Modern Ethnic Dance Beginner
increasing our awareness through repetitive movements

The traditional form of the circle will be the base of this class. It invites the students to get in touch with their energies and to connect to all the members of the group. The circle is related to dance being a ritual. Repetitive movements will allow us to highten our awareness pressing us to say the unspeakable and to get to know the unexplainable, simple from the fact of sharing a movement with the group.



Modern Ethnic Dance Intermediate
intensified awareness pressing us to say the unspeakable

Dance is a ritual: a sacred ritual, a social ritual. In the dance we find this double signification which is part of the origin of all human activity. The traditional form of the circle brings the students in contact with the energy of themselves in relation with the other participants. The foot contact with the ground in connection with the vibration of the pelvis and the extensions of arms unlocks the torso making way for repetitive movements. With this repetition dancing intensifies awareness pressing us to say the unspeakable and to get to know the unexplainable, simple from the fact of sharing a movement with the group. From that point on we engage ourselves into an exercise of Instant Time Composition. The process is to allow the body to respond to the music and to intuitively deliver a movement phrase composition. In that perspective we have the chance to meet the sources of what we call inspiration creating a spontaneous choreographic phrase that is not yet settled but has an original character. The repetition of this momentum allows ourselves to dive into a search of body memories making way to a renewal of our personal dance vocabulary.



Modern Expressive Dance Intermediate
technique as a pathway for free imagination

Movement is used for researching the body's anatomical potential to make us understand its form better and thus learn to discover and express its mental and emotional dimensions: dance for a sensitive and intelligent body. This class is inspired by the dance technique of Lester Horton, the mentor of the famous choreographer Alvin Ailey. Respecting the human anatomy, it helps to correct physical weaknesses. It introduces release to the torso and extension to the arms preparing a dancer for any type of dance. In choreographic phrases we will play with time, rhythm and movement quality exercising necessary skills for today's dancers. Special attention will be given to the dancers’ capacity to develop a convincing performing character with emotional skills. Thus technique is understood as a pathway for the creative process and a free imagination.



Modern Expressive Dance Beginner
expressing the mental and emotional dimensions of the body

This class is inspired by the dance technique of Lester Horton, the mentor of the famous choreographer Alvin Ailey. Respecting the human anatomy, it helps to correct physical weaknesses preparing a dancer for any type of dance. By researching the body's anatomical potential we will learn to discover and express its mental and emotional dimensions. Thus we will cultivate dancing with a sensitive and intelligent body.



Movement Flush - Improvisation for Performers
our “personal space” as a movement generator

In this class the performer mainly researches his/her movement capabilities. A performer should be always ready to keep extending his/her range of movement avoiding to become his/her own stereotype. In that perspective a series of techniques will be offered as a warm-up which can be applied in the improvisation mode later in class.

We will focus on a simple tool differentiating between the space within the reach of our body and the more general space surrounding it. The space within our reach, our “personal space” or kinesphere, is like a bubble around us. With the help of a hand-size ball we are able to stretch out into all directions in this bubble while being in its centre. This means if we move to another part of the room our kinesphere will move with us. This tool makes the hands initiate movement with the body rolling on the floor, the ball rolling around the body or throwing it, turning, falling and catching. The ball will be lying lightly in one or two hands, fingers relaxed. This process is supporting movement impulses flushing from sitting, standing and walking. Movements will appear in spirals down and through the body. After a while the performer is requested to let go off the ball, let the body and its memory take over and the mind dig into its fantasy world.



Ismael Ivo
Ismael Ivo, born 1955 in São Paulo/Brazil, was given the Trofeu Pirandello São Paulo, the prize for the best solo dancer already in 1983. A scholarship for Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York followed in 1983/84 before he moved to Berlin where he has been living since. Ismael created numerous solo pieces including "Phoenix" (1985), "Under The Skin" (1986), "Delirium of a childhood" (1989), "Die kreisrunden Ruinen" (1991) and "Apocalypse" (1992). He got internationally wellknown through the choreographies "Francis Bacon" (1993) and "Othello" (1996), both productions directed by the German dance theater choreographer Johann Kresnik. He has cooperated closely with Johann Kresnik and the Japanese choreographer Ushio Amagatsu, who has been the director of the recognised Sankai Juku Ensemble. These different experiences have merged with his Afro-Bazilian roots.
From 1996 to 2000 Ismael Ivo was heading the dance theater company at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar where he choreographed eleven pieces. Particularly in the 1990ies he cooperated with theater directors including George Tabori, for several groupworks. 1999 he started his artistic cooperation with Marcia Haydée. The duets "Tristan und Isolde" (1999) and "M.- wie Callas" (2002) were created as well as choreographies for Ankara, Rio de Janeiro and Vienna. 2006 the production "Die Zofen", created with Koffi Kôkô and Yoshi Oida in 2001 and based on the text of Jean Genet received the Time Out Live Award of London.
Ismael Ivo has been the artistic advisor of ImPulsTanz Workshops since the beginning in 1984 until today. Since 2005 he is also the artistic director of the Biennale di Venezia Settore Danza. 2010 he was awarded the Ordem do Merito Cultural do Brasil, the highest cultural award of Brazil.

Franca Pagliassotto
Franca Pagliassotto is a dancer and choreographer, born in Turin, started her studies at the dance school Ariadne in Turin, with Giulio Cantello and Eva Maxcay. She continued her studies and started a collaboration as dancer with various Italian companies. From 1978 to 1982 she worked for Club Mediterranée as a dancer and choreographer.

Between 1982 and 1984 she perfected her studies of Classical and Modern techniques (Horton Technique) at Alvin Ailey School of New York, with Milton Myers e Max Luna III, in Paris with Peter Gross and in Vienna with Ismael Ivo. In 1984 she opened the Dance School IL GABBIANO in Turin, which she is heading nowadays. In 1989 she founded the Dance Company IL GABBIANO, with which she created: “Luci della città”, “Omaggio a Bob Fosse”, “Wiener Blut”, “Moulin Rouge”, a.o.

In 1998 she started a collaboration with the choreographers Ismael Ivo and Marcia Haydée, working as assistant for the classes of Horton Technique with Ismael Ivo and Yoga Ballet with Marcia Haydée at the International Dance Festival ImPulsTanz. From 2003 to 2004 she assisted the choreographer for the company BTT - Balletto Teatro di Torino as well as since 2005 for the performances created by Ismael Ivo for the International Contemporary Dance Festival of Biennale di Venezia.