THEATRE AND DANCE
I have trained in the Laban Technique for actors and Corporeal Mime at The International School of Corporeal Mime London. I hold short and long term workshops and Masterclasses in these physical theatre practices aimed for performers to develop physical skills for their stage work.
Fusing my ecological studies and dance training, I have created particular masterclass sessions for professional dancers and performers.
I have also developed dance sessions for non performers - particularly aimed for organizations that work together and want to widen their sense of connection as a group through movement.
LABAN FOR PERFORMERS
(PHYSICAL THEATRE TECHNIQUE)
Laban Movement provides actors with a clear and understandable toolset that will enable them to grow their own movement vocabulary and discover new ways to physicalize character.
This work is not just technical but teaches students to recognise and act upon creative impulse in the body. It is used as a way to extend an actor’s movement vocabulary and ability to play characters physically. The eight "efforts" of Laban movement help an actor to both physically and emotionally identify and play characters who are different from themselves.
This embodied work helps the actor to understand internal impulses and develop an expressive body that can make clean, precise choices. It also helps the actor create and maintain a strong physical instrument that will serve them throughout their training and future professional work.
Requirements and for who is it for:
To fully attain this skill to be put immediately into professional practice I recommend a minimum of 4 sessions to a group of actors working together.
"Wow! without being aware, we get stuck in the head, like walking brains disattached from the body that carries us! No wonder we are in pain, cause there is no sync, harmony!
This session inspired me to move, to really listen! To bring all feelings down to my feet. It made me feel Alive and part of Life! Thank you! "
- Steve Gibbs
ETIENNE DECROUX'S - CORPOREAL MIME FOR PERFORMERS
I teach Etienne Decroux’s dramatic corporeal mime. It takes the body as the main means of expression and the actor as the starting point for creation. It aims to “make the invisible visible” (Etienne Decroux), and allows the actor to show thought through movement.
An art of movement rather than an art of silence, dramatic corporeal mime is first of all the art of the actor/actress. An actor, whatever their artistic ambition might be, must, before all, be present, “be” on stage and this presence is shown through the body. The body is what sustains the costume, what the spectator sees, what carries the voice. It is the skeleton, the hand in the glove.
Placing the body at the centre of their work, the corporeal mime actor seeks to recreate the essence of drama, to integrate in the body into all principles of action or dramatic situation – disequilibrium, instability, causalities, rhythms – and to attain the control of the latter through learning a corporeal technique. The actor becomes sculptor and sculpture.
The dramatic corporeal mime of Etienne Decroux, as a teaching process, aims to give to the actor this control of presence on stage, of placement, displacements, actions through learning the technique, articulation, mobile statuary, improvisation and repertory. To study a technique, as in music, multiplies the possibilities of the actor, allows them to do what they wants, not only what they can. In this way, it is a door open towards more freedom and imagination, and more clarity in the execution.
For more information please contact me
and you are welcome to read more information about corporeal mime here
ONBEING 3 DAY PROGRAM TAILORED FOR DANCERS
OnBeComing - Who are we Becoming?
OnBeLonging - What does it mean for you to Belong right now?
OnOffering - How do i share what i found through this process?
This unique 3 day program tailored particularly for dancers in training / dance companies. It fuses deep ecology work (processes from 'The Work That Reconnects') and devising dance practices. The aim is to hold a safe space for dance performers to deep dive into the emotions seated in their bodies regarding the state of the world. To enter into this space with a guided form of practice and to be inspired to give expressions what they find there.. At the end of everyday they are requested to create a choreographed dance piece through what they found through this journey. This process supports dancers generate more meaningful work in direct response to the state of the world to be shared with a wider audience.
These workshops can be tailed to one day which will focus only on one topic from "OnBeing". If only one workshop is chosen from the below. the workshop will extend to 5 hours. If you to choose 2 days, I recommend taking day 2 and day 3 together and add another day for devising.
What to expect:
Day 1 - OnBecoming. 4 hours
This process observes the statement “Being is Becoming”. Through our dance we shift our mind's orientation we have as a species to the goal of connecting to an evolving state of mind. We start this off by a guided journey that focuses on our evolutionary journey as species, from the first species in the ocean to being the current human being we are in society. Through this we touch upon the current relationship humans have with the natural world and the long evolution we have taken. We ask through our bodies, 'what is our next stage of becoming as a human being?'
This workshop is divided into three stages::
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A warm-up to widen our senses and awareness, working with instinctual responses to our surroundings.
