September 2016 will witness the first edition of the Moonwalk !

16 artists from 10 different countries and a variety of backgrounds are gathering during one moon cycle, to walk and dance together from Pyrenean Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.

The rhythm of the walk will take us back to other times, of the first men reaching out to the unknown, of pilgrimages ever since and to journeys of the present time. An intimate dialogue is possible and revealed within the traversed environment. The desire to go forward roots in patience. It unveils our relation to the world and through dance, either subtle or explosive, we can communicate with all things.

An epic journey between holy and wild, from mountain torrents to the sea, from summits to the edge of deep blue horizon, going through forests, cultivated land, villages and small cities. An Organic Pleiad, unveiling links between the secret origin of myths and ordinary stories.

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This venture is the opportunity to question through the body, our way of perceiving, of relating to the earth, to nature, to human constructions, to the group. To extract the creating act, the transforming act. To nourish the dance through an immersive journey and invent new pathways of inhabiting the world. To dive into the unknown and the subconscious.

Studying, creating and developing from the group dynamic is an important aspect of this project. As a collective, we will be together for more than one month interacting and co-habiting using verbal and non verbal communication. Our aim is to find an ecology that allows more harmonious ways between the individual and the group.

We will offer our dance to the landscapes we walk through and to the encounters; dancing in remote villages, mountain shelters, unusual and unique situations. We will offer workshops and create performances along the way.

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A film will be made of the process in order to record, heighten and share this unique experience, offering both poetic account and documention. It will capture the dance in various sceneries, daily insights, interactions, instant compositions and unexpected narratives.

The artists participating have diverse skills and aim to use collected items along the route as inspiration and materials for photography, drawing, collage, music, sounds and writing.

The last step of this process will be a creation residency in Catalonia, at the living-arts- base monastery in Girona (http://www.living-arts-base.org) During this phase we will gather what has emerged from the walk, dance with the resonances and create a new piece of work. This will be filmed and set to be performed on stage and various platforms.

Moonwalk will not end there. The aim is to re edit the project each year, go into different contexts and delve further into the fields of research opened up by the experience. Take dance everywhere.

We aim to spread our discoveries through the movie and live performance.

Some are already on the way:

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THE CREW:

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Moonwalk crew (up to down, left to right):

Dan Hernandez (UK)

Suzi Cunningham (Scotland)

Eva Ydren (Sweden)

Amalie Vilslev (Denmark)

Ainara Makalilo (Spain)

Jordi Arqué (Catalunya)

Roseline Nezet (France)

Asuka Des (Switzerland)

Noah Harharah (Netherlands)

Anis Ouazzani (France)

Marius Soluna (Switzerland)

Elena Mastracci (Italy)

Charlotte Girault (France)

Marina Sans (Catalunya)

Sigmund Lillefjaere (Norway)

DAN HERNANDEZ (UK)

Hernandez kidnaps your imagination and bundles it into a dream like world of sensations, discoveries, surrealism, and sounds: Each act is a moment of epiphany, strangeness and hilarity.

Alchemy is the creation of gold from shit - beautiful stories leak out of discarded objects: love blossoms between a cardboard box and a plastic bag, a teeming ocean floods out of a dustbin, rubbish plays the piano, broken toys become shadow puppets.

Teetering on a tightrope stretched between the ridiculous and the divine, Hernandez stumbles into your world and leaves you feeling puzzled and refreshed.

An itinerant, free spirited performer exploring the mystical roots of theatre, Hernandez has studied Clown, Butoh, Maskwork, Authentic Movement, Tarot, Tantra, Contact Improvisation, 5 Rhythms, Lucid Dreaming, Shiatsu, Yoga, Juggling, Tightrope, and Martial Arts.

All of these practices inform his own unique style of performance and teaching.

Divine/Ridiculous: https://www.facebook.com/groups/divine.ridiculous/

THEATRE/PERFORMANCE

http://felixwrote.wix.com/psychedelickidnap

wix.com/eccentricperformance/hernandez

PHOTOGRAPHY wix.com/lostphotographs/hernandez

SPACES wix.com/felixwrote/warehouse http://felixwrote.wix.com/studiok5

MUSIC http://www.mixcloud.com/dirtyhernandez/

SUZI CUNNINGHAM (SCOTLAND)

I am a dance artist who is driven to move and deeply embody the issues I explore. Through movement, I draw upon emotional and primal connections. I am deeply interested in how the body retains layers of experience; and how movement can trigger unconscious memory to unfold stories of the human spirit and other life forms.

