[Reader-list] Fwd: Training-Untraining-UTOPIA Theatre of Connection workshop | Kerala, India | February, 2016

Thu Dec 3 03:23:16 CST 2015

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Arshinagar Project <thearshinagarproject at gmail.com>
Date: 28 November 2015 at 15:10
Subject: Training-Untraining-UTOPIA Theatre of Connection workshop |
Kerala, India | February, 2016
To: "arka.mukhopadhyay at gmail.com" <arka.mukhopadhyay at gmail.com>

<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=1f798a0e5e&e=96b2d5964e>

The Arshinagar Project
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=69c50e9bf7&e=96b2d5964e>

View this email in your browser
<http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=62a3a762c5&e=96b2d5964e>
[image:
Facebook]
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=3de9a70604&e=96b2d5964e>
Facebook
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=95840aaca1&e=96b2d5964e>
[image:
Web]
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=12eaf83f52&e=96b2d5964e>
Web
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=bcc4495ec9&e=96b2d5964e>

Dear Friends,
        We have just finished an exhilarating, challenging and profoundly
illuminating seven-day international workshop residency with Anna-Helena
McLean, with a large and astonishingly committed group of twenty-five
participants from all across India and elsewhere in the world. It was a
magical and life-transforming experience for all of us who were there. Sid
Sawant
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=1af5244aae&e=96b2d5964e>,
one of the participants, also happened to be an ace photographer, and took
some fabulous photos, which you can see here
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=3d2dc9261b&e=96b2d5964e>
.

As part of our ongoing initiative of hosting practitioners who are
exploring fundamental human spaces through their work on the performer's
body, voice and psyche, we now move on to the last of our international
residencies for the 2015-16 season, *Training-Untraining-UTOPIA, *which
will be led by *Stamatis Efsthathiou*, a Greek practitioner, pedagogue and
director of Atropos Laboratory Theatre
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=b353bc7c73&e=96b2d5964e>,
and will be based on his methodology, Theatre of Connections. The workshop
will take place in partnership with *Innerspace Little Theatre* at *Walden
Pond House*, Irinjalakkuda, Kerala, between February 19th and 28th; and
will be within the frame of the KOSMOS PROJECT. Full details below:

What is KOSMOS PROJECT?

It is a long term project led by ATROPOS Laboratory Theatre Company under
the direction of STAMATIS EFSTATHIOU that aims to explore the
interconnections between theatre, anthropology, sacred traditions and
environment. Main tool of this research are expeditions to the places that
are at the marge of technological, economical and political processes of
nowadays world.
After the expedition in Tuva, second stop of the project is India and
precisely the area of Kerala. The first 2 phases of the project are focused
on observation, research and theatre integration of local rituals and
sacred traditions. The third and last phase will consist of an open
workshop of Theatre of Connection addressed to Indian and international
participants

What is the Theatre of Connection?

The Theatre of Connection, Atropos laboratory theatre group’s philosophy of
work, researches into forms of energy building bridges: from impulse to
action, from our rejected or hidden nature to being more open and from the
daily social codes to a non-everyday behavior. In a framework of research,
experiment and individual work, the participant-performer, first of all
energizes his will for discovery, development and change of level. In this
Theatre of Connection the entire presence of the “doer-performer” reveals
the inexhaustible energy and its transformations. The primordial vision of
Theatre of Connection is to trace the links of the person-performer with
space, time and the universe that surrounds him.
Founder and artistic director of Atropos, Stamatis Efstathiou, researches
in his work the connection: energy-body-sound-speech-chant-song. In this
particular workshop from the very beginning the basis of the sacredness of
the work’s environment and of the most “in disrepute” action will be put
into question in a totally viable and practical framework. On parallel we
will constantly research the points of collapse of ostentation, the
landscapes that flirt with the profane and guide to commentary and to
poetry.

TRAINING-UNTRAINING

There is not workshop nor session in performative arts which respects its
self that does not provide its participants with tools and techniques of
presenting in an interesting way the human material to one at least
spectator.
And this is one basic part of the path the performer.
Nevertheless, if we are interested to work on the performer-human we
absolutely need to break this never ending process of collecting, adding
knowledge to the basket of human’s mind and next to this cultivate the
garden of human consciousness. And for that we somehow need to break
through, to un-fold, to take out everything, to un-train in order to see
one’s stage presence, one’s life from the beginning, clearly and with
transparency.
Towards this direction the workshop will propose training paths that
embrace the “reaction”, the “rhythm” and the “form”, the main actually
platform of all kind of performative styles and at the same time it will
encourage the participants through precise processes to go beyond, to
search for the human substance even if they have to skip the tools that
they will have accumulated during the training

UTOPIA

We will work on the eternal wish for radical change, for harmony, for
longing for re-definition of the human destiny, using as vehicle the
“white” color of soul and the mystery of dreams. Together with the white
color, we will for sure face its opposite, black side and we will probably
face just after our mysterious dreams dystopic nightmares.
The participants after having connected their individuality with their
partners and with the precise place and time, they will do a first “jump”
in their own utopic visions and we will give to them theatrical form.
Elements of the 2 first phases of the investigation of KOSMOS PROJECT in
India inspired from the topic “Sacred paths in Theatre” might also be
integrated in “Utopia” work…
The topic of UTOPIA is the second phase of a long term research of Stamatis
Efstathiou and of Atropos with the title TETRAPTYCHO
[Waiting-Utopia-Sacred-Aletheia (trough)]. Stamatis Efstathiou has already
worked on “Utopia” in an intensive workshop in Saratov and in St Petersburg
(Russia) and in August 2014 he worked intensively with his close
collaborators from Russia during ENERGIA 2014, that took place in the
half-abandoned village of Bela Rechka in Bulgaria. This work has culminated
with the space specific performance “ANIMA-L-ISMUS”, inspired from G.
Orwell’s novel “Animal farm”.

