Sculpting Body-Images with Penelope Morout

Sculpting Body-Images is an intensely physical movement workshop that invites participants to deepen their awareness of the body as a vehicle for poetic expression, and of dance as a form of intelligent practice.

Over this WILD three-week intensive, participants are encouraged to offer, observe, and perceive the moving body through the idea of “playful sculptures.” While the skin may first seem to define the body’s boundaries, approaching the body as a dynamic instrument in constant transformation opens the door to new possibilities.

How can form be shaped and its limits explored in order to cultivate versatility and strengthen adaptability over time?

Inspired by architectural composition and cinematic tools, the workshop uses task-based improvisation with both body and voice.

This process functions as a mapping practice, where movement situations — such as transforming habitual patterns and discovering how simple tasks can become expressive choices — are explored with precision. These situations are treated as playful sculptures, and participants repeatedly enter and exit game-like conditions, individually, in pairs, or in groups, to stimulate the nervous system, build stamina, and refine motor skills.

The work draws vocabulary from cinema, including dolly shot, pacing, depth of field, zoom-in/zoom-out, framing, and wide versus POV shot, as well as from architecture through the concepts of Physical, Perceptual, Directional, and Interwoven Space. Complex rhythms, coordination, and elastic footwork are also part of the exploration. Continuity remains central, with energy flowing through the body’s ability to compartmentalize, supporting sustained movement without tension or exhaustion.

Each movement, decision, and transformation is intentional, inviting reflection on how tasks can generate ideas for character-building proposals, express narratives, and shape individual methodologies. Through the close relationship between space, time, and the moving body, participants examine physical exercises in depth while preserving curiosity and playfulness. Self-mastery here extends beyond training alone: it is about using critical thinking to design a personal practice that gathers tools in service of each participant’s unique artistic strengths and vision. Being fully present, as authentically as possible, is essential.

Ultimately, Sculpting Body-Images is a storytelling practice. It approaches the moving body from a 360° perspective and asks how, what, and why we communicate with the world. By deconstructing and rebuilding micro dancing universes, the workshop supports conscious physical practice while fostering a caring, non-judgmental community where individuality is welcomed and unique artistic voices can unfold. All stories matter — they enrich our relationships with others and deepen our connection to ourselves.

Facilitator's Bio

Penelope Morout (GR-FR), founder of CROSS IMPACT Company, is an interdisciplinary dance artist interested in hybrid projects that bring together performing and visual art forms. She graduated from the National School of Dance in Athens and the National Technical University of Athens – School of Architecture, and holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Practices from ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands. Her artistic identity is rooted in a durational creative process in which academic and artistic research are closely linked to her movement practice. Her latest performance, EMOTIONAL DOGS, was created with the support and financial backing of the Greek Ministry of Culture and, with continued support, is scheduled to tour in 2025.

Penelope works internationally between Greece and abroad as a performer, choreographer, dance teacher, and scenographer. As a filmmaker, she has taken part in exhibitions and video dance and dance animation festivals around the world. As an educator, she has developed her own movement practice, Sculpting Body-Images, which she shares globally at institutions and festivals including 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, and Kalamata International Dance Festival. Her teaching methodology also incorporates elements inspired by Fighting Monkey, the practice created by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek, with whom she has trained for 15 years.