Expression through my body has always felt more important and easier than spoken language itself. My performance practice links inner and outer worlds without the need for reason. In recent years I have been training in Butoh Dance which delves into the archaeology of life, and therefore acknowledges the history within each of us; how we move when we are embryos, or cells in the sea throughout thousands of years.

As an artist I ask how our senses offer an understanding of life and the human condition. I believe that as a performer I can make people feel things and learn to value our emotional and physical interdependence with the world around us. Although my work tackles serious social and ecological issues, my use of dark humour often adds an unexpected impact to the work.

In performance-making, I am not solely focussed on dance. My interest in language both spoken and unspoken has added an interdisciplinary layer to my work. I use Text, Spoken-Word, Film-Making and Song to challenge the barriers and expectations of language alone. I have a strong background in contemporary dance (from The London School of Contemporary Dance) and further training in Movement Psychotherapy, Laban, Improvisation, Physical Theatre and Butoh Dance. Previous engagements include work with Atsushi Takenouchi, Gary Clarke, Janis Claxton, Tom Pritchard, Paul Michael Henry, Buzzcut Festival, Waterbaby Dance, Dirty Feet Dance Company, Soma Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and Festival, Fly Right Dance Company, Birmingham Rep Theatre, Toby Gough and Justine Lim.

EVA YDREN (SWEDEN)

A creature exploring life on Earth in a human body .

Since I was a child i explored the art of communication and different tools of how to find the most sincere way to express the most profound core of my soul and how to interact with others.

Writing: At Writing school Ifound that my strength was to combine the mythological language, connected to the collective dreams with the cause i was passionate about. I always been inspired of the cultural proggressive movement in Sweden of the 60-70 often combining fairytales with political issues.

Storytelling, voice, singing: I have explored the power of the spoken world through Storytelling. In Storytelling i feel we can go back to the source of the word, to a time when words had manifesting power. I have been using Storytelling in different ways for 10 years. Performing at Storytelling cafes, festivals, hospital, eldercare institution, etc. I have attended various Storytelling workshops and courses but what has shaped me most as a Storyteller has been Storytelling as an healing art with Ingerlise Oulrich and Storytelling and ritual dance with Brita Haugen.

Storytelling allowed me to use my voice as a tool. I also studied Swedish traditional folk.

Rituals: I do believe that it is essential to create sacred spaces where each one can find their own mythology .

Dance: I have explored different kind of dances and movement techniques ( Earth heart dance, 5 Rhytms and other forms of healing and self exploring dances), physical theater, clown and latest Butoh dance. I resonate strongly with the image of the holy actor and the act as a ritual of sacrifice in Grotowskis theater.

Enviroment- Activism. I am an activist in the Swedish movement to protect the forest.

AMALIE VILSLEV (DENMARK)

My background is in visual anthropology, where I am currently writing my thesis on butoh dance, which also involves film making. I have, before my master, been studying at a photography school for two years, where I explored the human body and nature through analog photography. My photographs and films have been exhibited and screened in several places, and have provided me with artist residencies in Denmark, Sweden, and Uganda. As a dancer I have been participating in a 6-months butoh course with Atsushi Takenouchi in Tuscany, and have a background in yoga and contemporary dance.

AINARA MAKALILO (SPAIN)

Issued from a Fine Arts background and has exhibited her works in Europe and Japan. She made her first performative steps in Lecoq movement and gesture techniques and street performance before heading towards dance. She has worked with butoh performers Anita Saij, Masaki Iwana, Gyohei Zaitsu, Yuko Kaseki, Rhizome Lee, with bodyweather practicioner Frank van de Ven, and contemporary dancers Imen Smaoui and Martin Sonderkampf. She is currently exploring clowning in the laboratory of Alexandre Bordier (Cie. Bestiaire a Pampilles). Cofounder of art multidisciplinary collectives L'Atelier D (Tunisia- Spain-Denmark) and La Sangria Discreta (Switzerland), she has performed in different festivals around Europe and participated in several art residencies in Spain, France and Denmark. She is also a freelance handmade collage- dream boxes architect.

