This class welcomes dancers of all levels. Beginners will find a clear and accessible entry point; more experienced movers will have space to go deeper, refine their practice, and explore the material with greater nuance.
We begin with a warm-up that wakes up the joints through breathing, gentle floorwork and spinal release, and in which the floor is a partner. From there we move through movement pathways built on the logic of natural organisation: spirals, weight shifts, healthy alignment and ease. We travel between set material and open exploration, finding sensuousness and flow in the body’s own intelligence.
The final part of the class opens into musicality and composition, combining precision with playfulness, and inviting each mover to develop their own voice within the material.
Manuela Lucia Tessi is a dancer, choreographer and movement educator based in the Netherlands. She has been teaching movement to professional and non-professional dancers for over two decades, with a practice rooted in release technique, floorwork and improvisation. Her artistic work explores the relationship between movement and sound, how musicality can deepen and enrich physical expression. She is the founder and co-director of MusicDance, an annual interdisciplinary performance project at Theatre Arts in Cape Town, now entering its ninth edition. She is drawn to the moment when movement stops being decorative and becomes necessary.