About Francesca
Dance-maker, indipendent curator and Axis Syllabus
teacher began studying West African dance and culture in 1990, and
received her Masters degree in the History of Theatre and Performing
Arts in 1996. Since 1998 she has spent several months out of the year
living in Benin – West Africa, who's rich culture has been a
profound personal and artistic inspiration. In 1999 she graduated as
a professor of African Dance Expression at the Centre Artistique
6-éme Parallel - FEIDA Bordeaux, directed by Koffi Koko. In 2001 she
graduated with the degree in Theatrical Mime at the Teatro Carlo
Felice in Genoa, where she studied with influential teachers such as
Giovanni Di Cicco and Enrico Bonavera. In 2009 she received the
certificate to teach the Axis Syllabus, an information resource
system correlating bio-mechanical research with practice, which has
become a fundamental aspect of her pedagogical method.
After participating both as interpreter and co-creator in various creative projects led or organized by: Collettivo Cind, Paola Fatima e Stefania Casetta, Koffi Koko, Giovanni Di Cicco, Frey Faust, among others, her artistic pathway began to define itself around the perception and investigation of individual and collective identity dynamics resulting from cultural encounters. Her latest choreographies were presented at Institute Français de Cotonou, FITHEB (Benin), Teatro della Tosse (Genoa), Teatro dell'Archivolto (Genoa), Hangart Fest (Pesaro), TroisC L (Luxembourg), Centre Culturel Cité Culture (Brussels), Festival Biennale Passage 012 (Bielefeld), Tanzfabrik Berlin, Haus der Berliner Festspiele (Berlin) a.o.
From 2004 to 2010 she directed together with Elisa Ricci and Davide Francesca CinD, a cultural association based in Genova, initiating presentation format and workshops series strongly connected with the city and its most urgent social-political issues. In 2006 she founded the cultural association Sonagnon with Eric Acakpo (Ouidah / Benin), with the aim of enhancing the culture of Benin and creating opportunities for encounter and exchange between artists of different nationalities. The same year, she co-founded the italian-based association CQB, which is dedicated to providing creative platforms for exchange, experience and expression around intercultural and sociopolitical issues such as migration and global consumerism.
From 2008 to 2012 she directed, together with Eric Acakpo, Dialogues Inévitables, an international project to promote the use of the arts as a means of building intercultural bridges. Since 2011 she is the artistic director of TRACES a professional educational platform for dance and choreographic practice based in Cotonou, Benin, with the logistical support of the Axis Syllabus Research Community in collaboration with the Choreographic Center Multicorps and Association Sonagnon. Since 2014 she initiated together with Elisa Ricci the modular project On how we see - Questioning the curatorial gaze, the same year she started to curate together with Kira Kirsch the dance Festival Sensing in in Berlin.
Currently based in Berlin, she choreographs, performs and teaches throughout Europe, Israel, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Benin.
Teacher's statement
I am fascinated by human relationships. I am interested in successful dialogues and digging for the reasons and looking at the consequences of unsuccessful ones. I am curious about the role of the body in the negotiation with the environment - physical, cultural, social, political- and how it contributes in the construction, deconstruction, and re - elaboration of individual and collective identity. My ongoing research and application of the anatomically respectful, bio-mechanically functional principles provided by the Axis Syllabus has made me aware of the body's complex architecture; how dynamic and how sensitive it can be. How every movement, from structurally supported action to expressive gesture, is the result of continuous adaptations to internal and external conditions. I believe that the recognition of the ancient wisdom and significance of movement as perpetuated by tradition, informed and updated through the contribution of new scientific discoveries, is an effective way to stimulate a critical appraisal of the circumstances in and around us, and can offer each individual a solid instrument for processing and communication. My objective as a teacher is to provide a structural basis and build a common store of technical references through the study of biomechanics, musicality and space relationships and through collective discussions. In my classes, time is always dedicated to guided improvisation, and creative games for channeling the expressive potential of the individual and collective body. I give strong focus to the utility of this process for the analysis of the self/other and the environment that surrounds us.
....and I love to meet, brainstorm, exchange with other artists and thinkers, to cross fields and methodologies, to teach in collaboration, sharing thoughts, finding agreement, learning, having new intuitions, making plans. To know more about who i am collaborating with please visit my web site!
