Lisi Estaras

Monkey Mind and Alain Platel

Dance as a universal language  

In this workshop, Lisi Estaras draws on her collaboration with Alain Platel. She translates twenty years of experience into her own personal signature. How can dance become a universal language that makes room for all bodies, stories and perspectives?  

Professionals and dance enthusiasts – with or without disabilities – come together to explore a shared language of movement. You start from your own body and unique way of moving. Using the Monkey Mind method, you transform a stream of thoughts and emotions into language, rhythm and choreography. We actively search for creativity and let choice, energy and freedom steer the process.

Individual challenges and group dynamics flow into one another. Roles shift: you learn from each other and inspire each other. Step by step, a collective dance language emerges. Raw, exciting and transformative.

Teacher

Lisi Estaras has built an impressive international career. Since 1997, she has been closely connected to laGeste (formerly les ballets C de la B), where she developed her own choreographic voice alongside performing in iconic works by Alain Platel and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. She worked as a choreographer and coach for various theatres and companies. 

In recent years, her focus has shifted increasingly toward inclusive and collaborative creations. Monkey Mind (2016), featuring three dancers with Down syndrome for Platform K, became a turning point in her artistic trajectory and laid the foundation for her ongoing research into feeling, doing and moving. Building on this method, she has created works such as #THISISBEAUTY (2022), A Bigger Thing (2022), What We Can Do Together (2024), Crudo (2024) and Pasos en la Noche (2025). 

Accessibility

• The workshop can be physically demanding, but can be adapted to suit your own abilities
• The workshop is accessible to wheelchair users
• The ability to memorise long phrases or structures is not a requirement