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CRUZ ISAEL MATA week 1
Cruz Isael Mata was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He started his dance training at the Instituto Superior De Danza Caracas, Venezuela in 1992 and continued his studies at the Central University of Venezuela, where he followed classes in theatre sciences, fine arts, and philosophy. He toured in Latin America as a solist and company member.In 2000 he came to Belgium, where he became a member of the X-Group in P.A.R.T.S., directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.Besides his dance education, he also studied circus techniques at the Ecole Nationale du Cirque – Academie Fratellini, physical therapy, and psychology in Paris.He danced with several dance companies: Espacio Alterno – Venezuela, Tim Feldman – Denmark, Michél Noiret Company – Belgium. He collaborated with artists such as David Zambrano, Roberto Olivan, Nadine Ganase, Virginie Thirion, Josse de Pauw, Maria Clara Villalobos, MeyLing Bisogno, and others.Cruz created the productions „Puzzle“ and „Casa“, which premiered in Paris in 2005.In 2020 he was the artistic director of the short dance film “couch me!”, which won 7 awards for the best experimental film and best director at international film festivals.
He has been giving company training to various dance companies, such as Ultima Vez – Wim Vandekeybus since 2010.
Cruz Mata has been teaching Flying Low, Acrobatic Dance, Release Technique, and Contact Improvisation in Latin America, Europe, and Asia for more than 22 years.
FLYING INTO GRAVITY SKILLS
Flying Into Gravity Skills focuses on developing and maintaining the body´s fluent and weightless movement patterns. Different exercises are exploring the relationship with the floor as well as towards other people, space, gravity, and towards one’s own mindset while experiencing oneself in the present moment. The body is being given the opportunity to activate the relationship between the center and the periphery with the aim of moving more efficient and using the ground as well as the gravity as support.
Cruz explores the principals of recreating movements of daily life and exploring the influences of voice onto the body´s movement. Figuring out what the body has to say in the moments when it doesn’t move and doesn’t produce sound is one of the main approaches, which is being achieved through dynamic dance sequences, partnering work, and diverse techniques including Flying Low and Release Technique.
"Answers are appearing, when we calm down the mind but open the space for the body to talk.”
YONEL CASTILLA SERRANO week 1
Yonel Castilla Serrano, Cuban, bàbáláwó, dancer, choreographer and teacher, trained at the National Dance School of Cuba, at the Provincial Sports School of Havana, he studied Martial Arts. With a vast experience, Serrano, has worked in several companies among them: Danza Teatro Retazos, National Contemporary Company of Cuba, Danza Combinatoria Company, Trash Company, StationZuid, Meekers Uigesproken, United-C. He has also performed in several artistic projects by renowned choreographers such as: André Gingras, Angelika Ui, Sylvain Emard and Marina Nabais, currently she works with choreographer Olga Roriz. His choreographic repertoire includes: "About the size of a piece", "Memórias", "Memorias de um Homem de Pedra", "Illegal", "West Love Story", "Igualdade", "Expediente 174", "Rastro", "Raizes", "Canimal", "Humanitos" and "Golden Puma". As a teacher he worked in the institutions: Teatro Cine de Torres Vedras, ASA, Academia Espaço Dança/ILÚ, Performact, Conservatório de Dança de Coimbra, Academia de Dança de Alcobaça, Escola de Dança do Conservatório de Lisboa, ESCO and in the gyms, Bodies, Sirona Health Club & Spa, Artez, Fontys.
PRISMAS
It is time to remind ourselves of who we are. Of the place we occupy in this infinitely defined universe, full of a thousand colours and one feeling: the feeling of life, the awareness of being here, now, with a unique opportunity to grasp the treasure of the present. Where the ephemeral nature of events leaves us in an embrace with ourselves, where an extremely individual movement leads us to look at the power of the collective, thus transforming Bodies into Hopes and Dancing Lights.
Under this pretext, Prismas is an invitation to step out of our comfort zone through movement, to discover a ‘never-ending’ of new combinations creating a free world of creative feelings, while always respecting our surroundings.
