Body, Identity, Society

staff

"Body, Identity, Society": 3 modules

"Body, Identity, Society" is:

3 modules: Body (Module 1), Identity (Module 2), Society (Module 3)
A full-time program you can attend for either 3, 6 or 9 months
19 international "unlearning facilitators"
10 dance techniques: Ndombolo (Congo), Azonto (Ghana), Afro House (Angola), Amapiano (South Africa), Naija Street Styles (Nigeria), Funk carioca (twerk), Contemporary / Improvisation, Release, Fusion Bellydance, Waacking
10 relaxation, grounding & healing techniques: Qi-gong, Tai Chi, Guided Yoga, Breathing techniques, Guided Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Collective singing, Moongoddess & Dragonbreath Method, Shiatsu Japanese Massage
5 martial art techniques: Kung Fu (Chinese martial arts), Play Fight, Self-defense, Kalaripayattu (Indian martial art), Budo (Japanese martial art)
4 flow toy techniques: 3 ball juggling, Staff spinning, Hula hooping, Poi spinning
3 creations with guest choreographers
3 personal creations with public showcase
Interdisciplinary art practices: Dj & Mixing, Sound & Field recording, Zine making, Weaving, Body Painting
Public space performances, Lecture performances, Community rituals

"Body, Identity, Society" is a full time program you can attend for either 3, 6 or 9 months. It was designed for you, if you want to prepare, nourish or develop a professional career on the intersection of creation, connection, and community:

make live art (dance, perform, choreograph, find your authentic artistic language, choreographic vocabulary, personal aesthetic...) ;
create experiences (immersive rituals, multi-sensory ceremonies, interactive dispositives...) ;
hold spaces (design "rooms", develop your own method, write your creative or healing exercises, create your authentic practice...) ;
build communities (around events, workshops, performances, multi-sensory experiences, rituals, ceremonies, collaborations, festivities...).

The educational path is built on three modules ("Body", "Identity", "Society"), each 3 months long, and articulated around different approaches (Theory, Practice, Dance Technique, Martial Art, Research, Creation Project, Wellbeing, Community...). In form of thematic workshops, creations, studio times, lectures, community activities, ceremonies, celebrations, performances, conversations, presentations, well-being times, research labs, dancing jams, public space interventions, and many more, students will be guided by a beautifully international and cross-cultural team, composed of artists, authors, makers, creators, curators, choreographers, musicians, DJs, scholars, healers, witches, and cultural activists.

structure

Module 1: "Body" (2023 Aug. 7 > 2023 Oct. 20)
Module 2: "Identity" (2023 Oct. 30 > 2024 Jan. 26)
Module 3: "Society" (2024 Feb. 5 > 2024 Apr. 26)

BODY >
IDENTITY >
SOCIETY >

Schedule

MODULE 1: BODY
Aug. 7 - Oct. 20

Aug. 7-11: Experimentation
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Body politics"

Aug. 14-18: Choreographic creation & Performance
Marion Binois (France): "Monster: as a liberation of the submerged side of the iceberg, that is hidden, unaccepted, uncontrolled"

Aug. 21-25: Technique
Luana Naquin (France): "Afro fusion dance styles: Ndombolo (Congo), Azonto (Ghana), Afro House (Angola), Amapiano (South Africa), Naija Street Styles (Nigeria)"

Aug. 28 - Sept. 1: Research
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "The sketchbook project"

Sept. 4-8: Project: Theory
Iris Medeiros (Brazil): "Ways and meanings of the touch: a tool for empowerment, well-being, and knowledge"

Sept. 11-15: Fall holiday

Sept. 18-22: Community
Judit Kis (Hungary): "Conscious, ritualistic and communal approaches to food and how to nurture the body"

Sept. 25-29: Practice
Penelope Morout (Greece-France): "Sculpting Body-Images: improvisation, playground, release"

Oct. 2-6: Studio: Personal creation: "Performances"

Oct. 9-13: Well-being
Marion Filippi (France): "Multi sensorial journey: Breathing techniques, Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Collective singing"

Oct. 16-20: Assessment & Showcase

class descriptionS

AUG. 7-11: EXPERIMENTATION
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Body politics"

"The body is the medium or raw material through which we navigate the world, but it is also an entity that is invested with meaning."
Mary Kosut and Lisa Jean Moore, The Body Reader
In this class, the female body will be addressed and interpreted through the lens of history, society, and culture, seen as a political-affective geography, a shaped and colonized archive, a both public and private space, where power and control are constantly contested and negotiated.
Through group discussions, personal creations, and presentations, students will learn to use reflection of their own embodied experiences and examine the following topics:

DAY 1: "Body & Consumer culture"

Morning (research & discussion): "Politics of beauty: body image, fashion, cosmetic surgery"
Afternoon (creation & presentation): "Pornography"

DAY 2: "Canons of Beauty"

Tuesday is reserved for women only in the Rudas Turkish Bath. In this safe and healing environment we take care of our body, mind, and heart, come together to celebrate the diversity of beauty.

DAY 3: "Body & Health"

Morning (research & discussion): "Disordered Bodies, Disordered Eating", Athletic Bodies", "Differently Abled (Dis-abled) Bodies", "Illness", "Aging, Dying, and Dead Bodies"
Afternoon (creation & presentation):"Periods, Body smells, Hairs"

DAY 4: "Body & Social control"

Morning (research & discussion): "Policing-Regulating-Dominating-Criminalizing- Punishing "other" bodies"
Afternoon (creation & presentation): "Violence / Non-violence"

DAY 5: "Sexualizing the Body"

Morning (research & discussion): "Object of desire"
Afternoon (creation & presentation): "Appropriating the body"

________________________________________________

AUG. 14-18: CHOREOGRAPHIC CREATION & PERFORMANCE
Marion Binois (France): "Monster: as a liberation of the submerged side of the iceberg, that is hidden, unaccepted, uncontrolled"

Five days of creation with the choreographer Marion Binois, with a public performance at the end of the week.
Marion Binois about her choreographic project:
"Monster as something that liberates, that shows another side that can be difficult to show. Monster as a liberation of the submerged side of the iceberg, that hidden, unassumed and/or unaware side. This side of us that gets out of the way, that frees another part of the complex beings that we are. Monster as a mask that allows us to hide a part of us to be able to bring out another more easily. Don't we feel different when we are dressed up? To put a change on the outside to modify the inside and to make us progress. Monster or how to bring out something that is deep inside by changing the outer appearance making us let go of our usual identity in order to make room for all those that may also exist inside. A bright person can also be dark from time to time. Because even though they may take up less space these hidden parts of our personality also need to exist. Monster just because you can be who you want, when you want, because I can be who I want, when I want."

DAY 1-4

Morning: warm up, research, experimentation
Afternoon: choreographic creation, rehearsals

DAY 5

Morning: rehearsal
Evening: public performance

________________________________________________

AUG. 21-25: TECHNIQUE
Luana Naquin (France): "Afro fusion dance styles: Ndombolo (Congo), Azonto (Ghana), Afro House (Angola), Amapiano (South Africa), Naija Street Styles (Nigeria)"

Afro Fusion dance styles is a workshop sequence dedicated to discovering different modern and urban African dances while staying connected to the body, mind and the culture of the dance styles. It will be a way to learn dances through an Afrocentric practice. Those dance styles come from Ghana, Congo, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Nigeria, Gabon and are social dances. Through this workshop we will connect with each other while learning and practicing. I create a safe space for each dance learner to explore themselves, their body and discover respectfully different African cultures through movement. I am myself on this journey as an afro-descendant person from the Caribbean region. I found through modern African dances a way to (re)connect to my Africanness and my inner self, ground myself and experience a deep joy and way of expression of myself. I love to share this experience with other people! I have an empathetic way of teaching where I pay attention to every-body in a way to include everyone. I position myself as someone who is sharing knowledge and learning from everyone in the room while teaching.

DAY 1
Introduction
Warm-up
Dance style: Ndombolo (Congo)

Lecture : cultural background + music discovery
Technique & Combo or short choreography

DAY 2
Warm-up
Dance style: Azonto (Ghana)

Lecture : cultural background + music discovery
Technique & Combo or short choreography

DAY 3
Warm-up
Dance style: Afro House (Angola)

Lecture : cultural background + music discovery
Technique & Combo or short choreography

DAY 4
Warm-up
Dance style: Amapiano (South Africa)

Lecture : cultural background + music discovery
Technique & Combo or short choreography

DAY 5
Warm-up
Dance style: Naija Street Styles (Nigeria)

Lecture : cultural background + music discovery
Technique & Combo or short choreography

________________________________________________

AUG. 28 - Sept. 1: RESEARCH
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "The sketchbook project"

Five days of individual research: reading, watching films, podcasts, diverse audio-visual resources, conducting interviews, visiting exhibitions, writing in many forms, making drawings and collages, observing, journaling, sketching. Sketching movements, ideas, thoughts. Raising questions, debating topics, taking notes, having ideas. Opening doors.
Five days, five locations, five topics, one sketchbook.

________________________________________________

SEPT. 4-8: THEORY
Iris Medeiros (Brazil): "Ways and meanings of the touch: a tool for empowerment, well-being, and knowledge"

"What touch does to the museum: Ana Pi's research at MAC VAL" is the title of the both theory- and practice-based research I conducted in the past years in collaboration with the University Paris VIII and the "Dancing Museums - The democracy of beings". As I wanted to offer to the reader a sensible and artistic experience besides an intellectual journey, I decided to make from my research a multi-sensory artist's book, a material who dances, a "dancing object" to dance with.
During my workshop, I will share with you my work, through the body, the mind, and the heart, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. We will explore together how touch can be a tool for empowerment, well-being, and knowledge. Together, we will take a route to discover many ways and meanings of touch. It's an invitation for a collective multi-sensory exploration.

DAY 1.

Morning: introduction, warm-up, lecture
Afternoon: practice of touch (exercises Theater of the oppressed - Augusto Boal) and relaxation

DAY 2.

Morning: warm-up, lecture
Afternoon: warm-up funk carioca (twerk), practice of touch (exercises inspired by Lisa Nelson - tuning score) and relaxation

DAY 3

Morning: warm-up, lecture
Afternoon: warm-up funk carioca (twerk), practice of touch (exercises inspired by dance contact and Lia Rodrigues), relaxation

DAY 4

Morning: warm-up, lecture
Afternoon: warm-up funk carioca (twerk), practice of touch inspired in Ana Pi proposal "èscultura", relaxation

DAY 5

Morning: warm-up, lecture/practice
Afternoon: feedback

________________________________________________

SEPT. 11-15: FALL HOLIDAY

________________________________________________

SEPT. 18-22: COMMUNITY
Judit Kis (Hungary): "Conscious, ritualistic and communal approaches to food and how to nurture the body"

When we observe our reactions to certain experiences and emotions we can see how our digestive system can respond with similar consciousness to our brain. Listening to our instincts can have bodily sensations and we can learn to understand and use them as our guide. We will learn about grounding exercises and rituals, how to tune into our body and notice the energy flows or blocks within us. Through the week we will also discuss how food consumption can have an impact on our mental and physical health. Our task will be to deepen our connection to natural resources that we can make food from to nurture our body and soul together.

