Coi Corpi Docenti. An experiment and a model for developing processes and tools for embodiment education in professional teachers

Over the past six years, Teatro Testoni has been running a free, open theatre workshop involving 30 to 50 teachers from schools in the metropolitan city of Bologna in each edition. The workshop immerses participants in body awareness and learning practices, helping them to understand how these dimensions affect their role as educators. This process enables participants to observe the embodied acts of teaching (Gomez Paloma) and to understand how the body influences cognitive processes (Carlomagno). Coi Corpi Docenti is a practical training course designed to explore and experiment with embodiment and Schechner’s Performance Workshop Technique, with a focus on the teacher’s body-self (DiGennaro) and the auto-transformative capacity of teaching tools. The course has proven to be a rich field of observation, not only for the practical experience of embodiment processes, but also for understanding how teachers have reworked and applied the skills they acquired across the various editions. The presentation will describe the emerging evidence and the training structure of the course as a practical application of embodiment education for professional teachers.