“Dance, Humor and Timing”
with Silvia Gribaudi!
20–23 September 2026 | JK Opole Theatre
Italian choreographer and performer Silvia Gribaudi invites dancers and performers to join a laboratory exploring the relationship between dance, humor and comic timing.
The laboratory is based on the choreographic research Gribaudi has been developing since 2009, investigating how body awareness, timing and stage presence can generate humor within movement. Through physical practice and choreographic exploration, participants will deepen their sensitivity to the timing of the body, discovering how humor can emerge naturally from gesture, rhythm and performative action.
Guided by questions such as:
🔸How does humor appear in movement?
🔸How can we recognize and train our sense of comic timing?
🔸How can humor become part of a choreographic structure?
🔸When does laughter interrupt the action and when does it become part of the composition?
The laboratory explores how timing, listening and awareness of the body can support the development of practices related to laughter, understood as a mental and physical state that can be integrated into performance and into the relationship with the audience.
During the laboratory, participants will:
– develop precision and awareness in the timing of movement
– explore improvisation and choreographic composition tasks
– investigate the relationship between rhythm, presence and humor
– experiment with ways of integrating humor into a physical score
Through movement, observation and collective exploration, participants will investigate how the timing of the body and the timing of the stage can create playful and unexpected dynamics in performance.
Laboratory language: English
Level: Open to professional dancers, performers and artists with experience in movement-based practices.
Deadline for application: June 28th 2026 (Sunday)
About the Instructor
Silvia Gribaudi is an Italian choreographer active in the field of performing arts. Since 2004 she has been focusing her research on the social impact of the body and on the relation between audience and performer, through an artistic research on choreography, dance and humour. With a specific attention to the human and relational layer, she develops her works through dialogue and the poetic encounter with the artists she collaborates with, the communities and the audience, who become integral part of every performative act.
Her latest productions are AMAZZONI (2026) co-produced by Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale (IT) and Le Gymnase CDCN – Roubaix (FR), the solo SUSPENDED CHORUS (2025) co-produced by Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale (IT), La Corte Ospitale/Regione Emilia-Romagna (IT), Rum för Dans (SE), Le Gymnase CDCN – Roubaix (FR), What You See Festival (NL), THE DOOZIES (2024) created with Marta Dalla Via, co-produced by Teatro Stabile del Veneto – Teatro Nazionale (IT), La Corte Ospitale/Regione Emilia-Romagna (IT) and GRAND JETÉ (2023) with the MM Contemporary Dance Company (IT) co-produced by La Biennale de Lyon (FR), Théâtre de la Ville (FR), Rum för Dans (SE), Torinodanza Festival (IT), International Dance Festival TANEC PRAHA (CZ), Zodiak – Side Step Festival (FIN) and by the international network Big Pulse Dance Alliance.
Her performances have been featured in a number of theatres and festivals in Europe, Asia and America. Among them, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, The Holland Dance Festival in The Hague, Shanghai International Dance Center, CINARS in Montreal, Torinodanza Festival, Biennale di Venezia, Bolzano Danza, Dansnät Sverige in Sweden, La Biennale de Lyon.
Silvia Gribaudi is one of the co-founders of Zebra, a dance production organization recognized and supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture since 2018.
She is associated artist at Le Gymnase CDCN (Roubaix, France, 2024-26) and at the Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale (2025-2027).
photo: Andrea Macchia
