RESEARCH OUTPUTS

The Rhythmic Body: Improvisation in Theatre and Dance

Coordinator: Sonia Bellavia

The workshop took place in Rome (CAE, Città dell’Altra Economia) and was aimed at actors, singers, and dancers with experience in theatrical improvisation. Over the course of two days (20–21 March 2025), theoretical and practical sessions alternated.

The first day opened with a presentation by Gianmario Borio, who introduced the PRIN project within which the workshop was organized. This was followed by talks by Francesca Falcone (Professor of Dance Theory at the National Academy of Dance in Rome) on the role of improvisation in contemporary dance, and Leonardo Mancini (Professor of Theatre History at the University of Turin) on improvisation in Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret.

Subsequently, two workshop sessions were held by Julia Varley (Odin Teatret) and Ewa Benesz (Teatr-Laboratorium Grotowski), the latter leading the second practical session on the morning of the second day. Finally, Cathy Marchand guided participants through the improvisational methods developed by The Living Theatre.

The final theoretical session featured a paper by Sonia Bellavia (coordinator of the La Sapienza unit of this PRIN project), who offered a historical reflection on the impulses that led the great masters of the last century to open the path toward contemporary performativity.

The interplay between theory and practice enabled participants to explore and experience the processes that, in the second half of the twentieth century, revolutionized conceptions of the performer’s corporeality and their relationship with space and audience. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion and a talk by Eugenio Barba (Odin Teatret) on the meaning of theatrical improvisation.