DAY 1: “The habitants of our gut”

Digestive system as a second brain - micro and macro cultures
Being conscious about our metabolism / observing the responses of our body to certain food
Listening to our instincts
Tune into the body - scanning emotions and releasing tension
Grounding Meditation with learning about the chakras

DAY 2: “Healing Garden”

Gardening inside ourselves and planting intentions, while experiencing ourselves as part of nature
Observe the energy of others and move energy in the group
Body massage to help digestion
Ancient rituals dedicated for women

DAY 3: “Cultivating new approaches”

Healing plants that can nurture our soul
Connection to herbs and ingredients (touch, smell and taste)
Hike in nature to find edible and symbolic resources

DAY 4: “Food Consumption and Sustainability”

Understanding the role of food in our mental health
Permaculture, community gardens and culinary models
Brief introduction on queer farming and land back movements

DAY 5: “Food habits in our community”

Country and family specific traditions
Food dates and cooking to express love and care
Cooking as a ritual/ gathering and sharing

________________________________________________

SEPT. 25-29: PRACTICE
Penelope Morout (Greece-France): "Sculpting Body-Images: improvisation, playground, release"

Sculpting Body-Images is a physical movement workshop of high intensity, shaped to challenge the known bodily patterns of each practitioner and to bring awareness to the conscious act of seeing and perceiving the body in relation to interchangeable elements. Whether in real life or on stage, whether through the bare eye or through the lens of the camera, our body is a dynamic instrument in constant transformation. However, in order to sculpt the form, we need to play and provoke its limits.
Through the use of spatial, temporal and physical constraints, as well as game-like situations inspired by Fighting Monkey Practice (founded by Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek) we will engage into constant movement: constantly transferring weight from one leg to the other, testing the interconnection between our spine and our limbs, shifting positions in space, alternating rhythms between the upper and lower part of the body, destabilizing the bodily structure are some of the ways we will push our corporeal limits and aim to build up stamina, gain agility, speed and resilience in physically demanding situations.
Sculpting Body-Images is about approaching the body from a 360° view and consciously choosing the perspective we want to present, based upon what we want to communicate with the world. The question is how can we make this communication clearer and more specific?

DAY 1-5

Morning: Method
Afternoon: Research, creation, playground

________________________________________________

OCT. 2-6: STUDIO: PERSONAL CREATION

________________________________________________

OCT. 9-13: WELL-BEING
Marion Filippi (France): "Multi sensorial journey: Guided Yoga, Breathing techniques, Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Collective singing"

This workshop is about embodiment and intimacy, in a way that connects us with ourselves and explores how presence allows us to further connect us with others, our direct environment and a greater whole (of various scales). Embodiment is also about feeling the energy flow through our body in order to better know the self so we get a better sense of what to heal and to cultivate to further blossom. It is about understanding how to channel energy in a creative way. It is about stillness and movement, about the nuances of being in one’s body, in physical, emotional, and energetic space.
There are several methods that we will explore, with techniques of/derived from hypnosis, sound journeying, yoga, meditation, and psychomagic, (all of which I have numerous years of experience with).
Firstly, the workshop will start with the aim of bringing each and all in their own presence, physically, emotionally and mentally. This process is reiterated every morning, as a necessary way to check one's own inner space before starting to interact with others on a deep and energetically intimate level. The goal is to get into the habit of attuning yourself to the subtle information that is being communicated by the body, and to make space for the underlying processes of the psyche.
The second phase is the collective activation (for which we will be using a different protocol each day) where we connect with others, mostly non verbally. There will be a frame for this workshop, but the importance lies in the organic evolution of the group when all have entered a state of clearer awareness. It can take the form of movement (such as contact dance), sensorial experiences (sound journey, exercices of perception), collective singing and vibrating (moments of embodiment of harmonies and finding comfort in the dysharmonies that are part of the flow) or psycho magic acts, where we perform healing symbolic rituals.
The five days are an exploration of what we authentically offer to the world and share with others when we listen to our innermost resonance ? The journey is one of navigating between the inner self and the outer self. It aims to offer a way to better feel ourselves so we can better respect our boundaries, and therefore enter a space of connection with others where we are conscious and honor other's boundaries too. This space is one of care.

DAY 1
Morning: Presentation, Guided Yoga-Breath-Meditation
Afternoon: Collective activation - multi sensorial journey (touch, smell, listen, move), Moment of exchange

DAY 2
Morning: Feeling forecast, Guided Yoga-Breath-Meditation
Afternoon: Collective activation - Movement journey between merging and feeling boundaries, Moment of exchange

DAY 3
Morning: Feeling forecast, Guided Yoga-Breath-Meditation
Afternoon: Collective activation - Guided Hypnosis followed by a collective singing/voice harmonizing, Moment of exchange

DAY 4
Morning: Feeling forecast, Guided Yoga-Breath-Meditation
Afternoon: Collective activation - Automatic writing of the collective narrative/listening to the collective psyche, Ritual of the Moult (psycho magic act of skin shredding), Moment of exchange

DAY 5
Morning: Feeling forecast, Guided Yoga-Breath-Meditation
Afternoon: Final collective activation, Moment of exchange
________________________________________________

OCT. 16-20: ASSESSMENT & SHOWCASE

unlearning facilitators

Anna Ádám (Hungary): Artist, Choreographer, Community activist
Born in Budapest (Hungary), in 1983, and graduated from the ENSAPC Art School (France) in 2016, I am working with art as a means of connection and with education as a means of activism. I am making full evening pieces and short-format performances, holding multi-sensorial political soft-spaces, creating immersive choreographic experiences, and building rebellious communities. In the past 8 years, I dreamed up the School of Disobedience, founded an artist collective then my own performance art company (Gray Box), launched an annual festival (Wildflowers), exhibited in a toilet, performed in a boxing ring, curated in an elevator, gave lectures in a techno club, run classes in a hammam... I like everything that is unusual, unexpected, and nonconformist. I am not kind with assholes and learned how to follow my own path. I will teach you how to think outside the box so as to be independent. I think the party is outside the canon.
www.annaadam.net
www.instagram.com/annaadamstudio

Marion Binois (France): Dancer, Choreographer, Model and Visual artist
Marion Binois is a multidisciplinary artist. Following her Baccalaureate obtained in Caen in Design and Applied Arts, she left for Nantes to do a BTS in Space Design. It is at this time that she discovers the community of hip hop dancers. She started to dance in free training sessions, exchanging with dancers of different disciplines while studying. Once she graduated, she began to develop her multi-artistic universe through the local community. Attracted by the link between movement and clothing that she makes herself, she creates performances in France and abroad where characters are created for several dancers as well as multidisciplinary events with the association LabStrus that she has created with friends. Wanting to go further in her creation, she founded the Compagnie Oïra in 2019 in order to carry her first piece for a dancer and a musician; Néant. Always in this need for multi-artistic experimentation, she continues to develop the creation of characters through « Monsters » that she makes so that they are worn during shootings and performances.
« I like to create multi-dimensional universes that are both plastic and performative and that pass from one art form to the other, each of them feeding each other. My blaze, Oïra reflects my approach: if we take my first name Marion and we take its reflection it gives noiram, if now we extract the heart, it gives Oïra, thus the Reflection of the Heart. My objective is to reflect my inner self as well as that of the people I work with, to go and find a lost depth in order to bring it out and send it forward through the body and its expression. My subjects are thus diverse and always take their source in the intimate space and can be made just as universal as for my piece Néant. based on the survey « What is time for you? ».
www.instagram.com/marion_binois
www.oira.fr

Luana Naquin (France): Dancer, Dance teacher, Multidisciplinary performer
I am an Afro-descendant Carribbean self taught dancer and dance teacher who focuses her practice on empathetic teaching and African practises. I learn mostly from people and like to re share what I know, what I learn and what I developed. I'm energetic and use humor to ease the atmosphere. I am honest and transparent and pay a lot of attention of people's need. I value quality over quantity. I create spaces to make people feel comfortable, seen, heard and valued. I love dancing with people and bringing the joy and the passion out of them.
www.instagram.com/luanamadikera

Iris Medeiros (Brazil): Interdisciplinary Artist & Researcher
Iris Medeiros is an ex-athlete/rhythmic gymnastics teacher, she is trained in educational sciences (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), visual arts (Parque Lage School of Visual Arts), dance (University of Paris 8), and community (Theater of the oppressed / Augusto Boal). At the Val-de-Marne Contemporary Art Museum (France) she is a lecturer, her visits are often an opportunity to question the place of the body and get into movement. Under the direction of Mahalia Lassibille at Paris 8, she conducted the research "What touch does to the museum: the research of Ana Pi at the MAC VAL", as part of the European project Dancing Museums 2 - The Democracy of Beings, of which this museum was a partner. Her pedagogical vision is mostly based on the theory of Paulo Freire (the pedagogy of the oppressed), Edgar Morin (interdisciplinary), and Lelia Gonzales (Latin American Feminism). She is currently working as a choreographer for Orbe, a collectif interdisciplinary based in Paris.
www.instagram.com/Iris_quetzal
Her research

Judit Kis (Hungary): Interdisciplinary Artist & Researcher
In using her own body and subjectivity as a tool within her confessional art practice, Judit Kis establishes intimacy between herself and the viewer to instill an emotional impression. Focused on self-care and healing, she has recently explored Indigenous uses of plant medicines in ritual and 1950s psychiatric experiments with psychedelics to work through trauma. Creating her own sensory spaces, both virtual and physical, she explores the boundaries of conscious and subconscious existence. This approach offers potential for healing by identifying patterns and confronting harmful cycles through interaction with her installations and performative video series. The meditation on mind and body at a micro level speaks to a larger connectedness between self, society, and nature, bridging mental health with ecological sustainability.
www.u-dyt.com
www.instagram.com/u.dyt

Penelope Morout (Greece-France): Interdisciplinary dance artist and choreographer
Holding two BA's in Dance and Architecture (K.S.O.T. & N.T.U.A. - GR) and a Master’s in Theatre Practices (ArtEZ - NL), my work expands from creating multidisciplinary dance performances, to constructing sets, creating surrealistic comic stories and animation films. In 2019, I participated in the International Exhibition HUMAN RIGHTS? | THE FUTURE'S SHAPE #WomenCanSaveTheWorld (IT) and for the creation of my solo H.I.I.T. | High-Intensity Identity Training, I used myself as a case-study experiment for a year, in order to draw attention to the objectification of the human body. My latest production, THE BOX || That Dead Space Between Us received financial support from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. In 2021, I founded Cross iMPact Company, an organization which emerged from the belief that artistic innovation can be found in the meeting points between diverse art forms and that art is capable of producing a fundamental impact, in both the individual and the community.
www.instagram.com/penelopemorout
www.penelopemorout.com

