KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
Paul Allain
University of Kent, Canterbury | UNITED KINGDOM
Practice Research and Documentation
This keynote will examine how practice research has become a vital and yet still challenging method of research. It will look at the institutional context and a brief history of practice research, as it is now more widely known in the UK, as well as Paul Allain’s own use of practice research methods over more than thirty years. The talk will end by looking at some of the problems and implications of documenting performance process. How to best capture on film actor training, workshops, and acting methods? What pragmatic and ethical considerations should researchers follow?
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Paul Allain is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. He has published extensively on actor training and contemporary performance processes as both author and editor in books, DVDs, articles and online, with a particular focus on contemporary Polish theatre and Suzuki Tadashi. He is a specialist on Jerzy Grotowski. He has taught across the world, from China to India and Iran. He is a key member of the Makings of the Actor team.
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Tomasz Wiśniewski
University of Gdańsk | POLAND
Between.Pomiędzy: Joining the Academy and Creative Industry
Since 2010, Between.Pomiędzy has been creating a space for creative encounters between scholars and artists in Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia in Northern Poland. Theatre-makers, poets, writers, translators, publishers and academics from various parts of the world have come to work in a laboratory environment so as to pursue their own paths and share some of their internal worlds. Since 2022, Between.Pomiędzy has taken the form of a dispersed festival, which attempts to answer some of the challenges in the world around us. This means that academic and artistic events occur throughout the year in a variety of places, and at times their format may be surprising, even to their organisers. The paper refers to case studies that illustrate the evolving format of practice-as-research projects conducted within the framework of Between.Pomiędzy. These include: Marcello Magni’s workshop on commedia dell’arte (2013), Stanley E. Gontarski’s laboratories exposing Samuel Beckett’s work (2010-2024), ensemble workshops by Song of the Goat Theatre (2021), as well as educational happenings by Martin Blaszk (2010-2024), and student courses by Nicholas Johnson, Paul Allain and Maya Ciarrocchi. The paper aims to define the main challenges that have occurred when igniting cooperation between the academy, the artistic world, and creative industries. It also offers practical solutions developed by Between.Pomiędzy throughout the years and discusses institutional case studies explored during the conference Theatre – Literature – Management that in May 2024 concluded a three year research project conducted by the Between.Pomiędzy Research Group.
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Dr hab. Tomasz Wiśniewski, Prof. UG is the author of “Complicite, Theatre and Aesthetics” (Palgrave Macmillan 2016) and “Kształt literacki Samuela Becketta” (Universitas 2006). He has also (co-)edited over twenty academic publications, including “Włodzimierz Staniewski and the Phenomenon of ‘Gardzienice’” (Routledge 2022). He is Head of the Department of Performing Arts Studies at the University of Gdańsk, Poland, and the founder of both the Beckett Research Group in Gdańsk and the Between.Pomiędzy Research Group. He is a member of the Programme Board of the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre. His current research concentrates on Complicité, Irish theatre and Song of the Goat Theatre.
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Mirva Mäkinen
Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki | FINLAND
Contact improvisation as somaesthetic performance
Contact Improvisation was originally founded by Steve Paxton and is defined as the meeting of two (or more) moving bodies. The main focus of this artistic research will be the values found within contact improvisation. Values are defined as important insights that were obtained through interviews with contact improvisation dancers. From a somaesthetics point of view, I research specifically bodily perception and thinking through the movement. The goal is to find out what kind of values there are in contact improvisation and what experiences dancers have from being seen by other dancers or a member of an audience. I research how dancers sensory and somatic experiences are transformed in a somaesthetic performance process.
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Mirva Mäkinen graduated as a Doctor of Dance from University of Arts in Helsinki in 2018. Her doctoral research is about Somaesthetics of Contact Improvisation. Artistic research is focusing on values in contact improvisation and how it is presented in a somaesthetic performance context. She graduated (MA) from the Dance Department from the University of Arts, Finland in 2000, before that she did masters of Physical Education from University of Jyväskylä.
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Dario Savino Doronzo
“Umberto Giordano” State Music Conservatory of Rodi G.co, Foggia | ITALY
The progressive didactic approach of Jean-Baptiste Arban in Grande Méthode Complète de Cornet à Pistons et de Saxhorn
The instrumental didactic methodology of brass has evolved over the years, enriching each time with information and advanced techniques; the instrumental performance practice has reached such a high caliber over the years that it has ‘created’ technical interpretative volumes that can examine and develop the produced material through didactic exercises for the musician’s progressive development. Though we are amazed at noting that some historical methods, even with the appropriate revisions and additions of new notions, they are still spearheading for teaching at the Music Conservatories. This study aims to highlight the great importance of the «Grande Méthode Complète de Cornet à Pistons et de Saxhorn» published in Paris in the early years of 1859 (Léon Escudier Ed.) by the virtuous French cornetist, composer, teacher Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban for the Military School annexed to the Paris Conservatory. The contribution starts from the analysis and the study of an example of the first edition of the Grande Méthode and then it introduces the figure of Arban (Saxhorn teacher at the Military School annexed to the Paris Conservatory). In particular, the analysis introduces a study about the instrumental didactic methodology, which took place in the nineteenth century, with particular reference to the publication of this method which has deservedly met a great success since its first appearance and it continues to be among the most studied books by brass instrumentalists from all over the world.
