2025 Athens Dance workshop
THE ART OF DUNCAN & DELSARTE
2-week workshop
March 31 - April 12, 2025
Isadora and Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center,
34 Chrysafis Street, 162 32 Byrons, Athens
With Francesca Todesco (USA), Joe Williams (USA)
and members of Dances We Dance/Performing Ensemble
Following the remarkable success of last year's inaugural event, Francesca and Joe will return to Athens in 2025 for an immersive workshop, expanding on the foundational work of François Delsarte and Isadora Duncan approaches. This workshop will continue to challenge participants to explore and practice the full potential of human expression through movement.
EXPLORE THE LEGACY OF ISADORA DUNCAN: Isadora Duncan, a revolutionary thinker and cultural icon, ignited the flames of modernism over a century ago. Her pioneering "release" technique, rooted in breath and driven by the spirit, offers a timeless approach to movement. In this workshop, participants will dive into the living history of modern dance, gaining both a physical and intellectual understanding of the origins of contemporary theater and dance. Through specific exercises, passed down by generations of Duncan dancers, you'll explore the ecstatic and liberating nature of Duncan's art. This authentic material is examined and informed by a contemporary perspective reflecting the dance/movement backgrounds of the instructor. Each session will culminate in selected excerpts from Duncan’s repertoire, shedding light on her use of music, movement, and imagery.
Discover FRANCOIS DELSARTE's System of Expression: Delsarte's system forms the foundation for all performing artists, unlocking the power of human expression through an in-depth analysis of natural movement. Both the Delsarte and Duncan techniques emphasize the free flow of energy throughout the body, creating a dynamic interplay between motion and emotion. This workshop will help you tap into more grace, power, and expressive potential than you ever thought possible.
Who Should Attend? This workshop is open to adults of all levels. Whether you're a dancer looking to refine your movement expression or a non-dancer curious about Duncan's movement and Delsarte's system, this course welcomes you. No prior experience is required, just a passion for discovering and deepening your understanding of these historical techniques. For those who wish to dive deeper, private or semi-private sessions will also be available, providing more personalized attention to a specific repertory piece.
Special Features:
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Repertoire Showings: Students who enroll in the full workshop, including afternoon repertory rehearsals, will participate in a student showing on Saturday, April 12. This performance will showcase selected works from Duncan’s repertory, as well as contemporary interpretations inspired by her legacy. This year’s theme will focus on dances set to music by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
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Flexible Participation: While attending the full workshop is highly recommended for an optimal learning experience, participants may also choose to attend for one week or even single classes.
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Private Sessions: there will be a selected few hours dedicate to private to semi-private sessions, where you can learn details of a piece of choreography. Space is very limited. Additional fees apply.
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Additional activities: if you want to show your work, present a lecture or plan an outing, Friday afternoons will be reserved just for us!
Registration:
Space is limited, so early registration is recommended. Please wear comfortable clothing (a tunic, if available), and be ready to dance barefoot.
Dances We Dance, Inc is a member of International Dance Council CID and offers an International Certification of Dance Studies for all students.
CLASS SCHEDULE (subject to change)
WEEK 1: Monday-Friday March 31- April 4:
10:00am-11:00am (10h to 11h) – adult open Delsarte class
11:15am-1:00pm (11h15 to 13h) – adult open Duncan class
1:00pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
1:30pm-3:30pm (13h30 to 15h30) – repertory rehearsal* (Mon-Thur)
1:30pm-3:30pm (13h30 to 15h30) – showings, lectures or outings (Fri)
3:30pm-5:00pm (15h30 to 17h) - company rehearsal or private sessions
after 5:00 pm (17h) - young adults and children classes times (Duncan Center students only)
WEEK 2: Monday-Friday April 7-12:
10:00am-11:00am (10h to 11h) – adult open Delsarte class
11:15am-1:00pm (11h15 to 13h) – adult open Duncan class
1:00pm-1:30pm Lunch Break
1:30pm-3:30pm (13h30 to 15h30) – repertory rehearsal* (Mon-Thur)
1:30pm-3:30pm (13h30 to 15h30) – showings, lectures or outings (Fri)
3:30pm-5:00pm (15h30 to 17h) - company rehearsal or private sessions
after 5:00 pm (17h) - young adults and children classes times (Duncan Center students only)
*These rehearsals are for students registered for the Full Workshop (one or two weeks).
