Improvisation & Choreography with Caterina Danzico

Caterina Danzico is an Italian born and raised performer, teacher and choreographer based between the UK and Italy, whose works spams from film, installation and commercial.

She holds a master’s in fine arts in Choreography from the University of Roehampton and her choreographic works have been presented in different theatres and institutions such as: Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall (Athens), StamEuropa (Bruxelles), The Place (London), Teatro Greco (Rome) amongst others.

Her training started at a young age, in the dance school directed by her mother in Verona (Italy), followed by her professional studies in Rome under the direction of Enzo Celli. She has attended NOD (Nuova Officina Danza) in Turin as a scholarship holder, where she has extensivly studied Batsheva repertoire and gaga technique. Caterina’s field of research spams from Mythology to Sociology and has an interest in androgynous movement. During the last years she has worked with a variety of choreographers/artists and brands such as Holly Blakey, Harry Price, Franka Marlene Foth, Adidas, Stella McCartney, Versace jeans Couture, Nanushka and others.

During the last years, Caterina has been teaching and sharing her practice in different professional schools around Italy, Greece and the UK.

IMPROVISATION & CHOREOGRAPHY

This class is formed of a mixture of set exercises and improvisation, followed by a choreography based on Caterina’s choreographic research.
During the first part, we are going to work on connecting the body with breathing through sustained movement inspired by Vinyasa flow. We will then delved into structured improvisation, where the participants are challenged to find their movement qualities through set tasks. During this exploration, we are going to work on the main elements of contemporary dance such as weight shift, movement flow, grounding and expansion.
Terminating the first half, we will then explore a set phrase from Caterina Danzico’s practice which is based on the parallelism between human bodies and trees. In her own words (I imagine roots under my feet that keep me rooted with the ground and give me the possibility to ground myself through movements. At the same time, my focus is on core strength, arms and hands: I imagine my arms as branches that can reach the highest point of space).