(As a musician I have been working with dance , theatre and film throughout my career – performing in most of the forms  -- from street-level site specific work to the concert stage and the television sound stage, acting in feature films and art videos in Europe – as well as years teaching in academic institutions. I have been incorporating somatic/embodiment practices into my teaching and performance work for over 30 years. )

 

 

Capsule

    * Facilitated and directed 10-week somatic/embodiment research project This is Water, Cloud Gate,                Athens,  2023

    * Musician/mover/actor, 3rd Person Theatre Group, Odes, Nov.2021

    * Teacher/Performer, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn,  Metrics, Jan. 2020

• Actor in Life After Death Theatre Company's Lethe, by Dimitris Dimitriadis, October 2-5, 2019, Athens

    *  Taught Re-voicing The Body, Zorgafou Theatre Festival, September 2019

• Taught 33 Body Listening (somatic/embodiment practice) workshops, Kinitiras, Athens, September 2018-June 2019

• Actor/musician/mover, The Cooking Orchestra, children's abstract theatre piece starring Angelos Papadimitriou, Onassis Cultural Arts Center/ Stegi, Athens, May 2019

• Duo performance Interventions, with movement artist/choreographer Ana Sanchez-Colberg, February, 2019, Koto Stage, Athens   

• July 14, 2018 – Premiere of Here I Stand for solo Baritone Saxophone and Tape at Akropoditi Dancefest, Syros ( tape score- Manolis Manousakis)

• November 2017 – Facilitated prototype Composers and Choreographers Residency, with Thalia Ditsa, Kinitiras, Athens

• ACTOR/MOVER/MUSICIAN in Kinitiras Production of Βαθύς Αναστεναγμός - Deep Sigh, February 9- March 4, 2018

• Former Music Director and Professor of Music for Dance, resident composer for dance, for the Department of Dance and Choreography of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond ,VA, USA.

• School for New Dance Development, SNDO, Amsterdam. Faculty, taught Experiential Listening

• Music Director/Composer, RoseAnne Spradlin & Dancers, New York City

• Studied Sound Sources for Dance with John Hurbert MacDowell, The Paul Taylor Dance Company's music director, at The New School, New York

• Performer, Lathos Kinisi Dance, Athens, in 6 major works including The Last Empty Man, Choreography of the Year Award, 2000.

• Performer, Dagipolis Dance Company, Athens

• Dance Accompaniment – studied with Lynn Stanford at the American Ballet Theatre, New York. Accompanied some of America's finest choreographers including Molissa Fenley, Doug Varone, Dan Wagoner, Diane McIntyre, Bill Evans and Ron Brown, as well as members of the Bill T. Jones Company and the Alvin Ailey Company. 

• Former officer of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance

• Dance Festivals, workshops presented: The American Dance Festival, The Bates Dance Festival, Akropoditi Dancefest, Syros, July, 2017, with Thalia Ditsa

• Published interviews and articles in international journals include: Contact Quarterly, USA, Xopos (Horos), Athens, Nouvelles de Danse, Brussels, Journal of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance, USA, Dancewriting, USA, Improfil, Berlin

• Two of his sound designs have been placed in the permanent collection of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in New York. 

• His music composition for the choreographic piece “To Bleed Willingly and Joyfully”, choreographed by Chris Burnside in 1992, has been added to the Permanent Special Collections of the Virginia Commonwealth University Library, Richmond, VA, USA, 2017

• Grant Awards include those from the Grammy Award Foundation Musicares, the Vogelstein Foundation (New York), the City of St. Paul, the Minnesota Independent Choreographers Alliance, The Virginia Arts Council, the Netherland-America Foundation and the School for New Dance Development (SNDO), Amsterdam

 

In Greece, he has taught in schools and studios including Nellie Karra’s Advanced School of Dramatic Arts, APXH, Deree College, Department of Music, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece, Kinitiras Dance Theatre, Synergio Technon, Theatre Festival of Chania "NOTOS", Chania, Crete, Greece, The K.E.R. Workshops, Chania, Crete, Greece, Kodo Stage and Sinergatiko Studio, with Thalia Ditsa.

