Laboratori
a Mercoledì 21 Luglio 2010
‘THE POETICS OF PHRASING IN DANCE IMPROVISATION’
A WORKSHOP ON INSTANT DANCE COMPOSITION TECHNIQUE
WITH
DAFNI STEFANOU
FRIDAY 30TH OF JULY - TUESDAY 3RD OF AUGUST
(FIVE DAYS)
10:00 – 13:00
For further information and bookings please contact:
Dafni Stefanou: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
Workshop fee: 80 euro.
Booking is necessary.
The workshop’s main theme is based on dance composition, emphasizing instant compositional research and practice.
What does instant composition mean as an art form in dance and how does it operate during a performance?
Improvisation is a basic tool - element for the choreographic creation. The ‘traditional’ choreographer spends hours, improvising inside the studio in order to collect and define his/her final movement material. The improvisation - based composer, or company, is equipped with tools and techniques which allow the instantly composed choreographic piece to be born as it is constantly and instantly unravelling moment by moment during the dance.
Themes that will be covered during the workshop:
The silent body
The space in and out of the body
The birth and the death of a movement
Imagination in composition
The poetics of geometry
Time – The Master
Participants may be dancers, actors, musicians, teachers and people who work with improvisation and have experience in movement.
Dafni Stefanou is a graduate of the Rallou Manou Professional School of Dance (1998) and of the State School of Dance (1999). In 2000 she received a scholarship from PARTS and the Flemish Brussels’ government, for the pilot postgraduate program ‘Χ-group project’ (Brussels 2000). She now lives in Athens and works in Athens, Brussels, Maastricht and Corfu. She has studied with Julyen Hamilton, Lily Kiara, David Zambrano, Kurt Koegel and Jeremy Nelson. She has been inspired by their work and their artistic beliefs and considers the work with them influential on her artistic and pedagogic choices.
She has worked as a dancer, performance artist and assistant choreographer in Greece and abroad with several dance, music and visual artists, among others: Angeliki Stelatou, Angeliki Papadatou, Dimitris Papaioannou, Dimitra Lazaridou-Hadzigoga, Esther Klinkers, Elias Tsagkaris, Katerina Papageorgiou, Kosmas Kosmopoulos, Kris Verdonck, Konstandinos Mihos, Lily Kiara, Pak Yan Lau, Sato Endo and Tzeni Argyriou.
Since 1999 she has been making independent dance work for the stage and for the screen.
One part of her work is making instant composition pieces with music and dance, as she is interested in the dialogue between sound and movement, and how these two art forms coexist equally and share a space.
Together with the pianist Μarjolaine Charbin and the dancer Theodosia Stathi she has created the ongoing project: FALLING INTO SILENCE SOUND PROJECT in Brussels (July 2008). The project consists of a series of music - dance performances instantly composed and laboratories open to dancers, actors and musicians. These have taken place so far in Brussels, Maastricht and Athens. During the last three years Dafni Stefanou has worked with the dancer Vasiliki Tsagkari, creating pieces for the independent artistic project INSIDE OUT LAB. Since 2008 she has worked closely with the dancer and poet Julyen Hamilton.
Her recent solo work - in progress – ‘KEEP IN A COOL AND DRY PLACE RUNNING DOWN INSIDE’ was first presented at the opening of the festival AT YOUR OWN RISK at ARM RONDEEL Maastricht in May 2010. The new INSIDE OUT LAB duet with Dafni Stefanou and Vasiliki Tsagkari: ‘WHERE I WAS YOU’VE BEEN, HERE YOU ARE I’M COMING’ was premiered at IN PROGRES festival at Kinitiras studio in Athens, June 2010 and the latest work of FALLING INTO SILENCE SOUND PROJECT: ‘FOUR CURRENTS AND A THREAD’ with Julyen Hamilton & Dafni Stefanou (dance), Marjolaine Charbin (piano) & Guido de Flaviis (reeds), was premiered at ISADORA & RAYMOND DUNCAN CENTER OF DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHIC RESEARCH in Athens, July 2010.
Dafni Stefanou’s teaching work is always connected with her artistic creation in technique, compositional research and analysis.
Her recent research focuses on movement phrasing in improvisation and composition, in analogy and in parallel terms with musical phrasing and the phrasing of spoken and written language in literature and theater.