Morning Intensives: Feldenkrais into Contact Improvistion
Simonetta Alessandri (IT/GB)
Simonetta is an Italian dance artist and a somatic educator based in London. She applies the Feldenkrais Method in dance and movement training and in performance making. She teaches at Trinity Laban, Goldsmiths University and London Contemporary Dance School. Her work is informed by more than 30 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, Poland and Taiwan. 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, association of dance artists dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Contact Improvisation in London and UK.
Tact-Teach / Co-facilitators
Ulli Wittemann (DE)
Ulli is studied actor & performer and a teacher for acting, movement, awareness & communication. A passion for movement and growth has drawn him to new directions since he was a child. Besides practicing Ballroom Dance and Hip Hop as a teenager and 30 years of studying different Martial Arts forms he also fell in love with Contact Improvisation in 2001 during his actors studies at the University of Performing Arts in Frankfurt, Germany. After performing more than 1.000 shows in the German State Theater system he decided to change his focus to sharing his love for CI, Acting, Awareness in Relating and Communication in Munich and abroad. Since 2010 he taught Workshops, Classes and Retreats in China, Japan, India, Thailand, Bali, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Crimea, Georgia, USA, Canada, Mexico, Turkey and many European Countries. On a regular base he coaches individual clients and teaches CI, communication and his own PLAYFIGHT system in the region of Munich, Germany.
He is one of the founders of the festivals TanzTageTempelhof and the Body Mind Soul Festival in Germany and the Conscious Flow Festival in India and co-organized ten editions of the Touch&Play Festival in Germany, England, Thailand and Bali. Since 2015 he shares his love for nature and human growth in his retreat BEING HUMAN. It invites people to connect deeper with oneself, nature and water.
With his wife Isabelle Pyttel he founded the Conscious Sensuality retreat and they started into the adventure of parenting in December 2020. They accompany two little wizards on their journey.
For Ulli’s work and events check www.consciouscontact.de
“In myself I feel a deep longing for aliveness, connectedness and joy. I seek for depth and lightness in everything I do and so also in the spaces that I open for people, no matter if it’s teaching a workshop or creating an event. By growing a network of motivated humans I want to give us the chance to learn and enjoy together and work passionately towards peace and harmony with ourselves, each other and our planet.”
Defne Erdur (TR/FR/IT)
Defne Erdur is a dance artist and a sociologist working in the fields of performing arts, therapy and education. She is trained in Contemporary Dance (PhD), Sociology (MA), Intermodel Art Therapy & Creativity, Body Therapies (Deep Tissue Release, Trigger Point & Movement, Integrative Craniosacral Therapy), Meditation, and Trauma Healing (Somatic Experiencing). She is the co-founder and editor of idocde.net.
In 2016 she completed her PhD thesis in Turkey (DANCE EDUCATION ON THE TRANSITIVE LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND ART: Contributions of the Technique, Methodology and Pedagogy of Contact Improvisation to the Physical, Artistic and Psycho-social Development of Amateur Dancers). In 2017 she co-published mindthedance.com: A Guide/Movement to Document Contemporary Dance/ Movement Teaching, as an outcome of the REFLEX Europe Project.
Besides her private practice, she had been regularly teaching at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, MSGSU Istanbul State Conservatory, CI-Turkey, ElimSende and ÇATI Associations. She also gives her workshops (Hunting Gathering Cultivating, Every Body Knows, Mind the Body, and Embodying Time) around the world (Tanzhaus Zurich, Konservatorium Wien, Mandala İstanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Vienna, Berlin and Freiburg CI Festivals…), working with different populations (professional and amateur movers, therapists, women, and migrant children and youth).
Her movement teaching practice is mostly informed by her intensive trainings with Simone Forti, Julyen Hamilton, John Britton, Nancy Stark Smith, Daniel Lepkoff, Kirstie Simson, Nita Little, Frey Faust, Keith Hennessy, Aydın Teker, Marcia Plevin and Julia Buckroyd. Today, she continues her quest within Body Mind Centering, Axis Syllabus and Integral Somatic Psychology studies.