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Dario Savino Doronzo graduated in Trumpet, Jazz Music, Direction for Choir, Technology of Sound. Moreover, he also attended the Tuning In! programme at the MDW University of Vienna. He has performed, as a soloist, in major Concert Halls: Carnegie Hall (NY), International Trumpet Guild of San Antonio (TX), Auditorium Juan Victoria of San Juan (AR), SKG Bridges Festival of Thessaloniki (GR), Kailash Mital Theatre of Ottawa (CA), Yeldeğirmeni Sanat of İstanbul (TR), Studio Acusticum | Piteå University (SE), NoiseFloor of Stoke-on-Trent (EN), Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome (IT), etc. For DiG Label he recorded CD Reimagining Opera and the CD Reimagining Aria.
PhD Candidate, he is dedicated to artistic and musical research. He is the author of numerous musicological and music research essays published in specialist journals and miscellaneous volumes. He is regularly invited to hold conferences and lecture-concerts for important research institutions, including: Carleton University in Ottawa, Maltepe University in İstanbul, University at Buffalo, Music Diaries in Thessaloniki, Maastricht University, Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent, Luleå University of Technology, University of Music of Graz, University of Luxembourg, MDW University of Vienna, University of Bologna, Kulturni Centar of Novi Sad, International Trumpet Guild Conference. He actually teaches at Umberto Giordano Conservatory in Rodi G.co FG (Italy).
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Johannes Kretz
Artistic Research Center (ARC), University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna | AUSTRIA
Transcultural Improvisation / Comprovisation
The fields of composition and improvisation are converging due to various – also economical – factors. Especially when it comes to the inclusion of live electronics, where we still do not really have especially trained interpreters of this „instrument “, the role of the composer and of one of the performers necessarily blend. Another challenge are projects with the aim to bring together different musical languages or traditions or cultures, reflecting that western contemporary art music (or academic music) is not the only tradition and it’s role in a global context needs to be questioned. This Keynote will show different approaches and strategies to cope with these challenges. Drawing from experiences of the project “creative (mis)understandings”, a 4 years long artistic research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF/PEEK, as well as from other similar endeavours, approaches and examples will be presented, which question both, artistic challenges of transcultural improvisation/comprovisation as well as questions of ethics and social relevance of such projects.
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Johannes Kretz, composer, electronics performer/improviser, artistic researcher. Teacher for computer music and composition at the university for music and performing arts Vienna (mdw), since 2009 associate professor. Head of the artistic research center (ARC) of mdw. Since 2023 member of the Research Advisory Council of Orpheus Institute, Ghent, Belgium. Since 2024 member of the executive bord of the Society for Artistic Research. Member of Janus ensemble and Max Brand Ensemble.
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Diāna Zandberga
Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music | LATVIA
Breaking the Boundaries of Musician’s Corporeality: Challenges of the Choreomusical Performance
This research is dedicated to multisensory integration of body movements and sound in contemporary music specially written for musician (pianist) who can dance and therefore express music in various ways.
American choreographer Juliet McMains and composer Ben Thomas emphasize two types of choreomusical relationships – amplification and emergence (McMains, Thomas 2013). It can result in the performances of one multidisciplinary artist.
The piano work “Pardon, Fryderyk” (1981) by Estonian composer Lepo Sumera (1950-2000) opens with a quote from the Chopin Mazurka op.17 No 4 in A minor and in the middle section contains an aleatory episode of free rhythm. The interpretation of Diāna Zandberga includes a dance episode, where the rhythmic patterns are performed with point shoes. Thus, the dance amplifies or illustrates an idea presented in the music – one art form complements the other, but none is dominant.
At the choreomusical miniature “Mountain Crystal” (2024) by Latvian composer Anitra Tumševica (1971) and choreographer Milana Komarova (1989) the recording of electronics is mixed with live piano and dance performance. Two media – dance and music simultaneously create imagery, which is not possible in one art form. Thus, the choreomusical relationships in Crystal by Anitra Tumševica emerge a new imagery that does not exist in either medium alone.