SATURDAY April 12
Approx times:
12:00pm-2:00pm (12h to 14h) – open Duncan class/all ages
2:30pm-3:30pm (14h30 to 15h30) Rehearsal with all participants
4:00pm (16h00) Young student showing
6:30pm (18h30) all to warm up together
7:30pm (19h30) DwD Company & Students Showing (free event)
Adds-On:
We want you to express the full potential of your creativity. We will allow some time for the following activities:
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private repertory coaching (semi or private) (additional fee)
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showcasing your dance during rehearsal hours
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participate in company rehearsal (be part of one of the dances)
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video/oral presentations (volunteer to do present your research)
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museum or historical site visit
FEES:
Full Workshop (includes all classes + repertory rehearsals participation or watch)
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Full 2-week workshop/package discount $770 (best value!)
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First week only (5 days) $360
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Second week only (6 days) $435
Classes only (Monday-Friday 10:00am-1:00pm + Saturday 4/12)
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Full 2-week classes/package discount $530
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1st week only (5 days) $250
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2nd week only (6 days) $300
Single Call Rate $25 per class (Delsarte 10am-11am/Duncan 11:15am-1:00pm)
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$25 USD/ 25€ EUR
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$20 USD/ 20€ EUR for Greece residents
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$15 USD/ 15€ EUR for Byron residents
Private or Semi-Private Repertory Coaching Sessions (limited space)
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$50 USD/ 50€ EUR per hour| Cash only
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$35 USD/ 35€ EUR per hour| Per person|Cash only (2-3 pp max)
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$25 USD/ 25€ EUR per hour| Per person|Cash only (4-5 pp max)
Private or semi-private Duncan repertory sessions or Delsarte sessions (groups of 4 or less) are scheduled in advance or during the first week of classes. Contact francesca@danceswedance.org if you are interested in reserving a spot. Each lesson runs from 30min to 1 hour max.
Greece residents: please contact Evgenia Sideri evgeniasoul@gmail.com for discount rates and fees in Euros
Workshop Fees include:
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Daily François Delsarte classes with Joe Williams
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Daily Isadora Duncan Dance classes with Francesca Todesco and members of DWD/Performing Ensemble
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Afternoon rehearsals of selected Duncan repertory (if full workshop is selected)
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Studio Showing on Saturday April 12, 2025 at the Duncan Center
Workshop Fees does NOT include:
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Round-trip airfare and Accommodations in Athens (there are many choices of Airbnb’s available at a decent price)
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Meals
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Private or Semi-Private classes (separate fees)
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Tickets to visiting sites
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All transportation
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Insurance
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Visa (if applicable)
HOW TO REGISTER
Registration forms & Payments
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Fill out the registration form + Liability waiver (click on 'register here' link below)
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Choose a method of payment below or email francesca@danceswedance.org to arrange payment options (see below)
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Book your airline ticket!
PLEASE FILL OUT + SUBMIT THESE FORMS
Methods of payments accepted
International Students (outside the U.S.) - PLEASE DO NOT USE PAYPAL! or you will be asked to add $30 transaction fee
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Wise.com ➠ payments in US Dollars only. It's very easy to set up, you will need to create an account with Wise. You can click on this link to set up an account. INVITATION TO JOIN WISE.COM: https://wise.com/invite/dnsc/francescat242
YOU CAN PAY USING 2 OPTIONS:
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1) Once you chose your desire classes, you can request an invoice (please email Francesca about fees, payment plans etc)
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2) Pay directly on wise.com. After you created an account with Wise, search Francesca Todesco or francesca@danceswedance.org, enter the full amount in US dollars and sent it. Contact Francesca for any issues: francesca@danceswedance.org
INVITATION TO JOIN WISE.COM: https://wise.com/invite/dnsc/francescat242
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Cash (Euros or Dollars accepted)
U.S. Residents only 🇺🇸
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Credit Card or Paypal (use coupon codes for early bird payments)
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Venmo* @Francesca-Todesco (no fee)
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Wise.com (see above)
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Check made payable to Dances We Dance, Inc
Please send an email to francesca@danceswedance.org for address
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Cash (Euros or Dollars accepted)
➠Full or partial payments prior to March 15, 2025 will guarantee a place in the workshop. However, spots are limited, sign up soon!
