Following on from the 1st, and the 15th edition of the podcast, we return to Italy’s songs and stories. From north to south, from folk to modern electronic dance. All rooted in the varied storytelling and dance traditions of the peninsula. 

The power of the drum, the storytelling of music. Honouring The Spaceape, oscillating with the dark and the light in between the drum beats and breaths, exploring Creole, the language of rhythm and time.

Entering my third year at Groovalizacion - happy birthday to La Danza Poetica! The 24th edition is intercontinental, transnational - a world of poetics, mainly new releases, ranging far and wide in the spirit of the dance. 

In August 2008 the great poet Mahmoud Darwish left forever. But his voice is still here, more heartbreaking than ever. Now I ask myself to stop, turn off the newsfeed, clear my mind of prejudice, and listen. This is a mix of the amazing diversity of poetic expression from Palestine and the diaspora. 

Raining sounds and stories across the planet. Many honoured ghosts this month, including the poets Rumi, Federico García Lorca, TS Elliott, Badr Shākir as-Sayyāb, Jorge Luis Borges, and Pablo Neruda. Ambient folkloric beats, Afro Latin jazz and soul, hip hop and spoken word poetry, from Ecuador to Barcelona to Melbourne, from New York to New Zealand to Rapa Nui, from Campodia to the Czech Republic to the rainy streets of Paris and London.

Many cultures, languages, religions, rhythms make up the continent and the neighbouring islands of the oceans of Australia. This is a rich tapestry of a place. Enjoy some of the threads...

The continuing inspiration of the rhythm poets in the Jamaican Year of Poetree. Following the lineage of the griots, voicing the Rastafari philosophy of freedom of expression and resistance, connection and protection. A mix of dub, soul and Afrobeat poets from Africa to Jamaica to Trinidad, to the UK, the USA, and Canada. The future of reggae in the electronic crossover, the global dance poetic.

Through the forests and cities of story... Explore the bright Northern and Eastern European lights of poetry and music, the 19th dance poetic.

The dance of the soul - in this month's podcast we have some dream collaborations, new soul poetry and a sampling of Australia's global music festival WOMADelaide.

Hip hop. The voice is the drum. The voice is rhythm, melody and story as one. From Australia to Latin America to the Caribbean to Africa, this is where poetry really dances.

Start 2014 with some conscious dance! Mixing passionate, compassionate dance releases from 2013 together with the hearts and voices of indigenous resistance in South America, and some truly powerful spoken word. Music and story as uniting and empowering force - the word, the silence, the global dance poetic.

In this December edition of La Danza Poetica we travel through poetry, song, hip hop and folk traditions down the peninsula of Italy through the Magna Graecia and the Griko culture of Greek settlers on the Italian coast.

Recorded on the weekend of el Día de los Muertos, raising honoured ghosts and calling on their descendents to speak the border ... la poesía y la música de la frontera, Mejicano, Americano, Chicano, the word and the silence.

LDP 013, ‘Poetree Caan Nyam’, aims to go deeper into the dub poetry groove. I wanted to really get into a poetic dancewith this one. And if any poetry can be danced to, it’s this! We dive into the deep dub seas of Jamaica, and sail around the worldwide ocean of reggae dub poetry. From Africa to the Caribbean, via the States, France, Canada, and the UK, with those poets who speak of identity, history, love, struggle, politics, belief, and society.

Through the voices of poets and musicians, those who have sought asylum, and those who speak up on their behalf, this edition of La Danza Poetica is a prayer for compassion to prevail in all countries’ treatment of those who arrive desperate on our shores. Mostly in English this month, voices from Australia, America, England, Africa, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria, Palestine, Syria ... Across borders, through bars and wires, defying attempts to divide us, we are all united by creativity, love, and story.

Ideas arrive late in the night, explode in passionate flame, burn out fast. Passion that consumes itself, but does not destroy the structure. Like forests that need to burn to burst the tree seeds. What is left is a deeper inspiration and beautiful - perhaps a little sad, even a little dehydrated, but unquestionably beautiful, as experience, and wisdom, and soulful living is beautiful. It's in the music, too, and in the poetry, of Spain, all Latin countries. Fire is at the heart of it all.

Coming from the Chilli Rooms studios on the island of Ibiza, La Danza Poetica 10 is a chilled hour of of music and poetry from various corners of the globe.

Solidarity with Istanbul. Spirit and poetics from Turkey.

Music and poetry - creative acts of resistance. Voices from the revolution of feeling. Take your heart and mind to Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran. This month's show crossed political and cultural borders and boundaries, as well as centuries. From medieval Sufi poetry and folk song, traditional Arabic revolutionary poetry, through modern fusions of jazz and electronics, today's hip hop underground, and poetic diaspora. Voices that emerged in the Arab Spring, enlightening our world with calls for peace and justice.

This month's Groovalizacion dance takes us into the heart of mother Africa. Voices beating the skin of the drum, calling it jazz, hip hop and afrobeat rhythms, poets calling from the heart of the heart