The research method includes the collaboration of performer with like-minded composers, visual artists and choreographers to create multimedia works as well as autoethnographic reflection afterwards and display the results of artistic research and collective creative work.
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PhD Diāna Zandberga is a pianist and musicologist specialising in Artistic Research, Vice-Rector for Research and Creative Work of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and the Director of the Joint Professional Doctoral Study Programme in Arts.
Since 1996 Diāna Zandberga has won acclaim for a succession of recitals in European countries and the USA. Her discography includes eight solo albums and recent research interests are concentrated to aspects of artistic research such as interdisciplinarity and choreomusical performances. https://dianazandberga.com
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PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Vasiliki Selioni
The Makings of the Actor | GREECE
Let’s listen to what the practitioners have to say about acting and learn from them
This research will present the knowledge that acting practitioners have offered us through their work or personal experiences. By gathering material from interviews or even samples of their work, we can gain knowledge that we can incorporate into our teaching. So, let’s open a ‘dialogue’ with them and create some material that we can offer to our students as well as to researchers and scholars of the subject.
In this presentation I will introduce the actor Baard Arne Owe, a Norwegian-born Danish actor who appeared in Scandinavian films and television series. He moved to Denmark in 1956 and lived and worked there until his death. Owe invented ToDo, which is a training system for actors.
In this talk I will examine the case of the actor Baard Arne Owe, focusing on an analysis of the film Gertrude by director Karl Dreyer. My guest will be his granddaughter Selma De Coninck Owe, who will share her conversations with him about acting.
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Dr Kiki Selioni is a movement teacher and acting coach in various Drama Schools and Institutions internationally. She has completed her studies in Dance Theatre at the Laban in London (BA and MA, City University. She holds a doctorate in Movement Training for Actors and in Acting (RCSSD). She is former Affiliate Research Fellow at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in a post-doc research project (The British Acting School: Biophysical Acting) regarding a complete acting method based on Laban’s work and Aristotle’s theory. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Makings of the Actor.
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Ana Barros
INET-md, University of Aveiro | PORTUGAL
“Sons ocultos, sons revelados”: Unveiling Women’s Musical Heritage through Contemporary Recreation
In 1930, the patron and singer Ema Romero Câmara Reis (ERCR) organized “Considerações sobre o Lied”, a concert that exclusively presented works composed and performed by women, which stands out for this uncommon involvement of women musicians that is scarcely documented in musicological descriptions of the period’s context. This proposal describes and discusses the artistic research presentation Sons ocultos, sons revelados (2024), focusing on the experimental recreation of the 1930 concert. This revisitation, also entirely performed by women, was based on archival work in ERCR’s collection at the National Library of Portugal.
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Ana Barros holds a master’s in Music Education (University of Aveiro) and a bachelor’s in Voice (ESMAE). Currently pursuing a PhD in Music Performance, she is a member of Inet-MD, with a fellowship on feminine sociabilities and the chamber vocal repertoire in Portugal granted by the Foundation for Science and Technology. She published a critical edition of Berta Alves de Sousa’s “Song on Poems by Luís de Camões” and contributed to a book on the composer. As a performer, she focuses on Portuguese music, with an international career and a dedicated discography.
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Milda Al-Slamah
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre | LITHUANIA
(in)FORMATION: Performance as a Conscious System in Research-Led Education
While developing the concept of Theatre of Consciousness I have gone to significant lengths to consider the effect that altered states of consciousness have on the body of a performer and performance itself. In this presentation, I aim to go in the other direction and consider how much of an effect a body can have on the FORMATION of its consciousness. Inspired by the Information Integration Theory (IIT) of consciousness – which proposes that consciousness can be defined as a level of information integration in any system – I will suggest to consider artistic performance as such conscious system, which could be defined by the level of integration of its elements, or, in other worlds, the level of its consciousness, as suggested by IIT. How can we increase this level of consciousness or the level of information integration in an artistic performance? What role does the body as an unconscious mind play in the formation of it? And how could we benefit from these understandings in research-led education? These are the questions I will attempt to discuss, while at the same time arguing for the need to place performative and embodied experiences at the center of such education.
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Milda Al-Slamah (PhD) is a performance maker and researcher who has a keen interest in exploring the possibilities of artistic research at its intersections with the contemporary Science of Consciousness. Her performances have been shown internationally in diverse locations – such as Waikare Marae in New Zealand, Lebanese National Theatre in Tyre and the historic town of Marathon in Greece. Showing her works in these uncommon places helped her develop a context-responsive performance style known as the Theatre of Consciousness.
