Artistic Work & Performances
Performance is where my artistic research takes form.
Through choreography, Butoh, contemporary dance, ritual, and interdisciplinary performance, I explore movement as a poetic language that reveals what words cannot express.
No two works of mine are alike. I believe that embodied life is always greater than the ideas we hold about who we are. Rather than following a fixed style or aesthetic, I allow each work to discover its own form, rhythm, and visual language.
Some works unfold as richly layered worlds of imagery, costumes, and theatrical composition, such as MUT. Others embrace radical simplicity and stillness, like TORO. This openness gives each work the freedom to become what it needs to become.
Every performance is an invitation to encounter the body as a living archive of memory, imagination, vulnerability, and transformation.
I am interested in dance not as movement itself, but as the visible expression of what moves us long before the body begins to move.
MUT
Research & Influences
Photo by: Gabriele Cafici
My artistic research expanded through fieldwork in Japan, India, Nepal, and Bali, where I studied traditional and contemporary dance practices as well as ritual, meditative, and body–mind disciplines. These experiences deeply shaped my understanding of dance as both artistic expression and embodied knowledge.
My spectrum of body–mind research also includes the philosophy of yoga, trauma-informed somatic practices, and nervous system regulation. I am a certified Hatha Yoga teacher, TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises) provider, and training recently as Embodiment and grief Coach. This somatic background nourishes both my choreographic work and my approach to teaching, where movement becomes a space for awareness, agency, and connection.
Performance, Coreography & Composition
I don't remember a time when I wasn't choreographing. As a child, while my classmates followed mathematics lessons, I filled my notebooks with bodies in motion, drawing sequences of movement instead of numbers. Long before I knew the word choreography, I was already imagining movement.
For more than two decades, that early fascination has evolved into an international artistic practice spanning Europe, Japan, and Australia through performances, collaborations, festivals, residencies, and interdisciplinary creations.
For me, choreography never begins with a style.
It begins with listening.
Each work asks for its own language.
Whether I create for dancers, musicians, singers, actors, filmmakers, or interdisciplinary artists, my role is never to impose movement, but to discover the physical language that already belongs to that particular artistic world.
When creating a solo, a delicate dialogue naturally emerges between the performer's own artistic voice and the eye of the choreographer. I see this relationship not as a question of control, but as a creative partnership built on trust.
My work is not to replace another person's expression with my own. It is to listen deeply to their story, their body, their presence and to recognize what is already alive within them. Through improvisation, observation, and dialogue, movement gradually reveals itself. Only then do I begin to compose, refine, and shape what has emerged.
Rather than imposing choreography, I reveal it.
Every body carries its own wisdom, beauty, and history. My role is to create the conditions in which that truth can emerge and find its strongest artistic expression.
This way of creating has gradually evolved into Poetry in Motion the creative methodology I have been developing for more than a decade through my artistic research and practice, and which now forms the foundation of my forthcoming book. Rooted in the meeting of embodiment and poetry, it cultivates the composer's gaze so that every creation can emerge as an embodied poem.
Selected Performances & Festivals:
-
La Biennale di Venezia (2010), selected by and under the direction of Ismael Ivo
-
No Ballet (2014)
-
Lucky Trimmer, Berlin (2016)
-
Dance Ga Mitai Contemporary Dance Festival, Tokyo
-
Oulu Dance Festival, Finland
-
Kaunas M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Lithuania
-
Riga International Startelpa Performance and Theatre Festival, Latvia
-
Tokyo International Performing Arts and Theatre Festival, Theater X
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Photo by: Gabriele Cafici
I never begin with choreography.
I begin with listening.
I am not interested in dance for its own sake, nor in movement for movement's sake. Through dance, I seek something larger: a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
My work is rooted in the belief that our humanity with all its fragility, contradictions, beauty, and imperfections is not something to overcome, but something to inhabit fully. Every creation becomes an exploration of this paradox: embracing our humanity while remaining open to the mystery that moves through it.
Every body already carries a poem.
The creative process is simply the act of allowing that poem to become visible.
I do not look for beautiful movement.
I look for truthful movement.
Sometimes the deepest movement is stillness. Sometimes choreography is not about adding movement, but about discovering the movement that is already there.
Through breath, perception, improvisation, and the body's dialogue with space, time, objects, and others, movement gradually reveals itself. Composition begins not by arranging movement, but by recognizing relationships between bodies, gesture, silence, memory, and the invisible.
My artistic research lives in dialogue with artists such as Kazuo Ohno, Pina Bausch, Ohad Naharin, and Sharon Eyal. Their work has profoundly nourished my own search for an artistic language where poetry, humanity, embodied intelligence, and presence become one. Rather than models to imitate, they have become enduring companions in my ongoing artistic inquiry.
