Stillness

Be a gathering! The Natural Circus trainings, Spring 2012

Cultura21, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

‘I am movement and stillness at the same time’

The Natural Circus trainings are a body and movement practice (and maybe a bit more), embedded in an understanding that ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect’.

Situated in a powerful natural environment, they are playful gatherings beyond the human(-centered) perspective that may help realize the complete interdependence and interconnectedness of the human being with the natural world – until what remains is dance only. The trainings integrate elements of Contact Improvisation, Physical Theater, Tango, Bodywork, Meditation, Deep Ecology and Nature Awareness Work, Taoist/Advaita/Zen philosophy.

This 4-days gathering will take place in Barnave/Diois, France; from May 24th to the 28th, and will feature Diethild Meier (Dancer, improviser, visual artist), Lars Schmidt (Wandering Monk, Natural Thinker, Improviser) and Romain Petit (Freeclimber and climbing teacher).

The cost of the gathering is 240€, housing on site (Le Serre) included, in two rustic apartments, food will be extra, shared and prepared together. The number of participants is limited to 12 persons

For more information, go to Natural Circus´ website.

Registration: contact [at] passiveactivism [dot] net

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Cultural Events in Bangalore

Cultura21, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

By Benjamin Smith

The Bangalore-based collective “Maraa” invites you, as a parallel to the “Walls Between People” photo exhibition that opens on September 9th, to a series of three interesting events in Bangalore (India).

Movement and Stillness – a theatre workshop on walls, conflict and trust.

Please join us for a three hours theatre workshop on the themes of trust and conflict. During the workshop, the participants will use movement and storytelling to produce short improvisations that will be performed before an audience. The workshop is free and it is limited to a maximum of 20 participants, please confirm your participation before 5th September by mailing us on info [at] maraa [dot] in
Participants will be accepted on a first come first serve basis.

Date: Friday, 9th September
Time: 3-6 pm + sharing
Location: Dance Studio, Alliance Française de Bangalore

–

Before and After Walls: An introspective exercise through collective viewing of a film

Hiroshima Mon Amour: A film that uses love as a metaphor for war, forgetfulness as a curse on memory, and the contemporary as a repetition of history. Directed by French film director Alain Resnais, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras, it is the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple, making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline. The story meanders between then and now simultaneously, struggling between remembering and forgetting, wars and lovers. The screening will be followed by a discussion and interactive activities that will revolve around keywords, thematic questions and re-screening of specific scenes from the film.

Date: Wednesday 14th September
Time: 6.30 pm
Location: Auditorium, Alliance Française de Bangalore

–

Beyond Walls – An evening of poetry and storytelling

Poets and poetry lovers are welcome to take part in an evening of poetry and short story reading followed by a participatory storytelling session. Themes of conflict, division, belonging and refuge will be at the centre of the event. The participants are invited to bring their own poems and stories to share with the group. The event is open and free.

Date: Saturday 17th September
Time: 5.00 pm
Location: Dance Studio, Alliance Française de Bangalore

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

ashdenizen: flowers on stage: the daffodil

Ashden Directory, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the second in our summer series of blogs, the artist Sue Palmerwrites about the daffodils and the desk fan in Mary Southcott’s ‘Let’s get some weather in here’

One moment – a movement – remains with me. I can remember none of the content now – it is about 8 years since I saw the theatre performance and the stories are blurred, fleeted. What I do remember is Mary performing her solo show, and one moment within it has fused itself onto my memory.

Just off centre in the performance space is a window box, a white plastic window box, and facing the audience are a row of daffodils, yellow and bright in the studio lighting. They are looking perky and buoyant as only daffodils can, and very yellow, the trumpet variety. At one point in the performance, Mary switches on a desk fan that stands behind the daffodils and a deeply satisfying event takes place.

As the fan turns its automated 120-degree span, so the daffodil heads respond – bobbing, nodding. The bobbing heads in the breeze are met by collective warmth and delight from the audience – our attention is absorbed by the responsive movement of the flowers that is so familiar, so recognisable.

Mary’s simple creation of a small ‘weather system’ in the studio is utterly captivating: the outside is suddenly on the inside. The relationship between the wind and the flower is placed at the centre of my attention, so I can see in absolute detail the architectural brilliance of the flower at being able to both receive and resist the wind. Due to the travel of the fan, the breeze interacts with the flowers over an arc of time so the daffodil heads respond to the beginning of the wind touching them, nodding vigorously as the full fan passes over them, returning to a small stillness before the process loops to a return.

The articulation of the flowers and their ability to work with the wind ‘speaks’; their ‘heads’ work with receptivity, capacity, intelligence. The daffodils have performed for us.

At ‘Presence’ Festival, Dartington College of Arts, Devon, June 2002

Photo: Ed O’Keefe

See also flowers on stage: the poppy. Next: flowers on stage: the lotus.

via ashdenizen: flowers on stage: the daffodil.