Marion Filippi (France): Artist and Healing facilitator
My name is Marion, I am a mediterranean artist and healing facilitator. I was born in Marseille, France. I grew up with a deaf parent, which is important regarding how I approach social relationships and the variety of ways we can connect as individuals. I studied political sciences, and when I was 21, after spending a year in Jerusalem, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a turning point in my life. I engaged on a healing and creative journey that have lead me to the path I am walking now. In 2015, I moved to Cape Town where I lived for 3 years. I started performing as an intimately cathartic practice, exploring gender, sexuality, and the sacred. I simultaneously trained as yoga and meditation instructor, something that had been crucial in my healing journey. Over the years, I trained as a hypnotherapist and as an psychological astrologer. Over the years, I have progressively incorporated my healing tools in my immersive performance pieces, where I facilitate - rather than "perform"- collective experiences leading to altered states of consciousness.
www.instagram.com/marionversatile

SCHEDULE

MODULE 2: IDENTITY
Oct. 30 - Jan. 26

Oct. 30 - Nov. 3: Well-being
Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): "Tame the Dragon: Introduction to Qi-gong, & Kung Fu"

Nov. 6-10: Field work
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Wildflowers Festival: organizing, curating & programming a community festival"

Nov. 13-17: Project: Choreographic creation & Performance
Priiya Prethora (India): "Facing Traces: Decolonial and emancipatory movement practice based on Kalaripayattu and performance creation with a sound archive on history, memory and identity"

Nov. 20-24: Practice
Lu Lin (China): "Reading My Panties: stories, relations, politics, dogmas, and taboos related to cultural differences"

Nov. 29 - Dec. 3: Wildflowers Festival
The annual performance art festival of the School of Disobedience

Dec. 4-8: Theory
Masha Kardash (Ukraine): "Self-exoticism and post-socialist femininity: demystifying the ‘exotic’ body in Eastern Europe"

Dec. 11-15: Community
Luca Borsos (Hungary): "Underground Budapest: How to occupy public spaces - reinventing our ways to intervene"

Dec. 18-31: Winter holiday

Jan. 3-7: Technique
Adriatica Body Art (Brazil / Germany): "Moon Goddess Dance & Dragonbreath with Body painting: introduction to Fusion Bellydance and Waacking"

Jan. 10-14: Creative Writing
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Personal Mythologies: an immersive creative writing experience"

Jan. 15-19: Studio: Personal creation: "Experiences"

Jan. 22-26: Assessment & Showcase

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

OCT. 30 - NOV. 3: WELL-BEING
Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): "Tame the Dragon: Introduction to Qi-gong, Tai Chi, and Kung Fu"

In this class I will teach basic Kung Fu techniques, based on my training in the Changquan
(longfist) style. I start each class with meditation exercises that are derived from Qi-Gong and Tai Chi, that will activate the body and mind before we get into the physically demanding stuff. This includes tapping of the meridian lines and full body shaking for grounding all whilst
visualizing certain images, whereafter we do mobilization work to gently create space in our
joints. Right after is when I start to explain and teach the basic stances of Kung Fu, in order to get acquainted with them. This concludes the warm up, which will then lead into the training section of the class. We go across the floor with different high kicks, stance variations, spins and small jumps. When I feel we have practiced these basics enough for that day, we will then go into learning a simple fist form. A phrase that can be repeated military style. Again I will ask to visualize and meditate throughout everything we do, and this can manifest into certain screaming exercises to release any form of stress. As a cooldown I bring everyone together in a circle again to do some self-massage, breathing and grounding. Since for this workshop I want to dive into cultural aspects besides only training, I will dedicate either before or after the training section some time to explain the history of Kung Fu and its political affairs, and open the space for any questions and discussions.

Qi-gong is a Chinese exercise and healing technique that involves meditation, controlled breathing and movement exercises.
Tai Chi is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation.

DAY 1-5

Qi-gong / Tai Chi
Kung Fu Mobilization exercises + Basic stances
Kung Fu Basic technique exercises (kicks, sequences etc)
Kung Fu Fist forms (detailed work)
Theory / History / Cultural background
Discussion / Questions / Feedback

________________________________________________

NOV. 6-10: PROJECT: FIELD WORK
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Wildflowers Festival: organizing, curating & programming a community festival"

________________________________________________

NOV. 13-17: CHOREOGRAPHIC CREATION & PERFORMANCE
Priiya Prethora (India): "Facing Traces: Decolonial and emancipatory movement practice based on Kalaripayattu and performance creation with a sound archive on history, memory and identity"

Facing traces is an interrogation, a query, a curiosity about and around the identity of the moving body. Where does this body come from and what all does it let go of in the journey of embodying forms, techniques and physical practices. The class is a frame created through lives lived and fictionalized survival of belonging to a land, a culture, a body, a movement language.

Facing Traces has been growing as a sound archive that has had few chances of facilitating indoor spaces of movement explorations to create a collective sense of identity and its queerness. It has also been shared between a wide range of people as a seed for generating new tracings and narratives of identities that live in the intimacy of our faces. This archive started as an experiment to witness intimacy with others and the fluidity of one's identity when placed in a container of movement without a lid. How is it to be working with a focus on the amplified/multiplied ambiguity of gender, staging and codification of movement?

With this class, I wish to propose a riddle which engages the sound archive as an impulse for students to dig into their own body movement archives. Through working with neural signals of the brain, voicing impulses and working with bodily reflexes to explore the point of origin for the body's movement when it's expressed by another body.

Through three stages, the frame will move from movement phrases attuned to recorded tracings, creating myths of origin for the body and regenerating body archives/movement motifs. I intend to explore questions of inhabiting other bodies, their language and the loss/creation of a new body each time it changes through a sense of togetherness without unity. To understand all of this in movement, dance and choreography.

To create an anthology of movement folklore which is rooted in the legends of everyday techniques and multiple identities we inhabit the world with. How we witness, transform and perceive our own dance when juxtaposed with others or watched/heard by others. The role of memory and identity is always elusive, in this attempt I wish to peel the layers of physical choreographies, together with the students as intimately as we witness dreams and visitations which are so often influenced by metaphors unique to our physical heritage.

Each day begins with an hour of practicing the eight animal forms of Kalaripayattu (Indian Martial Art form from Kerala). Each day this section will take as long as is needed by everyone, for this I don't plan to look at a ticking clock.

DAY 1

Somatic voice and neural body movement to internally massage the fiber and coming to one's body-archive.

DAY 2

Bringing archival sound recordings to the space, intimate listening and responding through tracing one's own face.
Students are sent off to record their own individual face tracings.

DAY 3

Exchange between each other's recordings, intimate listening and responding (open to forms that are rooted in their instinct).
This day they take with them a recording each to bring suggestions of transforming it to movement/vocal phrases for the next day.

DAY 4

We will collectively scaffold a traverse between the various phrases brought by the students.

DAY 5

Materializing the site, creating a maze through soundscapes, movement, textures and bodies as a form to share this work with others beyond the students in the project.

________________________________________________

NOV. 20-24: PRACTICE
Lu Lin (China): "Reading My Panties: stories, relations, politics, dogmas, and taboos related to cultural differences"

“Reading My Panties” is an ongoing practice focusing on creating a space for showcasing the ways in which our underwear connects us with our bodies and identities. Reading My Panties: Queering Regulations is a series of workshops where panties form an entry point, or “talking object” to access stories, relations, politics, dogmas and taboos related to bodily and cultural differentiations. Stereotypical gender identities, as a construct of gender regulations, constitute a dilemma between femininity and masculinity, which evolve into gender performativity and impact the embodiment of our clothes. Femininity has long been muted and stigmatized in patriarchal societies; it more or less constituted a shame of presenting femininity in the context of both heterosexuality and homosexuality. Panties are a reflection of the values given to femininity; it demands a greater sense of value. This class aims to practice queerness theory in action, the workshops includes two types of actions: reading groups and zine-making with three topics in each location.

DAY 1-2: “Reading groups”
Reading Femininity” is a 2 day long reading group for studying femininity in theories. The reading groups are aimed at collectively challenging and broadening our views through reading feminist theory, related to the topics hidden in panties, such as self-objectification, bodies, shame on femininity, intimacy, etc. Through the workshop, the participants will read the zines, books and articles together and have an extensive discussion for deepening the thematic focuses. Following four underlying questions based on topics, I will engage participants to answer and address together after reading.

DAY 3-5: “Documentation & Zine-making”
“Bring your underwear” is a zine-making workshop where the participants will experiment with ways of narratives through image-making and writing. According to the above-mentioned topics, I will not only lead the discussions in depth but also share approaches of story-telling and visualizing. Working on co-creating, the participants will work on digging out the stories related to their views on, and relations to, underwear at personal and cultural/political levels.

________________________________________________

NOV. 29 - DEC. 3: WILDFLOWERS FESTIVAL
The annual performance art festival of the School of Disobedience

________________________________________________

DEC. 4-8: THEORY
Masha Kardash (Ukraine): "Self-exoticism and post-socialist femininity: demystifying the ‘exotic’ body in Eastern Europe"

I offer the lecture series discussing the phenomenon of self-exoticism - accepting the identity of Exotic Other and engaging in practices untypical for the dominant culture -
specifically from the post-socialist perspective. My course is an invitation to look for the reasons why we as white Eastern/Central European women are interested in the ‘exotic’ and ‘mystic’ practices (belly dance, yoga, body modification and adornment, even modern witchcraft) and what role the Soviet cultural legacy and fast transition to capitalism play in
this fascination with ‘Otherness’. I also suggest looking at the body as the main tool for becoming exotic, from getting tattoos to learning extravagant dances, and at how the alternative subcultures are connected with the idea of self-exoticism. This project evolved from my two main research directions - fusion belly dance which is my main dance background and the initial focus of my Dance Anthropology studies, and Soviet dance & body politics that I investigated in the Open Society Archives in Budapest. During my work in archives, I kept thinking of how much the restrictive body politics of the USSR legacy influenced the boom of ‘exotic’ practices among my generation of post-soviet women, so I started researching this topic more and more. Although I have been primarily focusing on the fusion belly dance in Ukraine, I soon realized that the idea of self-exotification as the
strategy of resistance and self-exploration for women can be extrapolated to more practices and subcultures. Moreover, it is applicable not only to Ukraine but to the whole of Eastern
and Central Europe, as regions that went through the rapid change of regimes. This class will mainly focus on theory but we will also have time for open discussions and reflections. After looking at the formation of body politics ideas in Eastern Europe, we will analyze our understanding of ‘Otherness’ and fascination with ‘exotic’ and ‘mystic’, as well as our assumptions about the concepts of body, purity, sensuality, stigma and so on. We will also discuss the modern ethics of practicing foreign cultural forms and dealing with the issue
of cultural appropriation. I also plan to include several examples of how borrowed practices got accustomed to the local terrain and had overgrown with stereotypes.

