Guy Cools master classes “Dance and Dramaturgy: An opportunity for creative development for choreographers and their artistic collaborators” started on Monday, 1 July, in Warsaw. The event is organised by the Institute of Music and Dance, together with the Reso Dance Network Switzerland and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. It brings together choreographers experienced in creating their own works and their artistic collaborators, who represent different art forms, all coming from Poland, Switzerland and other Eastern Europe countries – members of the EEPAP. The workshops will last until 5 July.
Watch a photo report of the event’s first three days by Marta Ankiersztejn.
Guy Cools:
After having trained as a dramaturge, Guy Cools became involved with the new developments in dance in Flanders from the 1980’s, initially as a dance critic and from 1990 onwards as theatre and dance director of Arts Centre Vooruit in Ghent. As vice-president of the Dance Council he contributed to the cultural policy towards dance of the Flemish Community. He curated dance events in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Venice and Montréal. In 2002, he left Vooruit to dedicate himself fulltime to production dramaturgy with amongst others Koen Augustijnen – Lisi Esteras (Les Ballets C. de la B.), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (B), Anabel Schellekens (B), Lia Haraki (Cyprus), Danièle Desnoyers (Montréal), Akram Khan (London), Christopher House (Toronto Dance Theatre). Since October 1st, 2011, he is associate professor in Dance Studies at the Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Tilburg, Netherlands. With Lin Snelling and Ginelle Chagnon he developped a series of workshops to support the creative process of artists, choreographers in particular. He regularly gives lectures and publishes in Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Greece and Cyprus.
About the workshop:
The workshop will offer the participants practical tools and exercises to reflect upon, to evaluate and eventually to transform and improve their creative process. Using the cross, circle and labyrinth as graphic symbols, I will introduce the essential polarities of the creative process: perception, articulation, intuition, experience. In the workshop we will focus on perception (what to look for), articulation (how to express oneself best in order to get what one is looking for) and interdisciplinary practices (looking at how artists work in other disciplines and finding creative ‘translations’ of this toward one’s own practice). We will deal specifically with the potential function of dance dramaturgy within the creative process. I will discuss the role of the dramaturge in this process, amongst others as witness, moderator and editor, and I will illustrate dance dramaturgy as a creative, somatic praxis, using a number of case studies from my own practice with amongst others Les Ballets C de la B, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Akram Khan.
Organizer: Institute of Music and Dance
In cooperation with: Reso – Dance Network Switzerland
Supported by: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
A cooperation project in the framework of the exchange programme with Central and Eastern Europe, initiated by the liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in Warsaw.
http://www.prohelvetia.pl
Partners: Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute, Centre for Contemporary Arts Ujazdowski Castle, East-European Performing Arts Platform