what is revealed, blur the edges, and immerse ourselves in the worlds that dance as an original practice to recognize ourselves.

Carlos Osatinsky & Fernando Nicolás Pelliccioli are contemporary dancers, performers, choreographers, explorers and facilitators of movement.

They have been developing a long research into movement as a way of developing processes in life and artistic practice for more than 20 years. They are guided by their interest in the reflexive interrelation between body and environment. In their work, they investigate and combine practices based on the principles of Klein Technique and Alexander Technique with their own search to address integral creation and learning processes. They offer a praxis that transcends the specificity of the scene towards a full and transformative inhabitation of the body in everyday life.