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Paulius Gefenas
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre | LITHUANIA
Anemoi: Development of Flute Expression Through Symbols
The flute is often associated with various symbols, such as an agile little bird, the ancient Greek god Pan or even the “sweet sound of deceit and death” as described by scholar Ian Thomson. Each of these symbols evokes specific expressive and technical qualities of the instrument; however, they might not reflect how flute players identify themselves and their musical objectives, nor do they necessarily facilitate the further technical and expressive advancement of the instrument. While connection to the air, or more specifically wind, is well established in methodological sources, wind as a symbol could play a greater role in transforming the musical identity of the flute.
In this context, the Anemoi – the four ancient Greek gods of wind – offer a valuable framework for enriching the expressive range of the flute through a diverse set of techniques. The four cardinal directions of the winds represent four distinct musical characters and specific ways to control the air, which also help classify flute techniques and encourage their further development. By exploring these ideas through improvisation and seeking synergy between traditional and extended techniques, Paulius Gefenas composed four musical archetypes. These ideas evolved into a collaboration with several composers aimed at creating new works for the flute. Viewing Anemoi as personified expressive characters presents an opportunity to steer the performance art of the flute towards new horizons that embrace both innovation and the rich heritage of the past.
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Flutist and educator Paulius Gefenas earned his artistic diplomas from music institutions in Lithuania, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. After winning several prizes in various international flute competitions, performing as a soloist and chamber musician as well as collaborating with contemporary composers and all major orchestras in Lithuania, Paulius began looking for ways to enrich his artistic practices with a more versatile approach. As a result, he enrolled in the PhD program for artistic research at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2021. The identitary traits of the flute, their significance and evolution quickly became his focus of study. Through the analysis of primary sources, he was able to question the establishment of conventional sound norms, their evolution and reasons behind their usage. Further research yielded promising results in blending the use of traditional and extended techniques. By combining theoretical knowledge with artistic expertise, Paulius developed a framework for innovatively interpreting historical flute repertoire, with a particular emphasis on C. P. E. Bach. In recognition of his study and research achievements, The Research Council of Lithuania awarded Paulius a scholarship in 2024.
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Ioana-Florentina Manciu
The Makings of the Actor | ROMANIA
Poetics and Nāṭyaśāstra. Transdisciplinarity in performing arts
My panel centers on the role of written culture in shaping stage performance, drawing on Prof. Bharat Gupt’s study, Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian – A study on Poetics and Nāṭyaśāstra. I examine issues of copyright, dating, publication, and the evolution of these two fundamental discourses.
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Ioana Florentina Manciu is a theater artist and researcher with professional experience in stage acting and directing. With a 7 years doctoral research in Performing Arts from the National University of Theatre and Cinema “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, her work bridges comparative theater traditions, contributing to scholarly discourse through workshops and panels on acting and performance methodologies. Her recent roles include strategic communications for cultural institutions such as the National Film Archive of Romania. She is fluent in Romanian and English.
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Theodore Parker
Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre | ESTONIA
Guerrilla Improvisation: An Improviser’s Perspective on Site Specificity
This paper discusses some propositions towards considering Free Improvisation as a Site-Specific activity based on the experience of participating in the project Guerilla Impro between 2014-2019. This project aimed to challenge common performance practices in the field by placing improvisers in a context where a site’s characteristics causes unexpected or undesirable conditions for managing real-time creativity. The method was practice-based, with specific ground rules agreed upon in advance. Participants were to arrange a meeting point and time of day during the week, search the Tallinn city center for a site, request permission from any on-site authorities to perform, and begin improvising without prior discussion. Following each occurrence a reflective conversation was held regarding how improvisers managed the situation and what outcomes of the activity seemed unusual to the common experience of improvising. During this process a number of concepts began developing which challenge ideas about Free Improvisation, such as artistic voice and audience/performer relations. Several of the experiences collected during this project related to the aesthetics and frameworks already found in existing Site Specific artwork, particularly the concepts of Public Intervention, Phenomenological Integration, and Social Engagement, as defined by Miwon Kwon. Retroactively viewing this project as a starting point, it should now be considered how improvisation occurring outside of the concert hall space could illicit an entirely different value structure than what is currently assumed in the field.
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Theodore Parker is a guitarist who works primarily in the fields of Free Improvisation and Experimental Music. Currently his focus is on live electronics as well as site specific sound. He is a member of Estonia’s first live electronics ensemble (EMA) and has created music for theatre and dance performances. His research activities pertain to the use of site specificity as part of both the aesthetic and music making processes involved in real-time music making. Currently he lectures at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater on the topics concerning free improvisation and artistic research.
