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Photo: Claude Hofer

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Photo by: @ChoKaFai

Tiziana Longo

Embodiment Artist • Director • Choreographer • Performer • Author • Teacher

I am a Sicilian-born embodiment artist, director, choreographer, performer, teacher, and author based in Berlin.

 

For more than twenty-five years, I have dedicated my life to exploring movement as a living practice—where art, embodied awareness, and the experience of being fully alive meet.

 

For over a decade, I co-founded and co-directed Motimaru Duo Dance Company together with Japanese artist Motoya Kondo. Through this international collaboration, we created performances, toured internationally, and developed artistic and educational projects across Europe, Japan, and Australia. The closing of this chapter marked a profound turning point in my life and artistic journey. It strengthened my commitment to remain true to my own artistic voice and to create work that is deeply aligned with my values, my vision, and my understanding of embodiment.

 

My work unfolds at the intersection of dance, Butoh, somatic practice, and performance art. Drawing from both Eastern and Western movement traditions, I create performances, workshops, and learning experiences that invite presence, creativity, and transformation. Rooted in poetic minimalism and deep listening, my artistic language explores the psychological, social, and symbolic dimensions of the body.

 

Rather than separating art from personal growth, my artistic and somatic research have evolved together as one continuous inquiry. This lifelong exploration naturally unfolds through three interconnected fields of practice: artistic performance, trauma-informed movement, and coaching.

 

While each serves different needs, they are all expressions of the same vision: to cultivate embodied awareness, deepen creativity, strengthen resilience, and support a more authentic way of being and living life fully.

My Artistic Path

After completing a BA in Performing Arts at the University of Bologna, I spent five formative years in Japan, immersing myself in the study of Butoh, Japanese culture, and contemporary performance.

I trained at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio and worked in close artistic collaboration with Yoshito Ohno son of Butoh co-founder Kazuo Ohno as a dancer, stage assistant, workshop interpreter, and technical collaborator. Accompanying him throughout Japan and internationally, I was able to experience a rare process of embodied transmission, observing and supporting his artistic practice both on and off stage. This long-term relationship profoundly shaped my understanding of Butoh as a living practice rooted in presence, perception, and transformation.

 

During this period, I was awarded a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Culture to conduct research on Japanese contemporary dance. My research included work with the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive at the Keio University Art Center in Tokyo, deepening my investigation into the history, philosophy, and transmission of Butoh.

 

Today, my artistic practice, teaching, and research build upon this unique intercultural journey, integrating Butoh, somatic practices, choreography, and trauma-informed approaches to embodiment into a contemporary performance methodology.

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Photo by: @Daito Noken

Check Out My Books here

Philosophy

At the heart of my work lies a profound wonder for the miracle of being alive.

A life-changing encounter with mortality transformed the way I understand movement, revealing that embodiment is not simply a practice, but a way of inhabiting each moment with presence, courage, and authenticity.

Over the years, I have come to understand that living fully is not about doing more, but about inhabiting each movement more deeply. Sometimes the deepest movement is stillness. Sometimes the most authentic dance begins long before the body moves.

To be moved is not simply to travel from one place to another. It is to allow life itself to move through us.

This is the essence of my work: exploring what it truly means to be moved by life, by art, by beauty, by grief, by joy, and by the invisible force that continually calls us forward.

Ultimately, my work is an invitation to reconnect with the miracle of being alive through embodiment, creativity, and presence.

Professional Profile

For festivals, theatres, universities, and collaborators, you can download my selected Artistic CV.

For those interested in exploring the evolution of my work, this archive offers a chronological overview of performances, choreographic creations, collaborations, and artistic projects developed over more than twenty years.

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ARTISTIC VISION

Art has ancient roots.
To dig into these origins — with respect and with innovation — is essential.

It takes time.
Discipline.
Sacrifices.
Renounces.

It takes bravery:
to not give up, and to keep staying.

It takes commitment — like all important things.
Like watering flowers with dedication.

It is intense and calm.

Intense.
Calm.

Like being on a boat in the ocean, with an open sky above.
Like falling in love and emerging in love.

Like being touched by air
and dancing tango together.

Art asks for confidence, passion, and a pinch of craziness.
You need to love it.

Because without love…
we can still make algorithms, pirouettes, clever structures, strong concepts.

But if we are in love with what we do,
if we put love into it,
then something becomes true.

Then we can live fully.

