Mariella Celia
Mariella Celia is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and movement pedagogue. She is a certified somatic movement educator in Body-Mind Centering®, an independent researcher, and a Thai Yoga therapist. Her research focuses on practices of awareness and expression that explore the interplay between body, mind, and environment, developing an approach in which artistic creation, pedagogy, and care are deeply interconnected and mutually enriching.
She graduated in Contemporary Dance from the National Academy of Dance in Rome and further developed her practice through contemporary dance, improvisation, and somatic approaches in various European contexts. She also holds a Master’s degree in Arts Therapies from Roma Tre University and a Mindfulness Educator certification. Her training integrates movement research with the study of perception, embodiment, and somatic practices, which form the foundation of both her artistic and pedagogical work.
Between 2008 and 2011, she lived and worked in Berlin, creating site-specific performances in collaboration with art galleries and developing improvisational projects combining dance and live music. Since 2013, she has been active as a dancer and performer, collaborating with internationally renowned artists and companies, including Emma Dante, Raffaella Giordano, Giorgio Rossi, Mario Martone, and Ismael Ivo.
From 2013 to 2023, she was an associated artist with Sosta Palmizi. Alongside her work as a
performer, she has developed her own choreographic practice, creating works such as Cielo di marzo for the Ballet Company of the Rome Opera House, Sleep Elevation, and Bisbigliata
Creatura, winner of the 2019 InDivenire Award for Dance. In 2022 and 2023, she also created the choreographies Cell and Click for the Campania Arts High Schools Dance Company.
She has collaborated as assistant to Giorgio Rossi on several international projects and works as a movement director for theatre productions, supporting directors including Martina Badiluzzi (The Making of Anastasia, Biennale Teatro 2019), Giovanni Ortoleva, and Fabiana Iacozzilli in productions for the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio d’Amico”.
Since 2022, she has been engaged in an ongoing artistic collaboration with sound artist Ivan
Macera, developing projects that bring together choreographic practices and sound installations.
Teaching has been a central dimension of her professional practice for the past 23 years. She currently teaches dance at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio d’Amico” in Rome and in the Master’s Program in Theatre, Pedagogy and Didactics at Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples.
Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®) is a somatic approach developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen that explores the relationship between body, mind, and environment through movement, touch, and perception. Rooted in experiential anatomy, it invites a direct exploration of the body’s systems and developmental processes as they shape movement, learning, and human interaction. By integrating sensation, imagination, and action, BMC® expands embodied awareness, enriches expressive possibilities, and supports a deeper understanding of lived experience.
Title of the workshop:
FROM BMC® TO PHYSICAL THEATRE (first pare)
The Skeletal System: embodying Form, articulating presence How does the architecture of our bones shape the way we inhabit space, relate to others, and imagine ourselves in the world?
Drawing from the Body-Mind Centering® approach to the skeletal system, this workshop explores the bones not only as a physical structure, but as a living source of support, clarity and presence.
Through guided somatic explorations, participants will investigate the qualities of weight,
alignment, volume and form, discovering how different qualities of embodiment can give rise to atmospheres, emotional landscapes and imaginative worlds.
As the work unfolds, the skeleton becomes a creative ground from which characters, relationships, images and narratives can emerge. Form becomes a gateway to creation: what is sensed in the body gradually transforms into expressive and theatrical material.
Individual exploration will expand into improvisation and collective composition, allowing
embodied experience to evolve into shared dramaturgical landscapes.
Moving between inner perception and theatrical expression, the workshop offers a journey from somatic awareness to physical theatre, where the body itself becomes the source of meaning, imagination, and creation.
FROM BMC TO PHYSICAL THEATRE (second lesson)
Embodying Space and Articulating Relations
How do we sense the space within us? How do our relationships with others and the world around
us emerge from that experience?
Drawing inspiration from embryology and the earliest patterns of human development, this
workshop explores the body as a living, three-dimensional landscape. Through guided somatic explorations, participants will deepen their awareness of inner volume, discover new ways of inhabiting space, and cultivate a more integrated sense of presence.
From this embodied experience, we will explore the relationship between gesture, sensation,
intention and direction. Simple movement phrases become a field of investigation where space is not merely a backdrop for action, but an active partner in the creative process.
As the work unfolds, these movement structures will be transformed, deconstructed and recombined, opening pathways into collective improvisation and instant composition. Through listening, attention and responsiveness, participants will explore how images, relationships and dramaturgies can emerge from the dynamic interplay of bodies in space.
Moving between perception, movement and imagination, this workshop explores how dramaturgy can emerge from the interplay of bodies, space and relations, in the subtle territory between being moved and moving.