Dario Cossutta
Dancer and Choreographer (BA Theatre Dance 2007, BA Theatre History 2009), Born in Trieste (Italy, 1980) well versed in different theatre means and art fields.
He started dancing at a young age, initially competing in Latin American and Standard dances and has ever since experienced a number of different dance and movement styles.
From the age of 19 started following his contemporary dance career more extensively. His biggest influences have been David Zambrano, Gill Clarke, Melanie Clarke, Roberto Cocconi, Julien Hamilton, Matej Kejzar and Charlie Morrisey.
He has kept working with various companies and choreographers until the age of 31 (most notably Teet Kask, Editta Braun, Kirstie Simson, D.ID).
In late 2011 his dancing had to come to an abrupt stop, due to a car-crash (mostly neck and torso injury).
It took him about 2 years to get back to having some movement freedom. That has, in his words, been a formative experience, which taught him how to look at dance and theatre as a ‘normal viewer’, as opposed to within the discourse of being involved in the arts… aside from having to learn to approach his body in a completely different, less carefree, way.
In 2014 he was amongst the founders of the “No Lab” collective (within Drustvo za Novi Teater, Slovenia), where he took part in a three year collaborative research about applying Andrew Morrish’s theatre practice (described in his book ‘No Acting, Please’) to contemporary dance. That led to a performance on Milan Kundera’s ‘Slowness’(2018).
Dario will be teaching as part of the intensive workshops in Athens during 15-19 August 2022.
WORKSHOP
Making sense of Freedom: ..So, there you are..
Despite all the buzz that life is:
“..So, there you are: a young contemporary dancer standing (or lying) on a (dance)floor somewhere on planet Earth, with some time and many options”.
Learning to nurture it and find value through ‘that time’ is key – it itself will get better, it will make you into a better artist and most importantly, it will make your life better. Do not take it for granted either, as “to produce the kind of welfare, that would hopefully one day come to allow anyone to spend their time in such a way, that is first and foremost meaningful to themselves” has been humanity’s hardest ongoing struggle.
‘That time’: WHAT to do with it, HOW to approach it, structure it and WHY. All of it becomes ‘your own artistic practice’.
Considering how the Theatre stage is (within our society) amongst the places where the biggest amount of freedom is allowed (accepted and promoted) the role of a healthy artistic practice is at first facing that freedom, then learning what to do with it.
We will explore how to go about looking for answers to the three questions above “in the doing” – as it befits our art form. We’ll also look at how have practitioners gone about it before and reflect on their answers (including some of my own).
While contemporary dance and theatre works have lately been stemming out of to the concept of ‘practice’ rather than ‘technique’, we won’t disregard neither ‘technique’ nor task based improvisation, for their respective roles, both working solo or in groups.
The participants will be further challenged to unearth ideologies hidden behind their own tastes, movement vocabulary and mannerisms, seeing them for their relevance, strengths and weaknesses, to understand how an audience would feel them in a theatre.
Spotting perspectives that catch ourselves off guard might engage emotional responses, so there will be opportunities to talk about the role of emotions within our own practice as well.
“Your own artistic voice, just as your movement, can only be as articulate as your thought about them.” (quot. Gill Clarke). There is no substitute for a few years spent in an academic institution to really understand it, however in this reduced form, we’ll take a stab at it.
