These six videos document a research in solo physical training developed by Massimiliano Balduzzi over more than fifteen years. In them, Balduzzi is shown practicing a sequence of exercises/actions, integrating floor work and impulses/isolations, and finally putting all of these elements together in a session of ‘open work’. The videos were recorded and edited by Ben Spatz at Leimay/Cave in Brooklyn (2013), with additional videography by Manuel de la Portilla.
Massimiliano Balduzzi is an Italian performer, director, and teacher based in New York City. He is currently working on a solo called REQUIEM with dramaturge Susan Mar Landau and with Helga Davis on CASSANDRA, set to premiere at BRIC in 2014. With Ben Spatz and Urban Research Theater, Massimiliano created and performed in PLAYWAR (Abrons Arts Center) and directed THEATRICALE (Lincoln Center Atrium). Massimiliano has been a resident artist at Movement Research and LEIMAY-CAVE. Before moving to New York City in 2008, Massimiliano worked for five years with director Anne Zenour in Siena, co-founding the performance group Teatro della Pioggia. Massimiliano has also worked with Stefano Vercelli and with Mamadou Dioume. In 2006, he spent six months living in Bali, studying Balinese dance and song.
Ben Spatz is Lecturer in Drama, Theatre, and Performer at the University of Huddersfield. For the past ten years he has been Artistic Director of Urban Research Theater, a performance collective based in New York City. Ben has also taught acting, theatre, and performance at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Baruch College, the College of Staten Island, Long Island University, as well as independent studios and institutions in the US, Poland, and Spain. His artistic work has been presented in New York by Movement Research, Abrons Arts Center, Lincoln Center Rubenstein Atrium, HERE Arts Center, Centre for Performance Research, and chashama. Ben’s writing has been published in both scholarly and artistic journals. He received his PhD in Theatre from the City University of New York (2013).
