Bodies in Composition is a training programme focused on instant composition, also known as real-time composition or improvisation.
The programme is structured around three weeks of workshops between January and July 2027, led by four major teachers and choreographers in the field of improvisation : Alban Richard, Rosalind Crisp, Kirstie Simson and Charlie Brittain.
It is intended for professional dancers, with the aim of creating an opportunity to study, research and deepen this practice within a privileged context of collective research. The choreographers will be teaching in English, creating a space for a European community of dancers to come together.
Observe, continue, modify, imagine.
Alban Richard wishes to share tools for generating movement by observing the favorable conditions of each situation. The situation itself is the resource that must be skillfully developed. How can we remain open? How can we avoid projecting ourselves onto a situation but instead detect possibilities—not by modeling (having a plan) but by allowing things to mature (without ruling out any possibility)?
Our capacity for adaptation requires—in order to understand what is at stake between ourselves, others, and the world—that each and every one of us be able to identify not only our environment but also the elements that form the foundation of our individuality. Our deeply held beliefs, family or professional contexts, and expectations are all filters that impose limits on us and distance us from our full potential.
Through experiential and improvisational workshops, guided by the constraints of observing our bodies in motion, we will work on trusting ourselves and relying on the effectiveness of our choices.
From the raw substance of our physical being to her highly articulate and playful compositional tools, Australian dancer and choreographer Rosalind Crisp invites dancers to awaken their artistic vitality while immersing themselves in their bodily sensations.
Rosalind will share her practice, which tirelessly challenges dancers’ attention to the real-time production of their movements. Her research method draws on the origins of movement within the disordered materiality of our own bodies—breath, weight, flesh, sensations, and bodily imagination. Her choreographic tools offer clear and accessible ways to follow, extend, delay, disrupt, and capture this emerging movement as it unfolds continuously—thereby drawing the audience in from the very first moments. The research will focus on the choreographic material of the solo, even though she will often be accompanied by collaborators.
Rosalind Crisp offers dancers the means and the freedom to find their own direction, both in the studio and on “stage.” Her compositional tools for connecting with the audience are constantly evolving and constitute a rigorous model of self-directed learning designed to develop one’s autonomous artistic capacity.
What is it like to watch and be watched? This beautiful vulnerability is the ground for the ‘transparency-of-self’ that is inherent in the sincere practice of improvisation. The material, and the ‘in-the-moment’ choices we make in response to what emerges, engender depth, intimacy and a Life-affirming sharing of who we are.
The spirit of the improviser is a daring one: performing with ‘nothing’, remaining open to what emerges in each moment. As we challenge our ‘fear of failing’, we are called into accountability: to ourselves and each other, as we face the unknown. Can we transform negative to positive? Collective support allows the practice to strengthen us as we meet the challenges of Life – the ultimate improvisation of presence, care and daring.
Essentially a spiritual practice, investigating what improvised performance is demands rigor and focus as we reveal to ourselves and each other, through our responses, our rooted humanity. Facing everything, avoiding nothing. This is the opportunity improvisation-performance affords us, a deep process of learning and transforming.
We will explore the relevance of this work in the context of the deeply challenging time we are living, where uncertainty is our living reality. We will create and practice performing, witnessing and ‘sharing’ improvisations. Focussed discussions offer opportunities for sharing experiences and insights.
Learning, supporting, play, reflection and collaboration are fundaments as we enjoy collectively creating, and being created.
