Improvlab
with Nikoleta Xenariou
Movement & Improvisation Workshop
The body, beyond its material structure—bones, muscles, organs—is approached as a vessel of experience, where sensation, instinct, imagination, and memory are all in play. We cultivate a constant dialogue between the physical body and the intangible experiences it holds.
Through improvisational exercises, we find pathways from anatomy to poetry, from everyday movement to abstraction. The “intelligent” body we seek becomes a primary tool for the performer/dancer/actor—a body that is present, responsive, and ready to interact with its surroundings and with other bodies at any moment.
The main goals of the workshop are to develop the participant's bodily awareness and to create “empty space” by shifting perception to new dimensions of movement. A key aim is to replace self-criticism with fertile self-observation. Additional, but equally important objectives include improving alertness, enhancing the ability to make instant decisions and actions, and stimulating the imagination.
The teaching method is laboratory-based, requiring physical presence and a willingness to interact and experiment.
The structure includes three parts:
a) Warm-up (arrival)
b) Communication exercises
c) Guided improvisation tasks or short compositions
We will focus on the senses, energy centers, and the performative coexistence of the group—within a framework of playful uncertainty!
The workshop is intended for students, professionals, and experienced amateurs in the broader field of performing arts.
For more information and registrations: tomikrostudio.aigina@gmail.com
Wednesday 19:00-21:00
Nikoleta Xeneriou is a distinguished graduate of the Greek National School of Dance and holds a BA in Dance from the Rotterdam Dance Academy.
As a performer, she has collaborated with choreographers and directors such as Konstantinos Rigos (Dance Theatre of the National Theatre of Northern Greece, National Theatre of Greece), Sofia Mavragani (Fingersix/Athens), Amalia Bennet (National Theatre of Northern Greece), Argyro Chioti (Vasistas), Eleni Georgopoulou (POLIS), and Maria Gorgia (Amalgama). She has also worked extensively in movement direction for theatrical productions.
Her artistic practice extends to improvisational performances and interdisciplinary experiments with musicians and other artists. She has been teaching contemporary dance and improvisation since 2004 and has been a movement and improvisation instructor at the Dilos Higher School of Dramatic Art since 2007.
In December 2018, she taught as part of the course "Methods of Technical Preparation of the Actor: Theory and Practice", within the MA Program "Theatre and Society: Theory, Performance, and Teaching" at the Department of Theatre Studies, University of the Pelopon- nese.
As a researcher and performer, she participated in Mystery 20: Performing Arts Initiator – Narrative Archaeology, an artistic project exploring the performative qualities of cultural heritage sites, curated and directed by Gemma Hansson Carbone in the archaeological site of Eleusis, within the framework of Eleusis 2023 – European Capital of Culture.
She is a founding member of FINGERSIX/Athens, a company dedicated to the research and dissemination of the performing arts, and part of the organizing team for Tsak Bam Festival, an independent festival of contemporary arts.
Since 2012, she has been living in Aegina, where she also raises her two children.