http://www.makalilo.com

http://www.lasangriadiscreta.com

http://atelier-d-hedebo.dk/

JORDI ARQUE (CATALUNYA)

My career began dedicated to sound, specifically working on numerous film dubbing studios. Later I created an audiovisual production company, perla28, with which I focused more on post-production work of audio and video. I have worked in promotional videos, video art, advertising, etc. With Perla28 won the international competition MOFILM with the Chevrolet brand. https://vimeo.com/11321828

For many years I've had a very close relationship with dance. I have experienced with my own body and I have also done a lot of work including video. The Urban_butoh series consists of short pieces of video dance, with important butoh dancers of around the world. https://vimeo.com/user3053584/videos In 2014 I released my frst documentary, "the soul of dance" about the creation process of a performance by spanish choreographer Andrés Corchero. I have worked with dance companies / physical theater as Malpelo, Amaranto, Colectivo 96o, Cristina Nuñez, Amaranta Velarde, La buenaCia, Raravis, Rosa Muñoz, Sol Picó, hello!earth and many more.

ROSELINE NEZET (FRANCE)

I am a lunar and solar woman; ground and sky, fire and water, a joyful soul navigating in and through movement since my fetal form with the desire to be alive.

Nature is my sanctuary there I’m connecting with my sacred temple.

With the sensorial movement and dance I connect with my center, the elements and living beings surrounding me, we are one.

I ‘m new born from a 9 months process of Life Art Process (Anna Halprin - Tamalpa) and I’m looking to dance and walk with this new group and with all the beings that will meet during this moonwalk with the mountains under our feet until the embracing Mediterranean sea.

I’m wishing to open and give to the world the taste of being into the dance of life, stepping on the pavement, the mud and the stage.

I am developing my practice of life art process to be able to guide others to discover their own life paths through different tools such as movement, breath, voice, dance, writing and drawing.

Art serving life through a continuous blossoming, planting the seeds of living together, connected to the whole, step by step…

ASUKA DES (SWITZERLAND)

Japanese-swiss bird, with an international school kid background, from Geneva. Flew, cycled and walked around the world. Studied some barefoot-walking, fruit-picking, raw-food eating, kung-fu training, street-performing, but also vipassana, bodyweather, fighting-monkey. Studied at Marlboro College (US), Subbody Butoh School of Himalaya (IN) and graduated from HEAD-Geneva (CH), in contemporary art performance. Co-founded Espcetpstz – a multidisciplinary art collective creating performative spaces – and La Sangria Discreta – performing butoh, cut-ups and clown. Asuka dances in a playground between art, therapy, community lifestyles and social experiments. Works as massage-therapist, webmaster, tribal-networker, experimental event initiator/organizer, video editor, illustrator, gardener and cook. Currently working on Walkadadas : artistic experiments involving walking, dancing, and extra-ordinary group situations between summer camp, treasure hunt, pagan celebration, ninja turtles and béjart ballet. She is still processing her many dreams, skills and interests, possibly for a community life around bodywork and permaculture.

NOAH HARHARAH (NETHERLANDS)

My father is from Singapore, mother from the Caribbean Aruba, and I am a Dutchman. However, I have been living and working in the Swiss mountains for the last 3 years, working in a school for alternative bodywork and other movement practices, and studying chigung and shiatsu. However, most of all.... I like to dance. The last few years I have been mostly dancing 5 rhythms and contact improvisation. I attended a 6 months butoh training with Atsushi. Before that dancing was a means to connect to other people, to my body, and just a way to feel good. However, during these 6 months of Butoh, I realized that sharing your dance has a great value too. This is what I would like to explore more now. To create and touch the viewer with authentic movement and expression. To dance with others, to be creative, to have fun, to explore the dynamics of solos, duos and group work, to see what kind of movement comes out of silence, to take environment into the dance, to move along with whatever wants to emerge... and share whatever is there.