LUCIANA LUSSO ROVETO week 1
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, she began her career as a dancer, director and choreographer, studying dance with Elsa Piperno, Nicoletta Giavotto, Boris Nikish, Lucia Latour, Malou Airaudo, Felix Ruckert, Finola Cronin, Enrico Tedde, Dominique Mercy, Beatrice Libonati, Jim May, oriental choreographic techniques with Tapa Sudana and theatre with Vittorio Gassman, Marisa Fabbri, Dominic de Fazio.
She has worked in theatre with G.Cobelli, A.Zucchi, N.De Tollis, L.Biondi, G.Montaldo, G.Proietti, U.Gregoretti, M.Missiroli, H.Yamanouchi, F.Ricordi, J.Savary, in cinema with F.Fellini (La città delle donne - La nave va), F. Brusati (Il buon soldato), P. Sorrentino (La grande bellezza).
He has worked in television with T. Shermann and I. Leoni.
Choreographer and adaptor of theatre texts, she has worked for the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, for Franco Ricordi at Teatro Ghione.
She has choreographed for fictions, films, shows, operas such as Turandot, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1991), Carmen, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro dell'Acquario, Rome (1992), Schiaccianoci Teatro Brancaccio (1992), Il ballo delle ingrate, directed by I. Nunziata, Spoleto Festival (1993), Romeo and Juliet, directed by F. Ricordi, Teatro Ghione, Rome (1995), Hamlet, directed by F. Ricordi, Teatro Ghione, Rome (2001), I ragazzi del muretto, directed by T. Shermannn (2002), Medico in Famiglia, directed by I. Leoni (2003), Edipo Re, directed by F. ricordi, Teatro stabile dell'Aquila (2004).
In 1981, she founded the Cultural Association D.M.A. Teatrodanza, of which she is the director and choreographer and through which she has directed artistic projects such as "Arte Ecistica" (1999-2008) and "Superdiverso" (2002-2017).
She has participated in the Limassol International Dance Festival (2006) and the Marrakech International Theatre Festival (2006; 2007; 2014;). In 2017, he won migrArti with the project Teatrodanza di Frontiera.
In 2023 she directed 'Kandalama's gift', a show with Aziza Essalek and Paola Sarcina.
She trained as a Gyrotonic trainer with Pietro Gagliardi and Silvia Frosali. Today she is a certified therapeutic trainer.
She has regularly teaches contemporary dance and dance theatre for more than 40 years in various centres and trainings, such as the Actors Academy in Rome.
She is co-creator of Altrefrontiere.
THE BODY, THINKING THOUGHT
Dance Theater Workshop | with final performance
‘The frivolous invention of luxurious and superfluous gadgets is indicative of the domination of necessity in the interests of exploitation. The imagination, freed from the slavery of exploitation, can turn with its strength to the reconstruction of the universe of experience. Society as a piece of art. The form of freedom finds expression in the individual relationships between people, in their language and their silence, in listening to their bodies and their history, in their gestures and their appearance, in their sensitivity, in their love and their dislike.’
H. Marcuse
An exploration into the concept of freedom.
Can we process the ethical way of ‘feeling free’ while all around us in other places in the world some events deprive others of the same experience?
Perhaps not forgetting this can help make us different in content and form in order to change direction, for a society as a piece of art.
With this pretext, Luciana's research proposes tools for exploration and composition, inviting thematic improvisations that are subsequently codified and assembled.
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TIJEN LAWTON week 2
Tijen Lawton is a Turkish / English international dance artist and physical theatre performer based in Belgium. With over 33 years of professional practice, her work unfolds across performing, choreographing, transmitting, mentoring, researching, and co-creating within diverse artistic and academic contexts.
She has collaborated with artists and companies such as Jan Lauwers / Needcompany, Lisaboa Houbrechts, Andrew Graham, laGeste, and Ultima Vez, engaging in creative environments where sustained inquiry, embodied experience, and critical challenge are central to the artistic process. Her practice is rooted in the performer’s capacity to embody, integrate, and transform lived experience as an essential dramaturgical force.