➠Payment plans available - contact francesca@danceswedance.org to set it up
CANCELLATION POLICY
Partial or full payment guarantees you a place in the workshop. Participant who cancels prior to March 15, 2025, will receive full refund of their payment, after that, full refund less 20% cancellation fee. No refunds will be granted for cancellations after March 31, 2025. Dances We Dance reserves the right Dances We Dance the right to cancel any portion of the program, in which case participants will be refunded in full.
For further info please contact Francesca Todesco: francesca@danceswedance.org
Greece 🇬🇷 residents: please contact Evgenia Sideri: evgeniasoul@gmail.com
What participants say:
Masterfully led and community focused, the workshop surpassed my expectations in fostering creative expression, connection with others, technical skills, and performance readiness. Such a joy! Mary N.
The Duncan/Delsarte workshop facilitates connection between the mind, body, and community in a way that reminded me why I call myself a dancer. The process of learning through Duncan/Delsarte leaves the dancer finding beauty within themselves.
Cecilia M.
Wonderfully inspiring, beautiful choice of repertoire and balance between Duncan technique and choreography, energy of modern dance in the Duncan framework. Jacqueline W.
It was an workshop full of generosity, authenticity and professionalism in learning. C’était pour moi une douce parenthèse dans ma vie. Solène B.
It was an amazing experience. I learned so much from the combine teaching of Delsarte and Duncan. It was very nice to have 2 weeks of work, I felt a deep work and change in my body. Julie D.
A magnificent, benevolent Isadorian session, sharing with dancers from all over the world, with Francesca and the magnificent “Dance We Dance” dance company, in an emblematic place that resonates with the spirit Isadora and of ancient Greece philosophy and arts! Tieri
Bios
Dances We Dance/Performing Ensemble (DWD) was formed in 2020 by Francesca Todesco, with a company of dancers whose purpose is creating new works as well as revive and perform repertory pieces. Our mission includes promoting and preserving the work of Isadora Duncan, creating a new generation of dancers in order to further her artistic and educational principles of movement and dance.
Artistic Director Francesca Todesco's dance background is deeply ingrained in American Modern Dance, from Isadora Duncan to Anna Sokolow, Humphrey/Limón and others. For this reason a substantial effort is dedicated to supporting, reconstructing and presenting these important works.
Since its debut, DWD has presented two New York seasons, performed in several events and has taught Duncan workshops in the U.S. and abroad.
We are thrilled to join efforts with Joe Williams to explore the deep connections with Delsarte studies in Duncan movement and offer a live sharing, particularly in this magical place, the Duncan's Temple of the Arts.
Francesca Todesco (U.S.A.) (Artistic Director, DWD) is a New York-based dancer and educator, with extensive training in the Sokolow, Humphrey-Limón, and Duncan techniques, bringing a wealth of experience in both performance and education. She credits her training to esteemed teachers such as Jim May (recipient of the Martha Hill Award for lifetime achievement), Catherine Gallant, Loretta Thomas, Betty Jones, Fritz Ludin, Gail Corbin, and Debra Carr. Francesca joined Catherine Gallant/DANCE & Dances by Isadora in 2000, and since then has performed and taught Isadora Duncan’s works internationally. She has collaborated with numerous choreographers and companies in New York City, including Deborah Carr Theatre Dance Ensemble and Rae Ballard’s Thoughts in Motion. From 2003 to 2019, Francesca danced with the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble and continues to assist with archives and the reconstruction of Ms. Sokolow’s repertory. In addition, Francesca has organized a series of workshops focused on Historical Modern Dance, inviting master teachers to share their knowledge. She also ran her children’s program, Every Little Movement, in Hoboken for over 10 years. An internationally sought-after teacher and coach, Francesca has recently worked with groups in London, Paris, and Athens. In addition to directing DWD, she teaches Isadora Duncan exploration classes to adults in Manhattan and and collaborates with Barbara Kane/IDDG in London and Aurélie Berland in Paris. In 2020 she started her own company, Dances We Dance.
www.danceswedance.org - contact: francesca@danceswedance.org.
