Welcome to this virtual space
dedicated to Rope Manipulation.
If you're curious about my work and mine and rope's journey,
I invite you to take a walk through this space
to explore, pause, and observe.
Here, you’ll find insights into who I am
and what this research is rooted in.
From the first steps of this path,
through my Master’s thesis,
to more recent reflections.
This space traces the evolution of a practice shaped by movement, imagination, and inquiry.
I’m currently writing the first handbook
dedicated to this approach.
A companion for those who wish to walk this rope journey too,
set to be published in 2026.
If this work resonates with you and you’d like to support its development or be part of the process, you can find me at:
For other info about me, visit: https://gaiasantuccio90.wixsite.com/gaiasantuccio
Latest Research Posts
About me
I am an aerial rope artist, teacher and researcher.
Originally from Sicily, lived in the Uk since the age of 16 and currently based in Budapest.
Movement exploration through knots and sensing is the heart of my creative and artistic investigation, focal point of the methods I have been developing. Structured improvisation and communication among bodies (animate and inanimate) are pillar approaches within my research work.
My teaching encourages participants to discover and cultivate their unique movement styles and language. I aim to inspire individuals to think through movement, fostering a deep, intimate connection with the rope for a more conscious and embodied practice. My choreographic research is designed to nurture adaptive, creative, and artistic skills, empowering dancers and aerialists to develop a richer, more expressive vocabulary.
After completing a Master’s degree in Contemporary Circus Practices at DOCH in Stockholm, where I graduated in June 2022, I participated in ICCAR's pilot year (International Circus Centre for Artistic Research), directed by Roberto Magro. Before this, I trained in Etienne Decroux's mime technique at Moveo in Barcelona, and graduated from both Circomedia in Bristol and the National Centre for Circus Arts in London in 2014.
Currently, I am writing on a book detailing the "Rope Manipulation" approach I have been developed since 2020, set for publication in 2026.
I am a member of NèonTeatro, an Italian theatre company that works with individuals with different abilities and I am creating my first solo performance, Isola-Ta.
About Rope Manipulation
Rope Manipulation is an approach to rope made of four core methods. Speaking Knots, Sensing, Self Development, Altering and Adapting.
All these methods involve a series of improvisation tasks designed to create focused, confined spaces of research where practitioners can experiment freely on the aerial apparatus.
This method is the result of a process of deconstruction and re-introduction to the rope practice started during Covid. But really.. it has been there for me since I can remember.
Born from my necessity to understand the rules and habits in order to break them.
A need to consciously understand the fundamentals of movement - knowing tools, the body, and the apparatus deeply with the aim to move beyond rigid, machine-like techniques. To find my voice.
Understanding is knowing an object or instrument deeply to its core.
Understanding makes space to move in alignment with your body, your mood and your perception, free from imposed athletic regimes or conventional movement patterns.
This approach celebrates multiple virtuosities. Going beyond the athletic one of prowess and shifting to adaptive and listening skills, and as a consequence, encouraging diversity in aesthetics too. These intimate adventures foster skills in adaptability, awareness, and presence and they stimulate choice making, creativity, artistry, self-development.
The aim of this practice is simple yet profound: to allow myself, fellow practitioners and professionals to move on the rope with the same ease as when we walk. Step by step, we acquire technique (= knowledge). And as we move, we create new pathways and develop body intelligence and intuition.
With Rope Manipulation, my intention is to expand the creative, technical and artistic knowledge of it. And, perhaps in the future, the one of other circus disciplines as well!
FIRST STEPS INTO THE RESEARCH, 2020
Back to when time expanded, my home turned into a playground and everything changed.
"What I would like people to experience is to enter an intimate space of home where there is no right or wrong, but there is life
The singularity of what that person is experiencing and feeling.
And there is that beauty in the vulnerability of simple moments like communicating,
attempting and not managing, getting out of something and coming back to it..
There can be vulnerability and life through something that seems so strong
I hope I can humanise my art on some level and that I can let people into this world".
CLICK ON THE EYE TO READ MY MASTER'S THESIS. FREEDOM THROUGH RESTRICTION, 2022
In a process of
deconstruction of and reintroduction to my practice.
I explore new heights and challenge the limits of my creativity.