Simonetta is an Italian dance artist and a somatic educator based in London. She applies the Feldenkrais Method to dance and movement training and to performance-making. She teaches Contact Improvisation, Improvisation, Choreography and Contemporary Technique at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London Contemporary Dance School, at Goldsmiths University and in other Universities in UK. She teaches internationally and has been a guest teacher in Germany, Colombia, UK, Norway, Israel, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Taiwan. Her work is informed by more than 30 years of dancing, teaching and choreographing. As a choreographer, she has created pieces for dance companies, students, large scale opera, improvised performance and site-specific works. She has also done movement direction for theatre. She taught for more than 20 years in Italy and kept Contact Improvisation alive in Roma for 10 years with her classes and jams. She was one of the few dance practitioners in Italy who began working with Contact Improvisation in the 90’s. She obtained the Post Graduate Diploma at London Contemporary Dance School, she is a qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method and she holds the Teacher Certificate of the Royal Academy of Dance. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is one of the founders of CI@Goldsmiths, association of dance artists dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Contact Improvisation in London and UK.
Somatic into Contact Improvisation - Intensive
Sensing into the emerging of new dancing – (Feldenkrais & Contact Improvisation)
I’m interested in sharing my ongoing research into the influence of the Feldenkrais
Method on the practice of Contact Improvisation, focusing on aspects such as ease, balance, instability, gravity, confidence, freedom, creativity and ownership
With the Feldenkrais Method, we direct our attention to internal sensations, without judgment. Acknowledging the intelligence of the body and curious about new possibilities, we identify habits and clarify choices to promote efficiency, freedom and a sense of ease that involve our whole selves. This specific way of tuning in to what we are experiencing brings us to the present moment, finding a felt sense of self that aims to relate to the environment and to others. Working with a partner further enhances this process; while engaging with touch and weight, we will find more sophistication in sensing, reading and communicating with our partner.
We will also experiment with specific movement patterns from Feldenkrais to underpin principles of Contact Improvisation, specifically: counterbalance, falling in spirals, centre to centre connection, catching and flying. We will question our habits and habitual patterns in Contact Improvisation. This can emerge because of being fully in the present moment, or due to the re-patterned movement which normally happens with Feldenkrais.
The sense of ease and efficiency, nourished by curiosity, will enable us to see Contact vocabulary from another perspective, one that will bring more enjoyment, rejuvenation and authenticity to the emerging of new dancing.