The MonkeyMind Way Workshop with Lisi Estaras
Synopsis: How can dance become a universal language that opens space for all bodies, stories, and perspectives? In this workshop we will develop and create a shared vocabulary of movement and expression.
The MonkeyMind method: a way of translating the chaotic stream of thoughts and emotions into language, rhythm, and choreography. The focus is not on limitation, but on creativity, energy, and choice. The workshop creates a space where traditional roles between teacher and student shift, and where participants lead and inspire one another.
Improvisation, group dynamics, and individual exploration intertwine, gradually forming a collective dance language that grows within the bodies and imaginations. By embracing movements that fall outside traditional training we “unlearn” the habits of conventional dance. This process opens unknown paths: exciting, raw, transformative.
Reflecting on this practice means working with diverse bodyminds, including our own evolving and ageing bodies. The workshop therefore becomes more than training: it is a collective encounter, where difference is a motor for creation and connection.
The workshop starts with a creative warm-up that then develops into the tasks. We will use our bodies, voice, autobiographical experiences and fiction. At the end of the workshop, we will summarize our experience of the process in an unformal showing.
About the artist:
Lisi Estaras is a performer, director and researcher. She places movement, words, bodily sensitivity and the exploration of gestures at the centre of her artistic research, questioning the connections between dance, mind and stage space, as well as the way in which the audience perceives and feels dance.
Born in Argentina in 1971, she began dancing as a teenager while studying social work in Córdoba. At the age of 19, she moved to Israel on a scholarship to join the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, before joining the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, where she danced for five years and deepened her understanding of the body as an expressive vector.
In 1997, she moved to Europe and joined the ballets C de la B, collaborating with choreographers such as Alain Platel and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. She participated in major creations such as Iets op Bach, Wolf, Tauberbach, VSPRS, Pitié!, C(H)OEURS and Tempus Fugit, developing a hybrid approach that blends contemporary dance, physical theatre and performance.
At the same time, she began her own choreographic projects, exploring inclusion, empathy and interactions between dancers and audiences. Among her most notable works are Monkey Mind, created with dancers with Down Syndrome, The Gaza Monologues, #THISISBEAUTY, and the international collaborative project What We Can Do Together. Her approach is rooted in a deep reflection on gesture, bodily memory and the transformation of performance into a living and sensitive experience.
Lisi Estaras is also a teacher and coach, leading workshops and masterclasses in Belgium and abroad. She collaborates with artists from various disciplines and continues to develop a personal stage language in which rehearsal, improvisation and physical intensity coexist to create a dialogue between performers and audiences.
Join Us! Register Now:
https://forms.gle/HyGH1EAv65D622u97
📅 March 16 — 20
⏰ 9am — 1pm
📍 Dançando com a Diferença Studio, Armazém do Mercado
💰 €30 (insurance included)
🇵🇹 Workshop: MonkeyMind Way
A Dançando com a Diferença dinamiza mais um workshop aberto à comunidade.
A intérprete, encenadora e investigadora Lisi Estaras vem de Bruxelas para a Madeira, a convite da companhia, para explorar o Método MonkeyMind, com o intuito de desenvolver e criar, com os participantes, um vocabulário partilhado de movimento e expressão.
Saiba mais aqui:
https://danca-inclusiva.com/noticia/152/workshop-metodo-monkeymind
Inscrição aqui:
https://forms.gle/HyGH1EAv65D622u97
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