Poetics of Movement

A basic dance phrase, built on working on curves of energy crossing the body is presented as a “key phrase”. Then, with several different tasks in the improvisations, the same phrase is going to be transformed. We will focus on the different ways to first appropriate the phrase in a personal way and then transform it in relation with space and time. The movement phrase will also be treated as a spoken phrase, where the movements can be isolated as “words” and used to compose new phrases. The random in the phrase is created by improvisations or composition, trying to use even small parts of movements of the original phrase as “syllables”, to build new movements.

Francesco Scavetta propose a personal approach to contemporary dance, based on Release technique and Contact Improvisation, influenced by his experience as a dancer and choreographer as well as by his practice of Tai Chi Chuan, that links a deep transformation of the body to delicate "poetics of movement".


A Surprised Body

Already as a title, “a surprised body” defines for me, a metaphorical space. The image of a body in a constant alert state, able to surprise itself, escaping from a habitual daily body and from any kind of routine. A body more focused on reacting, than on acting. The reaction forces us to avoid mental approaches.

This physical training aims at awakening our awareness and sensitivity and at creating occasions for discoveries. The class concentrates on centring and gravity. The goals are to let the movement pass freely and activating the centre as an engine of the movement. By harmonising the movement with our breathing, we will, more easily, release contractions in the joints and in the limbs, allowing the sense of gravity to be a constant part of our awareness.

Finding antagonists to our movement, we will work on emphasising the suspension in the fall or the extension in the reaching, to increase the transformations of the central body and the shifts in the dynamics.
Slowness and acceleration will be tools to test the continuity of movement. By removing the unnecessarily tensions, our focus will be on the fluidity of the journey, with suspensions and changes of rhythm, but without fragmentation or additions.
Through exercises and games, focussing on attention and reaction, we will underline the pathway to an interesting creative moment, which is rooted in mental relaxation and a physical openness: a willingness to play, being totally engaged in what we do and see.


Francesco Scavetta
Choreographer, and dancer, Francesco Scavetta leads, together with Gry Kipperberg, the dance company Wee, that, established in Oslo in 1999, has become one of the leading companies of the Norwegian scene. In the last years, Wee has been touring in more than 30 countries in Europe, South and North America and Asia.

Scavetta’s theatricality has often been associated with the atmosphere of a weird dream or a playful world of a child: strange, funny, poetic and, at the same time, surprising. The created performances change in format and aesthetics. To the delicate memories of "Daddy always wanted me to grow a pair of wings" (1998), that looked like an old black and white movie found in the loft, we contra-posed the complex use of technology of performances like "Live*" (2002), co-produced by the Biennale of Venice and the unconventional dramaturgical structure of the latest projects. The core of the research has always been to deal with fragility and paradox, epiphany and dream, empathy and surprise, avoiding narrative and physical cliché, questioning reality and identity with humoristic disbelief.

Born in Salerno/Italy, Francesco studied at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, graduated in Theatre and Performing Arts at University La Sapienza/Rome and Post-graduated in Sciences of Communication.
Scavetta proposes a personal approach to contemporary dance, based on release-technique and contact-improvisation, influenced by his practice of Tai Chi Chuan that links a deep transformation of the body to a delicate poetic way of movement.

Scavetta has been giving classes and workshops, at a.o.: P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), MTD (Amsterdam), SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Dance Academy), Anton Bruckner Private University (Linz), Henny Jurriëns Foundation (Amsterdam) and in many dance/theatre festivals around the world.
The teaching project "A surprised body" started in the 2005, in Norway, and continued, throughout 2006-2012, with workshops in: Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Cuba, France, Colombia, Venezuela, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Argentina, Uruguay, UK, Holland, Republic of San Marino, Austria, Finland, India, Belgium, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Ukraine, Spain, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan

"I am, personally, getting more and more interested in the process of learning, the different ways of articulating the transmission of information as an experience. How, as a pedagogue, can I be able to reach each individual, present in a class, in a personal way? My aim is to direct the attention of everyone to the approach of the learning process."