DAY 1

Introduction, getting to know each other
Theory: How our ideas of the body are formed and learned? History of body politics in Europe: from Antiquity to Christian puritanism.
Discussion, debate

DAY 2

Grounding session
Theory: Dance, Body & Gender Politics in the Socialist bloc. The USSR Politics on Innocence. Understanding the 1990s’ transition from the soviet to western images of femininity. The emergence of subcultures as the result of exposure to the market economy. Bodies as sites of alternativity and marginalization.
Discussion, debate

DAY 3

Grounding session
Theory: The concept of orientalism, otherness and self-exoticism. Western/Male Gaze. From ‘Oriental Exotic Other’ to ‘Exotic Other of Any Kind’ (including non-human form). Belly dance, as the example of orientalism and misrepresentation. Re-thinking belly dance: how to practice ethically.
Discussion, debate

DAY 4

Grounding session
Theory: Self-fashioning as carnival/masquerade: costume and body adornments as methods of empowerment. Spiritualism and ritualisation of practices. Self-exoticism as the strategy of resistance to oppressive body politics and search for a new image of femininity.
Discussion, debate

DAY 5

Grounding session
Students presentation
Open discussion
Reflection circle and closure

________________________________________________

DEC. 11-15: COMMUNITY
Luca Borsos (Hungary): "Underground Budapest: How to occupy public spaces - reinventing our ways to intervene"

This workshop series parts from a very personal place. from my relationship to my home city, from what I allow myself while being in public spaces, from dreams and desires.
I believe that we all shape a city by living in it. We can do it unconsciously or consciously. I am inviting participants to experiment together on what public space means to us, how we see it and how we want to interfere.
I believe in creating spaces where we can find ourselves, we can hear and raise up our voices.
I offer practices to explore space through sensorial awareness, through the body and somatic practices. I offer a creative process, where participants find their own way of participation. a space, where they can feel owners of their decisions, leaders of their choices. I feel only by expanding ourselves it is possible to find our ways we want to participate in the city’s life. Empowering ourselves to experiment with artistic interventions without judgment is a form of protest against restrictions, against decision making powers.
I want to spend time together in which we reinvent our relationship to public spaces. I want to be playful together, I want to experience the city in ways we so often don’t allow ourselves in our everyday lives. And I want to dance. I want to dance with others. I want to dance with others in public spaces.

DAY 1: “ME – WHAT ARE MY INTENTIONS”
Check in with ourselves, what is our relationship to public spaces, setting intentions for the week’s practices

DAY 2: “THE CITY AND MYSELF - WHERE AM I AND HOW DO I INTERFERE”
Observing the city and it’s rhythms, breaking up possibilities on relating ourselves to the public space

DAY 3: “THE SENSORIAL EXPERIENCE – SENSING THE CITY”
Time for opening our senses, time for creating through sensorial invitations and experiences

DAY 4: “CREATION DAY’
A day for creating exercises and invitations to occupy public space

DAY 5: “SHARING AND CELEBRATION DAY”
Time to share our experiments, time to occupy, time to celebrate

DAY 6: “CLOSURE AND PICNIC”
Time to reflect, to rest, share, feedback and close the circle

- Sessions are taking place in different times of the day - exploring differences between daytime, nigh time, dawn and sunset -

________________________________________________

DEC. 18-31: WINTER HOLIDAY

________________________________________________

JAN. 3-7: TECHNIQUE
Adriatica Body Art (Brazil / Germany): "Moon Goddess Dance & Dragonbreath with Body painting: introduction to Fusion Bellydance and Waacking"

Moon Goddess Method has 3 essential steps:
1. BREATH
2. MOVE
3. DANCE

You will learn to access your subconscious mind through breath, move your Body consciously (stretch and breath to go deeper)and finally learn Fusion Bellydance Technique to explore your feminine side (internal movement, wombdance) and add Waacking to explore the masculine side (external movement, take up space) in order to be BALANCED. Ida and Pingala. Yin and Yang. Goddesses and Gods. The androgynous mind in a Goddess Body!

Adriatica teaches Breath with transcendental spiritual journeys beyond space and time,
and Dance connected to MUSICALITY. She is brazilian and will use afro brazilian rhythms, oriental music, Trap, Hip Hop, Jazz and german precision in the execution. The dance is based on isolation, layering and rhythm. History of Dance is a vital part to understanding the expression!

Bodypaint will be a Bonus for those who want to transform and take a new form .

The Dance & Breath will show you a new self and Body Paint makes that visible!

DAY 1

Moongoddess Breath & Move
Introduction History of Bellydance
Fusion Bellydance Basics (Hip Drops and Lifts, Figure 8)
Movement Research in the womb, including Breath & Shimmies

DAY 2

Moongoddess Breath & Move Meditation
Introduction Waacking
Waacking Basics (Arms, Strike with force and musicality)
Movement Research in the arms, the walk, playing with masculine & feminine expression inside you & me
Feedback Round

DAY 3

Moongoddess Breath & Move Meditation
Waacking Fusion Bellydance with Basic Sequences (Fever Song - Peggy Lee)
Freestyle Groovy Session, Soultrain and dancing together / mirroring / diamonds / absorving / observing / sharing
Feedback Round

DAY 4

Moongoddess Breath & Move Meditation
Waacking Fusion Bellydance on Musicality (hit the Beats)
Bodypainting your character, then move with it. Feel the difference, when you dance with paint on your skin. Think in performance. Create your Creature.
Feedback Round

DAY 5

Moongoddess Breath & Move Meditation
Waacking Fusion Bellydance (Short Sequence together, with freestyles)
Dance in your Bodypaint.
CELEBRATION
Feedback Round in form of movement

________________________________________________

JAN. 10-14: CREATIVE WRITING
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Personal Mythologies: an immersive creative writing experience"

Welcome to my non-canonical creative writing class! Here, we will definitely go against literary canons and beauty norms, enjoy writing, without the pressure of "it has to be good", “it has to be stylish”, “it has to be original”, because it hasn't!
In this class I want to support you to constantly question "Dos" and "Don'ts" in literary creation, challenge generally accepted rules related to stylistics, syntax, grammar, vocabulary, and ponctuation. Here, I would like to extend your conception of what is "writing" to allow you to go far beyond mainstream literary genres and academic writing techniques. I would like to give you new ideas, insights, and perspectives, encourage you to take risks, explore new ways of narrating, composing, and creating, develop your own artistic voice and personal aesthetic without questioning if it’s “good enough”... I also want you to forget about the seriousness of writing, and just play freely, enjoy writing without seeing it as the creation process towards a finished work, ready to be read publicly or published. You are more than welcome to take the path of the non-conform, explore with confidence the unknown, the unusual, the unfamiliar, and the unexpected.
This class wants to be above all a judgment-free, playful and joyful space, where you can experiment and create. Explore your authentic voice, feel yourself legitimate.

DAY 1
Topic: Observing

DAY 2
Topic: The Body

DAY 3
Topic: The Other

DAY 4
Topic: Silence

DAY 5
Topic: Brutality
________________________________________________

JAN. 15-19: STUDIO: PERSONAL CREATION: "EXPERIENCES"

________________________________________________

JAN. 22-26: ASSESSMENT & SHOWCASE

UNLEARNING FACILITATORS

Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): Dancer, Performer
My name is Maxime Elisa Asmaradevi Smeets, a half Dutch half Chinese-Indonesian woman who grew up in the Netherlands. I committed to dance as a profession when I was 16, when I went to a pre-education in contemporary dance. After I graduated high school, I got my Bachelor's in Theater Dance at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg. In my internship year I was offered a job in a dance company called GN|MC in Barcelona, where I started working in September of 2020. Since our premiere in July 2021, I have been touring with this performance throughout Europe. I have also continued to work in the Netherlands with the company Corpo Maquina Society, on more social work with children aged 8-14 and freestyle football players. A very different and very grateful project to be a part of. I enjoy living in Barcelona, having coffee in the sun, diving into the sea, cuddling and wrestling with my dog and eating good vegan food. My first love was music and activism.
https://www.instagram.com/maximesmts

Priiya Prethora (India): Martial artist, Performer, Farmer
Priiya is a queer martial artist, performer, farmer, shepherd and video enthusiast from India currently on the road in Southern Europe. Over the winter months, they are on a journey of collecting audio narratives of trans, intersex and non binary humans living and working in natural remote environments across Europe. This project is a life dream, of creating an archive of isolated queer voices which transpose with other voices beyond urban spaces where queerness is a visible/audible counter culture.
Since 2020, they have moved away from India to survive, study and build artistic processes and interdisciplinary work that is centered around queerness as a verb, a way of doing things rather than just an identity.
Since Feb 2022, they moved to Europe and have been facilitating workshops and forming networks with queer eco activist groups that live, sustain and grow as communities which fight for the endangered forests.
https://vimeo.com/prethora

Lu Lin (China): Critical Fashion Practitioner, Artist
Lu Lin is a researcher and socially engaged artist born in China, living and working in Arnhem (NL). Lu graduated from ArtEZ (NL) with a Master’s in Critical Fashion Practices and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design in China Academy of Arts(CN). Based on her experience of interacting with textiles and clothing, she assembles textiles with narratives as an alternative language and germinates the strength of softness and collectiveness. As a researcher in the field, she aims to formulate the compositions of safe spaces and contextualise complicity from within drawing on intersectionality and feminism. Her works are driven by social alienations in the era of fluidity, showcasing how the segments of everyday life took shape identities. By practising the theories, she utilises participatory approaches to constitute possible interdependence within marginalised communities. In order to keep a close connection with the people, she integrates her works into pedagogical scenarios and interdisciplinary media for creating a more engaging and thoughtful society.
https://www.lulinl.com
https://www.instagram.com/lu_lin_l

Masha Kardash (Ukraine): Dance anthropologist, Performing artist
www.instagram.com/mash_kardash

Luca Borsos (Hungary): Performer, Dramainstructor, Explorer-Creator
Luca Borsos is a performer and drama instructor experimenting with forms of participation. She engages in artistic and community projects in several different roles: sometimes as a performer, a mediator, a drama pedagogue, facilitator or movement researcher. In her recent dissertation at the University of Theater and Film Arts (Budapest), Luca’s goal was to understand and unfold the function of ritualized practices in the field of creative processes and workshops. Her starting question in this process was: what can rituals mean to us, theater creators and workshop leaders, and how can we apply them to our work? The research has focused on practices that provide a platform for group identity formation and for transformation. Luca’s work focuses on non-verbal, movement-based, and sensorial experiences. In addition, she is currently working on organizing warm-up sessions for audience members of contemporary dance shows to offer them a physical introduction and a personal experience of body awareness before watching a show. Luca is a member of the Budapest based theatre company StereoAkt and founding member of movement research group SVUNG kutatócsoport.
www.instagram.com/@lutzaa
www.instagram.com/@dtd_commondance/

