Maria Sole Montacci

Re-Composing Bodily Communication: Facilitating a practice of non-verbal communication

In my ‘snapshot’ presentation I would like to show and discuss an audiovisual extract of my current work as a movement practitioner and performance maker. 

This particular choreographic project (currently at the stage of work-in-progress) aims to investigate into the intuitive processes of embodied translation inherent in non-verbal communication. 

Drawing from theories of social psychology (Michael Argyle,1988) and psychology/movement analysis (Martha Davis,1978), as well as from practices such as Labanotation (Karen A. Studd and Laura L. Cox, 2013) and Nine Viewpoints (Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, 2005), my main concern has been the development of a creative methodology for choreographic practice apt for bringing to the fore the overlooked bodily dynamics of our interpersonal encounters. 

At an artistic level, my practice is characterised by a sense of playfulness in the creative re- composition of gestures, postures, gaze and eye movements, facial expressions, and other bodily actions that we perform unconsciously any time we engage in a conversation with others. 

This project is also driven by strong ethical concerns, which reflect in the didactic potential of my methodology. Indeed through my practice and my artworks I strive to raise awareness on the challenges that people with hearing impairments (like myself) face on a daily basis. Bringing awareness on our bodily attitude and on the impact of our gestures when talking with others, might make a huge difference for our interlocutors as they might in fact be relying on what we do more than what we say to understand us. 

Furthermore - as we increasingly inhabit in cosmopolitan realities - the anthropological diversity inherent in our non-verbal communicative habits is something that each individual should become conscious of. To avoid unwanted misunderstandings, and to facilitate the inclusion in our society of people from other cultural backgrounds as well as people with hidden disabilities, I claim that awareness is a matter of collective responsibility.

Bio:

Maria Sole Montacci comes from Italy and is a UK based dance artist. She is currently a freelance dancer / performer and co-director of the SolAnd Dance Company (SADC). She started dancing at a young age and continues to expand her knowledge in all dance styles and above all in search of her own dance, her own expressiveness.

She trained in different schools graduating both in contemporary dance and classical dance at the professional school "Centro Studi Balletto di Roma" and later received her bachelor's degree in contemporary dance at the "Accademia Nazionale Di Danza di Roma", followed by a Master's degree on the techniques of improvisation dance-music in Rome.

The Master gave her the opportunity to move and start collaborating on some projects of the company of Michaela Cisarikova MCDC, and other artists such as: "I love my self, Do you?", "Leaf no Trace", "Paranoid About Our Origins" and "Day of the Crowned Death". She is currently studying the MA Creative Practice at the Trinity Laban Conservatory in London and working with different artists through the SolAnd Dance Company and continuing to keep the collaboration with the MCDC.

Instagram:

@sole.montacci_dancer

@solands_dance_company