February 8, 2012

A CALL OUT TO NZ PERFORMANCE ARTISTS TO JOIN THE NEW MOVEMENT

The New Performance Festival proudly presents three workshops by exceptional tutors offering their expertise on performance that merge different skills. Bert van Dijk combines voice and movement techniques to sharpen the presence of the performer, John Downie, journeys into dramatic structure for performance-makers to hang their skills onto, while Frank van de Ven leads an exploration into space itself and the relationships between all of us.

Thought/Action: A Workshop With Frank van de Ven and Peter Snow

Frank van de Ven and Peter Snow’s work on stage is grounded in the training and performance practice Body Weather Amsterdam. In this two day workshop they will introduce their approach to improvised movement and words, which they have been developing through their ongoing Thought/Action performance work over the last 10 years.

Frank van de Ven is a dancer and choreographer who spend his formative years in Japan working with Min Tanaka and the Maijuku Performance Company. In 1993 he founded, together with Katerina Bakatsaki, ‘Body Weather Amsterdam’, a platform for training and performance.  Peter Snow is a theatre artist and Professor of Theatre Performance at MonashUniversity. He has worked as a director, writer, performer and theatre-maker on more than 60 professional productions in Europe, Asia andAustralia. He has written widely on theatre and performance. His research interests include philosophy of performance and methodologies of performance making.

Presence, Voice & Theatre: A workshop with Bert van Dijk

Bert van Dijk’s theatre research has focused on turning presence into an operational device. By defining presence as the ability to be alive in the moment – to have all senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch and intuition) alert and ready in the ever-changing moment – it has become a skill that can be developed.

Bert Van Dijk is a theatre director and strict educator of international repute, who has directed numerous productions in a great variety of genres: classics, devised theatre, mime, dance theatre, bi-cultural, inter-cultural, musical, community and site-specific theatre. He has taught extensively at universities and drama schools in New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Designing Actions to Time and Space: A workshop with John Downie

A performance contains many kinds of ‘texts’: verbal, visual, aural, musical, choreographic, scenic.

So what kind of questions need to be asked at the outset of scoring and scripting, which can allow/provide for a conscious multidisciplinary? This is a writing workshop to locate content; deepen ideas; redefine forms.

John Downieis a tutor (VictoriaUniversity), playwright, theatre and media director, with a particular interest in contemporary creative practices and cross-disciplinary thinking. His research interests include; the history of spectacle and illusion, writing the performance script in the age of multi-media and interdisciplinary approaches, the relationship between biological ‘display’ and human ‘performance’, and practical theatre research as a means of investigating each of these.

Immerse yourself in a genre-blurring 9 day festival…

Thought/Action: A Workshop with Frank van de Ven and Peter Snow

Sat 18 & Sun 19 February, 10am – 4pm | Two day workshop $100*

Presence, Voice & Theatre: A workshop with Bert van Dijk

Thurs 23 & Fri 24 February, 10am – 4pm | Two day workshop $60*

Designing Actions to Time and Space: A workshop with John Downie

Sat 25 February, 10am – 4pm | One day workshop $30*

TO BOOK all workshops:       0800 BUYTICKETS or buytickets.co.nz

VENUE FOR all workshops: Goodman Fielder Room, Level 4, Aotea Centre