Adriatica Body Art (Brazil / Germany): Transformational Body Painter & Artist, Moongoddess & Dragonbreath Coach
Adriatica is a transformational artist cultivating the balance between physical, spiritual and intellectual form. Make-Up, Bodypaint, Tattoos and Fusion Bellydance share a ritualistic origin and have shapeshifted Adriatica`s magic. Especially “Fusion Bellydance” is a burning passion and leads women into womb power. In 2020 Adriatica created Moongoddess, a fabulous dance coaching.
Home between Brazil and Berlin, she keeps sculpting the Body Landscape with the eyes of a painter, believing in dance as medicine, art as expression and conscious breath as silent revolution. Adriatica transcends time and transforms lives.
The Body is understood as a medium: it stores, processes, remembers and releases information. Adriatica expands Body Consciousness on multidimensional levels, through ART.
It's about Dance, Breathwork, Body Paint and Make-Up on a high spiritual, physical and intellectual level. The artist works from the inside - Breath, Body Oriented Coaching - to the outside - Make-Up, Bodypaint -.Adriatica is Bodyart. Her magic is a colorful blend of art, style, music and dance.
https://www.adriatica.vision
https://www.instagram.com/@adriaticabodyart

SCHEDULE

MODULE 3: SOCIETY
Feb. 5 - Apr. 26

Feb. 5-9: Repertoire
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "sorry not sorry" (2018) & "UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA" (2022)

Feb. 12-16: Theory
Sara Mychkine (France / Tunisia): "I. Decanonizing modern art: from painting to performance. II. Birthing new space-times outside of the box"

Feb. 19-23: The Reality Show
Character building, script writing, directing, performing, and live streaming a 3-days-long reality show on romantic, adventure, food, dating, and fashion

Feb. 26 - March 1: Well-being
Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Body Weather: Introduction to Shiatsu & Budo"

March 4-8: Practice
Sarah Diep (France): "Sound poetry: reclaim your own narrative / dj mixing, field recording and voices"

March 11-15: Spring holiday

March 18-22: Project: Choreographic creation & Performance
Ashley Vu (France / Vietnam): "In the “boat-people” lineage: (Im)migration movement, uprooting and search for identity"

March 25-29: Community
Tekla Gedeon (Hungary): "The giant who sunk in soil: experiencing with lichen colonies of the Kerepesi Cemetery & making a collective woven tapestry"

Apr. 1-5: Studio: Personal creation: "Communities"

Apr. 8-12: Debate
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Unreason & Madness: I. The social and cultural construction of madness II. Pathologisation, social exclusion, activism III. The unknown and the unexpected"

Apr. 15-19: Technique
Zsuzsa Bakonyi (Hungary): "Enjoy your flow toys: juggling, poi & staff spinning, hula hooping"

Apr. 22-26: Assessment & Showcase

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

FEB. 5-9: REPERTOIRE
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "sorry not sorry" (2018) & "UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA" (2022)

You will learn some choreographies from the Gray Box repertoire. You will discover the choreographer’s, Anna Ádám's movement vocabulary, her choreographic approach, and working method. This intensive repertoire class will be a unique opportunity to explore your strength in terms of physicality. You will exclusively work on solos. The topic will be chosen according to your research field, interest, emotional state, mental availability.

"sorry not sorry" (2018) is composed of 3 solos:

“CLASH”, a solo on finding our own path.
“Dirty Dancing”, a solo on intimacy and desire.
“Secret Garden”, a solo on culpability.

"UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA" (2022) is composed of 3 solos:

“Who is the boss?”, a solo on domination, oppression and exploitation
“CRISIS BEFORE CRISIS”, a solo on the feeling of being lost, overwhelmed, caught in a downward spiral from which it seems complicated to get out.
“MÖBIUS”, a solo on powerlessness, being manipulated and trapped by an enclosing system

________________________________________________

FEB. 12-16: THEORY
Sara Mychkine (France / Tunisia): "I. Decanonizing modern art: from painting to performance. II. Birthing new space-times outside of the box"

My class is rythmed in two theoretical lectures which will address the pervasiveness of the canon from the beginning of the 20th century until now. Beginning with the movements of avant-gardes in painting and their birthing of performance which grew through the 20th century until now with the constant desire to liberate artists from the canon, it will interrogate whether artists can really do so, if we, in a system based on oppression and thus, norms and values built to exclude and exterminate ideas, forms and people which derogate from that system, can really think, create and live outside this structure. We will explore various examples of painters who tried to liberate themselves from the canon including painters of cubism, and how their will of creating outside the canon and building a new aesthetic actually took root in a Eurocentric structure and a colonial understanding of reality. As Europe is composed of colonial empires in the 19th century and the 20th century, a lot of artifacts from colonized countries came to Europe through theft or exchanges. It is from those artifacts, from their esthetic, that what is understood as cubism is born. As these artifacts are defined as “primitives”, the abolishment of the canon in cubism is actually the theft of another canon which was never considered as one and bases itself still in a system of oppression : reality is defined through the colonial continuum qualifying human beings from colonized countries as savages, still living in prehistoric era and human beings from colonizing countries as civilized, living in modern (contemporary) times, and thus, seeing a new esthetic in the artifacts made in colonized countries and making artworks with the same aesthetic while being European is considered as revolutionary. The beginning of the 20th century also marks the birth of performance, the artistic discipline trying to liberate itself from any canon, so much so that even a definition of this artistic field is still considered impossible to this day. The birth of performance stems from the will of disobeying any rule in art as to interrogate our reality and transgress it. We will dive into the works of performers, from the beginning of the 20th century until now, to interrogate if they really succeeded in liberating themselves from any canon or created new ones, based on the same structure they were aiming to break. From then, we will try generally to question ourselves, how we can navigate, as artists, in a system based on oppression. Can we really create without any canon (or to break one) without creating a new one ? Can we organize ourselves to construct new ways of obtaining legitimacy for our works outside a pyramidal structure ?

DAY 1-5
Morning

introduction, presentation and warm-up (breathing, anchoring yourself through
your body to welcome new learnings)
theory: lecture
feedback, exchanges

Afternoon

writing, drawing while listening to music, watching performances from artists
mentioned in class
theory: lecture
reading / sharing: student’s writings, drawings
feedbacks, exchanges

________________________________________________

FEB. 19-23: THE REALITY SHOW
Character building, script writing, directing, performing, and live streaming a 3-days-long reality show on romantic, adventure, food, dating, and fashion

________________________________________________

FEB. 26 - MARCH 1: WELL-BEING
Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Body Weather: Introduction to Shiatsu & Budo"

Based on the the techniques of Shiatsu (Japanese massage) and Budo (Japanese martial arts), my “Body Weather” method will help you to:
- Understand and re-discover own body ;
- Grasp the communication between thought and body ;
- Build a body that avoids injury ;
- From where is own inside and outside, also found between that ;
- Suspect habitual.

DAY 1: “Distance”

Technique: Shiatsu (Japanese massage) / Budo (Japanese martial arts)
Practice: What is the Japanese idea of time? The Japanese idea of time is very different from the Western idea. It is very fluid and flexible, and not seen as chronological. The Japanese have an understanding of time that is cyclical and more natural. The Japanese have a strong connection to space and time that cannot be separated. A person's life is seen as a human-nature relationship, and it is the space which determines how close or far away one person is to another. Distancing oneself from a loved one's death shows that person's feeling of comfort or discomfort.

DAY 2: “Private Garden”

Technique: Shiatsu (Japanese massage) / Budo (Japanese martial arts)
Practice: Using the ideas of Karesansui and Ikebana, create your own space. What is the work that does not add up? Gaze at the vanishing beauty and the passing of time. How will each person digest the changing seasons? WABI-SABI

DAY 3: “Kanji” (Japanese characters)

Technique: Shiatsu (Japanese massage) / Budo (Japanese martial arts)
Practice: How do we create form and meaning from sound? Making words that do not exist from an explanation of the composition of Japanese kanji. It can be a picture or a sound. Then, using the idea of haiku, we will create a sentence that eliminates as much as possible. Also use a private garden to explain what made it.

DAY 4: “Light and Dark”

Technique: Shiatsu (Japanese massage) / Budo (Japanese martial arts)
Practice: Things are always two sides of the same coin. How we change the focus of what we see,... How do we make them aware of their five senses and feel their connection to the other?

DAY 5: “Meditation”

Technique: Shiatsu (Japanese massage) / Budo (Japanese martial arts)
Practice: Zen, massaging people, understanding yourself from touch. To empty your head completely. And talk to share your experiences of the past few days with others.

________________________________________________

MARCH 4-8: PRACTICE
Sarah Diep (France): "Sound poetry: reclaim your own narrative / dj mixing, field recording and voices"

This class would be an initiation to :
- dj practice : learning how to use dj equipment, mixing tracks together and discovering your dj personality (from ambient and downtempo, to electronics and party vibes) ;
- exploring the different uses of field recording : making music with raw sounds, creating harmony with unusual materials and textures, using loops and sound effects, finding the beauty in what surrounds us ;
- experimental writing : using personal notes, dreams, automatic writing, diary, quotes and text collages, and finding the best ways to adapt a text for an poetry / sound performance ;
- using your voice as a music tool : spoken word, reading, whispering, singing, humming, with or without sound effects, onto a soundtrack.
The workshop could lead to the creation of a mix of 30 min-1h onto which each participant could add their own sound contribution (either by reading texts, sound textures, music tracks, etc.)

DAY 1
Morning : introduction, sharing about sounds we like, our approaches to music + preparing a selection, downloading tracks
Afternoon : discovering dj equipment, making soft transitions

DAY 2
Morning : getting used to rekordbox software
Afternoon : practicing with dj equipment, learning how to use sound effects and loops

DAY 3
Morning : using microphones for field recording (could be outdoors)
Afternoon : using the recordings within a dj mix, using sound effects and loops

DAY 4
Morning : gathering writings + warming up our voices, sharing the texts we chose
Afternoon : practicing our voices with microphones, experimenting different ways of reading out loud depending on the specific texts and writings (with or without music)

DAY 5
All day : adding each participant’s contribution to a music mix (playing tracks, reading, whispering, singing, using the field recordings they made) > directly onto the dj equipment, in order to create a collective sound live performance or recorded mix

________________________________________________

MARCH 11-15: SPRING HOLIDAY

________________________________________________

MARCH 18-22: PROJECT: CHOREOGRAPHIC CREATION
Ashley Vu (France / Vietnam): "In the “boat-people” lineage: (Im)migration movement, uprooting and search for identity"

This workshop is an invitation to explore questions of migration and immigration, roots and uprooting, marginality and belonging. And how these feelings and concepts are transmitted from generation to generation, in families whose ancestors had to flee their native country.
The creative project focuses on postcolonial and post-Vietnam war diasporas. We come back to a particular historical context of the “boat people” large wave of immigration, these millions of people from Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) who set sail to join the West from 1975. Here the focus is on the “boat people” of the Vietnamese diaspora, a diaspora called the “Viet Khieu”. Today, Vietnam and its diaspora form a whole people marked by the absence of those who left and those who remained. How to give voice to these millions of personal stories that form History?

