Listening Bodies

Monica Gentile’s choreographic work and physical research investigate the embodiment of animalistic qualities, trance, minimalism, and the states of the body, energy, and breath. In particular, she is interested in investigating contrasting concepts within the body (presence/absence, solidity/evanescence) with a visual and imagery based approach. Her intent is to reveal these paradoxical states through evocative choreographic elements and in the construction of hybrid figures with the body and its gestures. Her work is characterized by a strong presence – creating an atmospheric/imaginary space around the body and expressing connections to forms found in nature, landscapes, and the geographical. The point of reference in her work is not only the body itself but how we place it and perceive it in relation to what surrounds us.

She graduated at the University “DAMS THEATER” at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of Bologna. She is a dancer, choreographer, Yoga Teacher and a martial arts practitioner (Kung fu and Aikido). Her dance practice is based on Movement Research and Somatic Practices. The choreographers and artists she has worked with have brought her to understand artistic practice as a political, ethical choice, related to the artist’s surroundings: Virgilio Sieni (Director of the Biennale Danza, Venice), Simona Bertozzi, Anna Albertarelli (working in the companies Gohatto and Vi-Kap), Michele Di Stefano (MK), Sonia Brunelli (Barokthegreat), Cristina Rizzo (Kinkaleri) with whom she formed the group of research CAN I. More recently in Berlin Peter Player, Maria Francesca Scaroni, Renate Graziadei, Maya Carroll and Julyen Hamilton, Keith Hennessy, Clara Furey, Nita Little

From 2011 she attended the School of Hatha Yoga ISYCO through the Department of Oriental studies of the University of Torino where she got the Degree of Hatha Yoga Teacher. She has been teaching since 2010 and has a wide range of experience with her body and a broad knowledge of the body’s anatomy and Indian physiology. In 2015 she became Laughing Yoga Leader, working with Chronical pain patients at the Immanul Klinik (Berlin). In 2018 she collaborated with the Choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni in the production ”Augusto” as a Laughter Yoga Coach.

Composer and musician Michael Reiley creates sonic expressions rooted in the traditions of soundscapes, therapeutic music, and Deep Listening®. His work explores the relationship between present moment awareness, deep time and humanity’s personal connection through listening. For over two decades he has created recordings, concerts, scores for dance, film and gallery installations.

Over the past four years, he has been traveling at artists residencies around the world gathering field recordings for the Echozoo project and teaching with his Deep Listening and Somatic based workshop Listening Bodies. He is currently a teacher at the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He is also studying to become a certified therapeutic musician with the Music for Healing and Transition Program, which serves the ill and dying with live music for healing, or life-to-death transitioning in hospice. His most recent project, Celestial Music Box, is an ambient music sleep system that generates soothing music for sleep and healing using the coordinates of the stars in the sky.