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Mónica Filipa de Sá Chambel
INET-md, University of Aveiro | PORTUGAL
… E Vibrato (1986): Exploring boundaries in the recreation of Constança Capdeville‘s scenic-musical performance
… E Vibrato by Constança Capdeville, premiered by the group ColecViva at the 1986 Gulbenkian Encounters of Contemporary Music. A scenic-musical performance, was conceived based on compositions by António de Sousa Dias, Cathy Berberian, and R. Haubenstock-Ramatti, including also original works by Capdeville. There is no audiovisual documentation of the performance and the available documentation comprises program notes, an autograph script of the performance and manuscripts of Capdeville‘s works, which do not allow for a conventional reconstruction of the performance. The research focused on questioning archival materials through archaeological-based methodologies (Foucault, 1969) oriented towards/by practice (Assis, 2018), the development of replicable protocols, and the creation, by a collective of artists, of problematising readings based on the gender themes implicit in Capdeville‘s content. The objectives were: 1) to problematise aesthetic dialogues between archive materials and the collective‘s perspectives; 2) to discuss criteria for the creation and evaluation of experimental protocols for recreating contemporary musical heritage. The applied methods included archival research, analysis and adaptation of materials for the performance, collective experimentation in studio, and recording and systematisation of the artistic, theoretical, and experimental methods applied, as well as their results. Although the proposed approach is based on existing materials and maintains the essence of the composer‘s language, style, and artistic choices, the creative outcome highlights the collective‘s contribution to problematising and deconstructing content, proposing the integration of heritage sustainability issues with the conceptual fluidity of contemporaneity.
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Mónica Chambel is a doctoral student in Music Analysis and Theory, at the University of Aveiro. Mainly interested in 20th century Portuguese music, experimentation in music and interartistic relationships, develops work related to the music theater works of Constança Capdeville (DOI 10.54499/2020.09094.BD). She was a fellow of the projects “Euterpe unveiled: Women in Portuguese musical creation and interpretation during the 20th and 21st centuries” and “Xperimus – Experimentation in music in Portuguese culture”, and producer of “Capdeville XXI” (funded by DGArtes). She is a member of the Post-ip Group (INET-md/UA).
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Julija Bagdonavičiūtė
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre | LITHUANIA
Musical body vs. performing body: escaping dualism in contemporaneity
The presentation is dominated by two perspectives: the territory of virtuosity and the musical instrument, which is analysed from a material perspective. According to J. Bennett, matter is not defined as passive or mechanical, but as vibrating and vital, able to create, to be active. Could it be that it is the instrument, or, as articulated by S. J. Wilson, musical body that defines the limits of performer’s artistic expression?
The auto-ethnographic reflection of the creative processes (live concert and a sound sculpture/installation „CONCERTO AND INSTALLATION FOR PIANO AND A PIECE OF FURNITURE“, contemporary circus and music performance „Compost“) becomes a fertile material for analysing the artist’s relationship in the context of changing materialities. In case of the first work, the project explores the dualism of the domestic-physical and artistic-ideal nature of the piano: the paradoxical roles of one of the most popular musical instruments and a piece of home furniture. In the second creative project, the viewer sees three different pianos on stage: 1) a piano that has started to decompose; 2) a rusted metal part of the piano, the harp, which holds the strings; 3) a piano that hasn’t been played for many years, but is still fully functional. This expression of the pianos raises the questions: How are the usual performance practices altered by changes in instruments, deviations from the norm? All in all, do the performers playing these instruments remain pianists?
Drawing on B. Latour’s Actor-network theory, J. Bennett’s vital materiality and the concept of rhizome by G. Deleuze and F.Guattari, it is assumed that the new materiality in the context of the posthumanistic worldview could be one of the main conditions that dictate the diversity of approaches to contemporary art and encourage the search for new objects of attention in artistic practice.
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Julija Bagdonavičiūtė (b. 1996) is a pianist from Lithuania. Since 2018 she has been a member of Meta Piano Trio, with whom she has performed in Estonia, Portugal, Austria, Germany. Julija actively curates and initiates new contemporary music and interdisciplinary projects, collaborates with theatre. She gained her bachelor and master degrees in Vilnius (Lithuania), Weimar and Hannover (Germany). In 2021, she was awarded with Ernst von Siemens Scholarship for the promotion of contemporary music.
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Stephen Atkins
Independent researcher | UNITED KINGDOM
Crosspoints and the Invitation to Succeed Immediately
The Crosspoints training is a framework for an improvisational etude mode of working and learning. It can solve specific problems in building a performance, or create unthought solutions, apperently from “nothing.” The improvisational, active nature of the etudes allows actors to meet text with grounded, holistic contrasts to logocentric approaches.
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Stephen Atkins is a performer, director and teacher with decades of experience in a broad spectrum of performance techniques. With his grounding in Stanislavsky, Grotowski, and the American Method, Atkins has cultivated a varied career in Australia, Canada and the UK. Atkins’ approach to teaching is intersectional, allowing two or more contrasting facets of training to create questions and open gaps for learners to engage with.
