SMASH#9/10 Morning Training
body/material
Maria F. Scaroni

The body work I facilitate invites the participants to look and treat the body as material, addressing its organic functions and spiritual potential as well as its cultural implications. The nature of the approach is eclectic and sources from ‘chi’ cultivation techniques such as Qi Gong and Pranayama (breathing techniques), spine and limbs patterns explorations (body connectivity, proprioceptive systems), hands-on work (experimental body-alchemy teaching from Sara Shelton Mann) and elements of improvisation to transmute through different states. I use journeys and extended duration (either literal trance exercises drawn from dynamic meditation practices or shamanic journeys using visualization and movement) to flirt with the notion of ritual and personal/collective transformation, relying on trance and exertion, boredom and contemplation as tactics. The goal is to come to an understanding or to a state of questioning of the body’s borders, acknowledging it as multiple and idiosyncratic: codified, yet desirous of ecstasy and play, and seeking grounding and tenderness.

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From Italian TV dance productions to release-based and post-modern dance techniques, from contact improvisation to literature studies and theoretical engagement, Maria F. Scaroni is moving through the complex network of learning and making dances since 1996. Scaroni’s works focus on the process of collaboration, play with durational experiences and are featured by a crossbreeding between performance, choreography and installation. Mostly in Berlin she created works with Jess Curtis, Jeremy Wade, Vania Rovisco (AADK), Frank Willens and Wilhelm Groener and since 2012 is creating and touring with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods (Built to Last, Sketches/ Notebook, Until Our Hearts Stop) and interpreting Tino Sehgal’s museum works. Maria teaches in Berlin's University HZT and is actively involved in developing other independent training programs (P.O.R.C.H. and Smash) where she is forging techniques focusing on the body as material. She holds a Masters degree in Italian Modern Literature, with a thesis on education and dance.

website
www.mariafscaroni.wordpress.com/workshops


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photos:
Marko Gutic Mižimakov
Micheal Rowsome