MANUELA MARTELLA

Axis Syllabus teacher, dance artist, performer, expert in the Axis Syllbaus Notation System, curator, author, designer, polyglot, project coach, and active member of ASRM (Axis Syllabus International Research Meshwork).

She was born in Germany as the daughter of South Italian immigrants from Puglia. She graduated in tailoring, earned a degree in Fashion & Textile Design from NABA in Milan and obtained an MA I in Applied Arts and Artistic Direction at the École Duperré in Paris. She began her dance training at the age of 13.

She is

– co-editor/curator of the Axis Syllabus Bi-monthly Journal www.axissyllabusforum.or

– co-author of the fourth edition of the Axis Syllabus Notation System www.axissyllabusforum.org

– author for REMO Magazione (NL) www.remomagazine.nl

– co-curator of the upRisingUp prformance festival (IT) www.uprisingup.com

– co-curator of the Association La Radice dei Viandanti EST (IT) www.laradicedeiviandanti.org

– co-curator/facilitator of The Teacher’s Program – we are all teaching all the time www.laradicedeiviandanti.org

– co-curator/facilitator of COSMIC an Axis Syllabus laboratory for dance, in Berlin (D) insight-danceworkshops.de

She was

– co-founder of die Synapse Axis Syllabus in NRW Region (D) www.diesynapse.com

– founder of the SkratchAtch project and collective (2012-2014) www.skratchatch.blogspot.com

– creator and director of IUPLA Balance Training (2016-2020) www.iupla.com

She cultivates a interest in anything that can facilitate motor learning and the refinement of movement coordination applied to dance, partnering, and Contact Improvisation. She investigates levels of stress and physical resistance as part of the learning process. Since 2018, solo, duo, or collective performative creations have been an integral part of her research mode. From her previous experiences in the context of Latin American Dance Sport and Fashion, she has also developed an interest in traditional, contemporary, and future male and female codes and role models.

DANCE TRAINING AND SIGNIFICANT TEACHERS

2018 – 2022: Certification process to teach the Axis Syllabus©.

2010 – 2018: Italy / Europe – Independent and continuous study and research in the context of the ASRM (Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork), main teachers that have influenced me: Frey Faust (USA / Germany), Baris Mihci (Turkey), Francesca Pedullà (Italy), Kira Kirsch (Germany)

2010 – 2014: Paris / Europe – CANALDANSE, STUDIO KELLER besides others – Intensive and continuous training in Contact Improvisaton, most significant teachers I have met: Antoine Ragot (France), Nita Little (USA), Nancy Stark Smith (USA), Sara Shelton Mann (USA), Jörn Hassman (Germany), Ray Chung (USA), Martha Rosezno (El Salvador, France).

1995 – 2003: Germany – Latin American Sports Dance – Participation in multiple competions in central Europe, Ukraine and Canada.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMAS AND ACADEMIC STUDIES

2007 – 2009: Paris – MA in Visual Arts and Art Direction at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Applique Duperré. I free myself from conceptualization and the dictation of trends. I look for the essence in things. I replace ambition with curiosity. I work with dancers and create a project and a thesis enitled “Contactitude”. My main philosophical reference is Merleau Ponty.

2004 – 2007: Milan – BA in Fashion and Texile Design at the New Academy of Fine Arts NABA – Acquisition of historical, cultural, social and contemporary knowledge on the codes that define and differentiate the masculine from the feminine. The world of fashion allows me to play, overturn, mix, reinvent these codes. In fashion the body inhabits human conceptual constructions, but it is not inhabited per se.

2001 – 2004: Bielefeld (Germany) Professional diploma in tailoring

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

2024 – to date: TEACHER’S PROGRAM we are all teaching all the time
Yearly training for educators Link >>

2020 – to date: THE AXIS SYLLABUS NOTATION SYSTEM Yearly Online program from September to April Link >>

2014 – to date: Regular classes and intensive Axis Syllabus and Contact improvisation Workshops, in collaboration with The Nomadic College (Italy and France), La Radice dei Viandanti (Ostuni IT), La Luna nel Pozzo (Ostuni IT), L’Exosquelette (Luc-en-Diois, FR), La Luna Dance Center (ANcona IT), Independent organizer (Witten D), die Synapse (Düsseldorf D), Dynamis Studio (Napoli IT), Art&Soul Pilates Studio (Napoli IT), Tanzhaus Düsseldof (Duesseldorf D), Movement Artisans (Berlin D), La Luna Dance Center (Ancona IT), Atelier Hangart (Pesaro IT), Phyldance Studio (Falconara IT), Stiledanza (Falconara IT),

2022 – to date: Private mentoring, Axis Syllabus training and project coaching

2020: DIFFERENT BODIES, DIFFERENT STRATEGIES, an explicitly comparative survey regarding the practical implications and the adaptation of movement principles to the specific parameters of the different morphologies of bodies. Introduction of a new research axis within the Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork. Link >>

