ELEMENTARY PROGRAMME - WEEK 2

Contemporary technique class with Marco Torrice

MELTING POT is a dance practice in between performance, pedagogy and participatory dance.

The work is based on individual and collective improvisation scores and aims to be an alternative way of gathering people and to encourage cultural mix. A meeting place for dance challenge and exchange, where dancers from different styles and cultural backgrounds can enter in dialogue, liberate different sorts of energies, such as joy, hunger, sexuality, social frustration... and put their creativity in relation to others, challenging not just their way of moving but also the way we look at dance, the way we profit from it, the way we approach it and share it.

The jam sessions are often accompanied by a Dj set which combines beats from different cultures. The Dj functions as an ‘urban shaman’, to guide the practice towards a sort of ritualistic happening and to lubricate (potentially creating sensations of familiarity or unfamiliarity) and facilitate exchange, connecting different cultures.

MELTING POT consists of a mixed group of professional, non-professional, autodidact dancers and actors, a variable and heterogeneous group of artists, within different back grounds, active mainly between Brussels, Budapest, Rome and San Paolo in Brazil.

MELTING POT is a constant search for a balance between different functions of dance and the possible use of it. The work adapts its shape and focus according to the contexts where it is presented. Often the practice is used as a pedagogical method or is ‘performed’ in recreational contexts such as dance/music festivals and parties or it organises its own events in collaboration with other art/music collectives.

Marco Torrice (IT)

Marco Torrice is a Brussels based performing artist, teacher and choreographer. After high school he began to study Philosophy at La Sapienza University of Rome. At the same time he started to take dance classes and workshops in Italy and all around Europe. In 2006 he moved to Brussels to study at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios, directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) where he graduated in 2010. He worked for different choreographers such as Thomas Hauert, Jerome Bell, for the Hungarian dance company Hodworks, and for the Belgian dance companies Mossoux- Bontè and Rosas. In between a performance, a pedagogical space and a party MELTING POT is dance practice which works as an alternative way of gathering people and encouraging cultural mix. A meeting place for dance challenge and exchange, where dancers from different styles and cultural background can enter in dialogue, liberate different sorts of energies, such as joy, hunger, sexuality, social frustration... and put their creativity in relation to others, challenging not just their way of moving but also the way we look at dance, the way we profit from it, the way we approach it and share it. Besides his work as a dancer and choreographer, Marco also teaches and gives workshops in different dance schools such as the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy, SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) and at Tanzfabrik (Berlin).

Sivananda yoga with Laia Puig Escandell

During this time we will be introduced to Yoga as a holistic practice. The five points of the holistic system are: proper exercise (Asana), proper breathing (Pranayama), proper relaxation (Savasan), proper diet (vegetarian), positive thinking and meditation (Vedanta and Dhyana), although we will mainly work on the first 2-3 points. This first class in the morning will be our moment to prepare for the day in a different way. To unfold and to unblock, first physiologically/anatomically and then into deeper levels of awareness. Identifying our unnecessary patterns and habits, letting go of them, balancing the body, increasing concentration and learning to listen. So that each individual student can be in tune with a deeper intelligence, expanding themselves as artists and humans, sharing it with the community as well as the world. I hope you all enjoy the process of unfolding yourselves. Om Namah Sivaya.

Laia Puig Escandell (ES)

Laia Puig Escandell was introduced to yoga as a parallel practice to her dance career in 1998. However, it wasn’t until she took a Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training in 2008 in South India that her real initiation into Yoga started, with growing passion. Since then, she has been practicing regularly asanas, pranayama and meditation, reading the yogic philosophy/spirituality and trying to understand and apply all that in her daily life, as she continues to take training courses. She learned a lot from joining the Sivananda organization to translate Teachers Trainings or to do service in their Ashrams. She teaches Yoga classes at P.A.R.T.S., Rosas and around Brussels to all levels, and parallel to that she gives Ayurvedic massages and treatments, Yoga retreats and workshops.

Rosas Repertoire - FASE. Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich with Tale Dolven

Fase was made in 1982 and is one of Anne Teresa De Keersmaekers most minimalist pieces. The piece consists of 4 choreographies, all different in movements and approach to structure. The students will learn a part of each choreography, each with a different movement focus; of stepping, arm gestures, swinging and hopping. With various ways of repetition, we will delve into the structure of the piece.

Tale Dolven (NO)

Tale Dolven is a Norwegian dancer living and working in Brussels. She has worked with Rosas and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for 12 years, performing in shows like FASE, Rosas Danst Rosas, Drumming, Zeitung and many others. She has also worked with Fieldworks, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, Doris Uhlich, Kris Verdonck, Benjamin Vandewalle and TG Stan. Tale studied at PARTS and KHIO in Oslo, Norway.