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Rafaela Sahyoun – The Body The Player The Journey

The workshop by Aya Toraiwa is cancelled and will be replaced by The Body The Player The Journey by Rafaela Sahyoun.

The Body The Player The Journey invites participants to embody their authenticity—offering a pathway to modulate the dancing through mechanisms of perception, connecting each individual to their own personal and collective landscapes.

The exploration of movement begins by unfolding the web of connections within our living body and its interrelational systems (at this moment, expect lots of images!). From our dynamic sensorimotor network, we orchestrate the body by scanning information from both inner and outer connections.

This process involves accessing and expanding a repertoire of adaptive responses that connect with cognitive, sensorial, subjective, and imagetic layers—drawing on available resources that emerge from personal bodily experiences.

The work focuses on the mobility of the body through an integrative lens—investigating how its parts intrinsically interact, respond, and resonate, creating a dynamic structure of interplay.

Through frameworks such as improvisation, scores, games, and procedures rooted in the fields of perception, people will be exposed to and experience the following principles.

(1) sensitive & systemic mapping of the body, (2) multidimensionality, (3) gravity & body axis, (4) distribution of tension & modulations of tone, (5) the folds of the body, (6) the fabulous universe of spirals, (7) asymmetry, and (8) body pulsations & impact absorption.

Perceiving and listening to the rhythmic landscape of the body—hacking habitual patterns to access information from the present, the individuals, and the contextual space around us—we witness, hold space, and charge a large spectrum of shape-shifting sensations within the ever-evolving decision-making instances.

The Body The Player The Journey sets the ground for the interplay of people—moving what pulses within and between each other—an invitation to co-create with every participant a vibrant space for potential, inspiration, exchange, and support.

 

What to Expect from The Body The Player The Journey

• An immersive playground of movement exploration
• An investigation of the term interconnection in extended aspects
• Guided pathways to expand and deepen sensory awareness
• References, anatomical images, texts, and tactile experiences
• Co-creation of a space for inspiration, exchange, and support
• A playful yet profound journey through movement and the environment
• Opening many doors to revisit our bias and interact with different perspectives 
• A dance space free of judgment—an invitation to try, test, experiment, and play
• A shared space rooted in consent and care
• Exploration of possibilities, potentials, desires, and questions while creating new memories
• And yes! A grooving field to dance, with a curated musical set!

Rafaela Sahyoun is a Latin American artist from São Paulo, working as a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She spirals through these roles within the relational landscapes of performative practices in context-driven co-elaborations. In Brazil and abroad, she is strongly inclined toward hybrid art practices within the multicultural social fabric.

As an educator, she has developed an in-depth pedagogical framework of dance-oriented practices that continuously unfold through research and extensive facilitation. Her work spans dance undergraduate and postgraduate education, professional dance and theater companies, cultural centers, and other artistic platforms. In addition to teaching, she was invited to curate the pedagogical program for the 2025 Out of the Toolbox – Dance Workshops Summer Festival in Ghent, Belgium.

As a choreographer, she premiered her second production for the renowned company Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, BOCA ABISSAL(2025) following Fôlego (2022), restaged in 2025 at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo — both now part of the company’s touring repertory.

Her active repertory includes CRUSH (2024), which premiered at ARGE Kultur (AT) and Cine Teatro Alba (PT), Sesc Ipiranga (2025) and NINGUÉMMESOLTA (Don’t Lose Me), last staged in Romania at Unfinished Festival. For the past five years, she has annually created choreographic works for PERA School of Performing Arts in Cyprus, with her latest work being The Trouble is Wildly Wet (2024).

 

She graduated from SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, AT) and has been working as a performer since 2012.

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