An extract of the creation has already been created as a solo using body and voice - we will watch it together in class. Some parts will remain intact, for others I would like to see how the group can transform the solo material. My original idea was to develop a group piece that would highlight everyone's individuality, while telling the story of a collective: the “uprooted”.

Between now and the workshop, many things will certainly change, but today I would like to test some ideas such as:

The creation of small solos, based on the one already created, using speech and organic movement. For this we will work on the notions with which everyone can identify: the feeling of absence, the feeling of lack, the fact of looking for one's place, etc.
Integrate in these solos the traditional dances of Vietnam, especially around the work of the hands
A choreographic work around migration (linked to the sea crossing of boat-people). These little solos would gradually become an ensemble, like the phenomenon of flocks of birds, which in reality gather together to survive.

By getting out of isolation, each individual frees himself from the past and can find a form of appeasement. He can reclaim his identity.
In this group painting, I would like to transcribe this passage from rupture to harmony in unity.

Like many “Viet Khieu” and immigrants, I questioned my cultural heritage, feeling neither French nor Vietnamese.
This creation is called Lệ-Hà, a Vietnamese first name meaning “River of Tears”. The play tells the story of Lệ-Hà who decides at the age of 25 to break the silence. Born in France to a "boat-people" mother who made this "journey of tears" to flee the war, she returns to her mother's country in the footsteps of her origins. This story is also mine that I wanted to share and tell.

We will have as support testimonials from "Viet Khieu" or extracts from novels or poems. I will also share the personal material that I have accumulated during my two years of research in Vietnam: texts, photos or videos of interviews that I made to members of my family. This material will be given to you before the workshop so that you can familiarize yourself with the history of Vietnam and Lệ-Hà's one.

Before the workshop, I will share some content for you to watch: some texts, videos or testimonials from my family. The challenge of this workshop will be to appropriate the history of Lệ-Hà and the socio-historical context of the boat-people in Vietnam. I will likely ask you to write a short text on your personal relationship to absence, the feeling of lack, the quest for roots. It will be the support for creating your solos.

DAY 1

Introduction and presentation, talking circle
Warm-up with exploration of body qualities
Introduction to traditional Vietnamese dance
Reading of the texts written upstream and put the texts in motion
Watching the solo on video + feedback

DAY 2

Talking circle
Warm-up with exploration of body qualities
Traditional Vietnamese dance
Setting in motion and voice of the short texts of the day before
Sharing and feedback

DAY 3

Warm-up with exploration of body qualities
Work on the “solo-texts”
Group exercises and exploration
Group exploration on the "migration"
Sharing and feedback

DAY 4

Warm-up and group exploration on the "migration"
Solo + group choreographic workshop

DAY 5

Warm-up and group exploration on the "migration"
Solo + group choreographic workshop

________________________________________________

MARCH 25-29: COMMUNITY
Tekla Gedeon (Hungary): "The giant who sunk in soil: experiencing with lichen colonies of the Kerepesi Cemetery & making a collective woven tapestry"

I propose a project-based class that enables intimate environmental discourse through collective making. The giant who sank in soil is dedicated to slowness, patience, tactility, and softness under the guise of arts and crafts, with a woven tapestry as a byproduct. I invite all to take part in this group session of creating new images and narratives, row by row, by immersing ourselves into simple, small-scaled, repetitive movements, slowly building and controlling the narrative. The workshop will be guided through collaborative weaving exercises on a shared loom as a tool to imagine real grounds for togetherness.

The tapestry will be inspired by our experiences with lichen colonies of the Kerepesi Cemetery. As part of the workshop, we will learn from lichens. We will visit them in the cemetery and we will spend time with them, follow their behavior patterns, and listen to their needs with all of our sensors.

Lichens are ancient worlds. They are created through an entangled symbiosis of thousands of species, interacting in every conceivable fashion. Their thallus involves fungi, photosynthetic algae, various bacteria, and entities that humanity can not even name yet. They were among the first ecosystems that appeared on Earth and most likely they will be one of the last. Lichens are immortal organisms, and their growth, reproduction, and death take unusual patterns. These ecosystems can dry out, hibernate, and be reborn within seconds. Their celestial lifespan makes them muted protagonists of the Anthropocene and effortless successors of the climate emergencies we face today.

The giant who sunk in soil invites these complex organisms to sprout in new woven forms. Lichens can teach us to cope with our fears and concerns about climatic threats, while weaving creates an environment for contemplation, storytelling, and sharing. Weaving simultaneously one image encourages us to share, listen, and negotiate. These interactions will unfold within the framework of the loom through textile-based conversation, yarn, texture, and colors. The tapestry will grow and evolve from various individual points and spread outwards as the thallus of lichen. When two individual lichen’s thallus reach each other, they might merge. They blur the boundaries between one another. They continue to grow outwards in a new altered geometry to create new links, and new connections with their neighbor companions until there is no more me, you, and they, only us.

DAY 1

Morning: Spending time with Lichen and one another (Kerepesi Cemetery)
Afternoon: Exploring weaving techniques outdoors in a garden

DAY 2

Collaborative weaving exercises on a shared loom + Guided conversations

DAY 3

Morning:: Spending time with Lichen and one another (Shimmer sculpture)
Afternoon: Testing with new weaving techniques outdoors in a garden

DAY 4

Collaborative weaving exercises on a shared loom + Guided conversations

DAY 5

Public event: celebration and experience sharing

________________________________________________

APR. 1-5: STUDIO: PERSONAL CREATION: "COMMUNITY"

________________________________________________

APR. 8-12: DEBATE
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Unreason & Madness: I. The social and cultural construction of madness II. Pathologization, social exclusion, activism III. The unknown and the unexpected"

________________________________________________

APR. 15-19: TECHNIQUE
Zsuzsa Bakonyi (Hungary): "Enjoy your flow toys: juggling, poi & staff spinning, hula hooping"

Not many people have heard the expression of flow arts and flow toys, only the small (but growing) community of fire dancers and flow artists around the world. I am on a personal mission to change this, since I firmly believe flow arts can truly change our brain & body and by this maybe the whole world.

Have you ever played with a ball as a child? Or with a stick? Or a hula-hoop? - That is a flow toy.
Have you ever been so immersed into an activity, that you forgot about everything else, and it was only the present tense? That is the flow state.
Have you ever enjoyed 100% being in your body, doing yoga, or dancing hard in a party or just climbing on a tree? That is merging with your body in flow.
Have you ever felt in awe seeing a juggler or a circus artist performing and felt “I would like to do this too! This is THE magic!

Flow arts is rediscovering our inner child, letting it play and combining it with the intelligence, skillfulness of being a human adult.

In this workshop, curious participants will be able to learn about flow arts in general, the ancient background, the biology and the recent history & present of this movement form.

Participants get to play and get the possibility to learn tricks with the following flow toys:

Balls - 3 ball juggling
Staff spinning
Hula hooping
Poi spinning

Participants will experience a state of flow, a safe place to expand in playfulness, an environment where we are free to make mistakes and inspired to learn new things (new tricks with the toy). Playing with flow toys optimizes the whole brain and body functioning by activating contralateral patterns of movement (known to be needed for re-patterning subconscious belief systems) ; thus, creating new pathways in the brain and body that bring about new ways of BE-ing.
We can experience rewiring our brain, learning to learn and unlearn.

Flow toys can be inserted into our lives with many purposes: as a fun and healthy hobby, as a regular body & brain workout, or by becoming a fire-performer or using object-manipulation in our other performance practices.

DAY 1: “Introduction”
Morning session:

Introduction to 5 day workshop, with getting to know game
Presentation on contemporary flow arts
Warm up & preparatory movement practice without toys & learning to juggle with 3 balls (movement coordination & rhythm)

Afternoon session:

Presentation of each flow toy (hoop, staff, poi) & technical essentials
Warm up & Learning the first tricks with these toys
Relaxation & Sharing circle & closing remarks

DAY 2: “POI”
Morning session:

Presentation on neuroscience of flow arts & science of learning and unlearning & showing inspiring videos of performers
Warm up & short 3 ball Juggle practice & focused learning of tricks with POI
History of POI

Afternoon session:

Creative writing & drawing exercise related to the chosen flow toy
Warm up & Free & guided practice with that flow toy
Exercise in pair & group with flow toys
Grounding & integration

DAY 3: “Hoop”
Morning session:

Presentation on tutorials & learning techniques used in flowarts and discovering failing and succeeding = playing
Warm up & short 3 ball Juggle practice & focused learning of tricks with hoop
History of hooping

Afternoon session:

Creative writing & drawing exercise related to hooping
Warm up & Free & guided practice with that flow toy
Exercise in pair & group with flow toys
Grounding & integration

DAY 4: “Staff”
Morning session:

Presentation of other object manipulation art forms & communities & institutes & resources
Warm up & short 3 ball Juggle practice & focused learning of tricks with staff
History of staff

Afternoon session:

Creative writing & drawing exercise related to staff
Warm up & Free & guided practice with that flow toy
Exercise in pair & group with flow toys
Grounding & integration

DAY 5: “Let’s Flow in community”
Morning session:

Discussion and presentation on flow state, sharing circle
Warm up & JAM
Grounding & integration

Afternoon session:

Take aways & integration of flow arts into our life - closing circle

________________________________________________

APR. 22-26: ASSESSMENT & SHOWCASE

UNLEARNING FACILITATORS

Sara Mychkine (France / Tunisia): Poet, Author, Art Historian
I am Sara Mychkine, poet, author and writer of The Poetic of artworks, chronicles of a feminist, philosophical and decolonial history of art. I am irrevocably a poet As I think, love, rage and cry as one I don’t believe you can truly understand others, yourself(ves) and the world(s) without poetry, or at least speak others, yourself(ves) and the world(s) into words without poetry It appears to me that poetry is the only liberating act of language It seems to be the only space-time where language doesn’t act as the realm of reality but as movements of possibilities In poetry, what you see, what you crave exists and doesn’t exist at the same time When I was a child, I was very silent I think I knew then how words can betray yourself(ves), others and the world(s) I fell into poetry quite quickly My first poem was about winds crackling through trees I lost it Still hear the winds As I grew older, as a racialized and queer woman, I understood the power of language, what it could do for my people We always live for the child we were I breathe as a poet for the air that fuels my lungs fuels the beating hearts of the people before me.
www.saramychkine.fr
www.instagram.com/saramychkine

Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): Dancer, performing artist, Vinyasa Yoga, Shiatsu, and Thai massage practitioner
Yuta ISHIKAWA was born in 1983, Tokyo. In 2006, he graduated the University of Obirin, in Japan (majoring in « performing arts »). Parallel to his studying, he made his debut of actor, by participating with several pieces, particularly those of Oriza Hirata, a japanese stage director. He started his career of dancer in 2005, by creating his own company e.g.MILK. His style is called silent dramatic art, which is distinguished from pantomime, dance or theater. The particularity of the world of e.g.MILK comes from its disposition of the objects which excite the material imagination, and from the imaginary conversation among the interpreters. In 2006/2007, he joined the Noisme, the only public company in Japan, directed by a choreographer Jo Kanamori. In 2008, he worked with a choreographer Chie Ito, who leads the company Strange Kinoko. In 2009/2010, he had a professional formation of contemporary dance ‘Extensions’ at the CDC Toulouse. From 2011, he obtains a support by European Departs Network. Among his works, Dust Park, created in 2010, was highly appreciated in Japan, in South Korea, and in Spain. After the success of Dust Park, he decided to live in France. Every year, he has the opportunity to take the residency at CDC Toulouse. In addition, he takes also the residencies at Brussels (P.A.R.T.S) and at Frankfurt (Frankfurt.Lab). As a dancer, he worked with Samuel Mathieu ‘Generic-X’ (2009/2010), Christian Rizzo ‘Opéra-erwartung’ (2010), Rita Cioffi ‘Nous autres?’ (2011), Fabrice Ramalingom ‘My Pogo’ (2012), and Raimund Hoghe in his work ‘Cantatas’ (2013).
yutaishikawa.jimdofree.com/
www.instagram.com/mrabregit

Sarah Diep (France): Journalist, Dj, Sound artist, Performer
I am a French freelance journalist and vice editor in chief of the queer and feminist online magazine Manifesto XXI, where I write articles and create podcasts, as well as a dj and sound artist and performer. As a journalist, I am attached to giving a voice to other people, especially women, queers, people of color and all marginalized people. I find it so important to hear and broadcast alternative stories, in order to open up our imaginaries and share ideas of tolerance, love and inclusion. With djing, I found another way of reinventing narratives, creating my own by using mostly tracks from these minoritized groups. Then I started to use my voice for sound collages mixing poetry and music. My voice is something I never really loved before, and using it as a sound tool made me see it in a totally different way. Especially as it is literally about expressing your ideas, thoughts and feelings out loud. As a woman of color, it means a lot. For almost 2 years now, I’ve been running a music duo project named Myrrh wa Saphira : sisterhood, immersion and healing are at the center of our performances, meant to be moments of letting go, care and spirituality.
www.instagram.com/sarahmyyy_

Ashley Vu (France / Vietnam): Contemporary and Urban dance Choreographer and Dancer
Born in France to Vietnamese and Indian parents, my childhood was characterized by a constant quest for "self", an identity without anchoring which pushed me to transform myself on stage, to express myself through the arts: painting, singing or piano that I study in a French Conservatory. Since my professional retraining as a dancer and choreographer at the age of 26, I have been involved in projects that combine theater, music and dance. In my dance today, the urban dance is linked to contemporary dance to create an expressive style, from the sensitive to the explosive.
Also, I tend to put my creations at the service of causes that drive me: questions of transmission, identity, intimate or social injunctions, feminism, and the sense of the collective. I co-created the duo piece “Lucy Meets Venus” in Vietnam and Lệ-Hà is my second creation.
www.instagram.com/ashley.leha.______

Tekla Gedeon (Hungary): Artist, Maker, Architect, Educator
I am always engaged in making art, collecting seeds, and botanical narratives. I co-founded a creative practice in Budapest, called Fuzzy Earth, that operates at the boundaries of architecture, design, art, agriculture, horticulture, and technology, while our mediums go beyond these categories.
I create spaces, objects, and events that explore our relationship with nature and technology. Through the application of speculative and critical methodologies, my work challenges the role of ecological environments, industrial landscapes, and botanical institutions. My academic background lies in Architecture. I studied in London at the Architectural Association. My horticultural knowledge and my crafting skills originated from my grandma’s farm in Szent Márton and my uncle's socialist furniture workshop in Botiz.
I am currently occupied with establishing a shared greenhouse and choreographing soil testing rituals to decrease fertilizer usage at Káposztáskert in Őrvényes.
www.fuzzy.earth

Zsuzsa Bakonyi (Hungary): Fire dancer, Flow arts performer, Visual Artist
One of my callings is to bring back the magic and sacrality into our lives through rituals and ceremonies. Dance, and especially dancing with fire is a ritual. It can be considered a show but there is another way of interpreting it.
Connecting with the element which is one of the symbols of human awareness and that of rising above the animal kingdom. It is a symbol for something ending and a new beginning, fire burns everything and all just becomes ash. Symbol of rage and Hindu Goddess Kali, it is a destroying force which when applied with the right intention, helps to raise our consciousness. It is change in itself, one of the most fascinating elements here on our Planet.
Humanity has for ages gathered around fire, to prepare nourishments, provide our bodies with the necessary warmth and just to be together in community. Gazing the dancing flames and letting our thoughts run is definitely better than any digital screen program. I wish to bring back the magic of fire into our lives and in this way I am sure we will connect more with nature around us.
www.susana-show.com
www.cargocollective.com/bakonyizsuzsa

classes

theory

ABOUT
Week-long workshops on a specific topic linked to the fields of sociology, psychology, geopolitics, and dramaturgy, questioning socio-political contexts, inequalities, power dynamics, social justice, hegemonic class, normative behaviors, dominant ideologies.
Activities include: lecture, readings, screenings, historical material, archives, divers audiovisual resources, discussion, writing, presenting...

TOPICS
Module 1:

Iris Medeiros (Brazil): "Ways and meanings of the touch: a tool for empowerment, well-being, and knowledge"

Module 2:

Masha Kardash (Ukraine): "Self-exoticism and post-socialist femininity: demystifying the ‘exotic’ body in Eastern Europe"

Module 3:

Sara Mychkine (France / Tunisia): "I. Decanonizing modern art: from painting to performance. II. Birthing new space-times outside of the box"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Unreason & Madness: I. The social and cultural construction of madness II. Pathologization, social exclusion, activism III. The unknown and the unexpected"

PRACTICE

ABOUT
Week-long workshops linked to a performing art form (dance, music, theatre, spoken word / lecture, creative writing, puppetry / object-theater, performance art...) or body practice, having a specific topic, cultural context, and artistic outcome.
Activities include: movement practice, dance, performance, creative writing, poetry & lecture, dj & mixing, choral, voice training, zine making...

PRACTICE PROJECTS
Module 1:

Penelope Morout (Greece / France): "Sculpting Body-Images: improvisation, playground, release"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Body politics"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "The sketchbook project"

Module 2:

Lu Lin (China): "Reading My Panties: stories, relations, politics, dogmas, and taboos related to cultural differences"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Wildflowers Festival: organizing, curating & programming a community festival"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Personal Mythologies: an immersive creative writing experience

Module 3:

Sarah Diep (France): "Sound poetry: reclaim your own narrative / dj mixing, field recording and voices
Anna Ádám (Hungary): “Character building, script writing, directing, performing, and live streaming a 3-days-long reality show on romantic, adventure, food, dating, and fashion”

TECHNIQUE

ABOUT
Week-long technique and dance style workshops far from western academic canons and/or beauty norms, composed of both a movement practice part (combinations, short sequences, phrases, etc) and a sharing part (historical, cultural, and socio-political background).

Dance techniques: Ndombolo (Congo), Azonto (Ghana), Afro House (Angola), Amapiano (South Africa), Naija Street Styles (Nigeria), Funk carioca (twerk), Contemporary / Improvisation, Release, Fusion Bellydance, Waacking
Relaxation, grounding & healing techniques: Qi-gong, Tai Chi, Guided Yoga, Breathing techniques, Guided Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Collective singing, Moongoddess & Dragonbreath Method, Shiatsu Japanese Massage
Martial art techniques: Kung Fu (Chinese martial art), Play Fight, Self-defense, Kalaripayattu (Indian martial art), Budo (Japanese martial art)
Flow toy techniques: 3 ball juggling, Staff spinning, Hula hooping, Poi spinning

MAIN TECHNIQUES
Module 1:

Luana Naquin (France): "Introduction to Afro fusion dance styles: Ndombolo (Congo), Azonto (Ghana), Afro House (Angola), Amapiano (South Africa), Naija Street Styles (Nigeria)"
Marion Filippi (France): "Multi sensorial journey: Breathing techniques, Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Collective singing"

Module 2:

Adriatica Bodyart (Brazil / Germany): "Moongoddess Dance & Dragonbreath with Body painting: introduction to Fusion Bellydance and Waacking"
Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): "Tame the Dragon: Introduction to Qi-gong & Kung Fu"

Module 3:

Zsuzsa Bakonyi (Hungary): "Enjoy your flow toys: juggling, poi & staff spinning, hula hooping"
Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Body Weather: Introduction to Shiatsu & Budo"

PROJECT

ABOUT
Week-long workshops where a guest artist, maker, choreographer, composer shares her ongoing creation project with student: invites students into her artistic world, shares her tools and working method, tests her craziest ideas, tries out new things, deepens her research, rehearses, composes, creates wit the group.
Activities include: movement research, experimentation, creation, composition, repertoire, rehearsal, final sharing...

GUEST CHOREOGRAPHERS

Module 1: Marion Binois (France): "Monster: as a liberation of the submerged side of the iceberg, that is hidden, unaccepted, uncontrolled"
Module 2: Priiya Prethora (India): "Facing Traces: Decolonial and emancipatory movement practice based on Kalaripayattu and performance creation with a sound archive on history, memory and identity"
Module 3: Ashley Vu (France / Vietnam): "In the “boat-people” lineage: (Im)migration movement, uprooting and search for identity"

well-being

ABOUT
Week-long workshops where we learn how to take care about our body, how to accept and appreciate it. Through a series of healing technique, relaxation technique, manual technique, therapeutic practice, will learn how to rest, how to enjoy taking the time for ourselves, how to develop our own self-care and self-love routine.
Activities include: yoga, relaxation, massage, care, healing and therapeutic practices...

TECHNIQUES & TOOLS

Module 1: Marion Filippi (France): "Multi sensorial journey: Breathing techniques, Meditation, Guided Hypnosis, Psychomagic act, Healing voices (Choral meditation)"
Module 2: Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): "Tame the Dragon: Introduction to Qi-gong & Kung Fu"
Module 3: Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Body Weather: Introduction to Shiatsu & Budo"

COMMUNITY

ABOUT
Week-long workshops seen as “calls for gathering” for friendship, trust, and togetherness. It's about creating safe and generous spaces that go beyond relational aesthetics by including in it the production of collective knowledge and the sharing of skills, tools, and processes.
Activities include: immersive group experiences, community cooking, group rituals and ceremonies, excursion, hiking...

