9th DANCE AND BEING ART PROJECT

Abbotsford Convent, MELBOURNE
15 – 17 November 2019

DANCE AND BEING ART PROJECT

TESTIMONIALS

dance-and-being-art-project-8

Gülsen Özer, Melbourne (Dance and Community Artist)
“This workshop provides a deep, yet delightful exploration of self and community. For those who haven’t met him yet, facilitator Vangelis Legakis is an experienced contact teacher and dancer with loads of diverse experience. He is wonderful teacher, impeccable in his physical articulation of complex relationships and subtle energetic flow. I have had the pleasure of working with Van a number of times.”

Sarah, Melbourne (Founder of Humans Becoming)
“I gained an immense amount from this project. For me the project allowed a deeper processing of my grief, love appreciation for Andrew Cargill, my dear teacher, mentor, supervisor and profound resource, who suicided early this year. Andrew introduced me to energy and chakra work many years ago. Van’s interest and offering, as well as his magician-esque teaching style reconnected me to the beauty and potency of what Andrew gifted to the world, and also reminded me of the shadow-side that can go with the intoxication self-healing. This workshop confirmed the power and energy within me (body, mind and spirit) and the depth of the healing work that I have done, and the knowledge and understanding that feels concrete and integrated through me. I had the joy of feeling my body come to a place of integration and unity and find new pathways into movement.”

Areerat, Thailand (Yoga and Dance teacher | Spiritual and Meditation facilitator | Founder of Dance Mandala)
“Vangelis created a workshop with a perfect balance in dance and healing. I found the way the workshop was developed very inspiring. It was orderly but flexible and well structured.  There was good energy and plenty of time to learn the methods. The methodologies applied were clear, progressive and worked very well. It offered me

  • An opportunity to express through dance with a well-structured guidance and support that gave me so much creativity.

  • Understanding collective group processes in dance and healing

  • It was fun, offered me further confidence, and more awareness of my own greater range of movement, expression and body mind spirit connection.

  • A wider range of ways to use dance language and flow of energy to communicate to the group. I was encouraged to undo pattern and and habits to find my own personal movement qualities.

Attending this workshop was wonderful. I feel at ease dancing and expressing myself as part of the group, and really enjoyed connecting with the group. This helped me to have clearer vision of myself and my role within the collective group and community. The way Vangelis facilitated and guided us in this workshop was prefect with great accessibility to all public, being objective, inclusive and mindful to all participant’s needs. I feel the workshop was unique. Vangelis is a sensitive, giving, spiritual, compassionate, passionate being and a great teacher.”

Nanni, India (Yoga and dance teacher – Goerge Gurdjieff | Reiki Master teacher | Edited and conceptualized three major books on the lives of children living in disadvantage countries)
“There was a very good balance in Chi Gong, healing and dance. Vangelis used various techniques to enable the body to move freer. The structure of the class enabled a holistic understanding of body/mind/spirit as well as enabled the unfolding of each individuals dance expression. It was a very profound initiation into dance and healing; it gave me an opportunity to firstly experience myself through creative movement and secondly to be able to express this experience within a collective group. For me it was about learning a whole new movement vocabulary for the body and mind that I began to transform how I was experiencing and relating to my everyday life.

  • It helped me to build self-confidence and empower myself by relating with a partner and the collective group in dance and made me feel sensitive with all of my senses open to experience life.

  • It created a sensitivity and awareness that all of life is a dance and I can choose how to move through it. All of this is invaluable in the living of ones whole life and relationships.

  • I learned new ways of breathing, chanting and energy work and I gained a whole body/mind exercises to work by myself. 

  • I learned my body through different creative ways. It was a creative exploration of the body through dance that integrated spirit/energy work.

  • It provided a very new way to relate to life. I found myself moving in a whole new way, even opening the door, turning a doorknob was something I became very aware of through mindfulness – and I found my body language and my mind being transformed.

The whole workshop provided a very good framework for spiritual exercises that then lead into dance methodologies. All the participants in the workshop seemed to really open up over the days. Each day was a development from the previous day and gradually the whole workshop developed with a great structure, and ease. This type of workshop that mix dance, healing, and meditation is certainly difficult to find.”

Aryeh, Argentina (20 years of experience in dance, somatic practices, yoga, contact improvisation, authentic movement, massage therapy, cultural activism, community theatre and popular education. Master’s in International Relations:  Peace, Conflict and Security studies)
“The workshop successfully built itself, by first laying down core concepts and awareness practices and then applying those principles to the collective creation process with dance and chi gong. It is rare to work with someone who has such a depth and breadth of wisdom and knowledge in the fields of philosophy, somatics, dance and art making as Vangelis.  His approach is truly comprehensive for an artist who is interested in making work that is deeply rooted in presence and has the capacity to transform consciousness on a large scale.  We explored various dimensions of dance identity and borders through perception, movement, improvisation structures and multidimensional levels of relationships between the self and the others. We all had an amazing time collaborating and interacting. The principles Vangelis shared were applicable to all of us from different professional backgrounds making the whole process easy and joyful. His approach helped me to deepen and expand my awareness of self and the world which I will apply to my work as a theatre artist, popular educator and peace-builder.

Certainly the mix of knowledge and educational guidance were deep and thorough. Vangelis created a very engaging and safe space for inquiry, dialogue, exploration and risk-taking.”

Carolina, Argentina (Film artist and art director in independent film industry)
“The class was clear and organised. The structure was solid and clear. Starting from basic to more complex exercises, especially in energy work (chi gong) that I have never experienced before, we were able to learn a whole new technique. The improvisation workshop was easy to follow from all participants. Improvising and creating are probably the most difficult tasks for a dancer. Vangelis guided us very clear and he taught me how to create. How to organise myself and opened my mind. He taught me how to find different options for my movements without interfering in my creation, and how to put emotions on it. In my choreography job now, I’m finding different ways to express my ideas. It’s also easier for me to teach movements, I’m more conscious of them. When creating, I use all of the exercises I learned. I realised this techniques were also applicable to other arts. I’m also using them at my acting lessons. Also I learned exercises to increase my energy levels and flow through chi gong. This technique is not properly taught in Argentina, so it was great to learn it the right way. I had no experience at all improvising dance. At the beginning of the workshop I could not improvise and choreograph on my own for 30 seconds, and at the end of the workshop I danced/choreographed and improvised a solo piece of 10 minutes.”

Maria, Italy (Dance and visual artist, choreographer, yoga teacher, pedagogue for children and adults)
“I really enjoyed Vangelis’ workshop and appreciate the way he guided us. I found the structure of the workshop very good. I enjoyed the atmosphere he created and the people. I felt very comfortable and good and I think this is something that it s not always easy to find having all the good elements/combination of dance and chi gong. I gained knowledge and experience in dance improvisation and healing. The approach, the way and exercises offered as tools, principles, suggestions in the improvisation part were very helpful. It has been a very good experience!!! The integration of improvisation dance, chi gong and kundalini yoga meditations were all easy to follow with a great and in detail guidance from Vangelis. I have to thank Vangelis for his way to give advices, feedback cause it was very clear and efficient and gave more time in some parts that needed more practice.”

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