A Surprised Body

“Francesco Scavetta proposes a personal approach to contemporary dance, based on release technique and contact improvisation, influenced by his experience as a dancer, choreographer and as well by his practice of Tai Chi Chuan, that links a deep transformation of the body to delicate poetic of movement.

Already the title, “A Surprised Body” defines for me, a metaphorical space – the image of a body in a constantly alerted state, able to surprise itself, escaping from a habitual daily body and from any kind of routine.
Throughout a structured score of proposals, that combines floor work, hands-on exercises, tai chi chuan and movement sequences, the work focuses on centring and gravity; on awakening the internal and external supports, while allowing isolation in the limbs and flow in the movement.
The physical training aims at generating awareness and at creating occasions for discoveries.

Through exercises and games, focusing on attention and reaction, and different tasks for improvisations, we will underline the pathway to an interesting creative moment, which is rooted in mental relaxation and a physical openness: a willingness to play, being totally engaged in what we do and see.

We will explore how dance phrases can be de-structured and transformed treating as a spoken phrase, where movements can be isolated as “words” and used to compose new phrases. The random in the phrases is created by improvisations or composition, trying to use even small parts of movements as “syllables”, to build new movements.

“I believe that in dance, it’s more important to be able to forget, than to remember.”
The research that led to the creation of the Surprised Body Project will ground the workshop. The SBP is a piece that has been developing as an ongoing creative process. Since its première in 2010, it has been successfully presented, in different versions, in 27 countries in: Europe, Asia, Central and South America.

Surprised Body Project trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8ePzo8Ifc

Francesco Scavetta (SE/IT)

Scavetta has developed a reputation on the international dance scene for his wildly inventive work, playful humour and subversive intelligence and his company is at the forefront of the Nordic dance scene. In 1999 he established in Oslo, together with Gry Kipperberg, the dance company Wee and, since then, has produced 22 performances and experienced an extensive international activity, touring in 37 countries -in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North, Central and South America.

Wee’s creations have changed in format and aesthetic, yet they have continuously explored what theatre and performance can mean in contemporary life and what kind of dialogues they can open with the audience. Scavetta’s theatricality has often been associated with the atmosphere of a weird dream or to a playful world of a child: strange, funny, poetic and, at the same time, surprising. The core of the company’s investigation deals with fragility and paradox, epiphany and dream, empathy and surprise, avoiding narrative and physical cliché, while questioning reality and identity with humoristic disbelief. “Wee creates performances that can engage and amaze, can evoke empathy and twist expectations, that can be both poetic and unusual, and that we experience as a challenge first of all for ourselves: that surprises us, as much as it talks to us and about us.”

Born in Italy, Scavetta studied at National Academy of Dance of Rome, graduated in Theatre and Performing Arts and Post-graduated in Sciences of Communication. He is the founder of Vitlycke-Centre for Performing Arts (Sweden).
Scavetta has been giving workshops among others at: P.A.R.T.S./Brussels, IMPULSTANZ/Wien, Henny Jurriëns Foundation/Amsterdam, SEAD/Salzburg Experimental Dance Academy, Greenwich Dance/London and in many dance/theatre festivals in 46 countries around the world.