Arrival day: Friday the 22nd of July during the afternoon
(Dinner together)
23/24/25/26 Classes
27th: "day off" (River Trip, Visit Anghiari Town, Resting, self practice)
28/29/30/31 Classes
Departure Day: Monday the 1st of August
(after lunch)
Classes:
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Early morning class: Mindful concentration / Back to Spring Qi Gong
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1st Morning class: Five Animals Qi Gong
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2nd Morning class: Axis Syllabus / AS into Choreographic proposals
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Afternoon Class: Improvisation / Instant Composition / Contact Improvisation
Mindful concentration
with Filippo Serra
While putting the body in motion can be difficult, calming the mind is even a more complicated life task. Once the “crazy monkey”, as the Daoists call the agitated mind, is tamed and we are able to experience the “here and now”, the connection with the body will increase, allowing us to reach deeper states of mindful motion. Besides that, meditating can bring incredible improvements in the management and observation of our thoughts and emotions. Inspired by Taoist and Buddhist tradition we will learn the fundamentals of sitting and walking meditation technique.
Formal and informal structures will be used, using breath, body sensations, and movement to experience the “power of now” and the calmness of the mind.
Some scientific perspectives about meditation will be given too. Just breath and you'll be one
Back To Spring Qi Gong
with Filippo Serra
During the first week, we have learned the basic mental aspect of meditation, in this second one we will bring the study further, starting to work standing, with a primary focus on postural alignment and breath-movement connection. I'll teach a sequence of alternating static and dynamic postures that, from my experience, can bring to an extremely deep concentration and body-mind connection. This form of Qi Gong has the aim to balance and revitalize us, through releasing physical and mental habits, fill the body with awareness, and, due to Chinese medicine theory, collecting energy. Session by session I will add pieces of the sequence with the idea of making students independent to practice it alone once back in their daily life.
Five Animals Qi Gong
with Filippo Serra
During my studies in Germany and China, I’ve learned some forms of Dynamic Qigong used as fundamentals in internal martial arts from Wudang.
The Five Animals Qi Gong represent brilliant wisdom of the mechanics of the body on many different layers of understanding.
Every animal develops a specific quality of the body on a combative level (Self-Defense), physical level (Health), and mental level (Self-Development), this is the main aim of every martial Daoist practice.
We will explore the basics of every animal (Tortoise, Crane, Dragon, Snake & Tiger). This grouping of forms is a life long study and it’s derived from some of the most powerful and treasured creatures in traditional Chinese culture. The Five Animal work is connected with the theory of five elements/organs/emotions and traditional Chinese medicine too.
Axis Syllabus
with Filippo, Maria and Anne-Cécile
The Axis Syllabus is a constantly evolving reference system or lexicon for the organization and cross-correlation of empirical and scientific findings from the study of human movement. This includes anatomical details, physics, practical applications, research, analysis, and transmission.
Our aspiration is to provide the most relevant, up-to-date information in a neutral format, hopefully allowing the individual to apply this information to their own cultural or aesthetic context.
In an Axis Syllabus class or workshop, the information becomes meaningful through countless approaches to physical inquiry and integration. The intention is to understand and collaborate with the human structure inherited through thousands of years of evolution.
Understanding and deploying these resources while adapting to changing limitations, we can contextualize our activities and creativity in a responsible manner, by cross-checking our aesthetic choices with physiological realities to make sure they respect acceptable safety parameters.
A fundamental aspect of this approach is to encourage informed self-monitoring and individualized applications, in the full recognition that although we share a similar body-plan, each has different proportions and tone, and these values alter the equations we must formulate to solve the problems of moving. Understanding and respecting the properties of the body's structure we can evaluate our choices for efficiency and functionality.
« Be herd or not to be herd »
Co-creativity / Axis Syllabus / Choreographic proposals
with Anne-Cécile Chane-Tune
For the first 4 days of the Axis Syllabus classes, Anne-Cécile will be the facilitator, integrating the fundamental pillars of the Axis Syllabus with the lens choreographic proposals.
« Our intention is to evolve around the theme of Landscape. We will reflect on “Nature” as firstly the outer landscape (environment surrounding us) and secondly the inner landscape (what we are made out of). We will play wholeheartedly with changing perspectives and connect ourselves with the joy of moving, expressing and creating… with the wish of being ourselves and the beauty of togetherness.
Exploring the knowledge of the human body in movement, we’ll confront creative ideas with body, mind and spirit within a moving, collective, reflectivity.
It is an opportunity to share our singular ideas, to exchange and move through a co-elaboration with new creative partners »
Improvisation / Instant Composition
with Maria Mora Alcolea and Live music by Guillem Rodri
Improvisation is the ability to open the attention to instant dialogues between the environment, the creative interest of the dancer, and the current dance. In the process of improvisation, we will develop skills for listening, decision making, opening, and the acceptance of what happens. Improvising is like surfing the creative process that is born and is developing instantly. It is the exercise of observing and nourishing the body while dancing.
During these classes, we will work on tools to search and discover our dance material, tools for its transformation, and for participating in the color of its life in space/time. We will work to reach an available and perceptual body to go through our compositional process and be very participants in the dance that is being created at the moment. I propose a trip to discover the characteristics of our dance and to go deeper into looking for precision, perception, engagement, silence, presence, maybe absence, gesture, and content.
With these tools, we will construct our solo and group dance, while the group itself will support the common work respecting the individual choices.
We will also address some Contact Improvisation tools inspired by the observation and exploration of Fascia.
Fascia is in constant movement and continuous dance of tension and release that never stops and affects the globality of the body. We will practice sensing our deep tissue, its subtlety, subjectivity, globality, and continuity.
In these days of improvisation, we will enjoy the live music of the artist Guillem Rodri who will compose instantly the sound of our dances. We treat music as another dancer, another body that modifies, designs, builds, and dialogues the scene together.
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