Università Roma Tre

Dramaturgy through the body:
the foundations of performative practices in Ankoku Buto and of vocal techniques in Steinerian Eurhythmia.

The educational and creative path that I would like to propose is open to all interested students, professionals and non-professionals, who want to approach the materiality of the body universe as it was investigated by the latest currents of contemporary dance: the Butoh Dance and the Steinerian Eurhythmia. The possibility of intercepting the physical reality of an invisible space, within the body, in the artistic focus of performing it and projecting it into visible, scenic space, is significantly combined with the attention given to the nature of the human being, awakened in richness and in the harmonious integration of his physical, spiritual and intellectual resources. In both methodologies, one oriental and the other western, observed and practiced in their grammatical elements: defined dance exercises in the first case and vocal and consonant vocalization in the second one, find that precious attitude in the search for new expressive possibilities, new types of feeling. In terms of creative writing, the attempt is to realize a dramaturgy that is above all manifestation, objectified emanation of memories, sensory experiences, perceptual intelligences. The body in all its breadth is the first “domus” to inhabit. In this perspective a substantial part of the meetings will be dedicated to the training phase, redeeming it from being considered merely a gymnastic exercise and relaunching it as a dimension, a field to be moved in its deepest clods, to appropriately acquire an individual and personal body. We can experience perception through the delicacy of breathing and the release of weight. Eastern practices teach us how creative it is to awaken the articular joints of the body structure, taking care of them through breathing in them. The joints are defined as acoustic places, spaces in which the energy enters in its own resonance, where the physical and the spiritual meet each other mysteriously; they are cavities to keep empty for the fluid transit of some mysterious activation to the movement. It is necessary to take root in the body, so that the building is not only strong and elastic in its foundations, but at the same time also poetic and creative. In the condition of listening, refined during the training, precious dance attitudes are sedimented: body states, real thermometers of material and ineffable energy of the person; dance exercises strategically linked to an image. Some of them: the leaf of Lotus, the exchange on a beam, needles, the rainbow, the madness of the exact center, rotting, rusty can, blooming, withering ... As creative tools they suggest attitudes of the human being through equivalences with the phenomenal world. By attending this performative practice, one will be guided in tracing - in itself - the objectivity of an organic mechanism, which is equivalent to saying the reality of one's own nature. In the direct experience of dance, each participant will see his most intuitive creative faculties acting, articulating different body states in a first phase and then relate to precise words and poetic verses chosen to access his inner landscape. The evocative and alogical force of Japanese Haiku is surprising and effective in this sense. These short compositions, considered the highest expression of Zen culture, grasp the emotional perception that one has of reality, to transmit it to a more intimate understanding of the same. The previous performative elements will be joined by some structures of the Steinerian Eurythmy, which train to move harmoniously in the concreteness of given form, in all its directions and in all its volumes. It will highlight the irreducible energy traffic between an internal and personal dimension of presence and its projection in the external space, shared corally. The grammars of language and sound will be introduced in the Steiner methodology: vowels, consonants and their physical aspect. In the continuous sensorial game between an internal dimension and an external one, the first stimulate the flow of vital energy inside the body, the second its molding into sculptures carved in the surrounding space. The introduction of simple vocal and consonantal mantras will more clearly probe the connection between voice emission and body perception. The force of vocalization has been known since ancient times as the Technique of Ephesus and for its importance it was practiced in the temples where the movement was created looking for the point of origin of the voice. An outdoor opening is planned as the final day of the workshop.

Alessandra Cristiani, "Masaki Iwana e la tradizione del Butō Bianco. Metodologia della danza" e "Un’ulteriore riflessione" in "Trasform’azioni - Rassegna internazionale di danza butō. Fotografia di un’esperienza" a cura di Samantha Marenzi, Editoria e Spettacolo, Roma 2010.