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A guided journey, partly with eyes open and partly with eyes closed where we meet varies of life forms and see how they live within our body, in response how do these triggers of memories inform our movement in space and time.
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Rhythms of being. Participants move with movements that have stayed in their body from the guided journey. By choosing varies of movements of different states of being they choose ways to shift from one movement pattern to the next with out stopping. In a circle every participant steps into the circle and shares these movements in a repetitional manner widening and shrinking the movements.
Aims:
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We tap into our primal instincts and bring movement from this primordial place within us as dancers.
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Mindfullness / awareness
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Observing the state of “becoming” - what does it mean to move from one state of being to the next?
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Touching deep relationship to self, others and the group
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Physical listening - Widening and sharpening other ways of listening - from inside the body and outside the body
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What changes happen within us when we repeat movements ?
By the end of this session we create a group piece inspired by the movements /rhythms that the group generated in response to the question 'What are we becoming?'
An important note for participants: this process can go very deep in the sense that it might trigger strong emotions or memories. I ask all participants to bring these sensations into the session and let it inspire their movements and create with it.
Day 2 - OnBelonging. 4-5 hours with break
The question of this day will focus on, 'What does it mean to Belong right now?' (in particular to this Land).
We will enter this question through a process called 'The Truth Mandala' which:
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gives voice to complex emotions and experiences
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allows participants to find new empathetic approaches to emotions of fear and grief around the present and future of this land on this planet
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refocuses attention on the existing tools we have to go forward with a sense of belonging and connection;
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allows participants to imagine a roadmap for their courage and compassion.
This process can inspire performers to touch deep emotions and connect them to body and mind.
While traveling through different emotions with the help of movement and gestures, words may rise from the movement and we will slowly welcome formed sentences. This process goes on for an hour (quite possible that not everybody will enter). This source of inspiration will be followed by painting on a large piece of paper any colours and words and sentences that have arisen from this process.
This will be followed by picking up any notions of gestures and short dance pieces and woven together with sentences that were found.
Participants are requested to go home and find music that suits their mode of being and bring it in for the next days work.
Day 3 - OnOffering. How do I share what I found? 4 to 6 hours with break + 2 hours of an offering to an audience invited into the studio
The dancers have arrived to a place that they have been moved and shaken from the inside out. We want them to bring all they have found into concrete form and share it with a wider community, so what was found will not be kept to oneself. We want to share with an audience our transformation through this process. We come to the audience raw, authentic and in a state of being see-through - sharing through movement and often sound what we care of the most and how we have been touched by it. We offer this delicate state of being. We welcome people into our studio.
This day is dedicated to collecting information they have found within themselves as dancers, as individuals and as a group. We do this through writing exercises, creating duo choreographed pieces from the movement material they have found and devising it into a first raw piece to be an offering to a wider audience.
DANCE WORKSHOPS FOR ORGANIZATIONS
This workshop aims to empower each individual in their choices and ability to lead. It provides participants with an experience of their own personal power and the responsibility they have with they energy they bring into the world. It connects the mind with our bodies and our emotions. This work raises our presence, and allows us to acknowledge what is happening in the present moment and move with it.
This work suits performers and non-performers. It is a very intuitive and playful journey.
What to expect:
This dance workshop can be tailored to a one day workshop of 3-4 hours o to a two day workshop of 2 - 3 hours daily. It can also be tailored to focus on a particular topic that the group is facing.
Through physical movement we will work on connecting with Self and then Others in order to release and express with authenticity. We will work with participants to find their own personal expression and authentic movement. Through different tasks and exercises with improvisation we will find a sense of liberation and exploration in improvised and guided movement. Afterwhich, participants will be gently lead onto working in group to find connection, empathy and a new language as a group. The room will filled with a sense of organised chaos as the groups start diverging and finding innovative forms of expression. We will use music as stimulus and trigger for different types of movement and feelings. This process allows for a deep dive into the self, active listening and finally connecting to others.
If an added second day is requested:
The second day will focus on creative awareness of our behavior in a group. We will move first as individuals, then in couples followed by moving together as a group, allowing stimulus of the outside world to move through us and affect our movement flow as individuals and then together. We will exercise through active listening to the group and move as one "flock". As a group we will move together receiving information of what we see/feel and let it affect the movement of the group. The group will move in a synchronized way each time taking lead of movement from who ever is in the front of the group.
Minimum participants: 8
Maximum participants: 25
Requirements: sound system for music from computer with plug-in. A clear open studio/room/dome that will hold the amount of participants moving. In cold days, the room must be warm.
Price: In conversation with the organizer - connected to the amount of hours and day this workshop will be.