He has taught and performed in Syros, 2007-08, and at the Akropoditi Dancefest, Syros, July, 2017, with Thalia Ditsa and the  Premiere of Here I Stand for solo Baritone Saxophone and tape (tape score, Manolis Manousakis) 14 July, 2018.
He was an actor with Theatro Technis (The Art Theatre of Greece) 2003-04.

He was an actor/mover/musician in Kinitiras' Production of Βαθύς Αναστεναγμός - Deep Sigh, February 9- March 4, 2018
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 46th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Greece) 2005 for his role in Kyriakos Katzourakis’ film, Sweet Memory.

He was and actor/musician in Medea Electronique's Project One at the Benaki Museum of Modern Art, Athens, 2007
Joe Tornabene currently lives in Greece, continuing his performing and teaching in various venues.

 

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In Europe Joe has worked with BodyWeather movement artist Katerina Bakatsaki, as a mover/musician/actor in Kostantinos Mihos’ The Last Empty Man (Awarded National Choreography of the Year 2000 for Greece), First Residence, Interrogation, and Without Stigma, and with Contact Improvisation artists Benno Voorham and Riccardo Morrison. From 2006 to 2008 he worked extensively with Dagipoli, a handicapped dance-theatre company in Greece, and as a musician/actor with Medea Electronique in their performance of Medea Project One at the Benaki Museum of Modern Art, Athens, 2007. He has also worked with Patricia Bardi in Italy.

 

Joe taught therapeutic sound workshops and trainings for over 10 years at the Illium Center, Athens, under the directorship of Jenny Colebourne.

 

Joe was an actor/dancer/musician for 80 performances in Transit at The Art Theatre of Greece (Theatro Technis), 2003-2004.

 

 

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FILM CREDITS:

*Acteur de complément,  Le Chapeau de Mitterrand, JNP France Films, France 2014

*Acteur de complément,  Hyundai JPO PUB, Winston Wolf Associated, France 2014

“Joe”,  Sweet Memory      Director: Kyriakos Katsourakis  2005

“Tom”, Pandora                Director: George Stamboulopoulos  2006

“Kreon” Video project      Medea Electronique 2007, Medea Project One, Benaki Museum of Modern Art, Athens

 

 

Real-Time electronic live performance and studio exploration collaborations include: Tom Mays (Paris), formally of IRCAM, early assistant in the development of Max, former professor of Max at the Conservatoire National Superieur, Paris. Ángel Faraldo (Spain) at the ElectroMediaWorks Festival, Athens, 2008. Manolis Manousakis and Medea Electronique (Athens). Timothy Ward (London, Athens), professor of Max at Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. Yann Orlarey (Lyon, France), assistant director GRAME, Centre National de Creation Musicale, Lyon, France (worked with feedback (Larsen Effect) configurations).

 

MULTIMEDIA THEATRE WORKS DEVELOPED AND DIRECTED BY JOE TORNABENE :

June 1998 ► Amilea's Dream, APXH Theatre, Athens, Greece

May-June 1999 ► The Wedding, APXH Theatre, Athens, Greece

June 2000 ► Life on Earth, Part 1, APXH Theatre, Athens, Greece

April 2001 ► The Floating Opera, APXH Theatre, Athens, Greece

June 2002 ► Lilly’s Death,  APXH Theatre, Athens, Greece

 

 

He has taught experiential workshops concerned with the relationships of Performance, embodiment, movement, sound, music and improvisation in Italy, Finland, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, Estonia, and in the USA at Temple University, the American Dance Festival, the Bates Dance Festival, American College Dance Festival conferences (1992, 1993), and Virginia Commonwealth University. He has taught sound design workshops at the Institut Superieur Des Techniques Du Spectacle, Avignon, France. Joe taught at The School for New Dance Development (SNDO), Amsterdam, from September 1994 until June 1995. Joe was Director of Sound for the Cloitre des Celestins Theatre at the 50th Festival d’Avignon, 1996. He is a former officer of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance and a former Music Director and Adjunct Professor of Music for Dance for the Department of Dance and Choreography of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, USA.