2016-2020: IUPLA fit and IUPLAkids Balance Training regular and professional training courses, in collabora on with A&S Music and Wellness (Naples), Indipendance (Urbino), Stiledanza (Falconara), SPAZIO AE (Fano), La Movimenteria Crea va (Fano), Casa of Luce Yoga Studio (Fano), Coop. Labyrinth and MILLEPIEDI (Pesaro) . Link >>

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

Performance sites: upRisingUp Festival (Ostuni IT), Anderson Festival (IT), Festival Esplorare (Monopoli IT), Festa della Luna Piena (Ostuni, IT), Teatro di Comunità (Ostuni IT), Festival della Poesia (Ostuni IT), Hangartfest (Pesaro IT), Outsider Festival (Ostuni IT), Maggio d’Infanzia (Bari IT), ESPLORARE (Monopoli IT), Performance evening at l’Exosquelette (Luc-en-Diois, FR)

2024 – to date (Work in progrss): A dance collection 8 short dance pieces

2025: LES YEUX MI-CLOS in collaboration with Jérôme d’Orso

2025: NIGHT OF BIRDS in collaboration with Frey Faust, Barış Mıhçı, Jérôme d’Orso, Sara Parisi, Francesca Pedullà, Claudia Tomasi

2024: LAND OF BIRDS in collaboration with Frey Faust, Barış Mıhçı, Jérôme d’Orso, Sara Parisi, Francesca Pedullà, Claudia Tomasi

2024: DREAMBORN the afterlife for beginners, directed by Robert McNeer, in colaboration with Frey Faust, Natascia Fogu, Robert McNeer, Francesca Pedullà, Pia Wachter, Association La Luna nel Pozzo, Association La Radice dei Viandanti.

2023: HOUSE OF BIRDS in collaboration with Frey Faust, Barış Mıhçı, Francesca Pedullà, Link>>

2022: LOAD LINE chapter #2 part 1 and 2 solo. Do circumstances move us or do we move the circumstances? Challenging the point as a concept of equilibrium, the body fits into a system within which opposing forces, intersecting directions, compressions and suspensions dialogue with each other. As the body interfaces with an array of staged devices, it aspires to a scientific precision, yet exudes poetry. Stability and equilibrium are both precarious and temporary situations that generate and regenerate each other, each legitimizing itself through the other. Link 1 >> Link 2 >>

2022 to date: A LEAP OF IMMAGINATION Kids Lab Link >>

2021: THE MAGIC ROPE in collaboration with Francesca Pedullà, Barış Mıhçı, Roberta Messa, Davide Francesca, Link>>

2021: HOUSE OF FIRE in collaboration with Francesca Pedullà, Frey Faust, Barış Mıhçı, Irina Hortin, Nuvola Vandini Link>>

2021: LOAD LINE chapter #1 in collaboration with Irina Hortin A load line is a marking indicating the extent to which the weight of a load may safely submerge a ship, by way of a waterline limit. Link>>

2020: HOUSE OF STONES in collaboration with Francesca Pedullà, Frey Faust, Barış Mıhçı, Irina Hortin, Nuvola Vandini Link>>

2020: A LEAP OF IMMAGINATION A bio-mechanical and anthropological investigation on JUMPIMG. A new reinterpretation of the old Hop-Scotch game. Developed with the support of La Radice dei Viandanti, Ostuni Puglia. Link>>

2019 – 2023: OUT OF EXHAUSTION, in collaboration with Francesca Pedullà: on how to deal with exhaustion and its various facets: redness, pain, calm, boredom, distraction, irritation, anxiety, euphoria, fear … with a strong intent towards the involvement of the public Link >>

2007 – 2009: SKRATCH + ATCH, artistic direction of the collective project: on the border between object-subject body Link >>

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

coming in 2026: COSMIC an Axis Syllabus laboratory for dance co-curation and facilitation Link >>

2025 – to date: Teacher’s Program, we are all teaching all the time co-curation and facilitation Link >>

2022 – 2025: die Synapse co-curation Link >>

2020 to date: LA RADICE DEI VIANDANTI co-curation Link >>

2022 to date: THE AXIS SYLLABUS bi-monthly Periodical, co-director and editor in collaboration with Frey Faust Link >>

2020 to date : UPRISINGUP Dance creation and Science
Festival – Collective – co-curation with Francesca Pedullà and Roberta Messa, in collaboration with the ASRM (Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork) Link >> and LA RADICE DEI VIANDANTI. Link >>

2018 – 2021: THE AXIS SYLLABUS NOTATION SYSTEM 4th edition, co-authored in coll. with Frey Faust (The Axis Syllabus) Link >>

2018 – 2019: THE AXIS SYLLABUS book, revision and translation in Italian and German. Link >>

2016 – 2022: IUPLA Balance Training, co-founder Link >>

PUBBLICATIONS

2023 – to date: The Axis Syllabus bi-monthly periodical
Link >>>

2023 – to date: REMO Magazine
Link >>>

LANGUAGES

German, Italian, English, French