Dance Floor Kids
10.07.22 – 10.07.22
Dance Floor Kids is a workshop project that engages parents and children through movement.
22.05.22
12.06.22
10.07.22
from 10.30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
at Spazio Festa
Subscription at info.dancefloorkids@gmail.com
Experimenting with how the bodies of adults and children can mutually become tools for support, stimulation and discovery, topics such as touch, weight and balance, support and gravity, and relationship with space and others will be addressed.
Being touched, in addition to sending back a message of real presence, creates a perceptual containment in the child that gives the possibility of accessing bodily explorations and discoveries with greater freedom, thus intensifying the parent-child relationship. The parent is called upon to get involved together with the child to find common ground, a relational field where an equality of listening is created.
In the form of physical/exploratory play, DanceFloor Kids focuses on connecting one’s body with each other’s body and each other’s space to activate shared perceptual experiences and reflections.
Young and old alike will be free to jump, roll, twist and be guided to discover new and different modes of communication.
The Project
The project was born in 2018 between the collaboration of dancers and choreographers Martina Francone and Agnese Lanza.
Martina and Agnese trained in England at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and studied learning and teaching methods for very young children at the Creative Dance program (Trinity Laban), collaborating with different artists in the UK and experimenting with creative modalities for children.
Over the years they have specialized by leading free dance classes in different spaces and contexts in Tuscany.
The DanceFloor Kids project aims to be a traveling project, taking cues from places and giving the opportunity to create community with people in different parts of the city.
Martina Francone
Martina is a choreographer, performer and dance teacher with a degree in dance theater from Trinity Laban Conservatory in London. She participates with her work in International festivals including Abundance Festival in Sweden, Festival Fabbrica Europa, Kilowatt Festival, Dinamiche Scomposte in Italy, B:orders Festival in Bleiburg Austria and Siobhan Davies Studios in London. He has collaborated with various artists such as Hrafnhildur Einarsdottir (IS) Tony Thatcher (UK), Roberto Masotti (IT), Anna Till (DE). He is part of the Icelandic company Raven, the No-Nothing/Something collective and the international group OAC. She collaborates with composer Simone Tecla on research projects on the relationship between dance and music.
She co-founded the Shär project that organizes workshops and performances for children in schools in northern Europe, the FIKA collective and, together with Agnese Lanza, the DanceFloor Kids project leading workshops aimed at parents and children. She collaborates with the FOSCA association as an operator of movement workshops in local schools. She is on the board of directors of Dance Activists, an open group of independent dancers based in Florence. In recent years she has specialized in dance support disciplines and became a certified instructor of the GYROKINESIS® Method and Hypopressive RSF.
Agnese Lanza
Graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire (UK). She has worked with choreographers such as Tino Senghal, Sioned Huws, Rosemary Lee, Maciej Kuszminsky, Anton Mirto, Elena Giannotti, Company Blu, Virgilio Sieni between Italy, UK, Japan and Slovenia.
In England she has been rehearsal director of young English companies (Dance United; Step in to Dance; Trinity Laban Youth Dance). As a choreographer she creates “Inter Pares Project” (2013-2017); “In / ti / mo” (2018); “Tactum” (2019-22); “Tu-Torial” (2020); “Oasis” (2020) “Lullaby” (2021); “Peaceful Places” (2021) winner of Auggie Awards 2021; “Dealing with Absence ” (2021). From 2017-20 she works as artistic assistant to Virgilio Sieni on all projects of the Academy on the Art of Gesture.
In 2018 he founded DanceFloor Kids together with Martina Francone.
She teaches contemporary dance in Florence for children and adults and continues to pursue her choreographic research.