CHORÓS

The workshop includes weekly lessons in DANCE and rhythmic movement related to the choreographic traditions of Southern Italy, addressing the study of the basic dynamics of the Tarantellas of traditional cultures of the South: these are mainly couple dances, but there are also tarantellas in four, in a circle or in parade (such as the Montemaranese). In each of their variations, the dance and the rhythm on the drum (and in some cases also the songs) are inextricably intertwined, creating a continuous dialogue between dancers and musicians: we will study the Ballittu from Peloritani (Sicily), the Tarantella from Calabria, the Tarantella Montemaranese, Pizzica from Apulia and the Tarantellas from Gargano, the Tammurriate from Campania and other dances, together with introductory elements to the pedagogy of the group and movement.
The dance lessons are open to everyone.

TEACHER: Barbara Crescimanno, with the collaboration of Giuseppe Paradiso and Roberta Megna.
LESSONS: every Tuesday from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. The free trial lesson will be held the last week of September, and the courses will start in October.
COSTS: 70 euros per month or 150 euros for three months. The same discount is guaranteed to those who decide to take two or more different types of courses together (such as singing and drumming; and for those who are curious, on Mondays there are BALFOLK lessons). Reduced cost of 25% for under 25s (discounts cannot be combined).

Frame drums are among the most representative musical instruments of Southern Italy. Born as ritual instruments, over time they have become the most characteristic element of traditional dances of Southern Italy, allowing the development of numerous regional and sub-regional techniques, each with its own stylistic and technical-executive peculiarity.
The course will focus on the study of the main techniques: Sicilian techniques ‘a la fimminina’, Calabrian techniques, Salento and Gargano techniques, Montemarano technique and tammurriate from Campania, up to the very virtuoso Sicilian male technique and the various modern and improvisation techniques that conceive the drum as a percussion capable of reproducing any rhythmic pattern.

The drum technique lessons are open to everyone, divided into different levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

TEACHER: Michele Piccione
LESSONS: the lesson schedule will be defined when the classes are formed: the free trial lesson will be held the last week of September and the courses will start in October. COSTS: 70 euros per month or 150 euros for three months. The same discount is guaranteed to those who decide to follow two or more different courses together.
Reduced cost of 25% for under 25s (discounts cannot be combined).

A bimonthly intensive weekend workshop - open to all - curated by Davide Ambrogio with the project VOCI IN ASCOLTO is dedicated to the work on the voice and the sung repertoire.
The aim of Voci In Ascolto is to delve deeper into the instrument-voice through songs from the oral tradition repertoire of different parts of Italy. In live meetings, the study of these polyphonies gives the opportunity to know and learn new aesthetic and interpretative elements, so as to be able to enrich one's musical vocabulary in technical and artistic terms.
The melodic, timbric, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of the songs are analyzed through an oral approach focused mainly on play, imitation, improvisation and the development of memory linked to sound and words without the aid of texts and scores.

SCHEDULE: the first two meetings will be held on October 26-27 and December 21-22 (see events for registration).
COSTS: 60 euros for a single workshop or 120 euros for three workshops (the date of the third meeting is being defined for February 2025). The same discount is guaranteed to those who decide to follow the dance or drum workshops in addition to the singing courses. Reduced cost of 25% for under 25s (discounts cannot be combined).

Davide Ambrogio (born in 1990) is a Calabrian singer and multi-instrumentalist. After winning the Premio Loano Giovani with Linguamadre, and the Musica contro le Mafie and Ethnos Gener/Azioni 2020 awards as a soloist, in 2021 he presents his debut album Evocazioni e Invocazioni.
Already included in the Transglobal Music Chart and the World Music Chart Europe, the album was awarded by Songlines Magazine for the Top of The World Album of November 2021.

An advanced level workshop on the FRAME DRUM technique led by Nando Brusco will be held one weekend every three months; it is open to those who have at least one year of practice on the instrument.
The workshop is a time for in-depth study in which a path of rhythmic-theatrical research and experimentation will be developed. The first possible space for this practice is the body: the exploration of the various rhythmic possibilities used by a body-in-presence in space will create the conditions for the beginning of a new awareness, a new executive and musical approach on the second possible space: the drum.

Some points of the work program:
- warm-up and movement in space
- rhythmic cycles in movement and tripartite division of feet, hands, voice
- use of pauses, accents and polyrhythms
- posture, balance, and knowledge of the drum
- movement and attitude of the hands
- rhythmic interpretation.