Transmission is inseparable from Tijen’s artistic practice and performative presence. Through rigorous investigation, she challenges the notion of the body as an archive—one that is continually migrating, alive, and fully in action. This living dramaturgy nourishes a constant creative and ancestral body, where memory, sensation, and imagination intersect.
Tijen trained at Arts Educational School London, The Place – London Contemporary Dance School, and The Juilliard School in New York City, forming a practice grounded in technical precision, curiosity, and an ongoing commitment to embodied research.
A DEVIATION OF VELOCITY / The Body as an Open System
In A Deviation of Velocity / The Body as an Open System, Tijen Lawton invites participants to investigates the body as an open, responsive system. Through a rigorous and sensorial movement language, participants engage with resistance, resonance, velocity, and resolution, cultivating a continuous dialogue between awareness and action. The practice supports conscious risk-taking, non-linear change, and the release of habitual physical patterns in order to access a more available, adaptive performing body.
“Fluid, instinctive, grounded, tactile, a conscious risk… all those moments when your body understands something your mind hasn’t yet caught up to and captures something deeply human…are both inherent and challenging.”
This practice-based research investigates the moving body as a site of knowledge production, where perception, cognition, and action are inseparable. When movement is approached as a fully engaged, sensorial–cognitive process, freedom emerges not as an aesthetic goal but as an embodied condition. Knowledge is generated through resonance within the moving–thinking body, allowing for an inquiry into the relationship between micro-level cellular activity and macro-level movement through space.
Drawing from somatic methodologies and contemporary dance practices, the work proposes a continuous dialogue between resistance, resolution, and resonance. Through a dynamic movement language, participants cultivate heightened sensory awareness and explore availability across multiple layers of bodily information—neuromuscular, skeletal, perceptual, and relational. This multi-layered inquiry activates an understanding of the body as a four-dimensional system unfolding over time, space, and attention.
The practice facilitates non-linear processes of change by encouraging states of letting go, openness, and adaptive responsiveness. By engaging with a deeply embedded yet often unarticulated physical morphology, participants are invited to recognise and release habitual patterns of holding and culturally conditioned assumptions about movement efficiency, control, and form.
Central to the research is an ongoing exchange between awareness and action. Movement emerges from attunement to internal and external relationships within the body–mind continuum rather than from pre-determined form. In this merging of perception and action, the notion of conscious risk becomes operative: a sustained practice of falling, yielding, and re-organising that is grounded in embodied understanding and an active cultivation of trust. Trust is not assumed, but continuously negotiated through sensation, decision-making, and relational presence.
RAKESH SUKESH week 2
Born in Kerala, India, Rakesh was introduced to yogic principles and practices early on, setting the stage for his transformative journey. Dance unexpectedly entered his life at the age of 15 when he began as a Bollywood dancer in local productions. In 2003, Rakesh joined Attakkalari India, marking a significant shift in his trajectory. In 2014, he became a certified yoga teacher through the esteemed Shivananda Vedanta Centre, a step that deepened his understanding of movement and holistic well-being.Over the past 14 years, Rakesh has dedicated himself to researching a movement method known as the IntAct-Method. This practical fusion of Kalarippayattu, contemporary movement, and yogic philosophy has gained recognition in reputable institutions worldwide. Rakesh has taken a hands-on approach in creating over thirteen dance pieces, each with its own distinct purpose. Currently, his focus is on developing a solo performance titled "Because I love the diversity (micro attitude we all have it)," scheduled to debut at the Push Festival in 2024. In 2020, Rakesh co-founded and assumed a leadership role at Sanskar, a global performing arts platform. This pragmatic initiative aims to foster growth and collaboration, especially in India and abroad.
