SOFT SKILLS (IT)

Soft skills are patterns of thought, behaviours and communication. They support people in navigating emotions and to deal with interpersonal relationships. Soft skills encourage individual and personal approaches to working relations and social encounters. Knowledge that is specific to dance is often implicit, meaning dancers may not necessarily be able to identify and articulate in words the skills they are cultivating. Yet many of the implicit soft skills found inside contemporary dance practices are regarded as the most important skills needed currently in society – creativity, flexibility, dealing with complexity and uncertainty, understanding and appreciating differences, patience and perseverance, to name a few.

We will share dance practices based on improvisation and instant composition and we will look at the soft skills they activate. We will explore individual and collective journeys, maps, sharing questions, dialogues and exchanges.

BIOS

Elena Sgarbossa is an Italian movement artist. She graduated at Corso Triennale Professionale di Danza Contemporanea del Balletto di Roma, enriching her practice through projects supported by national and international institutions. Her artistic path weaves together choreographic processes and experimentation, but also research and movement projects for communities. Among the most relevant to her practice are the Dance Well - Movement and Research for Parkinson’ project and the EU projects Empowering Dance. In 2019, she approached the choreography experience creating KEO, the winning performance of DNAppunti Coreografici.  Her creation double:double was selected for the Vetrina della giovane danza d'autore - Network Anticorpi XL 2022. Her choreographic research is focused on exploring the direct but complex relationship between the anatomical body, emotionality and the subconscious.  She is co-founder of the Associazione Culturale BASE9, an artistic team that explores processes of co-imagination and co-creation linked to movement, allowing collective and individual poetics to merge and nourish each other. As a performer she has collaborated with Chiara Bersani, Masako Matsushita, Marco D’Agostin, Anagoor, Aurelio Di Virgilio, Yasmeen Godder, Nora Chipaumire, Chiara Frigo, Davide Valrosso.

Roberto Casarotto is the Co-director of Aerowaves, the European Platform for Dance promoting cross-border mobility of the work of emerging dance artists and several capacity building programmes for emerging choreographers, writers, curators and podcasters. Until 2022 he collaborated with CSC and Operaestate Festival in Bassano del Grappa, curating dance programmes and developing international projects, supported by the EU Creative Europe, Erasmus + and other Programmes. For the Municipality of Bassano del Grappa, and its citizens, he developed Dance Well – Movement research for Parkinson and has been coordinating its national and international growth until 2025. Since 2025, in collaboration with the Municipality of Vicenza, e20danza and the city health system, he has developed Future Moves a programme of dance practices in museums for teenagers dealing with depression. He is a member of CCW Welfare Cultural Center, and the author of the book Nigel Charnock published in 2009 by L'Epos. In 2015-18 he was Artistic Director of Balletto di Roma. Prior to working for dance organisations, Roberto was a contemporary dancer.

Anna Kushnirenko is a dance and photography artist from Kherson, Ukraine, now based in Italy. After studying in a private contemporary dance school, she further developed her skills through workshops and dance festivals co-creating and being part of dance performances. Her movement practice is based on dance improvisation and performative practices, with the aim to create connection with space and
people. Currently, she mainly works as a teacher with nonprofessionals and communities Anna is part of the Dance Well EU project (since 2022), Moving Arte Sella (2024-2025) - movement practices to interact with the museum’s art works. She curated the International Workshop of Moving Borders meeting at Arte Sella (August, 2024), she is part of Performing Memory a project supported by Perform
Europe.. As a photographer, she focuses on portraiture and documentation for dance events and projects, such as How to. A score by Mia Habib (2024), Choreography connects (2022-2024) and Aerowaves Spring Forward Festival (2024, 2025). Her artistic practice, both in movement and visual art, is inspired by life’s unique moments, nostalgia and an ironic vision of life.

Photos: A. Kushnirenko