SCHEDULE: the first of the three workshops will be held on November 23-24 (see event for registration).
COSTS: 70 euros per workshop or 150 euros for three workshops (the 2025 calendar is being defined). The same discount is guaranteed to those who decide to follow two or more courses together.
Reduced cost of 25% for under 25s (discounts cannot be combined).

Nando Brusco trained in the Calabrian folk music scene. He is interested in dialect poetry, traditional music and dance, anthropology and history of popular traditions.
The rhythmic aspect connected to this world leads him to collaborate with multiple folk music groups as a dancer. From this experience he understands the deep connection to the instrument that generates his movements: the drum.
In the early 2000s, he began a real course of studies with some of the greatest masters, in search of its multiple sounds and expressive possibilities. In addition to numerous musical and recording projects, he takes part in important music and theatre festivals - Festiwal Opowiadaczy (Lublin), Natividad de Encuentro (Madrid), Spore Initiative (Berlin), Radicondoli Arte (Siena), Festival Resistenza (Reggio Emilia, where he won the Audience Award and Under 30 Jury Award), International Storytelling Festival (Rome).

As part of the dissemination activities of the Chorós project, a series of lessons in narrative/musical form is planned, accompanied by images and videos: a series of theoretical meetings for further study - on historical, anthropological, ethnomusicological aspects. The seminars, periodically associated with choral practice meetings, are open to all and free of charge.
Themes (calendar to be defined):
- Origins, history and iconography of the frame drum in the Mediterranean area, Friday 15 November 2024;
- The relationship between dance, rhythm and non-ordinary states of consciousness (shamans and shamanism), January 2025;
- The female percussionists of antiquity: Nymphs, Muses, Bacchae, Sirens, Goddesses, priestesses, March 2025;
- Mediterranean tarantism: an initiatory-musical ritual, May 2025;
- Gender roles in the history of the frame drum, June 2025.

The CHORÓS Practice Laboratory is a theatrical training course that uses the techniques and repertoires of dances and rhythms of southern Italy as tools for building a ‘Greek chorus’ to combine work on voice, dance and drums. The chorus of tragedy in the classical period was made up of men only, yet it was born on the archetype of the choruses of Nymphs and Muses, from which the initiatory choruses of young women and men of the archaic Greek world also derive. Alongside the Greek theatres of Syracuse and Taormina we find sanctuaries dedicated to the Nymphs, where offerings were collected from the actors, chorus members and the public who went to attend the sacred performances; but before men took exclusive possession of the ritual place where the stories of the community were told, women were the original percussionists, dancers, singers and storytellers.
The workshop is divided into nine meetings - one weekend per month - from October 2024 to June 2025.

Each meeting is structured as a path in itself and is focused on different theatrical themes and practices (see detailed program); however, the sequence of the nine meetings designs a path that goes from the simplest to the most complex level, allowing those who will be present from the beginning to the end to understand the techniques at an increasingly deeper level, and to master them to participate in the final performance.

Starting from the body, we will work on:
- physical perception, posture, proxemics in space, the use of dance steps and body movement as a means of relationship and expression;
- the use of the body as percussion;
- breathing and the ability to vocally produce articulated, melodic and rhythmic sounds, the exploration of choral expression and the soloist;
- on the integration of frame drum techniques and the repertoire of traditional songs from southern Italy in choreographic movement and theatrical actions.

The proposed work - integrated with the personal skills and abilities of the participants - will favor the creation and artistic expression conceived in a group, to learn to deal with the mechanisms of collective production, rather than those of a solo performer. This work methodology is the basis of communication and community creation mechanisms; the comparison between different skills, ages and levels of training is one of the peculiarities of the Chorós pedagogical method: training in the creation of inclusive spaces and contexts for comparison and mutual support are always accompanied by technical work modulated in classes of different levels: even those who have never (yet) danced, sung or played a drum can participate. Clearly, the weekly lessons and the monthly drum, dance and voice meetings are preparatory to the Chorós performative path. The meetings are open to all.

TEACHER: Barbara Crescimanno, in collaboration with the students of the advanced class of the Chorós project.
SCHEDULE: the first trimester meetings will be held on the weekends of October 11-13, November 15-17, December 13-15.
For the work program and registration, see the description in the events.
COSTS: 100 euros per month or 240 euros per trimester. The same discount is guaranteed to those who decide to take two or more courses together.
Reduced cost of 25% for under 25s (discounts cannot be combined).