PROJECTS

Module 1: Judit Kis (Hungary): "The power of communal farming and cooking to inspire, heal, and create communities."
Module 2: Luca Borsos (Hungary): "Underground Budapest: How to occupy public spaces - reinventing our ways to intervene"
Module 3: Tekla Gedeon (Hungary): "The giant who sunk in soil: experiencing with lichen colonies of the Kerepesi Cemetery & making a collective woven tapestry"

MARTIAL ART & Self-defense

ABOUT
Fight Clubs are political soft spaces of care and empowerment, where through the practice of martial arts, play fight, and self-defense, we occupy the space, liberate our body and voice, discover our power and challenge our strength, develop self-confidence and resistance. Against the intimidating and objectifying male gaze used as an instrument of women’s oppression, we regularly do eye gazing exercises, and learn how to confront it instead of looking away. We reinforce our eyes as a muscle, and rehearse to gaze back proudly again, again, and again. Making our eye-muscle become stronger and stronger, we gaze back day after day with a little bit more confidence, and a little bit less of fear.

TECHNIQUES
Module 1:

Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Play Fight & Self-Defense" (Wildflowers Festival)

Module 2:

Swapnapriiya Manna (India): "Kalaripayattu, an Indian martial art"
Maxime Smeets (The Netherlands / China / Indonesia): "Wushu (Kung Fu), a full-contact Chinese combat sport"

Module 3:

Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Budo, a Japanese martial art"

RELAXATION, RELEASE, GROUNDING

ABOUT
Learn release and grounding techniques, focus on breathing, muscle relaxation.

METHODS
Module 1:

Penelope Morout (Greece / France): "Sculpting Body-Images: improvisation, playground, release"
Marion Filippi (France): "Guided yoga & Healing voices meditation"

Module 2:

Adriatica Bodyart (Brazil / Germany): "Moongoddess Breathing technique"
Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Sober Techno" (Wildflowers Festival)

Module 3:

Yuta Ishikawa (Japan): "Body Weather method"

Improvisation

ABOUT
Far from academic and canonic contemporary dance and improvisation classes, the School of Disobedience's performance improvisation method is rather inspired by abstract art in terms of thinking, and by photography in terms of making. It denies physical virtuosity, skillful trick, technical stratagem, aesthetic artifice, and more broadly classicism’s emphasis on imitation. Instead it stress the role of imagination and of the unconscious as the essential creative factors with a structure directly rooted into photographic processing:

observing life;
exposing to light;
fixing the moment;
developing the image.

During this class, following an intuitive and very personal research, you will explore how personal mythologies, memory, and identity are formed and constituted. Guided by creative instructions and tasks, you will challenge your body as a political-affective geography, a historically shaped and colonized archive, where power is constantly contested and negotiated.

METHODS

Module 1: Penelope Morout (Greece / France): "Sculpting Body-Images: improvisation, playground, release"
Module 2: Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Thinking in Images: improvisation with a photography archive" (Wildflowers Festival)

Repertoire

ABOUT
You will learn some choreographies from the Gray Box repertoire, some solos from "sorry not sorry" (2018) or "UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA" (2022). You will discover the choreographer’s, Anna Ádám's movement vocabulary, her choreographic approach, and working method. This intensive repertoire class will be a unique opportunity to explore your strength in terms of physicality. You will exclusively work on solos. Your solo will be chosen according to your research field, interest, emotional state, mental availability.

"sorry not sorry" (2018) is composed of 3 solos:

“CLASH”, a solo on finding our own path.
“Dirty Dancing”, a solo on intimacy and desire.
“Secret Garden”, a solo on culpability.

"UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA" (2022) is composed of 3 solos:

“Who is the boss?”, a solo on domination, oppression and exploitation
“CRISIS BEFORE CRISIS”, a solo on the feeling of being lost, overwhelmed, caught in a downward spiral from which it seems complicated to get out.
“MÖBIUS”, a solo on powerlessness, being manipulated and trapped by an enclosing system

CHOREOGRAPHER

Anna Ádám (Hungary)

STUDIO TIME & MOVEMENT RESEARCH

ABOUT
You will have studio time reserved to research on your own. In this space, you will be encouraged to step out of your comfort zone, transform your imagination and open yourself to new forms, aesthetics and inspirations. You will find ways to generate new movements and movement qualities. So as to stimulate different parts of the brain and the body, you will move back and forth between moving, writing, and drawing.

SCHEDULE

Module 1: Studio time: Movement research lab & Personal creation
Module 2: Studio time: Movement research lab & Personal creation
Module 3: Studio time: Movement research lab & Personal creation

CREATION & COMPOSITION

ABOUT
You will be guided to play, tinker, craft, and put together your sequences into choreography through creative tasks and instructions. Following studio time, movement research, readings, life experience, self-examination, you will be invited to reflect and work as soloists, with partners, or in group to create a performance in relation with a given topic. You will also receive a choreographic toolbox together with one-on-one mentoring (including critical feed-back in the analysis, application of the method and the clarity of details). You will have the opportunity to show your work in front of an audience.

SCHEDULE

Module 1: Personal creation: "Performance" & Showcase
Module 2: Personal creation: "Experience" & Showcase
Module 3: Personal creation: "Community" & Showcase

CREATIVE WRITING

ABOUT
Far from academic norms and conventions, our non-canonical creative writing class will support you to constantly question "Dos" and "Don'ts", challenge literary canons and accepted rules related to syntax, grammar, vocabulary, and ponctuation. This class will extend your conception of what is "text" to allow you to go far beyond mainstream literary genres, standardized writing techniques, attitudes, and practices. It will give you new ideas, insights, and perspectives, encourage you to take risks, explore new ways of narrating, composing, and creating, develop your own artistic voice and personal aesthetic. Our exercises will guide you to take the path of the non-conform, explore with confidence the unknown, the unusual, the unfamiliar, and the unexpected in literacy creation.

SCHEDULE

Module 2: Anna Ádám (Hungary): "Personal Mythologies: an immersive creative writing experience"

practical information

ORGANIZATION, FEE & APPLICATION

Modules & Schedule:

"Body": Aug. 7 > Oct. 20

(Fall holiday: Sept. 11 > 17)

"Identity": Oct. 30 > Jan. 26

(Winter holiday: Dec. 18 > 31)

"Society": Feb. 5 > Apr. 21

(Spring holiday: Mach 11 > 17)
Location: Different formal and non-formal, indoor and outdoor spaces in Budapest (Hungary).
Number of participants: max. 10
Teaching language: English
Conditions: This program is open for women only
Participation costs:

1 module (3 months): 1800 €
2 modules (6 months): 2800 €
full year (9 months): 3800 €

Application process:

1st step: Online application here
2nd step in case of successful pre-selection: creation exercise
3rd step in case of successful selection: individual discussion with the program creator, Anna Ádám

ABOUT US

our philosophy

In the “School of Disobedience”, you are encouraged to produce and share knowledge and tools to imagine the framework for a new economy of performing arts, in which the focus is switched from competition, career, fame, glory, and visibility to mutualisation, cooperation, collaboration, support, and care. A new world, where you don’t have to obey other's gaze, and judgments, handle the profession's pressure, and respond to gatekeeper's and standard-bearer's expectations. Putting the body, emotions, and critical theory on the same level, this new world is constructed beyond dualisms, where you constantly look for ambiguity, nuances and different shades of grey, celebrate in-betweens, wiggle rooms, doubt, and uncertainty, welcome diversity, applaud critical and divergent thinking, celebrate disagreement, dissent, resistance, and nonconformity. You unlearn western aesthetics, academic canons, beauty norms, manners and patterns in contemporary performance art, and relearn how to dare to behave differently, create unconventionally, think outside-of-the-box.
You are given a chance to build collectively a structured "creative healing space" to connect, collaborate, learn, and create with fellow students.
A space, where you can reflect on yourself as both an individual and member of a community.
Where you can find ways to support yourself and support others.
Where you can progress, move forwards, grow.
Gain confidence and strength from friendship, trust, and togetherness.

what is school?

For a school of tomorrow, we want to create an environment that is above all joyful and positive, where students are accepted, respected, challenged, where beyond constructive criticism they receive encouragement. Where students are neither put in boxes, nor judged. Where students can express themselves openly and simply. Where they are taught autonomy and independence without being abandoned, where they are accompanied and supported in their projects and in their dreams. Where students not only have the right to go against canons, traditions, conventions and norms, but where they are encouraged to do so. Where other forms of knowledge than theoretical are also considered and taught. Perception, empathy, emotions, intuitions.
Personal stories, life experiences.
In the school of tomorrow teachers do not tell students what to think, what to believe in, but open "doors" for them and offer them a multitude of possibilities, knowledge, tools, ways of doing and ways of seeing things. Teachers do not take advantage of the young age and the extreme sensitivity of the students to influence them, to transmit to them their personal convictions and struggles. Rather they teach them critical thinking, doubt and skepticism.
Open-mindedness, curiosity, empathy.
This school would then be human, warm, and generous.
This school is going to raise students, teach them to trust in themselves, believe in themselves, be themselves.
This school will make students become authentic, sincere and courageous.
That’s how they will face the world.

FAQ

Is there any age limit?
No.

Is there an application, registration or administration fee?
No.

What is the application deadline?
The application is ongoing.

How much is the program fee?
You can attend this program for 3, 6 or 9 months:

1 module (3 months): 1800 €
2 modules (6 months): 2800 €
full year (9 months): 3800 €

Can I pay the program fee in installments?
Unfortunately no.

What is the deadline for paying the program fee?
2023 June 1st

What is the level of the technical and repertoire classes?
Our unlearning facilitators will make sure you enjoy, discover, follow, deepen, develop everything in your own rhythm.

What will I receive at the end of the program?
You will receive a certificate of completion upon finishing the program.

What are the living costs in Budapest?
Budapest is cheaper than other big European cities. If you choose to rent a room in a shared flat, it costs around 150-250€/month. A small one-room flat costs around 300-500€/month.

Does the program provide accommodation?
No, we don't. However, Budapest is neither London, nor Berlin, here it is quite easy to find a place to stay. There are many websites and Facebook groups specialized in finding accommodation.

CONTACT US

APPLY NOW

Body, Identity, society

staff

"Body, Identity, Society": 3 modules

structure

MODULE 1: BODYAug. 7 - Oct. 20

MODULE 2: IDENTITYOct. 30 - Jan. 26

MODULE 3: SOCIETYFeb. 5 - Apr. 26

classes

practical information

our philosophy

what is school?

MODULE 1: BODY
Aug. 7 - Oct. 20

MODULE 2: IDENTITY
Oct. 30 - Jan. 26

MODULE 3: SOCIETY
Feb. 5 - Apr. 26