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RESEARCH BASED TEACHING DEMONSTRATIONS
Inga Kuznecova
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre | LITHUANIA
Moving the hanging practise to the ground
Inga Kuznecova will present her research on the interplay of gravitational forces and movement as explored through Shibari-inspired practices. Rooted in her doctoral work on black holes and contemporary dance, Kuznecova’s approach examines how principles of suspension, trajectory manipulation, and passive movement—experienced firsthand during Shibari sessions—can be adapted for ground-based dance without the use of ropes.
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Inga Kuznecova is a professional dancer and choreographer, currently freelancing and serving as an Associate Professor at LMTA Klaipeda Faculty. A second-year PhD student, she explores the intersection of black holes and contemporary dance, seeking innovative parallels and interpretations. Her current research focuses on gravity, experimenting with “hanging in the air” and translating this knowledge into grounded dance techniques, merging scientific insight with movement to push the boundaries of dance expression.
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Morwenna Rowe
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama | UNITED KINGDOM
Integration and Dynamics, an integrated voice and movement approach to the physiological training of actors
For years we have trained actors assuming that the voice and body must be developed separately. This has led to contradictions regarding basic posture and muscle function for voice and movement, and the possibility of actors feeling they are good at one and not the other discipline, when both are fundamentally physiological responses in acting. For two decades, Morwenna Rowe has developed a system of actor training that works from a central premise; that the physical processes of acting start in the same place for voice and movement. And whilst they can develop into discrete and fascinating disciplines, the core start point of both disciplines should be the same. This workshop will look at some of the building blocks of this approach, starting with physiological integration and connection for the actor, with specific relationship to the voice, and developing into exploring availability to dynamic response in relationship to text.
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Morwenna Rowe is a voice practitioner and actor trainer with two decades’ experience teaching in UK conservatoires; coaching in film, TV and theatre; and consulting internationally. She read English at Cambridge University and then studied performance with Grotowski collaborators Vlado Sav and Abani Biswas, later training as an actor at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier and with Bob McAndrew and Larry Moss. She trained in voice under David Carey at Central in 1997.
Morwenna has taught widely at Central on MA Voice Studies (researching integrative practice between voice and movement), on MA Acting for Screen, and is currently the lead voice practitioner and Program Leader for MA Acting.
In addition to her work at Central, she has been Voice and Text specialist for Rutgers University actor training MFA/BFA program at the Globe Theatre, and taught at RADA, Rose Bruford, Oxford School of Drama, ALRA, BADA and the Guildford School of Acting. She has coached in the West End, for touring and regional theatre (including the epic Wars of the Roses for Trevor Nunn), and for the BBC and film. Morwenna ran a leading UK voice company Speak Easily for many years, consulting privately and for bodies such as the UN, and the World Economic Forum and many FTSE 100 companies.
For 20 years she has sought an integrated, physiology-centered actor training methodology, which uses voice training as a lens through which to train acting, rather than an end in its own right. Key tenets include self-experimentation by the actor, individuality of approach, and the enhancement of functional movement as a foundation to vocal production.
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Dionysios Tsaftaridis
Independent Choreographer, Lecturer, Researcher | GREECE
Dark Moving Human Spaces … The Non-seeing Moving Body-Dancer – Part 2… Temporal exploration
This ongoing research proposes a methodology for exploring and developing bodily expression on stage for the performer and the creator. It focuses on the interplay between Kinesis (movement within the personal movable sphere/ kinesphere) and Metakinisis (movement that changes location within shared, external space/exosphere). The methodology challenges the traditional notions of movement and performance by delving into the dark, non-visual experience, DMS. Obstructing the primary sensory channel of sight, the research aims to heighten the significance of other senses. As a result, Kinesthesia and Spatial awareness are continuously tested under the unconventional platform proposed by the DMS experience (Dark Moving Spaces). On top of these, musical intelligence is currently investigated, exploring temporal issues of rhythm, tempo and articulation and how they can inform further this proposed methodology. The research is strongly based on Rudolf Laban’s movement analysis and Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to inform the development of movement practices, while textbooks on musical theory and analysis provide the basis for temporal discussion. Through a combination of theoretical exploration, practical experimentation, and qualitative research methods, this study seeks to contribute to the field of performance studies by providing a framework for developing a performer’s movement skills while proposing an innovative creation process that engages with the complexities of human embodiment and experience on stage.
