La Pocha Nostra and Marisa Carnesky workshops

The workshops are co-organized by the Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture - City of Women and Emanat Institut, and in partnership with the club Gromka (Metelkova City) and The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana.

La Pocha Nostra: Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Violeta Luna and Erica Mott (Mexico, USA):

Cross-disciplinary, cross-racial and cross-generational performance workshop of a radical and critical performance troupe La Pocha Nostra

The workshop will take place on October 11 – 13 (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) between 11 am until 5 pm at the Old Power Station - Elektro Ljubljana.

The workshop is aimed at students from various university departments, as well as professional level performance artists, actors, dancers, writers, musicians and spoken word poets, videographers, designers, visual artists and theorists interested in the use of the human body as part of your work.

You are kindly asked to send us not later than by October 3rd 2011 a statement of purpose, a brief biography, contact info (email and telephone number) and a sample of your work to contact@cityofwomen.org. Participation is limited in number and free of charge. An application is mandatory.

Due to a limited participation we reserve the right to selection of the workshop participants. All applicants will be informed on the selection results selection by email until Friday, October 7th. For additional information please contact +386 (0)40 816 448 (Barbara Hribar).

Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Violeta Luna and Erica Mott will share with the workshop participants their eclectic performance techniques, challenging them to develop hybrid personas, images and ritual structures based on their own complex identities, personal aesthetics, and political concerns.

The process is highly intense, rigorous and also a lot of fun. At the workshop, the artists meet, jam together, play wild performance games and engage in critical discussions about the pertinence of performance art. The workshop may culminate in a full-scale performance open to the public or an open performance salon for invited guests.

But it is important that the participants understand that the pedagogical process of working together and creating collectively is the primary objective. 

Members of most various communities are invited to apply for the workshop participation. Our goal is to gather the most interesting, interdisciplinary and culturally eclectic group possible.

The selection will be made according to multiple criteria including, your stated desire to experiment and collaborate, the nature of the support material, the content of recommendation letters and the level of aesthetic and conceptual kinship with work of La Pocha Nostra.

During the time of workshop two parallel processes take place:  For 5-8 hours a day, participants are exposed to La Pocha’s performance methodology, an eclectic combination of exercises sampled from various traditions (experimental theatre and dance, Suzuki, ritual performance, shamanism, etc). Parallel to this hands-on process, the group theoretically analyses the creative process, the issues address by the work, its aesthetic currency, cultural impact and political pertinence.

If conditions allow, at the end of the process there can be a public performance open to the local community.

Marisa Carnesky & Rasp Thorne (UK): Cabaret performance workshop with public presentation

Open to performers (dancers, actors, singers, musicians and magicians of all genders, colours and ages…), as well as all those who would like to test themselves in cabaret skills. Stage experience desired but not necessary for application.

No fee, applications mandatory!
Application criteria is regular attendance on all three days of the workshop and a readiness to participate in the rehearsals as well as in the public performance on Friday, October 14, in Klub Gromka!  All interested parties are asked to submit upon application a brief description of their stage experience as well as briefly tell their motivation for participating in the workshop. Participation is limited in number, so we reserve the right to selection in the event of an excessive number of applications!
Please, email applications and additional information by October 7, to agon@emanat.si (Workshop coordinator: Sabina Potočki)

Combining theatre training exercises, movement and vocal work, butoh, mime techniques and devising exercises, Marisa Carnesky works with participants to develop short cabaret / physical theatre ideas and pieces. Rasp Thorne will assist participants who want to work more with sound and music.

Throughout the four-day project, Carnesky and Thorne will mentor and support the participants in creating short acts, which will be performed in a club setting at the end of the project, hosted by Carnesky. Participants are encouraged to come with an initial idea for a performance piece, and footage of numerous different international performers from past and present will also be shown to inspire new ideas to help create something amazing and unusual.