body/material is a dramaturgy of dances, where dance is intended primarily as a movement of attention and a technology of ecstasy, done alone, yet together.The work invites the participants to look and treat the body as material, addressing its organic functions and spiritual potential as well as its cultural implications. The nature of the approach is eclectic and sources from “chi” cultivation techniques such as Qi Gong (energy circulation technique) and Pranayama (breathing techniques), spine and limbs patterns explorations (body connectivity, proprioceptive systems) and Contact Improvisation/hands-on work/experiential anatomy (touch and imagination to feel how the body functions). Improvisation, fiction and free movement play are central to access physical states of enhanced consciousness. I use journeys and extended duration to flirt with the notion of ritual and personal/collective transformation, relying on trance and exertion, boredom and contemplation as tactics. The work happens in contained frames that allows for departure, investigation and integration, relies on consent practices, improvisation as mindset, and queer magic as the invisible thread. This laboratory suits anybody who is interested in the body as a site of knowledge, as a problem or a hoax or mystery, as a forest of symbols or simply as a phenomenon to be felt, visually, kinaesthetically and sonically. A certain stamina is required, but no specific skill, therefore is open to any moving body.
Maria F. Scaroni