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Dionysios Tsaftaridis is a Greek choreographer, dancer, and researcher. He graduated from the State School of Dance Art in 2001 and completed postgraduate studies in “Physical Theatre” at the University of Surrey and RHUL (MA, 2002). He then completed his PhD dissertation with scholarships from the State Scholarships Foundation and Onassis Foundation at Roehampton University, Maya Deren’s Screendances: a Formalist Approach (PhD,2009). As a choreographer, he has collaborated with the Greek National Opera, the Futures Theatre Company (UK), and the OPANDA. His most recent collaborations are with the theatre directors Reina Eskinazi (2020-2021), Nikos Kamtsis (2021-2022-2023), with the visual artist Ben Judd (2021, 2022, UK) with the opera director Isidoros Sideris (2023), and as a dancer with the choreographer Beth Corning (2021, 2022, USA). He has directed “The Chairs” by Eugene Ionesco (2018) and the children’s play “Yes, Mr. Noah” by Dimitris Lenos – Sofia Sotiriou (2022). He also creates dance films and video art with award-winning participation at the Thessaloniki Film Festival – VideoDance (Fones, 2007), with official participation at the 9thAVDP (Unhinged, 2016) and at the International Festival NEXT@Graham Eve project in New York (1 2 3, 2019 Arthrosis/Diamantopoulou). He is currently in the third year of creating a training method for developing the kinaesthesia and spatial perception of the performer through dark experience (impeded vision) DMS-Dark Moving Spaces as a tool for Kinaesthetic and Spatial Awareness Self-Knowledge, Improvement and Kinetic Exploration.
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Maria Saivosalmi, Simo Kellokumpu
Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki | FINLAND
When we practice performing, we…
Performers craft. Dancers craft. Collecting the tool box. Filling your back pockets. Let’s imagine a moment, maybe a class, maybe in a space that is meant for dance. Where the facilitator, maybe a dance educator, wants to give a frame to research your own performing. Let’s imagine there’s a spectator in this situation as well.
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Maria Saivosalmi has worked extensively in the field of dance as a performer, choreographer and teacher for past twenty years. For the last three years Saivosalmi has been engaged as a lecturer in Dance at Theatre Academy, working both in BA and MA programmes. Her pedagogical interests reflect her artistic experiences and focuses on the poetics of the movement and working through and with affects and emotions.
Simo Kellokumpu is a choreographer, performer, researcher, and lecturer in the MA in Dance performance program at the University of the Arts, Helsinki. From 2013 to 2019, they conducted the artistic research project ’Choreography as Reading Practice’ at the Centre for Performing Arts Research at the University of the Arts, Tutke. Simo’s research orientation consists of the entanglement of choreography, movement, dance, site-specificity and hyper-reading.
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Gustavo Afonso
INET-md, University of Aveiro | PORTUGAL
Recreating Medea: dialogues between musical and theatrical components in a collaborative project
Despite the relevance of the artistic activity of Victor Macedo Pinto (1917-1964), the author of an eclectic musical legacy in which the piano plays a central role, this Portuguese composer and pianist eventually fell into oblivion, with few references to his work in publications on Portuguese music (Carneiro 1968; Cid 2010; Harper 2013). Among his repertoire, it is worth mentioning the music for the staging of Euripides’s Medea, a work composed for performances by the Teatro dos Estudantes da Universidade de Coimbra (TEUC), a student theater collective still active today.
This proposal focuses on the collaborative process of the recreation of Medea in partnership with TEUC, presented in 2024, in Coimbra (Portugal). Its objectives are: 1) to understand the relevance of music in the tragedy, particularly the role of the piano as a dramatic element; 2) to analyze and discuss the articulation of multiple dramaturgical components of the play, from a methodological perspective in artistic research.
The presentation will include live performance of examples from his piano repertoire, such as Homenagem a Claude Debussy (1950) and Nove Instantâneos (1956), in order to illustrate Macedo Pinto’s compositional style. A discussion on the recreation of the Greek tragedy will follow, using video projections to reflect on the approach to the musical material (Assis 2018), the articulation between music and other elements of the performance (lighting, costumes/props, gesture, text), through the application of postdramatic theater principles (Lehmann 2006), and the collaborative work dynamics in interdisciplinary projects (Olofsson 2018; Marinho et al. 2020).
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Gustavo Afonso is a Portuguese pianist and researcher. He studied piano with Álvaro Teixeira Lopes, Rita Dourado and Helena Paula Figueiredo, and has been awarded prizes in national and international piano competitions. Gustavo has performed extensively in Portugal, including as a soloist with orchestra. He graduated from the University of Aveiro (UA) and was awarded the University of Aveiro/Caixa Geral de Depósitos Prize. Gustavo is currently attending the Doctoral Program in Music Performance at UA, under the supervision of Helena Marinho and Diāna Zandberga (JVLMA). He is a member of the research center INET-md, with a fellowship granted by INET-md/FCT (DOI: 10.54499/UI/BD/151371/2021).
