Simonetta Alessandri
Simonetta Alessandri is an Italian dance artist, and a somatic educator based in London. She is an internationally recognised teacher that applies the Fel denkrais Method in dance and movement training as well as performance making. She teaches at Trinity Laban, Goldsmiths University and London Contemporary Dance S chool. Her work is informed by more than 35 years of dancing, teaching and choreographing. Her choreography has been for dance companies, student pieces, large scale opera, improvised performance, site specific and 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 has been a guest teacher in Germany, Colombia, UK, Norway, Israel, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Taiwan and India. She obtained the Post Graduated Diploma at London Contemporary Dance School; she is 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.
Dancing the Sensing – From Micro to Macro
Contact Improvisation & Feldenkrais
Dancing the Sensing – From Micro to Macro
Contact Improvisation & Feldenkrais
Through the Feldenkrais Method, we turn our attention inward — toward our internal sensations — without judgment. Honouring 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.
The process of tuning into the details of what we are experiencing fosters a felt sense of wholeness — one that transforms how we perceive ourselves and our movement, presence and alertness, as well as how we perceive others and the space around us.
In this workshop, we’ll investigate how the inner world of sensing — the “micro” we tune into with Feldenkrais — expands outward into bigger, more complex movements, becoming the “macro” of our dancing. We’ll explore how this embodied awareness evolves and transforms as we engage with touch, shared weight, and the dynamic vocabulary of Contact Improvisation, including counterbalance, spirals, centre-to-centre connection, catching and flying. Through this process, we will discover greater clarity in our intentions and actions, as well as more clear communication in our duets, trios, and larger group constellations.
As we play with gravity, momentum and risk, our dancing will drift between the vast and unpredictable and the quiet and subtle realms — both held and supported by sensing — awakening a renewed sense of trust and joy.
pictures by Patrick Beelaert