and or with but on in to…

This exploration in writing and dance is inspired by the work of Gianni Rodari, an Italian teacher and children’s book writer whose pedagogy valued children’s innate playfulness and nurtured their imaginations as writers through collective processes. In Grammar of Fantasy (1973), his ‘introduction to the art of inventing stories’, he explores the belief that children-and all humans-have a basic right to play, and further that creativity is essential to social justice movements. Of the many exercises and experiments he guided with his students, the ‘Fantastic Binomials’ struck a particular chord with Claire and Maya. This exercise prompts writers to find two not-easily-related words and bring them together to spark the storytelling imagination. Claire and Maya were inspired to translate Rodari’s ‘Fantastic Binomials’ exercise into dance and movement, with the aim of developing a time-based work.

THE TEAM BEHIND

Maya Dalinsky – dancer and translator
claire barrera – dancer, organizer and social worker