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Michael Seibel
Higher School of Dramatic Art of the Municipality of Agia Varvara “Iakovos Kambanellis”, Athens | GREECE
The Lived Body (Leib) as a Fundamental Condition for Creativity in the Aesthetic Production Process in Acting
This teaching demonstration explores a phenomenological reorientation of aesthetic production processes in acting and acting training. It proposes a paradigm shift from a focus on textuality to one on performativity, encapsulated by what I term the phenomenology of acting.
The insights presented here draw primarily from my extensive experience as a stage director in theatre and opera, as well as my work as an acting teacher in drama schools, primarily in Greece. Central to this exploration is the role of the lived body (Leib) in production-aesthetic acting processes.
Incorporating the bodily dimension—understood as an awareness rooted in bodily experience—creates space for phenomenological perspectives within the aesthetic processes of acting. At the heart of phenomenological thought lies the concept of the lived body: an experiential subject that, through processual events, becomes the object of inner experience.
Phenomenology of the lived body emphasizes the holistic interplay of body and soul, offering an integrative perspective on subjective experience. Hermann Schmitz, a key proponent of this view, argues that the sensing subjective body is humanity’s primary organ of cognition, granting access to the world. He highlights that sensing the involuntary experience of life bridges the gap between understanding and being affected.
In the context of acting, a bodily-oriented approach to these processes relies on the interplay between consciousness and the l lived body. This interaction generates materialities that enable a diversity of creative interactions. The body, in this dynamic, oscillates between perception, reflection, and embodiment, underscoring its essential role in aesthetic experience.
Thus, bodiliness serves as a creative bridge between the self and the world, emerging from the immediate realization of lived life—a realm that precedes the dichotomy of world and being. In this framework, bodiliness becomes the source of pre-theoretical knowledge, grounded in the original potential of human action. Consequently, creativity in its bodily dimension can be understood and then allows creativity in its bodily dimension to be understood as an equal phenomenon between mind and action.
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Michael Seibel is a German stage director specializing in theatre and opera, currently based in Greece. He holds a PhD in Applied Theatre Studies from the University of Hildesheim, an MA in Directing for Opera and Theatre from Middlesex University, as well as dual BAs in Musicology and Secondary Music Education, and Music Education with a focus on Voice from the Saarland University of Music and Theatre.
With a career spanning over 50 theatre and opera productions in Germany and Greece, Michael has garnered recognition for his innovative work, receiving awards for Best Directing and Best Performance at international theatre festivals.
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Susan Kempster
MA Choreography Course Leader, Central School of Ballet, London | ENGLAND
Threading (hand held group partnering) as improvisation training
My research into improvisation training has for several years been focussed on the use of a form that consists of dancers remaining linked by holding hands and moving in and out of twined and knotted forms. I call it threading. Within this form there are some very clear technical underpinnings, particularly dropping (relaxing) of the elbows (arms), relaxing of jaw neck and shoulders, and the ability to constantly allow the grip to change, finding enough holding to remain attached but at the same time being a loose enough grip to be able to modify angles of hands and wrists as spatial relationships change.
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Susan Kempster is an independent dance artist, working as a choreographer, teacher, and performer. She run the MA in Choreography at Central School of Ballet in London. She is particularly interested in body-mind states for improvisation practices. Her most recent choreographic work includes an intergenerational duet commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, and supported by CSB and Arts Council England, and commissioned work for the company Borderline Danza based in Salerno, Italy.
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Indrė Dirgėlaitė
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre | LITHUANIA
Audiovisual imorovisation “Brain Poetry“
Topics: Improvisation / Transdisciplinarity / Connections / Forms of Expression. From personal exsperiences through transdisciplinarity in to Art. Improvisation and Transdisciplinarity as a tool to convey the messedge. “Brain Poetry” Free audiovisual improvisation between art and science. Voice, sound, as an acoustic reflection of feelings. Breathing thought based on a true story.
„Brain Poetry“ / Indrė Dirgėlaitė – Vytautas Labutis – Kristupas Kmitas – Donatas Bielkauskas (Lithuania).
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Indrė Dirgėlaitė studied jazz vocals at the University of Klaipėda, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, the J. Sibelius Academy of Music in Finland, and the Stockholm Royal Academy of Music in Sweden. She is the winner and finalist of many competitions (New Wave, Malwy 2000, Fizz Superstar, Sing Jazz, etc.). The singer performs a variety of music – she collaborates with jazz, rock, folk musicians, bards and actors. She appeared at jazz, contemporary art and other festivals with Finnish, Swedish and Lithuanian musicians in many European countries, including Greece, Germany, Romania, Finland, Sweden. Indrė is currently teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater visiting teachers at National Danish school of performing arts and Royal Collegr of Music in Stockholm, also in Art Doctoral studies LMTA together with CVT.