ANIS OUAZZANI (FRANCE)

For the last ten years I’m passionate about improvisation and questioning the limits of freedom on philosophical, psychological or physical level. That quest led me to many experiences, might it be traveling, teaching in high school or art.

When I met dance I felt home and saw a potent way of embodying all these questions, of learning about myself and my relation and place in the world. I want performing as a transformation act, unleashing all vibrant and unconscious forces in presence to give birth to something new that challenges patterns of perception and thoughts.

This year I am dedicating to creation, construction of new pedagogic tools and performing in various contexts using movement, composition, music, poetry and voice. I am also working as choreographer and dancer in this project www.merversible.com and preparing the Moonwalk!

MARIUS SOLUNA (SWITZERLAND)

with a background in visual arts, he has studied typography and graphic design. In 2005 he traveled to India and discovered the spiritual realm. There he studied and started practicing yoga, meditation at subbody butoh school where he encountered butoh dance the first time.

Since then he regular performs and gives workshops. He showed his first complete solo ”Genesis 3” at the 2010 edition of butoh-off festival in Basel. He became member of art collectif La Sangria Discreta (Geneva) in 2012. He continued his studies with different teachers in Europe and he started to live a nomadic lifestyle. He recognizes the enormous potential of butoh-dance and its transforming healing potential, and he desires to share it with others.

http://resonart.ch/passepartout/

ELENA MASTRACCI (ITALY)

Born in L’Aquila (Italy) and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of L'Aquila (painting), she’s an artist and performer. Since 2000 she is among the founders of the cultural association Il Rogo (Rogo Teatro), an independent group based in Abruzzo (Italy).

Within Il Rogo, she works as theater and art educator ; co-organizer in all social and cultural projects made in Italy and Argentina (Il carro di Tespi in Patagonia with patronage Unesco Italia; Viaggio nel Trash in Buenos Aires, whose video documentary won the Peace Prize of the Abruzzo region; actress and performer in each performances of Il Rogo. Main artistic collaborations: Guillermo Angelelli (Argentina), Else Marie Laukvik ( Odin Teater, Dk), Giancarlo Gentilucci (Arti e Spettacolo, Italy).

In parallel, she is pursuing her own personal need to create and experiment meetings and contamination through the performing arts (theater, butoh dance) and visual arts, also in collaboration with other artists. In 2008 she started dancing butoh with Masaki Iwana, Yumiko Yoshioka and Atsushi Takenouchi.

CHARLOTTE GIRAULT (FRANCE)

Vagabond soul moving throughout the world. Muic and singing quenched my thirst of being and creating.

In 2008 I met the Clown and the dance that woke my body up to the extraordinary beauty of movement.

Existing was not anymore about crossing borders. Everything was there already!

The magic and organic poetry of my being at the heart of my cells, the connexion to divine within breath of matter.

If it’s alive there is movement!

I graduated from Fine arts academy of Orléans, and attended the Cabouia Teatro, a school of movement theatre in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

I have been working with kids, disabled and elders, i have been passionately working on my clown and dancing contact impro, danse singulière, 5 rythmes, and biodanse.

MARINA SANS (CATALUNYA)

Lover of dance and nature, explorer of the paths that can brings us, human beings, back to the escence, to the self, to unity... Marina started her trip by living sharing daily life with tribes in Africa and South America and after, same research brought her to walk and discover her inner worlds through dance. She has been formed, dances and teaches contact improvisation, butoh, ritual dance mostly in nature. She also bases her dance in body mind centering principles and is an endless connecter between inner and outer landscapes.

SIGMUND LILLEFJAERE (NORWAY)

Natural nature loving nordic Viking. Life purpose : DANCE.

Grew up in the beautiful woods of Norway. Actor graduated from the Nordic Institute of Scene and Fine Arts in Oslo 2011. Explored the world from Himalaya to the deep Amazonian rainforest. Worked with different impro dances for years and performed for various artists as dancer at festivals, concerts and film projects. Participated at several theatre performances last years , working as a free-lance artist. Currently working with mentaly-challenged people and children. Dynamic man who loves to use and explore all the spectrum available in this form: singing,dancing, taekwondo, guitar, impro theater, writing, rap,breakdance and capoeira.

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MOON WALK