Talking about love and life is difficult without having lived it.
No books will replace it — only trials, climbs, falls.

Trying again.
Failing again.
And again.

This is part of the journey.

And the journey is not outside.
It is within.
Inside.

It is ongoing.
It is not finished.

Everything my work searches for is inside — behind.
Behind the movement where “dance” comes from.

The body moves.
We speak.
We think.
We create — like a painter painting, like a musician composing.

But where does it come from?
What is behind it?

When the outer movement appears, it is already too late.

So it is not only about the outer form.
The form matters — and at the same time it doesn’t.

Because sooner or later the form will appear.

What I am looking for is the movement behind that form.
That form.

This is the form I am looking for.

I am interested in awakening awareness.
In human development.
In evolution.

Innovation.
Freedom.

My artistic path has often unfolded ahead of existing trends.

Approaches I have worked with for many years — deep somatic listening, slowness, minimalism, and the integration of inner processes into performance — were not always immediately understood. At times they were questioned. Over time, many of these approaches have become widely explored, adopted, and appreciated within contemporary performance and dance education.

I have learned that pioneering does not always look like success at first.
Sometimes it looks like standing alone,
trusting a direction that only later becomes shared ground.

Photo by: Arthur Aizikovich

Awards and Scholarships

2006: One-year dance scholarship from Bunka-Cho (Office for Cultural Affairs, part of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology)
2010: SHIROKUROCHAN final exhibition at the "Marathon of the Unexpected", Venice Biennale, Italy
2014: TWILIGHT finalist, 9th International Choreography Competition "No Ballet", Ludwigshafen, Germany
2016: TWILIGHT Finalist, International Festival "Lucky Trimmer", Sophiensäle, Berlin
2016: TWILIGHT Dance ga mittai International Dance Festival, at the D-Soho Theatre in Tokyo, Japan
2019: MUT International Theatre XCAI Festival, Tokyo
2021: Dance scholarship supported by DIS-TANZ SOLO - DachVerband Tanz Deutschland E.V. in cooperation with the "Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien" and "Neue Stadt
Kultur" 

2021: Projekt "ACQUA - wie die Steine auf dem Grund des Flusses"- supported by Bezirksamt Neukölln von Berlin for the Festival an der Kunstbrücke am Wildenbruch 17-19 Sept. 

PUBLICATIONS:
2019: ARTLET N. 50 Keio University Art Center
2020: "Something called butoh" (publication related to my work)
2021: in progress: "Come le pietre sul letto del fiume" 

2025: Poetry in Motion - (book project in progress)

2026: Come le pietre sul letto del fiume - (book project in progress)

Education

1985-1992: Classical and modern dance at the Studio Maria Parisi, Riposto
1996-1999: Dance studio, Angela & Maria Domanti, Royal Academy of Dance,
Catania, Italy
1999-2004: Performing arts, University of Bologna, Italy. Degree: B.A.
2004-2010: Intensive training as dancer and stage assistant at the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio with the legendary master Yoshito
Ohno in Yokohama, Japan 

2005- Training with Tomiko Takai

2006 Training with Yukio Waguri
2006: Dance training at the I.T.I. (International Theatre Institute) in Nihon buyo (Japanese theatre dance).

2007 Workshops with Torifune, Yamamoto Moe

2008 Training with Uesugi Mitsuyo
2009: Training in Bali - traditional Balinese dance with the legendary master of the
Topeng dance (dance of the mask) I Made Jimat and the legendary master of Jaux and Baris, Anom Putra, Bali, Indonesia
2015: Workshop with Susanne Linke, Bethanien, Berlin

2013: Research about Indian Dance

2013: Hatha Yoga teacher training with A.G. Mohan, Indra, and Ganesh Mohan

2013: Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre in Dharamkot, Intensive course

2015: Research about Tibetan Cham Dance
2016: Dance intensive programme, Tanz Fabrik, Berlin
2019: Research/Training in flamenco with Patricia Ibanez, Spain.

2020: Tibetan Yantra Yoga at Namkhai Norbu's Dzambling Gar Center (9 Breathing)

2021: T.R.E. (Trauma Tension Release Exercise Method by Dr. Berceli) Teacher Training 

2023: Dance Pedagogy Certification UDK & TanzTangente

2023: Somatics Studies

2024: Neurology and Movement

2024: Akira Kasai Intensive

2025: Anatomy and Massage studies

2025: Coaching Studies ( ICF Certified Coach )

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