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ISTA/NG. Introduction to Theatre Anthropology. A digital course by Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley

2021-06-19

KNOWLEDGE SHARING PROJECT
LEARNING TO SEE
TEN FILM LESSONS ON THEATRE ANTHROPOLOGY

created and edited by Eugenio Barba, Claudio Coloberti and Julia Varley

ISTA / NG - International School of Theatre Anthropology/New Generation - on the occasion of the session scheduled on the island of Favignana (Trapani), 12-22 October 2021 - will hold a digital course of ten lessons lasting 50 hours, entitled INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE ANTHROPOLOGY curated by Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley and with the contribution of the invited masters: Keiin Yoshimura (Japan), Parvathy Baul (India), I Wayan Bawa (Bali), Yalan Lin (Taiwan), Mundu Rodá (Brazil), Lydia Koniordou (Greece), Teatro tascabile di Bergamo (Italy), Odin Teatret (Denmark).

The theoretical-practical film lessons and demonstrations of the digital course are offered in direct connection with those at the ISTA/NG of Favignana and aimed at students, scholars and professionals who cannot attend the session in person.

The theme of the session is "The presence of the actor/dancer and the spectator’s perception". Masters of different theatre and dance traditions demonstrate the basic techniques and procedures of their stage presence and analyse the impact they have on the spectator. The result is a reflection on perception, on the kinaesthetic sense and physical-dynamic empathy in a relationship between actors and spectators in an organised performance situation.

The digital course exemplifies concepts such as: daily behaviour/extra daily behaviour, artistic language/private language, animus/anima (vigorous energy and gentle energy), actions that "say" and actions that "mean" (dance "says" it does not “mean” something), pre-expressive principles that transform a familiar “presence” and make it unusual, ways to stimulate the attention of who observes or listens.

In addition to the live streaming lessons, the course includes TEN FILMS on theatre anthropology created by Eugenio Barba, Claudio Coloberti and Julia Varley with updated documentation as well as ISTA archival materials. The films present examples of theatre and dance forms of different styles and genres, with descriptions of technical, didactic and compositional procedures of other artistic forms equivalent to the actor/dancer’s technique. The ten films are part of a knowledge sharing project by the Fondazione Barba Varley and will be available free of charge upon request from January 2022.

To finance the production of the ten films, the Fondazione Barba Varley asks universities, theatres, cultural institutions and research centres to participate in the production costs with a net donation of 3,000 euros which corresponds to the purchase of 10 participations to the digital course. The digital course costs 300 euros for each participant. Upon request, the name of the contributors to the production will be mentioned in the credits of the ten films on theatre anthropology. Upon request, the digital course will remain open for teaching purposes indefinitely.

Download the announcement as a pdf file.