Culmination of the Laboratory

The work will end with a sort of presentation – pre/performance in progress
open to observators. At the very end a sharing of feedback between
observators, the participants and the leader of the work will also take
place
We will also explore perspectives of further development of the
collaboration in the frame of Atropos actions in India and all over the
world.

Content of the workshop:
Warming up and research on energy and technique
Organic song and research of voice and body landscapes
Song(s) of different-world traditions
Transformation of the object
Organic and guided improvisations
Embodiment of text and song/voice work
Morning and night marches and observation in nature
Projections, discussions, exchange with local artists
Setting of a group structure/ performance

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

****The participants are asked to read and know by heart a small fragment
taken from utopic/anti-utopic texts in their mother tongue. Proposed texts:
“Us” of Evgeny Zamyatin ///// “Animal farm” George Orwell //// “Brave new
world” Aldous Haxley //// “1984” George Orwell //// “The joke” Milan
Kundera //// “The anarchist banker” Fernando Pessoa
****They should also propose 3 songs of their choice (the older and the
more unknown the song the better). The language of the songs is not
important. It is though important that the songs really touch the
participant.

Stamatis Efstathiou- Atropos artistic director - (
atropostheatre.blogspot.com
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=495ce78a86&e=96b2d5964e>)-
is practicing theatre as director & researcher, performer’s trainer,
performer and writer.
He has wandered around Europe following masters in Poland, in France, in
Germany and in Serbia. On parallel he founded Atropos Laboratory theatre
ensemble at 2004 and since then he participated as director, performer and
writer in various theatre projects in Greece, in India, in Poland, in Iran,
in Germany, in Armenia, in Bulgaria, in Denmark, in South Korea in European
and Asian Russia, in Mexico and in Spain.
He is interested in anthropological theatre, in Butoh dance, in spiritual
and in sacred traditions, and in voice and singing research, fields which
he tries to investigate through the “Theatre of Connection”, the method and
vision of Theatre that himself established and which he tries to develop
through different long term projects (ENERGIA, CARNAVANI, KOSMOS,
TETRAPTYCHO, etc).

To watch videos of previous Atropost projects, click here
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=39d45c3c08&e=96b2d5964e>

PRACTICALITIES >

Venue: Walden Pond House, Irinjalakkuda, Kerala
Walden is a space for contemporary culture, located in a picturesque
setting in Irinjalakuda, the seat of Kerala’s classical art forms in
Thrissur District. Walden opened in 2009, and has hosted many important
cultural events, art camps, theatre workshops and play rehearsals
participated by artists from India and abroad. Walden offers a space for
contemporary cultural practices, supported by the classical discipline. It
is a space where artistes from various genres can exchange ideas, create
and present their innovative works.
For more details, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/Walden-474052822716891/
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=0d6a13d7cd&e=96b2d5964e>

Participation fee:

INR 20,000 for Indian participants
350 euros for non Indian participants
(It includes tuition accommodation and food expenses)

REGISTRATION & INFO >

thearshinagarproject at gmail.com | Tel. +919831731422 | +918697919308

IMPORTANT NOTE:

1) The workshop is open to people from all backgrounds, irrespective of
their training or experience in theatre or dance

2) Interested persons for the workshop should send to
thearshinagarproject at gmail.com their personal biography together with a
motivation letter.

3) If you are interested, let us know of your *confirmed *interest by
December 10th. Please do not make casual enquiries, as that wastes
everyone's time and is disrespectful towards the artist's time and
energies.

4) If accepted, we request that you complete the payment process by
December 20th, so we have enough time to make the necessary travel and
logistical arrangements.

We look forward to having you with us at Walden!

Love and Light,
Team Arshinagar
http://thearshinagarproject.in
facebook.com/thearshinagarproject
+91 8697919308 | +91 9831731422
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=daea3f5967&e=96b2d5964e>
Share
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=44edc0b8e7&e=96b2d5964e>
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=eb45f00f0c&e=96b2d5964e>
Tweet
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=f58fe9aea1&e=96b2d5964e>
<http://us3.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=62a3a762c5&e=96b2d5964e>
Forward
<http://us3.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=62a3a762c5&e=96b2d5964e>
*Copyright
© 2015 The Arshinagar Project, All rights reserved.*
You are receiving this mail because you have shared your contacts with us
in the past, or because someone you know added you to our list. If you no
longer wish to receive messages from us, please click on the unsubscribe
button below.

*Our mailing address is:*
The Arshinagar Project
7/A, Benia Pukur Road
Calcutta 700014
India

Add us to your address book
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/vcard?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=a3544d54c3>

unsubscribe from this list
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=a3544d54c3&e=96b2d5964e&c=62a3a762c5>
update subscription preferences
<http://thearshinagarproject.us3.list-manage1.com/profile?u=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&id=a3544d54c3&e=96b2d5964e>

[image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]
<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=39aafe1e05f1872977a9b7e19&afl=1>