Nuova Officina della Danza (NOD) strives to be a generative meeting space
where dance is seen as an expression of one’s uniqueness, and where bodies
express, first of all, vitality. With this in mind, NOD seeks to train daring
dancers, willing to tackle a rigorous yet flexible dance program. For NOD, what
characterizes a daring dancer is not the absence of fear but, on the contrary, a
willingness of embracing and processing one's own vulnerabilities.

NOD’s intent is to generate a change for dancers, teachers, and anyone else
part of the program. To encourage and support their personal and professional
growth, and create an environment, through a thoughtful organization of time
and space, that facilitates, literally and not, any leaps forward.

Under the artistic direction of Silvana Ranaudo, NOD has developed three
programs: the International Contemporary Dance Program (ICD), the
Mentoring Exchange Program (MEP), and the Nuova X Professional Dance
Program. The latter, directed by choreographer Tom Weinberger, will formally
begin in September 2022.

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These three programs reflect the core of NOD’s approach to contemporary dance
education: the study, integration, and overcoming of references to the various
languages of contemporary dance; the centrality of the student-teacher relationship;
and the commitment to offering to our incoming dancers a full circle experience
amongst professional dancers.

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All teachers in the ICD Program have gained professional experience and their
names reflect the constant work of investigation and experimentation carried out by
NOD. The most significant contributions to contemporary dance are presented in
class, in an effort to enrich dancers’ repertoires and allow them to master different
styles.

But dancers also learn that all styles get obsolete and crystallized quickly. Therefore
they need to stay alert, open to change, and at the same time ready to recognize their
own style and excellence.

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Transmission of knowledge is a fundamental premise to an even more complex and
enriching training experience at NOD. With the Mentoring Exchange Program
students interact individually with professional dancers/choreographers, depending
on their own interests and styles. Teachers will offer personalized support helping
students reach their potential. Training is here intended as an uneven journey, made
mostly of confusion, delay, bewilderment, pauses, but also of surprises and sudden
awakenings when gestures become alive and pulsating.

The teaching experience does not consist in conforming dancers, on the contrary,
distortions and differences are considered to be the only authentic starting point for
triggering conscious change. It is therefore not just a question of transmission of
knowledge, but of an invitation to courage - indeed encouragement - so that the
student really can move forward.

Pau Aran, Bryan Arias, Bruno Guillore, Fabian Thomè, Ella Rothschild and
Brandon Lagaert are some of the international choreographers who have
already joined the project. They represent the leading realities of contemporary
dance, including Batsheva Dance Company, Hofesh Shechter, Netherlands
Dance Theater I, The Forsythe Company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, Sidi Larbi
Cherkahui and GöteborgsOperan Danskompani, but other professionals from
the NOD circuit may also be involved.

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The desire of people working at NOD to offer the most complete experience to
dancers recently pushed them to create the Nuova X Professional Dance
Program which, under the artistic direction of Tom Weimberger, offers
dancers the concrete opportunity to collaborate with professional artists.

Working in small groups for medium-long periods with international
professional choreographers, studying their method, style, observing, and
absorbing, the vital creative forces that a fertile collaboration entails, this
program requires dancers to immerse themselves in the real world of
contemporary dance.

Ultimately, NOD’s ambition is to train dancers through a personal and group
experience that leaves its mark and prepares them to start their own
professional career -whatever that might be - with a solid knowledge of the
professional world of contemporary dance, a net of relationships with the
potential of becoming future collaborations, trust, and, most of all, desire.​

 

Curated by Marta Valier