Let’s go WAWA! WILDLY ALIVE, WILDLY AWAKE - PART THREE

PART ONE: 21-24 July
INTENSIVE REPATTERNING: FUNCTIONAL ALIGNMENT FOR HEALTHY, PAIN-FREE MOVEMENT AND DANCE
by Chrystabel Butler

PART TWO: 25-26 July
IMPROVISATIONAL PERFORMANCE SKILLS
Weekend intensive movement and performance skill training by Chrystabel Butler and Manuela Lucia Tessi

PART THREE 27 - 31 July
IMPROVISATIONAL PERFORMANCE AND STAGE
Performance practice intensive, by Chrystabel Butler and Manuela Lucia Tessi, with sharing of public performances by participants on 30+31 July

Each part can be followed independently; participants will be encouraged to take part in all three. PROFESSIONAL ARTIST SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE for participation in Part 1+2+3.

THE COLLABORATORS
Manuela and Chrystabel first met through improvisational dance and music in 2012.  Since then, their vision for dance and movement has continued to evolve as a steadfast commitment to make dance and music and performance inclusive to all humans.  Deeply believing in the inherent creative potential in each human, and the benefit of engaging in expressive movement and collective dance as a foundation of human communication and relationship. We believe everyone should move and express and be seen.  Embrace your humanness! Welcome to being WILDLY ALIVE AND WILDLY AWAKE!

THE PROJECT
The project is open to dancers, musicians, and physical actors—both professionals and non-professionals—who wish to expand their research in interdisciplinary real-time performance and who are interested in collaboration. Participants will be guided by the facilitators and guest artists in the practice of creating live music and dance performances in real time.

During the workshops, participants are guided to develop their movement skills, as well as to practice of interdisciplinary and real-time composition: listening, spatial awareness, time management, score-based improvisation, and collective decision-making processes.
This last part of the process culminates in two live-composed public performances. Chrystabel and Manuela develop a practice of presence, risk, and relationship, rooted in the belief that performance is not a fixed product, but a living process. Composition happens in the moment, through attentive listening and an embodied response to sound, movement, light, space, and the presence of the audience.

THE PROCESS
Interdisciplinary Listening
The artists practice interdisciplinary listening through scores—structures that act as scaffolding or “blueprints.” These keep the work open while providing form, coherence, and shared orientation. Rather than limiting improvisation, they deepen spontaneity by cultivating responsiveness, chemistry, and a common language. In performance, process and result become inseparable: the audience witnesses not only what is created, but how it emerges.
Space and silence are central to the practice. The artists explore how distance, proximity, and pauses shape emotion, relationships, and form.

Shared Agency and Non-Hierarchical Practice
This project fosters a non-hierarchical way of working. There is no external choreographer, composer, or director; facilitators share compositional tools, while performers collectively shape and take responsibility for the work.
This approach challenges traditional roles and disciplinary boundaries. Musicians, dancers, movers, artists with diverse backgrounds and levels of experience collaborate as equal compositional partners. The audience, too, is directly involved, not as passive spectators, but as witnesses to a live process shaped by risk, attention, and presence.

The project intends to bring together artists from diverse artistic, cultural, and personal backgrounds, creating a community that crosses stylistic and disciplinary boundaries. Intergenerational exchange is central, allowing knowledge and embodied practices to circulate between emerging and experienced artists, while affirming the value of long-term artistic practice.

This project offers a transformative space to deepen practice, expand skills, and build meaningful connections. For audiences, it offers performance as a shared encounter—an invitation to listen, attend, and experience how sound, movement, light, and presence shape one another. Above all, it creates conditions for collaboration, risk, and forms of knowledge that emerge through the body before they can be named.

STRUCTURE OF THE WORK

PART ONE
This intensive focusses on repatterning of movement organization.  We explore the principles of functional anatomy, biomechanics, and efficient movement patterns to help the body move as it was designed to move. Through somatic practice, alignment research, and movement exploration, participants develop greater awareness, coordination, strength, and ease in motion.

The training is particularly valuable for:
- People experiencing chronic pain, recurring tension, or long-term injuries.
- Dancers and movers seeking greater efficiency, resilience, and longevity in their practice.
- Anyone wishing to increase their freedom of movement, mobility, and expressive potential.
- Dance professionals and enthusiasts who want to deepen their understanding of the body and elevate their movement skills to the next level. focuses on preparing the mind-body instrument to be able to respond with full potential for expression and experimentation to improvisational cues.  We dive into research to expand self-awareness, self-discovery and self-expression.