Joe Williams (U.S.A.) Researching Delsarte’s studies of human behavior and expression since 1995, and teaching since 1997, Joe Williams is currently the world’s leading practitioner of the Delsarte system. He has taught Delsarte’s work at conservatories and conferences around the world, including the Juilliard School, Cincinnati Conservatory, National Center of Dance in Paris. His students are in leadership positions in the Paul Taylor Company, Parsons Dance, Hit the Lights! Theater, Renaissance Theater of Ohio, and our own Dances We Dance. Joe is particularly respected for bringing Delsarte’s teaching into the modern world, and demonstrating its applicability to not only theatrical expression but to family, social, and professional life for anyone. We believe you will be deeply enriched by exploring how this body of information can give you new insights into the work of great masters who used it, like Duncan, and inspire your own powerful creativity at the same time.
Teachers will include members of Dances We Dance/Performing Ensemble. Click here for bios.
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Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)
Isadora Duncan, born in San Francisco in 1877, was a pioneer in her presentation and approach to movement in the art of dance. She liberated dance from the confines of the ballet of her time, shedding ballet slippers and corset to combine the use of simple, natural movement. She sought a movement vocabulary that would illuminate the human spirit and its connection to nature. She was the first to choreograph to music not originally written for dance, including the works of such composers as Chopin, Brahms, Schubert and Scriabin. Duncan's career was marker by controversy as American audiences took exception to her bare limbs and bold approach to music and movement. She took her determination and boundless spirit to Europe, and later to Russia where she met and inspired some of the great artists and poets of her time.
As no films or notation of Isadora's dances were made until long after her death in 1927, her choreography has been preserved through the teaching on one generation of Duncan dancers to the next. After realizing her dream of establishing a school of dance, Isadora legally adopted six of ther most gifted students (Anna, Irma, Lisa, Margot, Erica, Marie-Theresa) who were fondly called the "Isadorables". These six women became the teachers of a third generation of Duncan dancers, among them Julia Levien, Hortense Kooluris, Gemze DeLappe, and Sylvia Gold. In turn these women have taught a new generation of Duncan dancers, and the cycle continues to this day. www.isadoraduncanarchives.org
François Delsarte (1811-1871)
François Delsarte was a student at the Paris Conservatory, who, unsatisfied with the entirely subjective and posed style of acting taught at the Conservatory, (his singing voice, he believed, had been ruined in previous years by the music department), began an intensive study of how humans actually moved, behaved and responded to a multitude of circumstances. His “Science of Applied Aesthetics” was a thorough examination of voice, breath, movement dynamics, line and form, and virtually all the elements of the body in their roles as expressive agents of the human impulses, mind, spirit, and vital instinct. His lectures were attended by the most famous people of his era. It seemed a window into the deeper mysteries of art had been opened. Contemporary thought might recognize that he had uncovered the world of archetypes, and universal symbolism, but modern psychological theory was not to arrive for many more years.
What is the real Delsarte System of Expression?
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A complete and universally accurate map of the symbolic meanings of most parts of the body and of basic human movement patterns. It is based on fundamental laws of physics and on the ancient wisdom of yoga, cabala and hermetic traditions.
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A system of body training to awaken the innate athletic prowess and expressive power of the human body. The system consists of:
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Relaxing exercises to eliminate tension and ready the reflexes.
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Exercises in balance to harmonize all parts of the body, and base all strength and power in the security of poised and balanced motion.
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Exploration of universal meaning in the body according to the body's basic nature to express itself as Body, Mind and Spirit.
Delsarte is the source material for much of the work of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Denis, Ted Shawn, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Etienne Decroux, among others. Delsarte lacked our modern vocabulary, and used different words, (Vital, Mental and Moral), but his intent was clear.
He observed that if Body, Mind and Spirit: are our three basic impulses, it follows that:
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All human movement has to be inspired by one or a combination of these three.
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Every part of the body that willfully moves or gestures must contain all three and be able to show all three
If that makes sense to you, you have found a starting point for understanding Delsarte's philosophy of human expression. A training in Delsarte awakens the student to the basic expressive meaning of every part of the body.
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Any student becomes empowered to better understand the forces of life, and their own self expression and that of those around them.
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If you are a dancer, you will have a powerful tool for understanding choreography and styles, and for creating dance yourself.
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If you are an actor you will awaken the unconscious power of your body for expressing your creativity and responding to other actors.
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The singer empowers gesture to reveal depth and subtext.
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The yogi finds the intensely practical and tangible side of the normally esoteric "body, mind, spirit" trinity.
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The painter or sculptor finds universal tools for recreating emotion and expression in their medium.
Source: The Delsarte Project
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