Davis Freeman

Layering the body with text

In this evolving workshop we will explore multiple strategies to use text in real time. Through daily performances you’ll be able to shift between prepared and spontaneous text as we examine what it is to sound, look, and be real on the stage even if you are lying. (And yes there can be a lot of lying.) We’ll investigate different ways to use the voice/body and how to manipulate multiple meanings using volume, tone, and rhythm as tools. We’ll work with and without microphones, use lists, line games, personal stories, newspaper articles, stand up and improvisations to generate and inspire our own material. This workshop will guide you to build texts of content from your own interest and apply them in daily performances that mix contemporary dance with the voice. We’ll explore how to consciously reveal the person behind the performer and will ask for a minimal amount of work outside of the workshop to gather material to bring into the class. This is not a traditional acting class but an exploration of what it is to perform with text inside and outside the body. How can the tone and choice of your words not only affect you but also the audience and the space.
In our contemporary performance world, performers are not only hired for their physical skill but for whom they are as people themselves. Pieces are built around the personalities of the performers and what they bring and propose during the rehearsal process. What do you propose if there is just a blank slate? How do you begin if a director/ choreographer just gives you one word to work on: Democracy, Feminism, Resistance, Violence, Equality, Ghosts, Capitalism, Peace, Protest, Loss, Empowerment, the Future… Artists are looking for performers that can dance, act, and perform while pushing the edge… During this week I’ll be asking you to bring in your own concerns about the world at large. We’ll then constantly create situations and improvisations that will challenge your global artistic skills, which in turn can be used in your own work in the future. No dance clothes. Dress as yourself or the person you desire to explore in the class. You can also shift every single day.

Davis Freeman’s biography:

Davis Freeman is an actor, dancer, director, and performance artist who worked with Forced Entertainment (Bloody Mess, The World in Pictures) and Meg Stuart (Cascade, Highway 101, Alibi, Built to Last), He started the company Random Scream in 1999 with work that’s extremely eclectic from dance pieces, and installations to even lounge acts. His latest works include Nothing Happens without you, Southwind, Karaoke (Art) Do my mouth, Investment, 7 promises, and Expanding Energy and are often seen as devious political theatre or Docu-performances.

Dates and times:
October 21-25
13:30 – 17:30

Price:
50 € registration fee
200 € total

Package deal:
In the same week David Zambrano is teaching in the mornings. You get a 15 % discount for registering to both workshops.