4H with Penelope Morout

May 27, Saturday, 10 to 13 h

advanced/professional

Sculpting Body-Images is a physical movement workshop of high intensity, shaped to challenge the known bodily patterns of each practitioner and to bring awareness to the conscious act of seeing and perceiving the body in relation to interchangeable elements. Whether in real life or on stage, whether through the bare eye or through the lens of the camera, our body is as a dynamic instrument in constant transformation. However, in order to sculpt the form, we need to play and provoke its limits. 

Through the use of spatial, temporal and physical constraints, as well as game-like situations inspired by Fighting Monkey Practice (founded by Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek) we will engage into constant movement: constantly transferring weight from one leg to the other, testing the interconnection between our spine and our limbs, shifting positions in space, alternating rhythms between the upper and lower part of the body, destabilizing the bodily structure are some of the ways we will push our corporeal limits and aim to build up stamina, gain agility, speed and resilience in physically demanding situations. 

Sculpting Body-Images is about approaching the body from a 360° view and consciously choosing the perspective we want to present of it, based upon what we want to communicate with the world. The question is how can we make this communication clearer and more specific?  

Penelope Morout

A graduate of the National School of Dance (Athens) and the National Technical University of Athens – School of Architecture (Athens), with a Master’s degree in Theatre Practices from ArtEZ University of the Arts (The Netherlands), Penelope Morout is an interdisciplinary dance artist interested in creating hybrid projects through the fusion of various mediums. Her work expands from performance and dance theatre creations to mixed-media video animation and set design. 

s a dancer & performer, she has collaborated professionally with JUKSTA Company, director Kostas Filippoglou (Athens and Epidaurus Festival), So7 Company and since 2018 she has been working with theatre companies as a director/choreographer/scenographer. Within the years, she has evolved “Sculpting Body-Images” workshop, a dance improvisation technique which she shares around the world (Mexico, Belgium, Greece, Italy). Within 2023, she will be teaching and creating at PERA GAU School of Performing Arts, at MUDA Arts Center, at Area Dansa, as well as at Kalamata International Dance Festival (Fighting Monkey 50+) and The School of Disobedience. 

As a filmmaker, she has collaborated with TANZAHOi International Screendance Festival Hamburg and has participated in various video dance & dance animation festivals around the world (Brazil, France, Greece, Indonesia). For her latest performance THE BOX || that dead space between us, which premiered at the 28th Kalamata International Dance Festival, she received funding from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports for 2021-2022, while she is currently being supported for a new creation from Murate Art District (Florence, IT). 

She continues to seek her professional development by participating systematically in workshops around Europe and delving deep into Fighting Monkey practice and instructor training. In 2021, Penelope Morout founded the Cross iMPact Company, an organization which emerged from the deep belief that artistic innovation can be found in the meeting points between diverse art forms and techniques and that art is capable of producing a fundamental impact, in both the individual and the community.

https://www.penelopemorout.com/