I have come to realize that I am not interested in movement itself.
I am interested in what gives birth to movement.
In the invisible life that moves the body before the body begins to move.
Teaching & Artistic Mentorship
Photo by: Hiroshima Makino
Teaching continues to be one of the greatest teachers of my own life.
After many years of leading international workshops, festivals, and intensive training programs with my former company, Motimaru Dance Company, the closing of that chapter marked a profound turning point in my life.
Today, my work has become more deeply rooted. Teaching every day and meeting many different groups each week has revealed to me the extraordinary gift, responsibility, and privilege of teaching as a daily practice. Every encounter continues to shape me, deepening not only my understanding of movement, but also my understanding of people, relationships, and myself.
Today, I no longer begin with the lesson plan I have prepared—not because I don't have one, but because I first begin by meeting the people in front of me.
The plan offers a direction; the group reveals the path.
Every group is different.
Every day is different.
Before asking,
"Where are we going today?"
I first ask:
Who is here today?
How is your energy today?
How has your body arrived today?
Only then does our journey begin.
Each class becomes a dialogue rather than a destination. Together, we discover where we can go that day according to the reality of the people in the room. I believe that learning can only unfold where there is trust, presence, curiosity, and a genuine willingness to meet one another as we are.
One of the deepest values of my teaching is that nobody remains unseen.
Whether I am working with professional performers or with people discovering movement for the first time, I strive to create a space where every person feels welcomed, recognized, and encouraged to unfold at their own pace. Every class deserves the same depth of presence, care, and artistic integrity.
Over the years, I have come to realize that my students have taught me as much as I have taught them. Every group continues to deepen my understanding—not only of movement, but of people, relationships, and what it truly means to accompany another human being in a process of growth.
Teaching has made me not only a better artist, but a better human being.
I have Assisted Yoshito Ohno in Japan and abroad for 5 years, from 2004 to 2009
When I left Japan and him, I have never left them. Never.
Experiences which shaped my path:
-
2006 Assisting Yoshito Ohno's workshop at Atelier Carolyn Carlson Theatre de La Ville, Paris, France
-
2007 Assisting Yoshito Ohno's workshop at Bologna University, for the Festival “Buon Compleanno, Maestro. Omagio a Kazuo Ohno” held at the Archeological Museum of Bologna, Italy.
-
2007 Assisting Yoshito Ohno for performance creation with Carla Fracci for Kazuo Ohno 100 Flowers Festival in Yokohama, at Roma's Opera.
-
2007 Rehearsals Assistant and participating with the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio at the Finale of Hyakkaryouran Gala Concert, Kanagawa Prefectural Seishonen Centre to celebrate Kazuo’s centenary birthday.
-
2007 Assisting Yoshito Ohno with the performance in a multidisciplinary exhibition that celebrated the 101 years of Kazuo Ohno at Sesc Avenida Paulista, San Paulo Brazil
-
2007 Assisting Yoshito Ohno's performance "KUU" for Kazuo Ohno Festival in New York, U.S.A
Ohno Yoshito 2005
Setsugekka with Yoshito Ohno and TizianaLongo at The Kazuo Ohno Dessin Festival, , Kushiro, Hokkaido 2007
Photo@: Azumasan
Artistic Lineage & Encounters
Photo by: Gabriele Cafici
Every artist belongs to a lineage not to imitate it, but to continue the conversation.
One of the most formative encounters of my artistic life has been my five year collaboration with Yoshito Ohno. As his personal stage assistant and interpreter, I accompanied him in workshops, rehearsals, performances, and everyday life across Europe, Japan, Brazil, and the United States.
This was far more than artistic training. It was an apprenticeship in artistic transmission. Through rehearsals, travel, shared meals, Japanese calligraphy, music, and countless conversations, I discovered that embodiment is not simply something we practice, it is a way of living.
As Yoshito's interpreter, I also learned that translation is much more than language. It is an act of deep listening, requiring the ability to convey not only words, but also rhythm, intention, culture, and presence.
This encounter profoundly shaped my artistic philosophy and inspired my forthcoming book, Like the Stones on the Riverbed (2004–2026), a reflection on artistic transmission, embodiment, and the living dialogue between teacher and student.
Alongside this lineage, encounters with Ohad Naharin and Akira Kasai have continued to expand my artistic vision, while the artistic worlds of Pina Bausch and Marina Abramović have remained enduring sources of inspiration throughout my journey. Together, these artistic voices continue to nourish my own search for a language where humanity, embodiment, presence, and poetry become one.