Sculpting Body-Images with Penelope Morout

 

About

Sculpting Body-Images is an intensely physical movement workshop designed to cultivate awareness towards the body as a medium for poetic expression and dance as a means for intelligent practice.

During this WILD, three-week intensive period, participants are invited to offer, observe and perceive the moving body through the lens of “playful sculptures”: our skin may initially define a certain limit of our bodily form, yet, by approaching the body as a dynamic instrument in constant transformation, we can discover new possibilities. 

 

How can we sculpt the form and probe its limits, in order to generate versatility and further develop skills of adaptability in the long run?  

 

Drawing inspiration from architectural composition and cinematographic tools, the workshop employs task-based improvisation with body and voice.

This is a mapping process, where movement situations, such as transfigurating habitual movement patterns and exploring how simple tasks can be transformed into expressive choices will be skillfully visited. These movement situations are defined as playful sculptures: we will perpetually enter and exit game-like circumstances either individually, in couples or groups, in order to stimulate the nervous system, build stamina, and enhance motor skills.

We will borrow terms from the arts of cinema (dolly shot, pacing, depth of field, zoom-in/-out, framing, wide vs POV shot) and architecture (Physical, Perceptual, Directional, and Interwoven Space) and experiment with complex rhythms, coordinations and elastic footwork. Continuity is central: energy flows through the body’s capacity to compartmentalize, allowing sustained movement without tension or exhaustion.

Every movement, choice, and transformation is intentional, encouraging reflection on how tasks can stimulate ideas for character-building proposals, express narratives, and shape personal methodologies. Through the inextricable relationship between space, time, and the moving body, physical exercises are explored in depth while preserving a sense of curiosity and playfulness. The concept of self-mastery is understood as something broader than training alone: it is about finding ways through critical thinking to potentially design a personal practice that integrates tools only to enhance each participant’s unique artistic strengths and visions. In this process, being fully present, as authentically as possible, is fundamental. 

Sculpting Body-Images is ultimately a storytelling practice: it is about approaching the moving body from a 360° perspective and consciously choosing how, what, and why we communicate with the world. By deconstructing and reconstructing micro dancing universes, we will invest in the conscious act of applied physical practice while simultaneously cultivating a caring, judgment-free community, where all members are encouraged to embrace their individuality and weave their unique artistic voices. All stories matter—they nourish our interactions with others and deepen our connection with ourselves.

 

Facilitator’s Bio

Penelope Morout (GR-FR), founder of CROSS IMPACT Company, is an interdisciplinary dance artist, intrigued by creating hybrid projects through the fusion of various performing and visual art mediums. Graduated from 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), her artistic identity lies on a durational creative process, during which academic and artistic research are intrinsically connected with her movement practice. Her latest performance EMOTIONAL DOGS was realized under the auspices and the financial support of the Greek Ministry of Culture and, continuing having the support of the latter, is scheduled to tour during 2025.

Penelope works constantly between Greece and abroad as a performer, choreographer, dance teacher and scenographer. As a filmmaker she has participated in exhibitions and video dance & dance animation festivals worldwide. As an educator, she has shaped her own movement practice “Sculpting Body-Images”, which she shares around the world (PERA GAU School of Performing Arts, Munus Encuentro Mexico, Nunart Guinardó Barcelona, Points to Play Mulhouse, Akropoditi International Dance and Performing Arts Festival Syros, Unplugged Dance Lefkada, Kalamata International Dance Festival). Penelope implements in her teaching methodology elements inspired by “Fighting Monkey”, a practice by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek, with whom she has been training for 15 years.

 

 

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