Monkey is totally fascinated by the realm of the senses; It swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let idea go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the centre, watching. And forget you are there. - Hua Hu Ching
Rootlessroot is restarting a cycle of workshops dedicated to "Fighting Monkey". This year they will deepen up the dragon’s pool (a symbol for the importance of development and cultivation of our self in the midst of the world) and will lead the training to what they call playing with the dragon’s pearl. They will invite participants to sculpture their own pearl out of wood. Incorporating this self made object into more complex and challenging physical and mental training. Adding new colour to irregular partnering. Fighting Monkey is a form of Emptying and Listening and has been developed by Jozef Frucek and Linda Kapetanea to cultivate and stimulate the body in the midst of the world. Using difficulty and danger to develop strength, adaptability and test again what is possible in partnering. We will crash ourselves into joy oriented fighting and dancing to rediscover our forgotten mental and physical potentials. We will use one or several partners to create surprising, complex and unusual movement situations where we will activate a firing process that wakes up our primitive/intuitive body, our form without a form. Through martial arts applications we will try to enrich our movement material and create deeper understanding of: How to meet more effectively and adaptively the forces, which are acting on us and how we can avoid or absorb them, while being functionally open. How we receive, carry and manipulate others in high-speed as well as in slow motion. How we go along danger and difficulty still being able to cultivate our inner strength and stability. And ultimately, how to foresee events before they happen. Important: you will need shoes and knee protection! Linda Kapetanea graduated from the Greek State School of Dance in Athens. With a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation, she later studied at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Movement Research and Dance Space, New York. After she co-operated with several companies in Greece and abroad. In 2002, she was awarded by the Greek Ministry of Culture as "the best performer" of the season 2002/03. Jozef Frucek graduated from the Music and Drama Arts Academy of Bratislava, where he also completed his PhD. Since 1996 he is an independent artist and dancer performing in solo and group projects. His creations and teaching are influenced in parts by martial arts, that he actively practices. Between 2002 and 2005 he performed with Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus (Blush, Blush Movie, Sonic Boom, Puur, Here After Movie). In 2006 he founded the company RootlessRoot together with Linda Kapetanea and created performances: "Sudden Showers of Silence", "Holdin' Fast", "Burned Tree Visiting Athens before Next Summer", "100 Wounded Tears", "UNA unknown negative activity", "Drawing A Tiger Like A Dog", "Body Teller" and "Making of a Young Girl", "Giving Birth To Thousand Years of Sorrow" and most recently "Eyes In The Colours Of The Rain". They are frequently invited to teach at KVS Brussels, Ritz Academy Brussels, Jette Dance Studio Brussels SEAD-Salzburg, Budapest State Dance School, DOT 504 Prague, ImPulsTanz Vienna, Dansa Deltebre, Dies De Dansa Barcelona, AMDA University Bratislava, Art Station Poznan, Le Lido De Toulous, Flik Torino. They are on faculty of the Greek State School of Dance in Athens. www.rootlessroot.com