TURTLING
Inspired by turtles, who navigate the Earth using its magnetic field and return home with precision, Turtiling teaches participants to cultivate an inner compass. Like turtles, we learn to breathe deeply, protect ourselves through our “shell,” adapt to changing environments, and return to our roots with resilience, longevity, and strength.
Turtiling is grounded in human traits—breath, movement, emotion, thought, intention, and environment—and is designed to guide performers on a journey to depth. It creates a safe space to explore and embrace both strengths and vulnerabilities, helping participants understand the layers of their internal and external worlds. Through reflection, experience, and expressive action, it cultivates awareness, creativity, confidence, and the ability to play with these inner and outer layers. Participants find balance and clarity while developing a unique dance and artistic voice, guided by a tool-based approach that encourages exploration of individual movement identities.
Drawing on yogic philosophies, principles, kalari payatt, and improvisation, Turtiling encourages playful exploration, creative expression, and performing with presence. It nurtures a matured understanding of oneself, fostering grounded, resilient, and deeply expressive performers.
MARIGIA MAGGIPINTO week 2
She began her professional career with the ballet company in the Foundation Niccolo’ Piccinni (J. De Min / Roberto Fascilla). In 1985 participated in the international tour with the dance company of “Danzatori Scalzi” of Rome, takes part in the movie ” Il Giovane Toscanini ” of F. Zeffirelli.
She studied in Rome with Viola Faber, Libby Ney (tecn. Limon) Andre’Peck, Roberta Garrison (tecn. Cunningham), Richard Haisma (Nikolais) Mudra ( Bejart), Matt Mattox (Jazz) e Martha Graham. She participates in the creation of the performance by Giorgio Rossi (Stop Palmizi / Carolin Carlson) at the Festival of Polverigi. She studies the techniques of Jean Cebron (composition / improvisation), Hans Zullig (tecn. Joss) at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen (directed by Pina Bausch).
She danced with Pina Bausch in 14 different choreography and participated in the new creations of the German choreographer: Tanzabend II (’92), Schiff (’93), Trauerspiel(’94), Danzon(’95) and Fensterputzer(’97). Leaving the company in 1999 but later returned as a guest participating in the festival Tanzteather (2000, 2001, 2002).
In the United States participated in the creation of a theatral work with the company Mutation Theater Project, and teached in the faculty of “American Dance Festival” at Duke University (2003, 2004, 2005). She works with Emilia Romagna Teatro (ERT) in the performance directed by Pippo Delbono, “Dopo la Battaglia”, winner of the UBU Prize as the best 2011 Italian theater performance.
Guest teacher at the Dance Academy “Dancehouse” in Milano, Artistic director Susanna Beltrami (2016). She works in collaboration with Pina Bausch Foundation, giving workshops on the occasion of two big expositions dedicated to Pina at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and at the Gropius Bau in Berlin (2015–2016).
She creates a solo in a project/residence sponsored by Circo Vertigo in Turin, by the title “two but not two” (2019).
Her last work, directed by Chiara Frigo, is “Miss Lala al circo Fernando,” a production of Opera Estate Festival Bassano del Grappa and Zebra Culture Zoo (2021).
Creation of the performance “Miss Lala al Circo Fernando,” with the direction of Chiara Frigo and the dramaturgy of Riccardo De Torrebruna, produced by Zebra and XL Anticorpi (2021/2022).
In October/November 2022, she works in collaboration with PBF (Pina Bausch Foundation) and WAAPA (West Australia Academy of Performing Art) in Perth, Australia, for the remounting of a piece, “Tannhauser Bacchanal” of Pina Bausch, with the students of the Academy.
In 2023, she continues performing “Miss Lala al circo Fernando” in various theaters in Italy.
She gives workshops and masterclasses in Italy and Europe.
TANZLAB
Dance Theater Workshop | with final performance
Marigia's creative process begins with exercises designed to stimulate body awareness. Her choreographic research takes shape from questions and themes that are proposed to be answered through improvisation.
The artistic research that characterises Bausch's path is a process that focuses on Becoming rather than merely Feeling, with the aim of generating concrete action rather than acting it out.
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