A graduate of the National School of Dance (Athens) and the National Technical University of Athens – School of Architecture, with a Master’s degree in Theatre Practices from ArtEZ University of the Arts (NL), Penelope Morout is an interdisciplinary dance artist interested in creating hybrid projects through the fusion of various mediums.
As a dancer & performer, she has performed at the Kalamata International Dance Festival, at Athens and Epidaurus Festival, at Teatro de la Danza Guillermina Bravo CDMX and since 2018 she has been working with theatre companies as a director/choreographer/scenographer. As a filmmaker, she has collaborated with TANZAHOi International Screendance Festival Hamburg and has participated in exhibitions and various video dance & dance animation festivals around the world (Italy, Brazil, France, Greece,Indonesia).
Within the years, she has evolved “Sculpting Body-Images” workshop, which she shares around the world (PERA GAU School of Performing Arts Cyprus, Munus Encuentro Mexico, Nunart Guinardó Barcelona, The School of Disobedience Budapest, Murate Art District Florence). Within 2023, she has created original group pieces in collaboration with Area Espai de Dansa i Creació Barcelona, MUDA Dance Center Ghent and Škola suvremenog plesa Ane Maletić Zagreb. She consistently trains and gets inspired by “Fighting Monkey Practice” (founded by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek), which she has been teaching since 2021 at the Kalamata International Dance Festival in Greece for participants over 50 years old.
In 2021, Penelope Morout founded CROSS IMPACT Co, and, ever since, is actively creating her own work. Both her previous performance THE BOX || That Dead Space Between Us, as well as her new one EMOTIONAL DOGS have been funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. For the latter, she has gained additional support from X-Church (Gainsborough, UK), El Sortidor (Barcelona, ES) and the Murate Art District (Florence, ΙΤ).
WORKSHOP – Sculpting Body-Images
Sculpting Body-Images is a physical movement workshop of high intensity, shaped to challenge the known bodily patterns of each practitioner and to bring awareness to the conscious act of seeing and perceiving the body in relation to interchangeable elements. Whether in real life or on stage, whether through the bare eye or through the lens of the camera, our body is a dynamic instrument in constant transformation. However, in order to sculpt the form, we need to play and provoke its limits.
Through the use of spatial, temporal and physical constraints, as well as game-like situations inspired by Fighting Monkey Practice (founded by Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek) we will engage into constant movement and test our bodily structure. Within a safe-learning space and based upon each participant’s personal physical abilities, we will focus on stimulating the nervous system, increasing stamina and developing motor skills that improve agility through coordination, rhythm and elastic footwork skills.
Sculpting Body-Images is about approaching the body from a 360° view and consciously choosing the perspective we want to present, based upon what we want to communicate with the world. All stories matter: they nourish our interaction with others and our connection with ourselves. This physical practice invites the participants to keep the body in the center of attention and explore movement tasks through improvisation, collaboration and integration of various tools. Sculpting Body-Images’s main objective is to encourage all practitioners to express and embrace their individuality, to decode their own creative methodology and weave their unique artistic voice, in order to make the communication between artist-artwork-audience clearer and more specific.
