Choreographer & Dancer
BIO / ARTIST STATEMENT
Monica Gentile’s choreographic work and physical research investigates the embodiment of animalistic qualities, trance, minimalism, and the states of the body, energy and breath. In particular she is interested in investigating contrasting concepts within the body (presence / absence, solidity / evanescence) with a visual and imagery based approach. Her intent is to reveal these paradoxical states through evocative choreographic elements and in the construction of hybrid figures with the body and its gestures. Her work is characterized by a strong presence – creating an atmospheric / imaginary space around the body and expressing connections to forms found in nature, landscapes, and the geographical. The point of reference in her work is not only the body itself, but how we place it and perceive it in relation with what surrounds us.
She graduated at the University “DAMS THEATER” at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of Bologna, where she focused on dance and theater anthropology.
She is a dancer, choreographer, Yoga Teacher and a martial arts practitioner (Kung fu and Aikido). Her dance practice is based on Movement Research and Somatic Practicies. Monica has trained in dance since she was very young, starting with Ballet and continuing into Contemporary Dance. She has studied a range of techniques including Cunningham, Limòn, Nikolais, Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, physical theater and Butoh.
The choreographers and artists she have worked with have brought her to understand artistic practice as a political, ethical choice, related to the artist’s surroundings: Virgilio Sieni (Director of the Biennale Danza, Venice), Simona Bertozzi, Anna Albertarelli (working in the companies Gohatto and Vi-Kap), Michele Di Stefano (MK), Sonia Brunelli (Barokthegreat), Cristina Rizzo (Kinkaleri) with whom she formed the group of research CAN I. More recently Peter Player , Maria Francesca Scaroni, Renate Graziadei, Maya Carroll and Julyen Hamilton, Keith Hennessy, Clara Furey, Nita Little, German Jarequi.
From 2011 she attended the School of Hatha Yoga ISYCO through the Department of Oriental studies of the University of Torino were she got the Degree of Hatha Yoga Teacher. She has been teaching since 2010 and has a wide range of experience with her body and a broad knowledge of the body’s anatomy and Indian physiology. In 2015 she became Laughing Yoga Leader, working with Chronical pain patients at the Immanul Klinik (Berlin DE).