PART TWO AND PART THREE focus on integrating somatic awareness with real-time composition techniques. In PART THREE the group will get ready to create a performance.

Each day will be organized as follows:
- Warm-up drawing from various dance and somatic practices aimed to open up organic movement pathways in the body. The purpose of the somatic practices is to connect the body and mind, allowing full expressive potential in the mind-body instrument as it can respond to improvisational ques.
- Listening exercises, simple compositional scores in space, and attention to presence.
- Exercises aimed at developing movement and sound material, and exploring the relationship between them.
- Creation of small improvised pieces, with a varying number of participants, focused on developing awareness of duration—how long are five minutes? Can we notice the passing of time? Can we identify “chapters” within the composition and remember what happens?
- Collective feedback and encouragement of constructive critique. How can we support one another in the creative process? In this real-time creative setting, we are all both performers and directors when we are on stage.

SCHEDULE & COST
Each part can be taken independently. However, if you would like to participate in the final public performances, we strongly encourage you to join PART 2 + PART 3.

PART 1
Intensive Repatterning: Functional Alignment for Healthy, Pain-Free Dance
with Chrystabel Butler
21–24 July
6:00 PM – 9:30 PM (daily)
125 EUR

PART 2
Movement & Performance Skills Intensive
with Chrystabel Butler & Manuela Lucia Tessi
25–26 July
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
110 EUR

PART 3
Improvisational Performance Practice Intensive
with Chrystabel Butler & Manuela Lucia Tessi
27–31 July
6:00 PM – 9:30 PM (daily)
175 EUR

SPECIAL PRICES
PART 2 + PART 3
250 EUR (reduced price)

PART 1 + PART 2 + PART 3 (Full Program)
350 EUR

YOUNG ARTIST SCHOLARSHIP
We offer 3 scholarship places for emerging artists.
150 EUR for the full program (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
In exchange, scholarship participants will support the project through documentation and promotion, including:
- Social media posts
- Photos
- Videos
- Reels
- Behind-the-scenes content
If you are interested in applying for a scholarship place, please contact us at chrystabelbutlerpsychotherapy@gmail.com with a short introduction about yourself and your artistic practice.

BIOS
Manuela Lucia Tessi is an independent dancer and choreographer dedicated primarily to movement research and composition in relation to live music. She completed her dance studies at the Modern Theatre Dance department of the AHK (Academy of Theatre and Dance) in Amsterdam. For more than 20 years, she has studied and worked with Katie Duck, one of her greatest inspirations.
With her base in Amsterdam, Manuela performs and takes part in projects in collaboration with a vast array of musicians and composers. She has an ongoing collaboration with two performance collectives, Moving Strings Ensemble and Collettivo Nebulæ.  She has created and co-curated platforms in Amsterdam, Berlin and Cape Town that foster interdisciplinary collaboration between music and dance in performance. She has extensive experience as a facilitator of workshops and classes of floorwork technique, movement research and improvisation. Manuela also loves creating performances for young audiences (children 0-6 years), and is recently collaborating with Ilaria Carlucci and Factory Compagnia Transadriatica in Lecce.

Manuela Lucia Tessi, manuelaluciatessi@gmail.com
Whatsapp +31615322913
www.manuelalucia.com
www.musicdance.net

Chrystabel Butler brings a wide range of experience to movement and dance.  She is a certified Integrative Psychotherapist, Dance Movement Therapist, with a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy and a Post Graduate Diploma in Dance Movement Therapy.  She has been leading workshops in Somatic Dance and Creative Psychotherapy since 2009.   Engaged in a serious study of the Enneagram since 1995, she has completed Enneagram teacher Training Levels I-III of the Enneagram Institute and many years of direct training with teachers Russ Hudson and the late Don Riso.   She also provides personal movement coaching through authentic movement and rehabilitative modalities.  As a certified instructor for Yoga and Pilates since 2007, she has taught rehabilitative yoga and Pilates in Australia and Japan.  With a background in competitive gymnastics, she has pursued research and teaching in various somatic dance modalities.  She has taught Contact Improvisation in UK, Japan, Bulgaria, Egypt and Australia.  Engaged with intensive study of Axis Syllabus since 2014, passionate about approaching dance through an understanding of anatomy, physics and biomechanics, she currently leads classes and workshops in Axis Syllabus Inspired Movement and Dance.

Website: Chrystabelbutlerpsychotherapy.com
chrystabelbutlerpsychotherapy@gmail.com
Whatsapp +61411540448