The Body’s Journey 2009-10-sem2

The company Pas de Dieux, co-directed by Leela Alaniz and Won Kim, proposes a year of revitalizing creativity through the rediscovery of the body as a path of research and creation. In addition to the various technical workshops proposed throughout the year, the program also proposes theoretical reflection concerning the attitudes of the actor/dancer immersed in his work, therefore opening the possibility to create with the body, spirit and sentiments as a part of a continual work of self-discovery.

Throughout the 2009-10 year, the company Pas de Dieux will invite renowned artists engaged in the corporeal research for the actor/dancer:

Thomas Leabhart

Corporeal Mime

* “Back Exercises”
* Technique du Mime Corporel : gammes, contrepoids, dynamo-rythme, figures de style, marches
* Improvisation
* Nouvelles créations

Gilberto Icle

From movement to the theatrical stage: techniques developed from popular Brazilian culture

This workshop concentrates on the study of movement as the principle means to which the actor can present himself on stage. It requires developing the figures and characteristics of certain legends of the South of Brazil such as the Salamanca do Jarau (a Moorish princess); Anhangá-Pitã (a demon created from the natural surroundings); the Boitatá (an enormous and mythical serpent). These figures are represented in the physical training exercises of rhythm, energy and movement. Then, these techniques are applied to trick the senses and to avoid the clichés. From the study of these figures, the actor can, through an organic process, discover the possibility of creating personal compositions that will be worked in their dimensions of the fine arts, the body and semantics. The work’s objective is to experiment the entire range of expressive possibilities of the actor and of the dancer for the stage. It is aimed to build a personal repertory inspired from certain elements of the diversity of Brazilian culture. The goal is to utilize these studies for other creative approaches of the contemporary performance art.

LEELA ALANIZ

The Trees and the Wind – physical and vocal training for actors and dancers

The workshops focus on the encounters of two contemporary techniques for the actor/dancer: the organic research developed by Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and his collaborators, and that of Corporeal Mime by Etienne Decroux. These techniques have as a point of convergence the same objective of developing the actor/dancer a stage presence and the autonomy as a creator.  The exercises of the organic processes free the energetic flux starting at the level of the spinal column that spreads beyond physicality of body; developing the attention and integration of the physical, emotional, and mental centers.  The Corporeal Mime isolates the different parts of the body, masters the articulations, and plays them with differing speeds, resistances, and designs of corporeal movement. The actor/dancer discovers the possibilities of creating personal compositions.

Haruna and Tatsushige Udaka, Kongô school of Kyoto, Japan

Physical Training of the Noh Theater – dance and chant

This workshop introduces the use of elements such as masks, costumes, instruments and gives an overall perspective to the method of Noh theatre through the basic KATA (dance pattern). Students will learn the Noh play ‘OIMATSU’ shimai (dance) and utai (chant). This is the Asian body training method using HARA (abdomen, or Tanden, center of the body), and the low center of gravity. Moreover, Shimai training will focus on walk, rhythm called JOHAKYU, and the expression with the minimum and limited movements. Noh theatre is composed with the very restricted elements, but somehow this situation can make expression very rich. Students will learn this formation of Noh through the actual body and verbal practice. The final performance of Shimai OIMATSU will take place during the last class.

Matteo Belli, Italy

Acting with voice – corporeal resonators

Workshop consecrated to the study of spoken voice as an act of expression: the relation between the body and the voice allowing the development of a large and diversified palette of corporeal resonators. The series of exercises involve work based on the text considered rich and complex, to read vertically and horizontally in a research of qualities of tone, of sound, of rhythm, and of dynamic that is contained in each word, each syllable and each phenomenon.

Leela Alaniz

Character – a corporeal approach

The objective of this workshop, at first, will be to discover the neutrality of the body, because each person posses a natural foundation that is unique. Afterwards, through the exercises of Theatre Anthropology, including organic research at the level of muscular vibrations and articulations and finally observation, the creation of three characters will be developed.

The Actor and the Mask of Commedia dell’Arte 

During the workshop, we will explore the masked characters of the Commedia Dell’Arte through the study of their walks, voices, and energies: Arlequin, Colombine, Dottore, Pantalon, Capitan, Zanni, Brighela. Each of these characters will be the object of a personalized work of each student. In this fixed form, in the “interior”, lies a large creative space that will be uncovered and will permit each actor to create his Arlequin, his Capitan, her Colombine…

Each day, improvisation will take its special place. We will study the codes of acting specific to the Commedia and to the mask, as well as the construction of the storylines. These participants will create the intrigues and mysteries by relying on the physical form and the psyches of their masked characters, based on their proper imagination and their relations tied to the characters.

Corporeal Mime

Physical training for actors/dancers

The work developed with rigor by Leela Alaniz responds to the understanding of one’s self by listening to the impulses, by the abandonment of stereotypical attitudes and systems, by the exploration of new ways of the body, by the discovery and respect for the inherent organicity of this body. These elements are also present in the arts of the acrobatics, music, puppetry, as well as other performing arts.

Phillip Zarrilli

Psychophysical Training of the Actor: Making the body all eyes

“MAKING THE BODY ALL EYES”
Body, breath, activation and performance

This workshop introduces participants to a psychophysical paradigm and approach to awakening the actor’s bodymind for performance. It focuses on developing the contemporary actor’s interiority, i.e., how the performer discovers, awakens, shapes, understands, and deploys ‘energy’, awareness, focus/concentration, and feeling to the ‘matter’ of performance—the impulses, structure, contours, and texture of the tasks or actions that constitute a specific performance score shaped by particular dramaturgies.

Leela Alaniz

Movement and directing

The workshop will focus on two axes : the creation of corporeal compositions derived from improvisations and the “directing” of these compositions.

Always based on the research work of autonomous creation of the actor/dancer and the relation between organicity and structure, the work proposes to participants to experiment the roles of the actor/dancer and the “director”. The later will collaborate with the former in the research process of poetic and esthetic creation.

The participants will therefore be invited to discover the responsibilities of the actor/dancer, of the “director”, and the audience, in the spirit of availability and of listening, of enrichment and of exchange, where the creation in itself is the center of the work.